Astrid“You’re late again,” Charles growled when I walked in the door. “I was working,” I replied as I shut the door behind me. “Sure, you were. You know, you’re doing this shit on purpose, aren’t you? You want to make sure I’m too stressed out and focused on you, that I can’t work and get the promotion.” “Is this a joke?” I asked. “I was just at work, Charles. It’s nothing more. You’re reading way too into this.” “Bullshit!!” he yelled. “You’re my girlfriend, Astrid! That means, I know when you’re lying! You like flaunting your title over me, don’t you?” I stopped, entirely frozen. I was completely blindsided by his words. Charles had never spoken to me this way before. Sure, he’d gotten angry, and sure, we’d fought, but he had never gone to this degree. I stared at him blankly for several seconds before I could muster a response. “Hold on,” I said. “What are you even talking about?” “Frank told me about the job,” he said in an accusatory tone. “What exactly are yo
AstridIt was cold as we walked towards the packhouse. I hadn’t expected the chill to settle in this early in the year, so I had left without a jacket. I was wearing a sweater, but it was thin and did very little to insulate me from the cold. I wrapped my arms around myself and looked down at my feet as I walked. I felt pathetic. I knew we were fated mates, but I couldn’t help but have the idea creep in that he was just offering to come with me to make sure I was safe, like he always did when we were kids. Did he see me as that little girl still? Someone he needed to protect out of some sense of duty? I jumped slightly as something warm wrapped around my shoulders. The strong scent of black tea enveloped me. I looked at my shoulder and realized that it was Tristan’s jacket. Heat rose to my cheeks and I instinctively pulled it closer around me. I looked at him curiously, but Tristan wasn’t looking at me. He was staring straight ahead of us at the road. “Thanks,” I muttered,
Astrid“So, I’m guessing your ‘friend’ is actually that jackass Charles,” Eddie began as we walked out of the packhouse. “What really happened to prompt this sudden trip?” I shrugged. I was fumbling with the keys my dad had given me. He was loaning me one of his vehicles for the drive. I hit the button to unlock the doors and listened for the beep. It was a white hatchback. At least it looked spacious. We’d be driving for a few hours. “You’re just going to ignore my question?” Eddie asked. “What does Charles want?” I opened the driver’s side door and tossed my shoulder bag onto the floor of the passenger’s seat. I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him about the letter. When I told Tristian, I felt like an idiot—a complete idiot for getting myself into this situation and letting it get this far. Plus, Tristan’s reaction didn’t help either. He wanted to murder Charles, and judging from Eddie’s conversation with him the other day, if he knew what really was happening, he’d go even f
AstridThe closer we got to the city, the less trees were visible, and more custom homes and farm life appeared. A strong pang erupted in my chest. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it out here. Granted, I wasn’t eager for why I was returning, but I was excited to feel the liveliness of the city once more. “Can we stop?” Eddie asked suddenly, pulling my attention to him. My eyes flicked in his direction, then back to the road. “What is it?” I asked with concern. He grimaced. “Sorry, it’s just my legs are cramping.” I looked down at the clock and frowned. We had only been driving for a little over an hour. We still had an hour and a half left to go. I didn’t really want to drag today out any more than necessary, but I recognized that they weren’t used to being in a vehicle for so long. Travel within the territories was normally done in wolf form. There wasn’t a lot of use for vehicles outside of travel to the human world. “Sure,” I reluctantly agreed. “We can stop for
Astrid I moved closer to Tristan and deepened the kiss. His back collided with the car, but he continued to pull at me. I was flush against him as his fingers tangled into my hair. I wrapped my arms around his neck. ‘Why are we doing this in public?’ I thought helplessly. I could hear people around us muttering and somewhere nearby, a young man whooping in amusement. I felt my face flush, but I didn’t stop. Tristan held me close and pulled away just slightly. “This is a mistake,” he said out loud. “You started it,” I muttered. I pressed forward and kissed him again. He moaned slightly and bit my lip just hard enough to make me yelp. “The hell I did.” He gripped my hair firmly and pulled me away enough for our eyes to meet. “Okay,” I replied breathlessly. “I started it. You finish it.” He growled. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” “I could say the same to you,” I replied. He pulled me in for another kiss. I surged forward to deepen the contact. The so
TristanI kept my eyes closed as I sat in the back seat and tried to reign myself in. For the thousandth time, I cursed at myself for kissing her. My self control had never been this weak before. I’d never had difficulty denying my urges. Right now, I was barely holding myself together. I could see Astrid’s face in profile if I opened my eyes. I could smell her airy lavender scent. I could taste her… “I can’t believe you eat these,” Eddie complained. Astrid laughed at him. “I told you they were hot.”She popped another jalapeno puff in her mouth. “It’s not that they’re hot,” he countered. “I like peppers. This doesn’t taste like peppers.” “No,” she agreed. “It tastes like hot.” “That doesn’t even make sense,” he shot back. She shrugged. “So, eat your sandwich,” she said. “It’ll get the taste out of your mouth.” “Tristan, try one of these,” Eddie urged. I cracked my eyes open to see him shoving the open bag towards me. I caught a whiff of the puffs and wrinkled my
AstridI parked the car and let out a slow breath. The car had fallen into silence a while ago. Eddie finally settled on a soft rock station and eventually, that was the only sound that we’d heard. The closer we got to the apartment, the more nervous I became. It was too much for me, and Eddie and Tristan both seemed to realize that I needed a few minutes of silence to prepare myself for whatever might happen when I saw Charles. I thought about texting him that I was on my way. I thought about calling him. I decided against it. I didn’t want to have any more contact with him than I absolutely had to. I didn’t feel like I owed him the courtesy of phoning ahead. I turned the key and shut off the engine. The radio faded out and we were left sitting in complete silence. “We’re here,” I said softly. Eddie got out of the car immediately and started to stretch. I stayed in the car. I looked up at the building with a mix of anger and sadness twisting in my chest. Not too long ago,
AstridMy shock at Tristan’s words left me unable to act. I was conflicted. I was frightened by how intense the situation had suddenly become, but I was also relieved to see that Tristan was having an impact on Charles. I was also more than a little dumbfounded that he cared enough about me to be pushed to this level. Tristan was so level headed and calm usually. This was almost surreal. Maybe Eddie was right. Maybe we just needed to scare Charles. I couldn’t imagine that he would continue with his threats after this. I saw movement from the corner of my eye and looked to see Eddie approaching Tristan and Charles. Eddie put his hand firmly over Tristan’s, which was still gripping Charles’ shirt and holding him a few feet off of the ground. I didn’t hear Eddie say anything, but I could see that he was applying pressure to Tristan’s hand. Slowly, Tristan lowered Charles back to his feet and released his shirt. Tristan glared at Eddie, but Eddie just looked back at him steadi