Thalia “Elena!” I called out to my friend hours later after the tour around the museum ended and we made our way back to the bus that would take us back to the resort after the most amazing experience of my educational life. Coming to the museum and seeing all the artifacts I read about in real life solidified the plans I had to be a curator. My love for art and everything related to it was renewed in the best possible way. I took a lot of notes and even asked the friendly curator if I could come back some other time for a solo experience and she told me it was open to everyone. I didn’t see Lucas throughout the visit and I didn’t mind. I don’t want him close because I always end up at war with myself. In fact, not seeing him at all helped me a lot. I had so much fun. “Hey, you guys seem to have the best team, mine is just weird.” Elena complained. “Oh baby, ours was just as bad but we had each other,” I told her. “Yeah, it was fun with Lia, if she wasn’t on my
Thalia “Lia, can you stop glaring at your phone? You have been doing that all day and at this point, your phone might run away.” I turned to Elena and scoffed. I dumped my phone and laid back on the bed. The fucking bed was so small. It made me miss the bed I slept in last night. It was so big and comfy. I miss it and admittedly, I also miss the man I spent the night on the bed with. Even though he acted like a douchebag the morning after. We have been back in the resort for hours now and he has still not texted a response to my response to his first text nor has he called. He read the text and chose not to respond. Crazy wolf man. “Just call him.” Emily advised. I can’t count the number of times she has told me to call him since after leaving the museum. It was almost six pm and the closer it got to the time he told me he would come and pick me up, the more anxious I became. I can’t even explain why I was feeling anxious. I already told him that I won’t be spending the night
Thalia “Say what now?” I let out. Mariah turned to me and flashed a smile at me. I didn’t smile back. How could I? She just said she rode with my man while I rode with other students while waiting for his text or call. Both of which never came and still haven't come. “Why are you acting weird and as if you didn’t just hear what I said? I don’t like repeating myself but this once, I will do it for your benefit. I rode with the professor and I think we might be a thing soon.” I couldn’t believe my ears. This has to be some kind of stupid dream. No way this was real. “Mariah, don’t be so delusional. You two can’t be a thing.” Elena said before I could speak. “Yes, I am pretty sure the professor doesn’t want to have anything to do with you.” Emily added. I sure hope so but if he gave her a ride then what else could he do for her? “Oh, girls. You don’t know me and the power I hold against men. I can make any man fall for me and I know when a guy is down bad. The man that brou
Thalia “Lia, don’t believe what she said. Lucas can’t do that. He loves you and only wants you.” I don’t know if she was trying to console me or trying to convince herself but it did no good. He sure doesn’t love me and as for want? That doesn’t seem to be the case since he was already accommodating someone else just a few hours after we clashed. He bought her lunch, took her shopping, and even hugged her. That sounded like a date. A fucking date yet he hasn’t taken me to a date once and I am supposed to be his ‘mate’ Was that something they made up to fuck women? I know men do anything to get what they want but going as far as making up some bond just to get me to bed was crazy to think about and yet, I was thinking it. “Elena is right, baby. Don’t let her get between you two.” I turned to the girls. “Get between us? Get between what? Why would she lie about a date? Huh? Tell me. Didn’t you see the things she got? Did she sound like she was making things up to you? It clearl
Thalia The thought that Lucas might do the things he did with me last night with Mariah nearly crippled me. If I wasn’t already seated, I might have actually lost my balance and collapsed to the ground. The image of Lucas’s cock buried deep in Mariah’s pussy made me sick. I couldn’t get the image off my head. Everything he said to me last night, the way he turned me around and had me in different positions. All the dirty things we have done together came to me in a flash but in my place, it was Mariah’s face. Mariah screaming and whimpering his name in pleasure. Mariah begging him to fuck her more. Mariah asking for him to come inside her. The image was so fucking clear that I had to force my eyes open or I would have gone crazy. “Lia,” Emily whispered my name. I looked at her and saw the worry in her eyes. I couldn’t even pretend. My eyes went to my phone again. The silence of it made everything worse. As the minute ticked by, I slowly started to lose myself a little more. “Wh
Thalia “Don’t worry, the glasses are tinted, no one will see you from the outside.” Lucas pointed out. I didn’t look at him. “Don’t start the car.” I let out when he tried to. “Why not? We are leaving.” No, we are not. I am not going back to the hotel with him. not after what I found out about him from Mariah. I felt betrayed. I couldn’t imagine spending the night with him with all the doubts. Yes, he might not have spent the night with her since he was here but it could happen soon. He already took her out on a date. They already shared a hug. Soon, they might be sharing more than a hug. They might be sharing kisses and after that, they might be sharing a bed too. “We are not leaving. I am not spending the night with you.” I let out and spared him a look. He looked confused. “And why not? We spent the night together last night and it was amazing. Why can’t we do the same tonight? You are coming with me and that’s final.” The way he said the last part of his sentence pi
