(Cassie POV)As Aaron and I hurried back into the dining hall, I felt a little naughty and a little excited. It is probably one of the strangest things that I have ever done: I literally put on underwear given to me by my mate’s best friend and alpha, and that underwear had pictures of super heroes giving the middle finger. They certainly violated absolutely every rule of decorum that my parents had ever taught me. At the same time, Aaron was right: there was something freeing and exhilarating about wearing them.The feeling of exhilaration was immediately replaced by a feeling of guilt when I saw Jason’s angry eyes. How had he found out about the underwear so quickly? Did he disapprove? Of course he would disapprove. Oh, wait – He didn’t think that that Aaron and I had done something together did he? Yes, I went to the Alpha suite but I stayed in the living area. Surely he knew I hadn’t cheated on him; he would feel it if I did. But then again, I had kissed Aaron before, s
(Jason POV)Despite how angry I was, I was relieved when Josephine and Alpha Blake demanded that Aaron take me out of the room. My anger had reached an irrational level. It was fueled not only by the situation itself, but also by the other strong emotions that had been swirling around in me --guilt, longing, fear of rejection, pressure to fix my mistakes, obligation toward the pack.Had I stayed in that room even five minutes longer, I would have done something I would have regretted for the rest of my life. I would have rejected Cassie.The entire time I was yelling at Cassie, my wolf was freaking out. He told me that she was telling the truth and that she was innocent. He begged me to stop yelling at her. He threatened to never shift again if I rejected her.Deep down, I knew my wolf was right. I saw the look of sincerity in Cassie’s eyes when she began to cry and beg me to believe her. Have you ever been so angry that even when you realize that your anger is misplaced, you
(Cassie POV)I must have cried in my car for a full thirty minutes. By the time I was done, I was determined that I was never going to be in that situation again. I would go home and sort myself out, and then I would come back just long enough to complete the rejection process. Hopefully Jason would keep it in his pants long enough to give me the time that I needed; I didn’t want to go through the betrayal pains again.As I was wiping my eyes and gathering myself back together, I realized that I now had guards on three sides of me. They weren’t approaching, but they were watching me pretty closely. That meant that they either saw me as a threat, or they were being directed to watch me by someone in pack leadership. Given how tonight’s events played out, it could be either one. Now that my tears had cleared, I decided it was time to leave. There was no reason to stay.As I started the engine, I saw a large black wolf out of the corner of my eye. My suspicions as to who it was
(Cassie POV) When I got home from that disaster of an almost-dinner at Blue Moon, I did what any self-respecting female would do: I ordered pizza, pulled out a tub of ice cream, and played whatever romance movies I could find on TV while I cried my heart out. I didn’t have a job or school to rush off to, so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday much the same way. The only variation was that a couple of times I ordered burgers and fries instead of pizza. On Thursday, Megan insisted that I accompany her on more wedding-related errands. While out and about, she wanted me to give her “deets” on how my date went with Jason on Monday night. I got a little teary-eyed, which she instantly noticed, but I refused to talk about it. The last thing I wanted was for my pregnant sister to feel like any of this was her fault, because it wasn’t. To Megan’s credit, she mostly dropped the conversation after she saw how upset I was. I say “mostly” because she couldn’t stop herself from giving me some ad
(Aaron POV) The Friday after the disastrous dinner, my dad asked me to go meet with one of the alphas of a neighboring pack in the hopes of establishing an alliance. My dad confessed that even he was beginning to become alarmed at the number of rogue attacks, and he worried that there was someone coordinating the attacks behind the scenes. For the most part, my dad and I have very similar mindsets. We have differences, as all father/ sons do, but nothing I considered earth shattering. The only disagreement we routinely had had to do with the transition of power. From my dad’s perspective, the increase in rouge attacks and the possibility that someone was organizing them was a threat that meant we needed stability of leadership –i.e., he needed to remain alpha until the threat had passed. For me, we needed exactly the opposite approach – we needed a showing of strength, and the best way to do that was to welcome the next generation of younger and stronger pack leaders. At least
(Cassie POV)Thank Goddess for party buses. Even with our werewolf genes, after going to four different bars, not one of the ten of us was capable of driving. Ok, Megan was, but she wasn’t a good driver on her best day. Plus, if I didn’t know she was pregnant, I would have sworn that she-wolf was just as wasted as the rest of us. If nothing else, Megan certainly was hyped up on adrenaline, wedding excitement, and the energy that surrounded us in every bar we went to.Running into Aaron at the third bar had almost been a buzz-killer for me, but I got over it quickly. There were a couple of humans that tried to get a little too handsy with me at Blooming Onion, but I was mostly successful at dodging it. Having never had a mate before, I wasn’t quite sure where touching crossed the line such that Jason might feel it. I knew he would feel kissing and I knew he would feel sex, and I knew he would not feel a handshake or a hug. But where was the line between those two things? Would
(Jason POV)Sunday morning, I was in the gym working out when Aaron walked in and joined me. Josephine told both of us to find outlets for our stress, but neither of us were particularly creative, so we increased the number of workouts we did each day and called it good.I could tell Aaron wanted to talk about something, but it seemed like all of our conversations lately had to do with Josephine’s wedding or Cassie, and I really didn’t want to talk about either of those things right now.Finally, to break the ice, I asked him how his meeting with Alpha Ryan went. He told me it went well, but it was an interesting night.“Interesting how?”Aaron didn’t say anything. “If me asking you anything else is going to trigger another conversation about Cassie or about Josephine’s wedding, please can we save it for later. I need to be in a better headspace to talk about Cassie, and if I am asked one more question about flower arrangements, table linens, or dresses, I might shoot myself.”“Wh
(Cassie POV) Monday morning, I woke to a text on my phone. “Hey, beautiful. You up?” I groaned and smiled all at the same time. “I am up now. :) Why are you up so early?” It was only 6:00 a.m. “I had to get up early so I could be at your place by 8:00 a.m.” What? My place? By 8:00 a.m.? Had I made plans with Danny while I was drunk that I forgot about? I jumped out of bed, and looked around my apartment. I had dirty clothes laying everywhere; I had unwashed dishes in the sink; and I wasn’t sure where my two vibrators were other than I knew they weren’t hidden away. (Don’t judge; I may not have had sex in a while but I’m not a saint and the werewolf sex drive isn’t limited to male wolves.) I wracked my brain and was sure we hadn't made plans, so I texted back. “What? You are coming here? In two hours?” “Of course. You told me that you are moving back to the pack, and I want to be there to help you.” “In two weeks, after Megan’s wedding. Not today.” “Yeah, well I