CLAIR
I followed him to his office after making sure Aaron would stay and wait for me outside. I threw the gum discreetly into the waste bin along the way. It didn’t escape my eyes that Jake scowled at the sight of me chewing gum. Not that I care. It’s just that it’s better to throw it away, and maybe he would stop scowling and be more welcoming.
Jake’s scent enveloped me as soon as I stepped into his office. It’s calming but doesn’t stop me from being annoyed with his silence.
I was at least expecting him to be a little enthusiastic upon seeing me back. I set myself up for failure. The boy, no, the man in front of me, was stoic as stone. No emotions at all. But I should have expected it from him, like what Aaron said, he changed. He was no longer the lovable Jake I adored as a kid.
"So... why am I here again?" I broke the silence that was killing me while I sat in front of him. My fingers reached for the pen laying down on the table and started twiddling with it.
It took him a few seconds before he started to speak. "Did you by any chance reject the pack five years ago when you left? Or maybe within the last few years?"
I felt his gaze on me. I lifted mine to look at him and just found myself getting lost in his eyes. I had forgotten how beautiful they were, but I was only twelve when I left. And although I already felt an admiration for him at that time, I never really took the time to appreciate his features. But the dark blue eyes that stared at me right now were nothing short of beautiful. They were hypnotizing, if I may say.
I heard him clear his throat before speaking again, which took me out of my trance. "Clair, did you hear me?"
I blinked twice and nodded my head a little too fast. My cheeks were burning with embarrassment. And I was sure I was already blushing. If he noticed, he didn't show any sign that he had.
"So you did denounce it?" He asked again, his brows furrowing.
"What? Denounce what? No. What were you asking again?" I stuttered as my cheeks continued to burn.
He shook his head before letting out a smile, which he took back after a split second and replaced with a serious look again.
"Did you do anything to cut off your connection with the pack? Reject me as your Alpha? Can you mindlink?"
"No. I don’t think so. Can I do that, reject you as my Alpha?"
He simply nodded and stared at me again. He looked relaxed now as he settled his back on his chair. "Good to know that you didn’t. Then we don’t need the formality of the ceremony to accept you back into my pack."
I nodded and tucked some of my hair behind my ear, still looking at him but avoiding his gaze. "Okay. Nice to know then."
I waited for him to say something more but he just continued to stare at me in silence.
His gaze made me uncomfortable. I could feel my body heating up just with his gaze, and if I stayed here longer, I felt like I would start to burn.
"Can you not stare at me? It’s rude." I broke the silence again.
He cocked his head without taking his attention away from me. His stoic expression was not changing. "Is it making you uncomfortable? You used to ask me to look at you all the time, whether you were dancing, singing, or simply wanting my attention. Now I am giving it to you and it seems rude?"
"Stop it, Jake. I’m not a kid anymore." I glared at him, trying to hide the embarrassment I felt from his statement.
He started to run his eyes from my face to my chest before looking into my eyes again. "I am very much aware of that."
I had no idea what was going through his head, but this conversation had gone horribly wrong.
I was pretty sure he was fully aware that I was gawking at him earlier, and he made it a point to embarrass me more. I stood up from where I was sitting, not able to stand his stare.
"Do you really need to bring me here just for one question? You could have saved your precious time if you just asked me there outside."
I was about to turn around when he asked something. "Why can’t I reach you through the mind link?"
I looked at him confused. "I don’t know. I don’t even know how it works." I replied.
"You should be able to do it once you turn fifteen." He leaned his arms on the table and entwined his fingers, still looking at me.
I rolled my eyes and slumped back in the chair. "I said I don’t know. In case you were not aware of where I’ve been for the last five years, let me inform you. I live with the humans. We don’t mind links. We talked with our mouths." I couldn’t stop the annoyance from rolling my tongue.
And he just stared at me. Not once did his gaze move away from mine.
"Maybe if you tell me how to do it then I can practice. But you know what, it doesn’t matter, I won’t be needing it. In a few days, I’ll be out of here."
He raised his eyebrows, confused by my response.
"Explain." His tone suddenly changed from passive to angry. I felt his Alpha aura rolling over me that I couldn’t find my voice to speak again.
"Explain." His tone softened, and I straightened up in my seat and tried to answer confidently.
"I mean, I don’t need it when I return to live with the humans."
"You’re not staying?" His voice came out so low that if I wasn’t looking at his face void of emotions, I would think that my answer made him sad.
I nodded. "Yup, not staying. I’m only here to shift, and Aaron convinced me that I needed assistance to do so. So here I am."
