Twenty years ago…I eye the line I’ve tried to read again and again for the past fifteen minutes. If anyone would pay slight attention to me, they would know I’m not concentrating on my homework. All my attention is focused on Samuel, who is perched on the other end of the kitchen counter and I’m having a very hard time trying to keep my eyes off of him.Normally, he wouldn’t be here, in the kitchen of the pack house, but it’s an important day. Today’s the day my mom makes her favorite cranberry pies and Samuel is addicted to them. He needs to have a piece of them fresh out of the oven and the very last piece to know how the pie reacts to being stored with time. I call bullshit because the whole pack knows that the one thing, he is crazy about are, are those pies and I don’t blame him. My mom’s pies are the very best.This is my routine; every day I come back from school, sit at the kitchen island, watch my mom make the best available on the planet, and do my homework. I watch as my m
My eyes are trained on the screen but my mind is far away, which is why Noah shoots my avatar down four times in a row. “Seriously man, you’re not even trying.” Noah weirdly looks at me, as if he can peer into my mind, reach into my soul and grasp whatever has been torturing me the whole weekend. I’d like to believe, however, that I’m not so transparent and can hide my secrets well enough that a practical stranger isn’t privy to them.“Where has your mind been? Even Ben will have no trouble killing you the way you’re playing,” Ariel huffs and crosses her arms over her chest. I would have felt amused at her actions if her words didn’t make me immediately guilty. Ever since coming to this pack, I haven’t had the time to be with my siblings and I can see that it upsets them. Playing video games has always helped us bond back home and I was hoping the same thing could happen right now.“Ok, I will promise I’ll play better this time,” I vow to her and look at Ben who hasn’t said a single w
I’d been initially very surprised that Samuel wanted to see me. Earlier I had thought that he was ignoring me and trying to not come near me, or talk to me about Kyle’s future here but as the days went by, my suspicions solidified. I don’t know the man he has become but I had at least hoped that he would take responsibility for his being here, in his pack. I have done everything but directly accost him and my patience is wearing thin. Now that he has invited me and Kyle to his study, I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what I want him to say. I don’t know what I want. Sometimes, I think coming back here was a big and rash decision but we are here and I have observed some serious changes in Kyle’s energy and his wolf seems to be much calmer here. Ariel and Ben have settled in well. I will be lying if I would say I am at peace here but if my children are happy, then this is the least I could do for them. This is the least I could sacrifice for them.Having expectations and having n
I am fuming and all I want to do right now is go back inside the alpha’s office and land a punch on the asshole’s face. He has no idea who I am and how I make my decisions. Still, he had the gall to look down on me, insult me, and dismiss me, that too, in front of my mate. He even forbids me to go near the pack borders, which means he is indirectly forbidding me from going near Lea’s home. I mentally scoff at his orders, as if his dictates work on me as if anything he says would affect my desire to be near my mate. Not everyone is like him; he has no respect for a mate, and he rejects his own. He has no idea how hard it is to be without your mate once you find her. So, I don’t care about him ordering me to stay away from pack borders.I take a deep breath and try to control my spiraling thoughts which all focus on murdering the alpha of this pack. I don’t know how he manages to be so obnoxious, high, and mighty and still manages to govern a pack. My thoughts halt when I see Lea turn a
Twenty years ago…It has now been a month since Samuel and I have been sneaking off to the lake during the night and violating curfews. If the alpha came to know about it, there would be some serious consequences for us. They would be much more severe for him. Sneaking into the night with the future alpha when he already has a girlfriend and is looking for his destined mate is very tricky. If anyone were to see us or know about it, it would be an extremely embarrassing feat for me and my family, especially when my father is in the upper echelon of the pack and is so close to the alpha. Somehow, all of the disastrous consequences escape my mind when I find Samuel sitting by the lake, waiting for me. Only I get to have this, to find him waiting for me, beside the lake shore, which has become our very own special place.I can feel my heart pounding harder the closer I get to the lake. I try to slow down, knowing that werewolves have keen senses and any snapping of twigs and crunching of
I didn’t expect Lea to fall into my arms after I helped her out yesterday but I certainly didn’t expect her completely freezing me out. To be honest, I don’t know what I want from her in the long run but for now, I figure just talking to her and getting to know her would be enough. My wolf has been going crazy, being in her vicinity for such a short time yesterday, and getting the chance to talk to his mate has completely riled him up. He keeps physically pushing me towards her, to go to her, talk to her, touch her, and just be around her. My wolf has not been like this ever and has not had this much interest in anything.I know mates are supposed to end up together, everyone keeps saying so but I don’t know how I could ever be with Lea. Things are so complicated between us. We are from different packs, and the moment I convince my mom to get her head straight, my family is hightailing out of this pack and back to our home. I don’t exactly hate this idea of having Lea as my mate but I