Lucas “Lucas? Stop the car!” I looked at Thalia and ignored her. I had no intentions of stopping the car until we were out of the resort and somewhere I could park and y’all to her. I can’t believe she thought I went on a date with that Mariah girl. Yes, I did buy her lunch because she kept insisting and then she told me her period started and I had to follow her to the shop where she got pads and other things. I paid for the things ahead bought out of the goodness of my heart but I never thought of it as a date nor did I let her hug me. Thalia found out and got everything wrong. No. I would never take another woman out or think of being with another woman who wasn’t my mate. I hated that she even thought about me cheating on her. Cheating! I don’t cheat! Not even when I dated a lot. I always made sure that I wasn’t seeing two people at once. I have never two-timed or double dates in my whole life, why would I do it now with my mate? The crazy part of everything was th
Lucas “It wasn’t a date. I promise. She asked me to take her back to the resort because the bus left without her and she didn’t know her way around.” I explained the first part of what happened and why she even got in my car in the first place. I couldn’t leave her on her own. I genuinely thought that she was stranded and I didn’t want anything to happen to her. I got Thalia’s attention so I went on. “Halfway through the ride, she told me that she hadn’t eaten all day so I stopped at a restaurant and got her food. After that, she told me she got her period and didn’t have a pad with her so I drove to the mall and paid god the things she got. That’s it.” I explained to her. She didn’t look convinced at first but her expression started to change right before my eyes. I waited for her to process the things I told her first before I continued. She opened and closed her mouth multiple times without saying anything and still, I waited. “Did you hug her?” That happened too bu
Thalia “Fine, don’t say anything. I am just glad that she is okay. We came here to help and cheer her up. That’s what we will do.” Emily said as she walked out of the living room carrying one of the brown boxes. I did the same and just like that, we went to work. Calista came back a few minutes later and together, the four of us worked to set up her new apartment. Calista was pretty easy to talk to and get along with. She told us about how she met Promise for the first time. Apparently, he was close with her brother and he often showed up at their house when she was in high school but she lost contact with him after she went away for school. Then two years later, the unfortunate incident happened to her family and she didn’t know how to contact him even though he was the only one she could talk to. Since she was told to run away to avoid being killed, she didn’t know he returned and knew about what happened to her family. Promise on the other hand thought she died and only
Thalia The rest of us just stood rooted to a spot because we didn’t know what else to do. She wasn’t just sobbing lightly but she was fully crying. Like fat tears falling from her eyes. A year's worth of tears. I didn’t know when I started crying too and when I looked at Elena, she too was crying. The only person that didn’t cry was Promise and even he was super sad and close to tears. He walked away and left us four with Emily hugging Calista while Elena and I just stood there and cried in silence. “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to cry on you.” Calista croaked after a while. She tried to let go of Emily but she didn’t let her. She held her close and patted her back gently. “Don’t be sorry. We should be sorry for not knowing. You were right next to us all year long and we didn’t even notice.” Emily said in a hoarse emotion-filled voice that brought more tears to my eyes. She was right. “I didn’t let it show. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t know how to. I didn’t have
Thalia “Can we go now? We can help her arrange her stuff and even share a few drinks while we help her discuss how to prepare for her makeup exams.” Elena suggested. “I agree.” Both Emily and I chorused at the same time. Elena drove out of campus and there was a long moment of silence before Emily spoke again. “Does she know we are coming? I haven’t really talked to her a lot in person.” Yeah, I thought of that too that’s why I texted Cross and he said she knew. He already told her that after class ends, we will all go to see her. I explained to Emily. “Then we should talk about things to do. I think you got the schoolwork part covered, right?” I nodded at her question. I might not really be a great teacher but in this case, there will be exceptions. It’s the first favor that Cross has asked of me. “Okay, I hope your guys won’t mind that we might have to go out a lot. What better way to hell the mind than to go out and have fun with people?” Emily suggested. I smi
