That catches me so off guard, I stumble with my words a bit.“I di— I hav— How—“Georgie mimics me childishly and she looks so ridiculous doing it that it almost makes me laugh... except I can’t because I know I'm in trouble. Georgie knows exactly the kind of things I've done in Amsterdam. I've told her that I go there with sex as the main goal, usually. I’ve given her extreme details. This time it wasn't like that, obviously, but I don't think she'll believe me."How do you know I was there?" I ask, because I know Justin didn't tell her, but Justin and my parents are the only ones who know I went there. Georgie's cheeks turn red with embarrassment but she holds my gaze, "You checked my location, didn't you?""That doesn't matter," she spits out and shakes her head and points at me, "The point here is that YOU left me and ran off to fuck other people. And then YOU left me and ran off to kiss other girls. So both of you can FUCK OFF! And if I want to kiss another man, I can."“Oh, yea
“Okay,” Georgie whispers what feels like a million years later. I let out a relieved breath and my heart beats again… probably for the first time since I left her palace weeks ago. She looks at Cain, “Do you want to do it?”“Me?” He asks, suddenly nervous. Cain can’t keep his composure to save his fucking life, “Yes.”“Are you sure?”"I'm sure, Georgette, why wouldn't I be?" he asks, with a bite behind his words. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. These two are beyond help."I don't know, aren't we too boring for you? I mean, we're just two people, not twelve," Georgie lets out, and I can't help but stare at her in wonder. I had never really seen this side of her: immature, annoying, whiny... young. Georgie has always acted way beyond her years, until Cain came along and reverted her to a five-year-old girl. He's a four-year-old boy, by the way. And I'm seriously starting to get tired of their bickering because I’m most definitely an old soul. "Shut your mouth, Georgie," Cain
{Georgette}Luckily, they both stop the fight before it even begins and turn to look at me in silence, waiting for what I have to say. I clear my throat."We need to go back to the party. We've been away for way too long," I begin. Asheron eyes narrow and Cain frowns deeply."No, Georgie, you promised we..." "But what about the...""God, shut up and let me talk!" I interrupt them, making them fall silent again, "We can't do anything right now anyway. I don't have condoms and I'm not on birth control ever since my mate died… you know, before he came back to life as a cheater."Asheron clenches his jaw but keeps his mouth shut while thinking."We'll pull out," Cain says easily, earning equally sharp looks from both me and Asheron, "What? The pull out method has always worked for me."I glare at him, my hands clenching in anger just thinking about him with other girls, fucking them like that. "As far as you know. There could be a hundred half-werewolf half-human kids out there," Ashero
"My mother has been testing my patience more than ever. I needed my own space," Asheron replies, "I bought a house in my pack, of course. We can go there, but Cain, you'd have to drive yourself. There are too many eyes on us, we can’t all leave together."Cain nods."I'll drive myself too," I add, "I don't need people talking about how I left the party with Asheron. Or with Cain. I've already told everyone I'm single, so I can't be seen leaving with either of you.""Fine," Asheron rolls his eyes, trying not to show how much he dislikes hearing that. That I'm single, "In that case, I'll leave the party first and send the location to both of you. Georgie, are you sure you're going to drive? I’m not comfortable with that.”"I meant that Oliver is going to drive me," I correct, "You know he keeps my secrets."Asheron looks relieved at the fact that I won't try to drive myself. He still hasn't forgotten that time I crashed into a pole while he was teaching me to drive. It was a soft crash,
I return to the party after spending a few minutes composing myself in my room, but instead of continuing to hunt men like it’s a sport, I decide to walk to the council table.My father is standing on one side, drinking and laughing with King Kellan and Queen Alicia. Safe territory. I reach them and hug my dad. I think he didn't notice my forty-minute disappearance, which is good. I grab a flute of champagne and join in their conversation for a while, taking their praise about my Interpack Mating Ceremony like it’s food and I’m starving. My intentions were a little selfish at the beginning, but it’s going to help a lot of people. Once everyone else around the country hears about how successful this was, they’ll choose to take part in the next heat and then do it all over again next year. And before we know it, we will have tens or hundreds of new fated couples, a lot of new families and babies all around. So, yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. “So, have you found someone new?” My dad a
"What is even the problem?" I ask, genuinely confused. And buzzed, thanks to Garret’s fun little trick."You," Cain growls like a crazy person, pointing at my face, "You're a cheater, so I don't trust you anymore.”My mouth falls open in shock."Me?!" I gasp, "Fuck you, Cain! If there’s a cheater here, it’s you. It’s both of you, not me.”"Oh my god. Keep it down," Justin groans, looking around us, "You're making a fucking scene.""You started this when you kissed Asheron against the rules, you continued it by flirting with every single man in this party, then you made it worse by what you did with Alan and now this guy," Cain continues. Up close, I can see how drunk he is. But I also notice that he’s clearly just as hurt as I’ve been this whole time. He’s still not over me kissing Asheron that last day, "Cheater."My heart breaks a little bit more, with guilt this time. Not because of the rest of his drunken rant, just for the first part. He is right, I broke the rules that day. I fu
