(Cassie POV)Once the movers were situated, Danny led me to his SUV and we headed towards the lake. I asked Danny about my car, but he promised that the movers would take that to my parents’ house as well.I was largely silent during our drive. I knew I had to tell Danny about Jason, but I felt embarrassed and ashamed. Admitting that Jason was going to reject me was like admitting that everything my parents had said about me while growing up was true. The only thing that made me feel less awkward about the situation was knowing that Danny had recently been rejected by his mate too. So maybe, just maybe, he would understand.Periodically, Danny would glance over at me and smile. About twenty minutes in, he grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I’m not sure what is worrying you, Cassie, but you are with me now. Everything will be fine.”I smiled back at him. It felt good to feel wanted and taken care of. So good, in fact, that maybe I would hold off on confessing to him all my deep,
(Jason POV) As soon as I got back to the packhouse, I immediately went to find Josephine. I knew I needed her advice, now more than ever. I quickly located her in the alpha suite’s living room, along with Aaron and Alpha Blake. “Josephine, can I talk to you for a few minutes?” I asked. She raised an eyebrow at me. “What about?” I could tell she was still a bit irritated with me. “I want to talk about what I need to do to get Cassie back.” Alpha Blake growled, and Aaron began to look a little uncomfortable. “I thought I told you that you would have to fix your mate issues on your own this time,” Alpha Blake reminded me. “You did, Alpha, and I apologize for asking Josephine for help, but I've realized that I really am an idiot when it comes to females and Cassie specifically. I don't want to keep making mistakes. Josephine is one of the only females I trust to give good advice on this sort of thing.” Josephine’s face immediately brightened. “I’ve been waiting for you to sta
(Cassie POV) On Tuesday morning, I woke up at my parents’ house, in my childhood bed in my childhood room. I sighed at the realization that I was back. This was a place I once promised myself I would never return, and yet here I was. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up in bed and looked around the room, intending to formulate a plan on what to unpack first. I noticed that were a few boxes, but not nearly as many as I had expected to see. Curious, I got up and started to look through what was there. I realized that most of my clothes were not. How had I missed that last night? Oh, yeah. I had been a little distracted. After a very interesting day with Danny, he dropped me off at my parents’ house. He made sure to walk me inside the house, where he gave me a huge hug and kiss on the cheek in front of my parents. He also chatted with them for a few minutes, until he darted off after explaining that he had some important business to take care of over dinner. As soon as Danny left, my
(Danny POV)My father has wanted to take over the territory held by the Blue Moon pack for years. He had been eying Alpha Aaron’s takeover of the pack as the ideal time to strike and make that desire a reality.I personally don’t know what my father thinks is so special about Blue Moon’s territory. I’ve always been partial to what we have here at White Howlers. But, my father usually gets what he wants, and as long as he’s happy, I don’t really care.Thanks to my indifference about my father’s plans, I haven’t paid much attention to what he has been doing or the strategies that he has been employing. Until now. It turns out that one of his strategies included getting several Blue Moon guards on our payroll, and those guards proved immensely valuable in terms of figuring out what has been going on with Cassie lately.From what the guards reported, Blue Moon’s future beta is Cassie’s (first) mate. However, their mateship had a very rocky start. Jason, the future beta, slept with
(Cassie POV)I spent eight hours at the mall with my mother. EIGHT. HOURS. I felt like a walking dress-up doll, whose opinions and style did not matter even a little bit. My mother happily went from store to store, talking to the clerks, pulling clothes, pushing me into dressing rooms to try one hideous thing on after another.On the bright side, my mother did not make as many snide comments as she usually does. I think that’s because I held back my own tongue and just let her have her way all day. She also seemed sincere in the outfits she picked out; nothing she selected seemed to be selected as joke (like the wedding dress I ultimately bought).By the end of the day, we had our arms filled with bags of dresses, skirts, heels, and everything else a “proper” lady should have. No leather, no denim, nothing too short, nothing too loud. At one point, my mother had to use the ladies’ room, and I used the opportunity to sneak into a store that appeared to have eclectic leather and
(Cassie POV)My heart stopped as I listened to the conversation between Danny and his father.“Be careful with Cassie, Son. There is a reason that her father has always had trouble with her.”“Dad, Cassie is going to be my Luna soon. There is nothing wrong with her. She just needs someone who knows how to tame her.”I recoiled a bit at that description. What am I? A wild animal? I don’t need taming.“The point remains, Son. You have been so focused on Cassie lately that you have taken your eyes off the prize. My men are running around getting information for you when they should be focusing on how we are going to take over Blue Moon.”Take over Blue Moon? What???? I thought the two packs were in an alliance.“Father, your men have done nothing but give me information they already had access too. Besides, with Alpha Blake’s wedding getting pushed back, you aren’t in any hurry. Continue to send the rogues to attack periodically, and things will be fine.”Oh, Goddess. Oh, God
(Cassie POV)It is now Wednesday evening. I do not now how I survived the past 24 hours, nor do I know how or if I will survive the next several days.I figured out very quickly last night that I am not a spy, nor do I have any hope of ever becoming one. I only made it out in one piece because: 1) Danny is an egotistical buffoon who could never begin to imagine that a woman would fake her affection for him; 2) Danny appears to be sincerely obsessed with me; and 3) in addition to being an egotistical buffoon, Danny is a SEXIST egotistical buffoon who underestimates the intellect of women generally.I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say, I think I got most of what I needed to get. There were a few moments where I wondered why the movies made this sort of thing sound so easy, like when I realized that I needed a way to save the important computer files but I didn’t have anything to save it on (surprise, surprise; I don’t routinely carry zip drives in my purse). Another
(Aaron POV)Wednesday afternoon, I was in my father’s office going through reports of recent rogue attacks and sightings. Rogues were always a problem, but there was too much consistency lately. I thought back to my meeting Alpha Ryan; could White Howlers really be behind some of the attacks? If so, how would we prove it before it was too late?As I thought about the White Howlers’ pack, I started to think about Cassie. And how Cassie had been mated to Jason. And about my irritation when I saw future Alpha Danny giving her a lap dance.Urgh. Why was one woman taking up so much space in my head? I had not thought this much about a woman in years, if ever. Had I thought this much about Allison? Maybe? That relationship was so short-lived… and traumatic… that it’s hard to remember those kinds of details clearly.I had promised myself that I would stay out of Jason’s mate drama, and then I ended up telling him about Danny’s interest in Cassie anyway. As if Karma was telling me