*Dawn*I stared at the text for what had to be a good two hours. I hadn’t responded or even made a move to leave my bed. After trashing his room like a complete and utter maniac, I had come back here and balled my eyes out. Craig was gone to god knows where and I was left here with a mountain of questions and a despairing heart. All he had to do was tell me. It wasn’t his fault from what I understood. He was simply born into this world like I was. Albeit he had lived in it more years than I had and had grown accustomed to the ways things were done but still. If he thought that him not telling me was protection, then he was mistaken. It was not his decision to make what was good for me and what wasn’t. This was my life after all. I wanted to be mad at him. I wanted to hate him. But there was another part of that was hurt that he was gone now and there was no specific date on when he would return. Dr. Sweany had told me everything. I remember how he had spoken of my parents
There was no way that I was missing Craig. There was no way. But I couldn't deny the fact that his absence was felt. I had finished my heart and the first person I had wanted to show was him. But he wasn’t there. I was so tempted to text him a few times but I knew that texting him was a bad idea. No matter how much I wanted to, I needed to remember what he had done. There was no way that I could trust him fully. Especially after all that he had done and hidden from me. I let out a loud groan and moved down the line to get my lunch. For the past few days, I was in my head a lot. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out a way forward from this. I was nowhere near finding out how to break this bond that I share with Jason. All I knew was what I had learned from that dream. I hadn’t had a dream like it since. Now, my head was swriling trying to remember the faces that I saw. I had flipped though text after text in the encyclopaedias, but nothing came up. I was both frust
*Craig*There were many perks to being the Alpha one of the most powerful packs in the world. But there was always one short fall for the title I carried—I had to deal with elders who thought they knew far better than me simply because they had outlived the majority of their generation. Not only that, but I had to deal with other Alphas who acted as though we were in high-school. It was both frustrating and annoying. My time in Washington was nothing short of a shit show. From the moment I landed, I had complaints and rants of anger in each ear. It seemed like with each fire I put out, two more sprouted out in its place. I was drowning in a sea of politics, pettiness and stupidity. I had called on the seven Alphas of the north and south for assistance, but like I had expected, I was met with great resistance on their part. They were trying to attach decades old mistakes to the present day. Those were the actions of my forefathers but not me. I was a different man, my word me
*Dawn*I stared up at the ceiling completely lost in thought. Today was the first time in a long time I felt like I could breathe and then it was snatched away. I just wanted to have a normal life. I just wanted to go back to the way that things used to be. I didn’t want the stress or the horror of this wolf stuff. I wanted to cry it out but I had cried so much in the last two weeks, I had nothing left inside me. I was running on empty. The more books I read, the more questions I had. I worried about the first shift. I worried how I would deal with Jason, and Craig as well. I was still mad at him but for some reason, my heart was calling to him. I wanted him here and not wherever he was.I rolled over in my bed trying to calm my mind so I could get some sleep but I had been tossing and turning for hours and I knew that sleep was not going to come. Candice was out again in the town with her friends while I was here. I knew that I could just change and meet her in the tow
We worked well into the night on our respective pieces. Craig painted in silence, but he had moved his easel now and his body was now facing me instead of away. I couldn't see why he was working on though. He wanted to keep it a a secret until it was finally done.I, on the other hand, was not at all sure what I was doing. I had started and destroyed so many different shapes that I had lost count at 20. The creative juices just weren’t flowing the way they had that night. But I also think that had to do with the fact that I was not severely depressed anymore unlike that day. I had just squashed another wet piece when a granola bar was waved in front of my face.“You need to eat something,” Craig stated. He waved the bar in my face again. “It has cranberries in it.”I hated that he had picked up on my slight addiction to the fruit. I grabbed the treat with a grateful smile and moved away from my now destroyed piece. “Any progress on yours?” I asked.The man had taken off h
By the time we left the studio, I was feeling far better than I had when I came in. That pressure that was pushing back on me had lessened but it wasn’t entirely gone. “We have the next week off the competition,” Craig noted. His voice was low but in the dead of night it rippled through the air like a scream.“Yep.” I pooped the ‘p’ at the end. “I don’t know why they're giving us so much down time. After the first challenge, you would think they would want to get everything rolling.” In the back of my mind, that silent clock that was sent 10 days ago ticked away. I had 20 days left before my 30 days were up and I had to turn myself in to Jason.Dread seeped into my body. I tried to push away the negative emotions and just lived in the moment. Right now, I was with Craig under a beautiful moon. Jason was an ocean away and a problem I would face another day. “I didn’t know you could paint,” I started, changing the topic. I nudged my shoulder with his. “Why didn’t you enter u
We drove up some mountains and down a small trail that just about fit our car. The road was bumpy and if I was being honest, it did not suit the luxury vehicle we were in. But the nature around us was beautiful. We came to a stop just outside a large cave opening that looked a lot more ominous and off-putting than its surrounding of tall pine trees with sunlight streaming through it. The birds chirped all around us and the gentle wind brushed through the trees like a whisper. Craig went to the boot of the car and got out some flashlights and what looked like a gun. Normally, the gun would have freaked me out but I had seen so much in the past two weeks, that not much fazed me. I looked at the large opening of the cave. Up until this point, the trip had been easy and fun. But now, it was about to get a whole lot heavier. I didn’t know if I was fully prepared to find out what we were about to see. “Ready?” Craig came up beside me. His eyes then fixed on me. “You okay?”I no
I could not believe what I was hearing. “No.” I moved out of his hold. “Don’t do this to me, Craig.”His features softened. “I’m not lying to you, Dawn. You own me in every way a person can own a man. And I know you don’t feel the pull yet, but I’m sure you feel this…pull toward me. This unmistakeable attraction.”“I…” He was right I did feel the attraction. Was that what all those sparks were before? The mate bond?“I don’t know if I can believe you,” I continued. “After all the lies you have told and truths you have hidden, how do I know that this is for real? How do I know that this isn’t just another ploy to keep me at your side?”He surged forward and took hold of my hand in his. Immediately, small little sparks prickled my skin and my body reacted to him in the way it always did.“Trust this, trust this feeling.” He brought my hand over his heart. I could feel the fast, yet steady beating of that thing in the middle of his chest. “My heart beats for you. I breathe