Thalia “I wish we could, there’s only a little we can do with the government backing them up. Shifters are minorities and with a lot of things against us, we have to always keep our identities secret and if people found out about us, we always have to watch our back.” I could hear the sadness and weariness in Elena’s voice as she explained what it was like to be in the world of shifters. I felt bad for them. They really are not doing anything wrong or harming anyone. They are just like humans. Heck, even better. Shifters were closely knitted. They look out for each other and have each other’s back. I like living among them more than I love living around humans. Being in their world showed me a whole new meaning of living and I don’t want to lose that. “What can we do for Calista?” Emily asked while she wiped tears from her eyes. It was my turn to speak. Cross already told me what he wanted us to do for him and what we needed to do to get Calista back on track academically a
ThaliaI woke up the next morning sad as fuck. I did everything sluggishly. If the class I had wasn’t so important, I would have called to make an excuse and just stayed at home. I also had a presentation due today so there was no staying home for me.Lucas left very early because he had a meeting at his company so he couldn’t drive me to school. I didn’t have the will to drive so I just ordered a ride after I made sure it was okay for a car to come pick me up inside the estate.My ride arrived just as I walked out of the house and I was really thankful for it. Yesterday was a whole lot. Everything I found out still felt surreal. Even on the ride to school, I just kept replaying what Cross had told me over and over again, and each time it got worse.I had to wipe tears from my eyes a handful of times because the tears just refused to stop each time I thought about what Calista had gone through. The driver turned to look at me to make sure I was okay more than twice. He looked at me wi
Thalia “Is she moving into the pack tonight?” I asked. If she was then I wanted to go see her and hug her. “No, tomorrow, tonight, I sent someone from the pack to be with her.” “A guy?” I asked. I really didn’t trust a lot of guys. “Yes, but don’t worry, he isn’t going to hurt her. It’s Elena’s brother.” “The beta?” “No, Elena’s other brother.” Huh? Promise? I thought he wasn’t due back until next year, that’s what Elena told me after I asked her why he wasn’t living in the pack. “He is back?” “Yes, he is the reason I found out. He came to my office earlier today. He saw Calista leaving. He was the one that first told me.” He explained but I didn’t understand. “Wait, you found out after the meeting with the Dean of students ended?” “Yes, he saw her leaving my office and recognized her.” Wow. “So if he didn’t show up at your office, you won’t have known?” Cross nodded. I can’t believe while I was busy being jealous and acting like a bitch, having all
Thalia “What are you talking about, Cross?” I let out. The fact that he wasn’t even talking about what that pervert did. The council? What could they have done that would take Calista’s life without killing her? “Her whole family was captured and burnt alive. The only reason she survived was because she was in school and she bears a different name. She only found out after a month what happened to her family and she has been living with the guilt of being the only one to survive for over a year now.” I didn’t know how to process what he just told me. Where do I even start from? Her whole family? But why? “What do you mean? Why would they do that? Who burns people alive in this day and time?” I asked him, too shocked to process what he just told me. They burnt her family? No one even knew that she lost her whole family. “The council are the most fucked up people in existence. I only found out recently what happened. I didn’t know. I didn’t know they did that.” He looked
Thalia“You sound so sure,”I whispered and smiled.“Yes, I am sure. It might take a while to convince you since you don’t feel it the way we do but soon, we won’t need to convince you because you will know and you will feel it just as we do.”He explained. God, I hope that soon will come really quickly. I want to feel the intense feelings that they talk about. I mean, yes, I already feel so much for them.“Thank you for not getting mad at my outburst,”He leaned forward and kissed my lips. He ruffled my hair playfully before sitting back in his seat. I felt really good about his response and how he was treating me, even after how I acted.“Baby, there was no outburst. Also, Calista has a lot more things to worry about. I don’t think she has time to be involved with a man right now.”He said and started the car. My nosy ass wanted to hear the whole tea. I used to think that she was really good at what she did. I mean with the way she carries herself. I don’t know a lot about her grade
Thalia “I am so sorry, Em. You should have told me.” I wasn’t mad at her. How could I be? She literally had to move because of me. I wasn’t mad that she didn’t tell me. “Actually, I moved when we were on our trip. My older siblings and their spouses came to town and did all the job.” She explained. “I am sorry,” I apologized again. “No, don’t say sorry. Also, there’s a room for you just in case we have to study together or meet at my apartment.” How could I ever pay her back for her kindness and thoughtfulness? I might not get to live with her again but I felt glad that she thought of me even while loving even though my parents were the reason she had to move. “I have been there before and it’s spacious!” Elena let out from the front. “Girl, you were there only yesterday for half an hour.” Emily said and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and it was enough time to see how spacious the place is.” “Just drive!” Emily scolded Elena and turned to me. “Don’t be sorry,