Silence.
"Uhm, anything more you need to know, Alpha?" I asked, breaking the silence once more.
Silence.
I raised an eyebrow and waited for more. After what felt like an eternity, I slapped my hands on my thighs in frustration and stood up. "Okay, I’m done. Thank you for the warm welcome, Alpha!"
I faced his desk and bowed sarcastically before turning on my heel. I was already by the door when I heard him speak up.
"Open your mindlink."
I stopped in my tracks. My hand grasped the door handle but did not turn it.
"No," I replied, not looking back. "I don’t know how."
"Clear your mind and think that you want to communicate with me."
My heart fluttered with the thought of communicating with him through a mind link. A smile curved on my lips, but I stopped myself from turning around so as not to show him how the idea affected me. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on communicating with him, but nothing snapped into my mind.
I let out a sigh and my shoulders slumped, "It’s not working..."
'Clair?' My ears perked up and I felt my skin shiver from the tone he used.
Why did it sound so sexy?
"Yes, Alpha?" I stayed rooted in place because the idea of looking at him right now would surely make my knees buckle, and I didn’t want to fall on my ass in his presence.
'Turn around. Training tomorrow at six in the morning. Don’t be late.'
"What?!" I gasped and let go of the door handle to turn around and face him. "I don’t need to train. I’m not aiming to be a warrior."
'Try talking to me with your mind.'
My jaws dropped open when the realization hit me that he did not open his mouth to speak with me. In the blink of an eye, I forgot about the training and a wide smile made its way onto my lips.
'Hey! It’s me, Clair!' I answered enthusiastically, and my body jerked up in excitement as my mind linked with the Alpha.
And then I saw it. A smile crept across his face, but it was gone before I could confirm that it was an actual smile. Instead, he looked down at his hands.
'I know it’s you, Clair. So tomorrow at six in the morning? You need to train. Your human body might not handle your shifting well if you don’t train. You only have four days from tomorrow until the full moon. You can’t be weak. Some don’t make it out alive if they are too weak.'
My eyes grew bigger with the thought of dying in the middle of shifting. The thought eventually scared me, and I nodded in agreement. 'Okay. Six then.'
I waited for anything he wanted to say more and hoped he would look at me again. But there was just silence.
"Umm Alpha, can I go now?"
He nodded without throwing me a glance.
I huffed in frustration. "Thank you, Alpha."
CLAIR "Thank you, Alpha." I turned around and grabbed the door handle again. I stopped for a moment when I felt my neck burn. I know he’s watching me. I contemplated if I should look back, but decided against it and turned the knob to open the door. I hurriedly exited his office, and as soon as I closed the door, a loud smashed sound of glass against the wall was heard. I stood frozen in shock for a couple of seconds before I was able to compose myself and walk away completely from his office, shaking my head in disbelief. 'What a prick!' I told myself. 'I heard you, princess. You forgot to turn off the mind link.' I stopped on my track and felt the hair at the back of my neck stand up when I heard his voice in my mind. And did he just chuckle? 'Shit! How can I turn this off?'I asked myself but I was well aware that he heard that too. 'Find it out yourself.' 'F**k!' 'Your mouth, princess.' 'F**k! F**k! F**k! Can you still hear me?' I closed my eyes and my hands rolled into fi
CLAIR The last three days went by fast. After the awkward first meeting with Dad after many years, we all tried to move on and be a family. It wasn’t easy, and I wanted to be a rebel and let him know how badly he treated me for sending me away. But I couldn’t. As much as I hated him for sending me away, I loved my father. And I longed for him just as much as I longed for Mom. I knew it would take time before all the wounds of being abandoned would heal. But I wanted to make us a family again, even just for a short time before I moved on and became an adult on my own. So I was trying just as he was. Dad was the manager of the town’s public library in nearby town. He’d been bringing home additional books for me to read since I arrived. He was aware of my love of books, but Aaron had taunted him that it appeared he just wanted me to be cooped up in the house with books and with no social life. But, to be honest, I haven’t had time for myself or for all the books Dad has given me sin
JAKE I watched as she sprinted away from us and let out the breath I’d been holding for a while. She's a real grown-up now. Far from the little Clair with messy hair and pigtails who followed me and my friends around all the time. And she’s so fucking sexy that my mind was still reeling from the image of her full ass as she sped away. I shook my head, trying to let go of any thoughts about her, knowing that having my member on full erect while talking to my Gamma would be disastrous. "What was that, Jake? Not Clair, please. No messing up with pack members, remember? Especially not my sister." Aaron broke the silence between us as we both looked in the direction where Clair was headed. I could hear the disappointment in his tone, and I couldn’t blame him. He was simply protecting his sister from me. "I don’t know what you’re thinking, man. I just hugged Clair. It s not like I’m fucking her." A low growl reverberated from his chest, and I knew right then that I made a wrong move by