Twenty years ago…I know I didn’t have Samuel to myself for too long but not having him at all felt like a pain in my gut. And I may seem overdramatic but it is the truth. For the first few nights when we didn’t meet, I could feel the pain manifesting physically in my body through a spike in body temperature, excessive fatigue, and muscle pains. If I had been feeling better, I would have rejoiced at the idea that these withdrawal-like symptoms only happen when you spend time apart from your potential mate, like I’m being forced to do.I wanted to know how he was feeling. Was he sick like I was? Was his body missing me like my body was missing him? I didn’t know and to be honest, I was worried that I might not like the answer. After all, Samuel had his pregnant girlfriend to worry about. I’m sure I wasn’t even on his radar anymore. I’m sure that very soon, we’ll be having a pack meeting to announce the good news of expecting the potential alpha-in-line.I was so depressed that I didn’t
With Lea effectively shutting me down, I didn’t have any idea what to do here in this pack. All my anguish and reluctance about this pack came back in full force and anger towards my mom returned too. I’m not proud of it but I may be back to ignoring her and the rest of my family. I didn’t want to be a creep and go back to stalking Lea in the shadows after she told me to fuck off and I had no interest in attending school and classes. I barely know anyone here, except for Noah and his clear allegiance to the pack doesn’t make him an ever-present friend. This is why even though everyone present during the pack meeting groaned out loud from the realization of mandatory exercise, I felt a bit better about my circumstances.If I wasn’t going to be working on school, my family, my mate, or my non-existent relationship with the alpha of this pack, I could at least spend some time honing my body, which I have regretfully lacked in doing ever since I came here.The scheduled practice session f
LeaI watch Ben and Mason circle each other, judging each other’s stances and anticipating each other’s moves. These boys were growing up too fast, they were already too eager to participate in the pack’s training sessions and they still had years before they could officially attend those sessions. It still didn’t stop them from watching every practice session and cheering for the older werewolves. It didn’t help that Kyle encouraged them all the time, boosting them up, and telling them to aim to be the best pack warrior there has ever been. I think it was cute how they both looked up to Kyle, wanting to impress him, to spend time with them, and to just be near them.Ever since Kyle has officially started training to be the future alpha of this pack, he has become incredibly busy. He barely has time for himself, and I know he feels guilty about not being able to give me enough time. If he had been here from his birth, Alpha Samuel would have groomed him to be the next alpha from the m
I know I wasn’t supposed to eavesdrop, wasn’t mean to listen to their conversation, but how could I not? Even a saint would have had trouble to avoid listening in on them, and I am no saint. I had been reeling from the revelation after the pack initiation ceremony, about how I had magically changed packs, and I was so confused about everything that I didn’t know what to do. I kept trying to deny what was happening, what had already happened and it had gotten me nowhere.When I ran out of Samuel’s office, I had no idea where I was supposed to go, and what I was supposed to do. I couldn’t go back to my room, or talk to anyone. The thought of interacting with anyone or sitting alone in my room made me claustrophobic. So, I did the only thing I could think of, I ran to the lake so I could think and re-think everything and decide what I had to do now.An epiphany slammed into me when I was there. I realised I could go on thinking about everything, thinking about the past, present, and the
The party after the initiation ceremony was still going on in the dining room of the pack house. Everyone was assembled there and I couldn’t catch a breath or take a step without someone congratulating me or telling me how amazing the hunt was. Pack hunts were rare because we didn’t want to disturb the ecosystem around us, but they were sometimes a celebration, like today. I was lucky to spot a herd of deer, and we managed to hunt down a couple of them, enough for everyone in the pack to take a celebratory bite of the hunt. Now, I was tired, both from the day and everyone frolicking around me.I wanted to retire to my bedroom already, but before I could do that, I wanted to see Samuel. So, I went upstairs to his office and knocked on the door. It is probably the first time I’m coming here without being summoned for doing something wrong or breaking the rules. It felt nice to not be the troublemaker for a change. I waited for his call to come in before swinging the door open and going