{ Cain }Asheron walks away from Georgie and I think he's going to leave just like that, but instead, he walks until he’s by my side to whisper in my ear.“If you make another scene, you'll ruin the night and then no one gets laid," he mutters directly into my ear, his breath tickles me and almost makes me shiver Ash steps back and looks me in the eye for a second, then he grabs my jaw to hold me in place, "Do you understand? I don’t want you to fuck this up for me. For both of us.”"I get it," I reply and roll my eyes, he’s so intense. "Good. Stay with Justin for the rest of the night. And if you're thirsty, just order water," he continues, making me groan. No matter how much I complain, he just keeps treating me like I’m some useless idiot. I don't need him or Justin babysitting me. I try to pull away, but he just tightens his hold on my jaw, "Ask your brother to drive you to my house. I can take you back to Kallistar tomorrow.""Fuck no. Justin is going to ask too many questions a
Once Justin finally leaves, I crack my neck and force myself to relax and let all my anger go. Georgie is still a cheater in my eyes, but I guess I can ignore it for today. This is the last night I’ll ever get as her mate. I have to make the most of it."So… I saw you before that guy approached, you were downing shots like a pro," I murmur to Georgie, she raises her eyebrows and nods, "We both have a designated driver, why don't we just keep drinking?”“Asheron told you to stop,” she says like his word is the law or something, making me scoff a laugh.“So? He’s not the boss of me,” I say, giving her the same look I would give her back when we were kids and she didn’t want to do something because she was scared of disobeying her daddy, “Is he your boss, G?”“No,” she rolls her eyes.“Are you sure? You look scared of him,” I push, trying to hide my smirk. She narrows her eyes at me, “I smell chicken.”“Shut up already,” she says and pushes me, but she’s smiling, “I’m no chicken and he
"I don't like you, what are you doing in my palace? I thought I told you, your family is banned from my territory," she says that directly to me. "He showed up unannounced, babe." "I come here in peace," Cain says and takes something out of his pocket. It's a card. Nina frowns, but she can't fight her curiosity so she walks closer to grab it, "It's a 'shut the fuck up' coupon to use on my mom. You can give it to me at any point if you ever need to tell my mom to shut the fuck up. I will do it for you and I will be aggressive about it. She deserves worse for being such a bitch that day. I'll take the fallout for you." "To be honest, I'm not that scared to do it myself," Nina murmurs, but a smile starts to grow on her face, "However, this is appreciated." "Can we start over?" He asks, taking a step closer, "I am actually very, very cool. I swear." "Mhm, I’ll be the judge of that," Nina says, punching his arm like she usually does when she's play-fighting with her brothers. Cain tu
"I can't fucking believe I said that," he says, covering his face in shame, "It was extremely disrespectful, I'm truly sorry. And I guess you're right, this isn't new, I just haven't fully gotten over it. Of course I will one day, this is still new. But you're my girl, I do desire you a lot, you are very pretty in my eyes. I just can't wait for you to grow up some more." I nod with a sigh. "I'm not angry, not like last time," I assure him, Justin takes a deep breath in relief, "But I don't love to know I make you feel guilty or bad. It's good that we haven't had real sex yet, I don't want it to be a bad experience for either one of us. I want to feel wanted and loved. So, I think what we should do is... put a pause in the sexual aspect of our relationship." "What?" He gets tense and looks at me like I'm crazy, "That's not what I want." "Yeah, but it's what I want," I say, clenching a fist. It's not what I want at all, but fuck him for making me feel like wanting me is wrong, "Not
"I'm sorry you had to hear all that, I really am sorry," the King says, looking down in embarrassment, "My wife..." "Don't worry, I get it. Justin shouldn't have surprised any of us with this news, it's not something easy," I say, eyes set on my mate's. He's totally freaking out, "I think I've caused enough damage, can we just go now?" "Yes," he almost whispers and just gives one last look to his dad before grabbing a suitcase so we can leave, but he stays silent as we walk out, all the way to the car. And even when he starts driving, "I'm sorry, Nina." "You should be. This was 'that bad' and then some," I mutter, looking out the window, "About everything else you said… don't even say sorry. It's simply what you feel and I understand, let's leave it at that." "No, no, I don't want us to be at odds again," he says, his hands tightening on the steering wheel, "I want to clarify, I didn't mean I'm not attracted to your or that I don't like you, that's the opposite of the truth." "I
"Let's go," Justin wraps an arm around my waist and he leads me outside. "Wait, son, I'm sorry I haven't said anything. I was just processing and..." the King finally speaks and I try to stop and hear him out, but Justin keeps me moving. He doesn't even give his dad a look, he takes me all the way to the foyer. "Wait for me here, I'll go pick some stuff, then we're going back to Fox," he says and leaves, almost as fast as he brought me here. I sigh and look for a chair so I can get comfortable, but when a couple minutes pass and I realize Justin is probably going to take a long time, I start wandering a bit. It's so weird that this place has so many corridors and different living rooms. Like this one. It's exactly the same as the last one I entered. I don't know what specific purpose it serves but... I stand very still when I hear footsteps coming closer and then two different voices. I gasp and look around for a place to hide. I find a little closet and run to hide in there.
