Joel:There was a certain tenseness in the air.And for once it had nothing to do with me.The first guests had started to arrive and so everyone jumped into action.As much as I hated washing up, I longed to be there right now. Who’d have thought that I would want to watch my hands shrivel up like prunes while trying to scrub pebble dashed pans?Was it wrong that I wanted to trade places with those pans? That I wanted someone to scrub me clean and have the mess that was my life be washed down the plug hole?I could hear Lyla’s voice in my ear, telling me not to be so dramatic. But for once in my life, I felt that it was justified. Here I was, serving people who I mainly despised, while watching my mate, the potential love of my life, proclaim his undying love for another wolf. And all the while, knowing that with one touch of his hand, I could stop it all. But also knowing that with one touch of his hand I would ruin everything.Without realising it, I let out a huge sigh.“What’
Casper:I felt more than a little smug that my little Cub had managed to do so much damage to Archie’s beta. We may have been reforming our alliance with the Hartley pack, but it still felt good to get one over on them.Nathan was a fairly new recruit to the Huntley pack. He was not born into the pack, like most beta’s are. The previous beta had no offspring, so there was no natural replacement, and apparently none of the other wolves had met up to Archie’s standards.And then one day Nathan turned up. And Nathan was your perfect beta. He was very strong, fiercely loyal, and upheld every value that traditional wolf packs had.My dad had been quite jealous of Nathan. He often commented that he would make a better beta than Jamie.I disagreed. As good as Nathan was, he was a little too perfect for me. There was no spark to his personality. In fact, scratch that, there was no personality. I found his company incredibly dull.Once I’d straightened out Nathan’s nose (something else
Joel:“He fired me! The bastard actually fired me! For saving his ass! I can’t believe I even did that? And for what? The arrogant, stuck up, son of a..”“ME!” I shouted at Mark to stop his rant. “You did it for me, not Casper.”“Yeah, well I wish I hadn’t,” Mark grumbled.Mark sat down on the edge of my bed and fiddled with my phone charger cable, a scowl still on his face.He’d interrupted my nap, and I wasn’t happy. I would have told him off about it if it wasn’t for the fact I felt a little guilty. Ok, a lot guilty.You see, this job actually meant a lot to Mark. His mum was quite ill. Something happened to her a while ago and since then she suffered from anxiety and depression. There were weeks when she didn't even leave the house.His dad worked shifts as a nurse at the local hospital. He’s quite senior in his role, and the pay wasn’t too bad, but he often had to turn down shifts to look after his wife.I knew that Mark was giving most of the money he earnt at the mano
Casper:A rather manic sort of laughter filled the room, and it took me a couple of seconds to realise it was coming from me.I went back over to the sofa and flopped down on it.I couldn’t believe it. I would have never believed it. I never saw it coming.I finally stopped laughing and looked over to see Joel stood silently next to the couch.“The worst thing about this,” I said, wiping my eyes from all the laughter, “the worst thing, is that this time I can tell you’re not lying. You actually believe it.” I let out a sort of snorting noise, in an attempt to stifle the laughter that was threatening to spill out once again.I looked over at Joel. His eyes were locked onto me, giving off icy chills, and his arms were folded across his chest.“I never thought you would turn into one of those demented werewolves that would swear blind that they were my mate.”The scowl on Joel’s face deepened.“I’m not saying you are definitely my mate, I am saying you might be. And in case you hadn’
Joel:“Come on Lyla, JUMP!” Mark shouted.“I’m scared!” Lyla shouted back.“Don’t be such a wuss!”“I’m not a wuss! I just don’t trust you!”“That’s a load of bull, now JUMP!”“Ok, I’m doing it…..oh god, I’m doing it…….AAARRRGGHHH!”ThudOn hearing the noise, I finally looked up from the pile of stones I was lazily stacking into a sort of pyramid.The rope swing had predictably not been able to take Lyla’s weight and had snapped, plummeting Lyla into the small dried up stream bed. Not that Lyla was heavy. No, Mark was just that bad at making rope swings.“Ooowwww,” Lyla moaned while moving slowly to check her limbs were still attached.Mark slowly started backing away, a guilty look on his face.I smirked and went back to my pyramid.This was typical behaviour for these two. They were always getting into scrapes together. Saying that, I was usually right there with them, but I just hadn’t been in the mood recently.“MARK! GET YOUR ARSE BACK HERE NOW!!!” Lyla screamed, making me
Casper:The wedding was tomorrow. Tomorrow!!And I still hadn’t talked to Joel.I’d been putting it off, and putting it off, knowing that it was probably going to be one of the hardest conversations of my life.I was regretting putting it off though. To be honest things had gotten a little easier over the last couple of weeks. Well, since I told Emily really.I still hadn’t talked to, or even seen Joel, and that was definitely helping. I thought about him a lot less now. And I was even sleeping better at night.It’s not like I didn’t think about him at all, but it was probably only about once every hour, rather that once every 5 minutes.And of course, now I needed to see him again. And I had a sneaky suspicion that it was going to put me right back to square one.But it needed to be done, and at least I had a huge distraction tomorrow! And the day after the wedding we were flying out of the country for our honeymoon, so that should also help.I gave my bedroom a final glance o
Joel:I’d spent most of the day in the kitchen prepping food for tomorrow. My hands were sore from constantly being in and out of water, and I had one of those sexy blue plasters on my finger from where I’d cut it, instead of a carrot.My shift was finally over though. And I could go home and sleep.Duncan, the star that he was, had actually given me tomorrow off. Even though they had drafted in loads of extra staff, many from the Huntley’s household, he still insisted I stayed away from the manor for the wedding.I felt bad, but I also appreciated the gesture. I was going to go in bright and early the day after the wedding to tidy up from the big day.I stuck my head into my uncle’s office.“I’m off now.” I said, “Good luck for tomorrow. I’m sure it’ll all go smoothly.”Duncan looked up and smiled at me. He hid it well, but I could see how tired this whole event had made him. My mum kept telling me that he should think about retiring. She was probably right, but I couldn’t hel
Casper:“Stay with me tonight.”I don’t know why I said it. I didn’t even know I was going to say it, until I heard my own voice saying it.Joel didn’t move. His eyes, still locked into mine.Maybe he didn’t want to stay. Maybe it was stupid of me to ask. But all I knew was that I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Not yet. Not right now.Joel still said nothing.“Please?” I said, even though I knew it was probably selfish of me to ask.This seemed to have the desired effect though, as Joel finally snapped out of his transe.“Whoa! Is the mighty Casper Bournville pleading with me to spend the night with him? Because there is absolutely no need. I already said yes about a thousand times. Ok, I’m guessing it must have been in my head, but I definitely meant it!”I smiled and shook my head at him. It amazed me how he could always make me smile in the most awkward of situations.“Great then,” I said going to sit back down.“Umm, so where am I going to sleep?” he asked.“Sleep?”“Yes, t