I had witnessed pack initiation ceremonies a few times in this pack and back home. They were rare because it was unusual for an alpha to induct a wolf into their already blooming pack. Often, these ceremonies were held after an extensive background search and interviews, and all for a very good reason. Alpha has to make sure that they’re not introducing a sneaky snake in the pack that could harm them or the pack in the future. But this ceremony was an exception because not only Kyle was Samue’s blood, but Samuel was sure of Kyle’s heritage and I’m sure he is excited about having Kyle in the pack because it means that he will have his son in the pack and a legitimate future alpha.I had gone through the pack initiation ceremony myself when I had chosen Brad as my mate. I was as unprepared for it as Kyle was for his ceremony. I would have told him about what was supposed to happen but werewolf law states that the person is supposed to be initiated is supposed to go with as little knowle
Ever since the pack announcement, everything in the pack has been a whirlwind. Everyone has been running around to organise the pack initiation ceremony as if it’s the most important even to happen in their lives. Decorations are being torn apart and hung again, menus are decided and then discarded, everyone is striving to make the even perfect. And it is all making me antsy. Surely, it is not that big of a deal, getting initiated into a pack. Even people’s attitudes toward me have changed, they somehow stand straighter whenever I enter a room, their heads bowing to me in deference, their voices going quieter and their smiles becoming brighter. I don’t understand what the big deal about all of this is because I have been living in this pack for the last couple of weeks and I’m still the same person. I’m still me but the way I’m being treated is completely different and disconcerting.I’m being treated like an alpha son, exactly how Ryder was used to being treated back home. I feel a l
Twenty years ago…After I talked to Samuel, I made my way home, tears blurring my every step. I felt like the world was crashing around me. I couldn’t breathe, I felt the air around me had been sucked out and I was stuck in a vacuum. How had this happened to me? I couldn’t for the life of me figure this mystery out. All my life I’d just wanted to have a mate, love him as truly and honestly as I can, and be there for him in every aspect. Now, here I was, practically rejected by a mate who had a pregnant girlfriend that he was planning to propose to. On top of everything, he had the gall to reject my child, choosing to stay with his girlfriend rather than his mate.Tears were already leaking out of my eyes when I reached my home, but as soon as the door closed behind me, I started bawling. I had expected my parents to be there, I wanted their support at the moment, I wanted their love. I also hoped selfishly that when I told them Samuel was my mate and that I was pregnant with his chil
I’d thought Lea’s father was in bad shape but I hadn’t expected it to be this bad. I could see an endless number of tubes going in and out of him, several machines beeping continuously, and he was sedated with such a high dose that I was sure he wouldn’t wake up if someone set him up on fire. His face looked black and blue his whole body is mottled with bruises and it’s crystal clear that he had been brutally beaten by the rogues before being left to die at the pack border for us to find.Lea had gone ghostly white after seeing her father in that condition and I couldn’t blame her. The scene reminded me of the time Brad was stuck in the hospital during the last couple of weeks of his life, how emaciated and weak and sickly he had started to look. It took me back to the time when Mom used to worry about him leaving us behind all the time, how the twins realized that he would leave and never come back. I’m sure these thoughts must be running in Lea’s head too, and I wanted to take her a
I’m once again in Samuel’s office. Surprise, surprise. In the short time we’ve been here, I have been here more than is normal for any pack member. I may as well set up my chopping block in this office because I’m summoned to be here so often. I think Kyle has also done everything possible to make sure we’re called again back to this office. Every time I’m here I’m brought back to the past when I and Aaron had been asked by Samuel’s dad to not see each other since we weren’t fated mates. My life has moved so far away from that trajectory, that it feels like a fictional tale someone uninvolved with my life is reciting to me. I can’t say my current life feels familiar to me because, for the first time in forever, Kyle hasn’t done anything remotely wrong. We’re here because of Lea and her father, and I’m a bit relieved that at least, we’re not the bad guys right now, always seemingly disrupting the pack peace, rules and regulations.For once, I wished we were called here for a good reaso
Samuel only summoned Lea to his office but Aaron didn’t raise an eyebrow when I volunteered to accompany her. I didn’t know how many people knew about Lea and I being mates but I’m guessing since Aaron didn’t stop me, he knows or Samuel must have hinted to let me come. If it had been any other situation, I wouldn’t have felt the need to be with Lea but since the issue is so sensitive, concerning the rogue attack on the pack and possibly, her father’s involvement in it.The idea hit me when I was running from the dungeons towards the pack house to talk to Lea. I didn’t believe she had anything to do with the rogue attack. I know she’s loyal and holds real regard for Samuel because he accepted her and her brother in his pack and gave them home without any prejudice. It would also be rare for a pack member to have any connections with a rogue and leak pack information for a planned attack. The only thing that made sense was for her father to be the mole. He is only an honorary pack membe