"Cain!" Justin roars and a couple of seconds later I feel some relief and I can breath again as the huge man gets lifted and my fated mate comes to my rescue. He grabs my arms and picks me up, "Are you okay, Nina?" "No," I complain, my whole body hurts, especially my ass and my chest. The guy crashed against me like he had a personal vendetta against me, "What the hell? Who is that hippopotamus?" "Nina," Justin sighs, still not happy with me. He moves away to let me see the guy and points at him. I know who he is as soon as I look at his face, "This is my brother, Cain." He looks like a younger, less manly version of Justin. "I'm so sorry, kid, I totally didn't see you," he says with a grimace, he's still trying to recover too. He looks at me deeply and frowns, "Since when do we hire minors, dad? Isn't child labor illegal here?" Great. Amazing. So, Cain is an asshole. I sigh and look at Justin, he looks even angrier now. I don't know how this is going to play out if my ma
During the drive to his pack, Justin tries his best to make me feel less nervous. I'm sure he can smell my stress, fear and nerves all mixed up in my scent. Thankfully, he assures me over and over everything is going to be fine and he asks me so many questions to get me rambling that I actually start to get distracted. Until we get to Kallistar and I enter the pack for the first time in all my life. I swear it's like a new filter is unlocked to my eyes. So much color, everywhere. There's even a big welcoming mural, as if a lot of people travel from Fox to Kallistar. The grass is really greener over here, the sky is bluer, the roads are so perfect and clean. This is a whole different world for me. I'm almost scared. Because I know this is basically my pack now. But I kind of like my ugly, old, messed up pack. It has character. It's full of working people who are always willing to help one another. No one thinks they're better than other people in Fox but I'm sure over here everyon
"So, that means... I have to be the one to do something about it?" I ask, swallowing in nerves. Justin lies down next to me. "Not necessarily if you don't want to. All I'm saying is... I need to relieve some pressure," he says, "I've been so stressed about the conquest and scared about my brother possibly being in danger. And you being mad at me. I was so fucking tired and stressed." Oops. I guess that's my fault. Or his, for pissing me off to begin with. "Well... if you tell me what you like, I could help you," I offer, excited again. To touch him, make him feel good. It's my right, after all. But again, Boring Justin gives me a look that says he's not that sure, "Do I really have to beg a man to let me make him come? That's not fun, Fated Mate." "No, no, it's not like that. It's not like I don't want you," he rushes to say. I squint at him. He keeps saying that but not showing me, "I just... don't feel... okay. Tell you what. If you really want to touch me, you can do it."
I wish we could do it again (and again, and again) but I have a feeling Justin will get in his own head again. He just can't accept me for some reason. This past few days I've been doing research in fated mates. It's always what I thought it should be... instant love. Instant passion. Instant love-making. Obviously, because what else is it going to be when you find the literal love of your life? People never fight it... except for him. And why? Because apparently he doesn't like the way I look. Or, he does, but then he feels guilty about it. I sigh and roll in bed. My nose catches his scent in the sheets and I moan, feeling all tingly again. I gulp and my hand moves down south to relieve the pressure, but then I gasp when I remember why I woke up so early today. I jump up and run to put on my clothes on go to work. ➿➿➿➿ Justin and his brother were successful. When I get his text in my new super fancy phone, I almost pass out with relief. He told me a few times that it wasn'
That makes her look up at me again, confused. "We're going to get the territory today. I could technically die out there," I say, even though I know the chances are slim to none. I guess I just want a little kiss. For me, but for her, too. { Nina } One little kiss. This man who has been practically ignoring me even though he invaded MY home is asking me for a little kiss? After grinding his dick against me last night? He has some nerve. "Okay," I say, because... what am I to do? I've been waiting for this opportunity the whole fucking time. I’m not the one who hates this bond. I know I shouldn’t be so easy, but I am. I want that kiss so bad. Justin licks his lips and ends the distance between us, but not too fast. He takes his time, looking into my eyes for a few seconds. "I'm really sorry I made you mad," he whispers, melting my insides, "We've only been mates a few days and I already fucked up, I can't even begin to explain how shitty I feel. I'm just trying to do t