"He's too young. He doesn't even know what's going on.""Just because he's young doesn't mean he can't feel the bond between them. Look at him. He's miserable and it's because of us.""Do you really want him to be mated to some rabid panther?""I want him to be happy."I felt myself jolt awake suddenly. I sit up a little, rubbing my temples and trying to center myself again.What was that?That wasn't like any dream I've ever had before.I couldn't see anything, only heard voices. Voices that sounded like my mom and dad. It felt more like a weird foggy memory.And what were they talking about?"You're awake." I jump a little at the sudden sound of Nate's voice. He's walking through his bedroom door. He's fully dressed, a long-sleeved black shirt that hugs him perfectly, more black jeans, same black boots. He has a dark gray beanie pulled over his hair that he slides off and throws onto the edge of the bed."Hello." I say softly. I'm still distracted by the weird dream I had."I brough
Nate was right in saying his alpha wasn't like any other Alpha. Because he definitely wasn't.Right when Nate opened the door, the smell of weed smacked me in the face. I could hear a machine gun and male voices yelling."Look who it is!" As soon as we walk into the living room a blonde haired man is crashing into Nate and pulling him away from me and towards him. Remember last time a male was too close with our mate? Don't add that to my list of things I have to be paranoid about."About damn time." Nate and the man shove each other around for a moment, both grinning the entire time. "We've all been waiting." I tear my eyes away from the pair and look to the rest of the room.Across one side of the room was a large sectional that took up most of the living room. It was dark brown and looked comfortable and well used. There were three other men sitting on it, two were entirely focused on whatever game they were playing, eyes glued to the giant flat screen TV and thumbs flying over the
"So that's her, huh?" Zane asks me the second I close the door behind us. He puts his blunt out between his fingers and puts the roach in his pocket. He starts walking down the hallway, and I follow after him. "She has crazy energy." He chuckles a little."You wouldn't be talking shit about her if you'd seen her kicking all those werewolves asses." He nods his head, smiling."I would've loved to see that." We're quiet for a moment as I follow him to the building's office in the front lobby. It's just a small room where Zane keeps all his financial stuff and official documents. There's not even a desk or anything in it, just boxes and folders of papers everywhere. "I'm looking for a specific box, should be marked M.P." Zane says once the door is closed and locked behind us. He walks past me and starts in the far corner, lifting box lids and picking through papers."What's in this box?" I ask as I follow his lead and start looking through boxes too."Reports." I shoot him a look. He's b
I sigh and turn towards the office door. "Come on then. This involves you too now." I grumble as I hold the door open for Zane."I'm not sure I want to be involved with your mate." I shake my head, stopping for a moment to wait for him as he locks up."You're the one who wanted to meet her. Why are you so suspicious of her? You don't even know her.""But you do, right?" He shuffles ahead of me, digging through his pockets for something. He pulls out half of a blunt, slightly squashed now, and a red lighter. He lights it, puffs of smoke following behind him like a train. His words are seared into my head. I do know Cleo, right?As we near the apartment door, I can hear voices yelling from inside. They don't sound alarmed or angry, so I don't panic. Although I did have to remind my panther that we were in the safest place possible, and our mate was surrounded by her kind when the sound of Cleo's yells hit our ears.I shouldn't be surprised by what I see when we walk in, but I am.Leo an
As soon as Nate closed the front door behind him and Zane, Alex immediately began drilling me with questions."Is it true your other mate is an Alpha of a werewolf pack?" He asks excitedly, scooching to sit even closer to me."Uh... yeah. Yeah, I guess.""Who's better in the sack?" I turn and glare at him."I'm not answering that.""But that means there is an answer. Good to know. Is it true you were kicked out of your last pack?""Okay." I stand up, holding my hands in front of me. "How do you know all this? I've never met any of you before, and I just met Nate. You should not know this much about me.""Zane heard it from other Alphas and since we help him run this place, he told us to keep us informed." It's Leo who answers, so I shift my gaze to him. He was lounging in the corner of the couch, playing on his phone and hitting a vape. "If you were trying to be mysterious you did a pretty shit job of it." So now he was going to be a dick? I wasn't sure I was enjoying the vibe of thi
"Ada Holstein..." I whisper, running a finger across the picture of a young me. "I don't like that name. Sounds like a nun's. I'll stick with Cleo." I turn to face Zane, holding the paper up. "Do you know anything about this? I've never heard of this pack before."He shakes his head, running his hands down his face. "I've racked my entire brain, I can't remember ever hearing about, dealing with, or coming across a Holstein pack. At this point I'm not even sure if it's a wolf or a panther pack.""It would make sense for it to be a panther pack I guess... both of my "parents" were wolves and I always wondered why I alone was a panther." I put air quotes around the word parents. I honestly was a little happy they weren't my real parents. I have very few good memories of them. "But if this paper exists then that means there is someone out there who knows about it, right?" I question, wiggling the paper for emphasis. "Who sends these out?""Ah. Them." Zane leans against the door, shutting
