I enjoyed three more days of my renewed freedom. If one could call living with a depressed wolf half enjoyable. My wolf was increasingly a miserable mess, and I could not stop myself from thinking about the stubborn brick wall fate had tried to stick me with. She was bringing me down and making dealing with the human customers excruciatingly difficult. I had no appetite and ate only to ward off the pangs of hunger. Even though I did not care about that stranger who was my mate in the slightest, she was well and truly fixated on him. It was actually worse than when that jerk alphas discarded us because back then I had my wolf's steady strength to fall back on. She had been upset, but it had stemmed from her territorial pride and her love of pack, not like this. I had only one friendly co-worker I kept at arm's length who knew nothing about the truth of my nature. This time, it was like the ground was crumbling beneath me and it was up to me to cling on alone with my paltry human st

Madoka lay on my bed with his arms crossed behind his head like he belonged there—who was I kidding, he probably did—unconcerned that he was naked as he watched me gather a few things for the night. I said stay over, but realistically, I doubted I would be leaving, if things kept going in this direction. Seriously, we were marked and mated, and I could barely wrap my head around it. He pulled on his clothes once I was nearly ready. I watched the way his muscles flexed as he moved, and heat built inside of me at the memory of what we had just done together. It was mind-blowingly good. A grin split his face as he met my eyes and moved closer to tower over me. "What are you thinking about?" "Nothing too exciting," I lied, although I didn't expect him to believe me. "Mmm. Is that so?" he asked, toying with a stray black curl. "No." Madoka smiled. "I want to get you home, first." "Home?" "Yeah. My pack. Our pack." His confidence broke for just a second, and he looked v

Dealing with complaining humans the next day was harder than usual. I had tolerated them in my quest for survival, but now that I was getting out of there and would have more important pack based problems to deal with, each petty complaint was more tedious than ever.They weren't all bad, of course. Most humans were nice or at least neutral. They were basically just weak wolf-less werewolves, otherwise not that different from myself. I didn't mind getting things from the back or showing people things they couldn't find, but the rude entitled ones…They just got my wolf's back up and it was hard not to snap at them. Literally or figuratively.Still, I got through my shift and put in my two week's notice. After that, I called my landlord and told him I would be leaving. I thanked both profusely, because they had given me a chance when I had been really low.Ben, the wolf Jason had sent along, came along to my little apartment, and I began to pack up some of my things. He was helpful and

The drive to town didn't feel very long, because Madoka let Yuu drive, and I sat next to him in the backseat. He kept trying to run his hand up my skirt, and I laughed and swatted him away every time. "I think I'm going to vomit, and I've barely drank anything," Parker complained, shooting Madoka a look over his shoulder. "Need me to pull over?" Yuu offered. "No, I'm making a point, Yuu." Yuu shrugged. "Don't worry about them. Hopefully, that'll be us someday soon." He had a wistful note in his voice I couldn't miss. I suddenly felt guilty for our antics. I so easily remembered being that mateless wolf, and the way all the happy mated couples had made me feel hollow inside, even when I hadn't been willing to admit it. How much worse might it be for Yuu since he knew his mate but couldn't locate her? I smacked Madoka's hand again and shot him a serious look. "This is probably depressing for them." "I waited so long for you, babe. But maybe you have a point." "Be good,

Jace's Point of ViewI laid in bed while watching Megan sleeping. She was still beautiful with her long blond hair, blue eyes, perky nose and full lips, but I couldn't help comparing her to Carrie.It had been years and the bond was still already broken. At times, my heart would ache because I knew Carrie was probably doing fine with her new mate, Alpha Diesel. My wolf was no longer speaking to me and refused to shift. I could only hear its painful howls asking for his mate.I had problems sleeping, eating and functioning. Even if the bond was broken, the connection between us was still there. The truth was, Megan had confessed to me about her being pregnant the night that I was supposed to meet my mate. I was confused. Megan and I decided to not get pregnant until we’re sure we were mates. But imagine the night when I learned that Carrie was my mate and the news of Megan becoming pregnant, I was so lost that I chose Megan over my bestfriend. I wanted my fated mate but I couldn’t