BLAKE As planned, everyone came to the packhouse early the next day and piled into my Wrangler. I held Jasmine’s hand as we drove, hoping to show her that I wasn’t mad about the previous night. “You guys have to see the most hilarious cat video I found this morning,” Tyler shouted from the back. I rolled my eyes. I glanced in my rearview mirror to see that he was showing Jack who started laughing and then passed his phone to Jasmine. “I swear, the only thing he does at work all day is watch cat videos.” Jack chuckled. Jasmine let out a laugh and said, “Oh my Goddess, that is so cute,” and then passed the phone back to Tyler. “I need to do something to give myself a break. There are only so many lines of code I can stare at before I start to go crazy,” Tyler responded. “I get it. Patrol duty can get pretty boring. It’s not like we have intruders breaking into the pack every day. I think the last time anything happened was when we found Talia,” Jack said. “That was pretty entertain
TALIA I woke the next morning feeling like myself again, dread coming over me. And I thought the first time I went into heat had been a disaster. Yesterday had been even worse. I had not only completely embarrassed myself, but I had also caused so much pain to everyone around me. That was not at all how I imagined sending the text message to Blake would go. And, God, that car ride home. If hell was a place on earth—that car ride was only a slight improvement to being tortured by the crazy bitch. I didn’t even want to leave my room to go to the washroom, fearing I might bump into Blake or, worse, Jasmine. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to look anyone who was in that living room yesterday in the eye again. And, God, the pain I felt when Alex looked at me. I could sense his emotions so strongly, as if they were my own. His heart had broken right in front of me. I wanted to leave him, but I never imagined he would feel like that when I did. I could still feel the aching in my chest, as
TALIA It would be nice to have somewhere where I belonged, and I could finally be myself. Blake was right—after losing my mom, I had gained a brother. My limbs were somehow lighter and less tense at the thought. It felt like the right thing to do. After a couple minutes, I finally replied, “Yes, I think I’d like to join the pack.” “Great, I’m really happy.” He beamed. “But, I have to ask, what do you plan to do about your mate?” “I don’t know,” I replied, slumping my shoulders, pained and confused by the situation. “He told me he’d never accept it if I rejected him.” “If that’s what you truly want to do, then I have no fucking problem making him accept it.” Blake cracked his knuckles. “But I have to warn you, it’s very painful to reject your mate. So, make sure you’re completely sure before you do.” I nodded, recalling how heartbroken Alex had been, suddenly wondering if I really did want to reject him. I’d never known anyone to feel so strongly for me. My feelings about him began
TALIA After dinner, Luke drove us a half hour outside the pack, to a casino, with Libby in her car seat next to me. She was being uncharacteristically quiet, which was very nice. As Lucy was about to get out, she leaned in to kiss Luke and he said, “I’ll have my ringer on, baby, so call me if you need anything.” “We’ll take a taxi home, baby,” Lucy replied. She then leaned her whole body into the back to kiss Libby on the forehead and got out. Once Luke’s car pulled away, Lucy led me inside. “It’s thirsty Thursday!” she exclaimed. “The club in here is small, but it’s not bad. Unfortunately, it’s closed on Thursdays. But that’s okay. We can go to the Chinese restaurant. They have a great bar scene.” “Don’t you have to be twenty-one to drink in the US?” I asked. “I have a hookup.” Lucy smirked, handing me a card. “Texas? This doesn’t even look like me!” I said looking at the fake ID Lucy had handed me. “Trust me, they don’t care. Just make a bunch of eye contact and flirt a lot. Al
TALIA I reached for my drink, trying to move away from him. He was in my personal space, and Lucy was completely distracted, so I couldn’t get her attention to show how uncomfortable I was. “How’s it taste?” he asked, looking at my drink. “I know something that would taste better. Why don’t you ditch Lucy and come back to my place so I can show you?” I was seriously about to throw up. Suddenly, he turned his attention away from me, and looked across the bar. “Gross!” he sneered. I turned my head to see a gay couple sitting across the bar minding their own business. “What’s wrong with them?” I asked. “Blake is making a huge mistake letting them into our pack.” “What! Why would you say that?” I asked, horrified by what he was saying, especially with Lucy, who had a gay brother, sitting right next to me. “Our group’s going to take care of it. It’s disgusting,” he replied. “What’s disgusting?” Lucy suddenly looked over, clearly not having heard the rest of the conversation. “Not
TALIA True to her word, Lucy began to help me piece my identity back together. First, she took me down to the town hall that housed my birth certificate on Friday. The office was fortunately empty that day, so we were able to walk right up to the desk, where a man that probably wasn't older than twenty-five greeted us. With no hesitation, Lucy leaned forward on the front desk, allowing her top to fall open and reveal the lacy bra adorning her cleavage. She shamelessly flirted with the young man helping us, allowing her fingers to touch his bicep. He was helpless under the spell of her attention. I couldn't blame him. Lucy was very beautiful with a long, lean body, and perfectly silky blonde hair. And, damn, that girl knew how to flirt! Before long, he had produced a brand-new birth certificate for me, which I clutched to my heart. When we returned home we spent time emailing all the schools I'd attended in Canada for records of attendance, so I’d have proof of living long-term outsid
JASMINE On Saturday, I was surprised to find that Tyler was in my sparring group after lunch. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I wanted to see what’s going on with Charlie in person,” he replied. “After what you told me, I signed up for his sparring class.” “Trust me, it’s better that you just don’t worry about it,” I said, regretting telling Tyler anything. “I’ll judge for myself,” he replied, stretching before we started the sparring session. I stretched with him until Charlie arrived, getting in late after lunch as usual. He walked around, leering at all the women, which I’d now come to realize was a part of his normal routine. Charlie stopped in front of Tyler and me and asked, “Is that the kind of people you associate with, Dale?” “Excuse me?” I asked in response. He just turned away. “One-mile warm-up run!” he yelled to the group. Tyler and I kept pace with each other as we ran. I had to admit, it was nice having someone I was friendly with in my training group for onc
BLAKE After the trip to the Pine Forest Pack, things seemed to be back to normal with Jasmine and me. Between our work and training schedules, we didn’t have much time to meet up, but Jasmine seemed to have forgiven me. After almost a week of mostly text conversations and quick meetups just to bring her coffee before training, I was looking forward to seeing her later that night when she’d be over for dinner. It was a Tuesday, and Luke and I were, once again, seated across from each other in the office, catching up on our paperwork. After my father passed, my work had practically doubled, now that I was also in charge of the casino. Fortunately, the casino had a whole management team, so my job was mostly just oversight. But there were still constantly decisions to be made, and I had to keep tabs on what was going on to make sure things weren’t getting mismanaged, especially since the pack relied on the casino’s income to stay afloat. “Hey, Blake,” Luke called out to me. “Yeah?” I