I hate seeing Cleo like this. She looked so defeated when she read that paper. I get why Ike hides things from her now. He didn't want to see her like this. I thought myself an honest mate, but if all it took to keep this from happening ever again, I should learn to pick my truths better. That seems backwards.I could feel her tears soaking through where her face was pressed. It made my heart ache.Suddenly, I realized my ass cheek was vibrating."I'm sorry, Cleo, my phone's ringing." No one ever called me, because only... six people had my number. It had to be important if one of them was trying to get in touch with me.I keep one arm wrapped around her, rubbing circles on her shoulder with my thumb. She nestles her face into my armpit, sniffling quietly. I was sad she was hurt, but I liked babying her. I had a feeling she wouldn't need it often.I roll my eyes when I see whose name is on my phone screen."How may I help you?" I say in a bored tone when I answer the phone."What's wr
I went back to my apartment once I locked up. I didn't know where Zane had wandered off to, but I would deal with him later. No doubt he was digging through every contact he had to figure out this puzzle right now. It was one of things that made him such a good Alpha. He never gave up on figuring out how to solve a problem, no matter how small or big it was. He rewired the entire building a few years ago because people were complaining of fake outlets. Such a tiny inconvenience, but he took it so seriously."Cleo?" I call into the quiet living room. I knew she was here; her shoes were by the door, and I could smell her. I finally noticed the light on in the bathroom and the steam crawling under the door. I noticed she took showers when she needed to think about something. Whatever helped, I guess.I crash onto the couch, kicking my boots off and laying back. I need to go for a run. I agree. It had been a couple days since I shifted, which was very rare for me. I was used to practicall
"You little shit, get your ass back here." I laugh from my spot on the kitchen counter, watching Nate chase our naked child, Liam around the living room with a yellow bath towel clutched in his hand. Liam stops then, turning around to grin at his dad. He was only three, but was already extremely mobile, and had a smile just like his dad's. "Are you going to help me?" Nate sighs, glaring up at me as Liam yells and resumes running around like a mad man with his arms up in the air. I shake my head a little, pointing to where Liam is now standing on the couch. He grins at his dad, who finally swoops in and grabs him in his arms, wrapping the towel around him tightly as he does so. "Ha! Got you!" Nate declares as he wrestles Liam so he's upside down in his arms. He squeals with delight as Nate carries him like that back towards his room to put clothes on, calling him a weakling the entire time. But Liam loves it. He loves his dad, and he loves playing and "fighting" with him.I smile a
Why is it so often when I'm waking up in the morning, I'm in pain? I groan, stretching my arms above my head and blinking away sleep. I wince as harsh daylight assaults my eyes. My head pounds, and I bring a hand up to rub at my temple."Fuck." I groan, sitting up and leaning against the bed's headboard. I look down at where Ike is facing away from me, towards the wall, hugging himself and with no blanket. Nate is on the other side, also facing away, burrioted up in the entire blanket. I fall forward and start to crawl between them to get out of the bed. I stop when I feel a hand grabbing my ankle. Nate's green eyes are already staring at me. He's rolled over and untucked himself from his blanket tomb. "You're not going to make me chase you again, are you?" I furrow my brow, sitting in a crawling position, trying to think why I would run away. "Oh." I say when I finally realize what Ike had done to Nate last night. I didn't actually see anything, but I remember one of Ike's hands
I leave Ike at the bottom of the stairs, taking Cleo into my bedroom first and laying her down gently. She starts wiggling around, smiling and rubbing all over the sheets. Weirdo. I go back for Ike, who is pulling himself up the stairs, or trying to. He's got one hand on the second step, his other on the first. "Can I help you?" I ask, bending down to wrap one of his arms around my shoulder and putting my arm around his middle. "Here we go." He mumbles as I half drag him to my bed.I let him fall onto it, barely avoiding Cleo, who has taken her leggings off finally and is laying like a starfish on the bed. I sigh. I turn and flip the light off, kicking my shoes off as I do. Off come my pants and shirt. "Move." I huff, closing Cleo's legs and scooting her to one side of the bed. "You too." Ike listens for once, but only because he wants to be Cleo's big spoon. I roll my eyes and fall into the empty space beside them.I lay on one arm, staring at the ceiling for a moment before clo