AARON After the meeting ended, the elders, together with the former Beta and Gamma and their mates, left the meeting room, leaving me alone with Alpha Jake and Beta Gavin. Beta Gavin and I just looked at each other, waiting for the Alpha to break the silence. We dared not voice our opinion when it was not requested since we both knew this was a sour topic for the Alpha. After a long silence, the Alpha cleared his throat and lifted his gaze, shifting it back and forth between me and his Beta. "I honestly have nothing to say." He scowled. "Can you fucking find your mates now so I don’t have to deal with this Luna game?" My lips pursed into a thin line, trying to gauge the weight of his statement before the whole room erupted into a spring of laughter. Alpha Jake was shaking his head while laughing. After a while, Gavin joined in, and in seconds I found myself laughing with them. Relief coursed through me that the Alpha was taking this lightly compared to what I expected. "You got m
CLAIR I spent the whole day locked up in my room trying to decide whether I should stay or just go away from here and move on with my life. Before I came back here, I already had everything planned out. Come back - shift - leave. But I didn’t expect Jake to consume my mind since I got here. And that hug we shared yesterday had me hoping for something. I actually decided to stay longer to get to know him again. However, the news Aaron brought me last night bothered me so much that I was not able to sleep at all. I spent the whole night turning and tossing. I was confused, and for the first time since I got here, the feeling of being unwanted crept in again. After a constant battle with myself, I finally got the courage to gather all the clothes and things I came home with and tossed them in my duffel bag, not even bothering to fold them. Flashes of my conversation with Aaron last night kept playing in my head. Jake will have a Luna soon and I didn’t want to be here when it happen
CLAIR I kept the pain at bay while panting, waiting for the wolf to emerge from the bushes. It didn’t take long before a big black wolf stepped out of the bushes and towered over me. "Jake..." Relief coursed through me at the sight of his wolf. I didn’t know how I knew it. I haven’t seen his wolf since I was twelve. But I knew it was him when I saw the wolf’s eyes - the darkest shade of blue. If I was not in pain, I would have marveled at the wonderful creature towering over me. Instead, I just let out a weak smile, letting him know I appreciated his presence. After a mere second, screeching pains started to build up again in multiple places - my shoulders, stomach, spine, limbs, knees, elbows, everywhere, and I have no idea which part pained me the most. I just wanted it to end, so I let out another torturous scream like it would help. My entire body was on fire until a cold hand reached out and gently rubbed my back, a thumb wiping sweat from my brow. I looked up and saw Jake a
AARON I paced back and forth at the entrance of the packhouse, waiting for the Alpha and my sister. I was beating myself for not coming home earlier to stop Clair from running away. I almost went mad when I saw all the things she came with gone from her dresser, together with her duffel bag, and her truck was nowhere in sight. I called my dad and he confirmed that they had a fight. He raised his voice at her, but he never thought she would go today because she mentioned she would be leaving tomorrow. I tried reaching her through mindlink, but I couldn’t get through her mind. I blamed myself again for why I didn’t bother to teach her about it. Left with no choice, I alerted the Alpha, and he directed me to send people to look out for her. And I did, reminding everyone that she would be shifting tonight. I was hell-bent on trying to scent her when I received a mindlink from Jake saying that he had found Clair and that she had shifted. I felt relieved for her safety but felt guilty kn
CLAIR "Are you okay, princess?" He stopped at the foot of my bed. The worry in his eyes was gone now and replaced by confusion. On the way he rushed in, he probably wasn’t expecting a grinning female in the bed. "I’m sorry I didn’t knock. I thought I heard you scream, and I got worried. Are you okay?" I just looked at him. My eyes were probably sparkling with happiness. "Yes! I shifted!" I said excitedly, more to myself than to him. "Yes! And you did well." He said before he let out a rare smile and my heart just skipped a beat. "How do you feel now? Muscle pain? Headache? Hungry?" "Yeah, a bit of everything you said. Especially the last one." I giggled softly before I looked around the room. "Where are we?" "Packhouse. You said you didn’t want to go home." He sat on the end of the bed, making it dip against his weight. He sat with his back facing me. It gave me the chance to take a closer look at him, even on just his backside. And I took my time to indulge in his features -