"You know what her parents told me earlier?" Ike tilts his head to stare at me. I shake my head. "They told me, that this is the last time they'll be seeing Cleo." I freeze at his words. My eyes dart around to try and find the two in question. "Don't bother looking for them. They went back to their place and are leaving first thing in the morning. They aren't even planning on saying goodbye." He shakes his head at me. "I mean, why come in the first place?" He scoffs, finishing off his drink. "Just to rub it in her face that you exist?" He's staring at Cleo, muttering to himself now really more than talking to me. "Did they say why?" I nudge him to try and get his drunk ass to focus. He kind of blinks and shakes his head before looking back to me again. "They said they couldn't stay or come visit her because of the rules of being part of The Circle," He scoffs at their title. "And that she couldn't visit them because if anyone knew they had a daughter out there they'd try and make he
My peace with Cleo is ripped away by that fuck head Thomas, who snatches Cleo away over his shoulder and yells something about loving tequila. Had he just been waiting for the perfect chance to steal her away again? "Oh my god." I rub the bridge of my nose and make eye contact with Cleo as she sits up on Thomas to grin at me like a child. I lean back and cross my arms as I watch him take her to a group of guards. "I got her!" He yells in victory. The guards cheer and whoop in excitement. "Your mates have had enough of your time!" Zach proclaims as Thomas sets Cleo down. "And besides, it's your turn to chug something!" I groan, and I'm about to rush over and stop her, but I halt when Ike and Parker walk up to me from their spot in the crowd. "I wanted to introduce you two." Ike says, stopping in front of me. I'm half sitting, half standing, midway to snatching Cleo away from the frat boys. I glance at her for a second and see her snapping the neck off a bottle of tequila. I sigh,
"Why do you people insist on doing this to me?" She complains as I carry her away from her group of fans. "It's just easier than arguing with you." I reply. She makes an offended noise, struggles to sit up for a moment, and then flicks me on the back of the head. I roll my eyes, hiking my shoulder up a little into her gut and smiling at the noise she makes. I approach a table that's empty on one end and set Cleo down in a chair. "Wait here." I look her in the eye to make sure she's paying attention, and then turn to track down some water.I spot coolers near one of the tables closest to the fire and make my way through chatting and drinking people. I didn't realize how many people were a part of Ike's pack now a days until they were all converged together like this.I finally make it to the line of eight coolers and start opening them to find one not filled to the brim with liquor. Finally, I get my hands on a cold bottle of water. There was only a single cooler with them in it; ty
Fuck that guy. Fuck him. I fucking hated him. He was fucking dick. I wanted to shove his face into the ground and rub it in. I ran through the trees, pine needles whipping at my panther's face as we escaped, past the pack's borders, further and further into the forest. My rage drives me to run for almost three hours before my panther finally stops, gasping for air and muscles aching. He finds a stream nearby and hunches over to take a long drink before we head back. What did I think was going to happen? I mean, I knew who this guy was, or at least what other's told me about him. And no one had anything good to say, not so far. They all said he was mean, and petty, and demanding as hell. He abandoned me in the woods to fend for myself when I so small, I couldn't even remember it happening. But the way he looked at me, pissed me off. Like I was scum. Like I was the one who should be begging for forgiveness. He was the asshole.But as we start running back to our pack, I can't st
I look away from the lively party scene after a moment, back to the table behind me. "Ooo." I snatch an unopened bottle of tiny blue vodka someone had left behind. Hoped they hadn't planned on coming back for it. "Excuse you." I make a whining noise when Nate is snatching the bottle from my lips before I can chug it. "Drink this instead." I sigh at the cold bottle of water he's put in my hand. "If I must." I crack the top. "You must." He plops in a chair beside me, sighing heavily and watching me drink. "Where have you been?" I ask once I've twisted the top back on the now half empty bottle. "You've been gone a really long time." I raise by brows at him, and the corner of his lip lifts up a little."And that drove you to drink?" I laugh loudly. "No, I just felt like it was time to get drunk." "Right." He nods, eyeing me. I blink innocently at him. "Can I say something?" I blurt out as he watches me. He ticks his eyebrow. "I think your dad is a fucking chode." He shakes his hea
"You better chug that shit!" "Come on bitch!" I jump in the air, yelling with Noah and Thomas at Zach, who was halfway through chugging an entire bottle of peach flavored vodka. "Don't be a pussy!" I punch him in the arm, a grin spread across my face. He pushes me off a little, flipping me off and continuing to guzzle the artificially flavored rubbing alcohol. "Let's go!" Thomas yells, throwing his half full beer on the ground in overly excited celebration at his friend finally reaching the neck of the bottle. Zach holds his hand up, and we all stare at him silently in eager anticipation for a moment, until he finally pulls the empty bottle away and makes a loud "ah" noise like it was a refreshing drink on a hot day. "Suck it, sluts." He slurs, grinning at us and throwing the bottle on the ground. I laugh, clapping my hands and stumbling back a little. "You thought I couldn't do it." He points his finger towards me, wiggling it a little in my face. I grin and clap him on the shou