Joel:I walked down the corridor in a bit of a daze.Was I dreaming? Did that really just happen?I walked into the kitchen and dropped off the tray. Only without the extra weight, did I realise my hands were shaking.Was he going to kiss me? I wandered aimlessly down the corridor and somehow found myself outside my uncle’s office.The door opened and my uncle appeared on the other side.“Come in Joel, sit down.”I walked in, my head feeling increasingly foggy as I sat down.“I needed to see you,” my uncle started, “because Miss Hartley has been invited for evening dinner tomorrow, and she has specifically asked for you to attend to her.”I stared at my uncle, not really processing his words, not that it mattered seen as I knew about Miss Hartley already.Did Casper like me? Was he attracted to me? Or was he just messing with me?“Joel, did you hear what I said?”“Sorry, what?” I replied, having been snapped from my thoughts.My uncle frowned at me, and I could feel his gaze giv
Casper:I checked my watch. Emily Hartley was due to arrive any minute.I’d tried to convince myself all day that this evening didn’t matter, that it was just another family dinner, but as I stood in front of the mirror, messing with my hair for about the 100th time that evening, I knew I couldn’t kid myself any longer.I just had to accept that Emily was likely to be my future wife, and my mate. Sure, she would never be my true mate, but over time werewolves could form bonds that were very nearly as strong as those who had found their true mate. It would just take a little longer.And it could be worse. Emily was actually really nice. And she was just like me in lots of ways. Like her taste in staff.I shook my head. I wasn’t to think about him today. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t think about him today. And I had sort of succeeded. As long as ‘not thinking about him’ was the same as ‘thinking about him’, because I had done not much of the former and way too much of the latt
JoelThe manor house was busier than I had ever seen it. Duncan had drafted in extra members of staff, and it seemed like they were everywhere.We were preparing for Casper’s 23rd birthday party which was being held here tonight.“Where should I put these?” Mark asked me. Yes, Mark was one of the extra pairs of hands that had been brought in for tonight. I was grateful to have him around today.Mark was holding some silver balloons. “Give them to Simon, over there.” I pointed.Simon was halfway up a ladder, cursing at the balloons that wouldn’t pin into place on the pillar.I chuckled to myself, and carried on preparing a huge bowl of punch. And yes, there was plenty of alcohol in it.I hadn’t seen Casper at all today. In fact, I’d barely seen him since the night Miss Hartley came to visit a couple of weeks ago. I shuddered a little at the memory. Luna had not left me alone all evening. I felt like she was a huge cat, and I was her toy mouse that she could bat around at will.I
Casper:I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling. I knew I should be up by now, but I figured that seen as it was my birthday yesterday, my dad would give me a little more time.I wasn’t hungover. Wolves didn’t really get hangovers. We did get dehydrated though and I had a slight headache because of it.I didn’t remember all of last night, although I remembered the majority of it. I remembered having fun, which was a nice change. It was probably the first time I had really let my hair down in a very long time. It was possible I had done a little damage with my fledgling relationship with Emily. I barely talked to her all evening. It wasn’t because I didn't like her company, but for one night I just wanted to forget about my responsibilities, and she was just a constant reminder of them.I hoped she would forgive me. I knew I would have some making up to do. Maybe I could send her a little something as an apology?Hmm, what would she like? I know what she’d like. She’d like my
Joel:I barely slept a wink last night. I stared at myself in the mirror and hardly recognised the face looking back at me. My skin looked pale, which seemed to highlight the massive bags under my eyes. My hair was a mess, but then again, that wasn’t unusual.I stepped out of the bathroom and ran right into my mum.“Oh Joel! You look terrible! Are you feeling ok?” she said, putting her hand on my forehead in the way that mothers always do when they think their child is sick.“Yeah I’m……” I paused as I suddenly saw the opportunity that had presented itself to me.“...I’m feeling a bit sick.” I said.“You get yourself back to bed,” my mum said. “I’ll give Duncan a call. There’s no way I’m letting you go to work in that condition,” she said before hurrying away.I smiled with relief, but quickly felt the guilt creeping in. I hated lying. Especially to my mum, but I suppose desperate times called for desperate measures, and I was definitely classing myself as desperate at the mome
Casper:Something was wrong.I paced up and down my room.Something was wrong, and I didn’t like it one bit.My Cub had never acted that way around me before. It was almost as if…. as if he was scared of me.Had I done something last night? Had I hurt him in some way?It seemed unlikely seen as though someone always seemed to be watching me, and no one had said anything about Joel being hurt.What if he was lying and he did get in trouble last night. I mean, it won’t have looked good for him, pelting his Alpha with cushions. Not that I minded in the least. After all, what harm would come to me from a few cushions? Plus, Joel combined with cushions brought back a rather nice memory…No, I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to know what was wrong with him.I walked out of my room, and headed downstairs to find Duncan.When I reached his office, I was surprised to find Joel’s two friends stood outside.They briefly looked at me in shock, then quickly lowered their heads.“Is D
Joel:There was a certain tenseness in the air.And for once it had nothing to do with me.The first guests had started to arrive and so everyone jumped into action.As much as I hated washing up, I longed to be there right now. Who’d have thought that I would want to watch my hands shrivel up like prunes while trying to scrub pebble dashed pans?Was it wrong that I wanted to trade places with those pans? That I wanted someone to scrub me clean and have the mess that was my life be washed down the plug hole?I could hear Lyla’s voice in my ear, telling me not to be so dramatic. But for once in my life, I felt that it was justified. Here I was, serving people who I mainly despised, while watching my mate, the potential love of my life, proclaim his undying love for another wolf. And all the while, knowing that with one touch of his hand, I could stop it all. But also knowing that with one touch of his hand I would ruin everything.Without realising it, I let out a huge sigh.“What’
Casper:I felt more than a little smug that my little Cub had managed to do so much damage to Archie’s beta. We may have been reforming our alliance with the Hartley pack, but it still felt good to get one over on them.Nathan was a fairly new recruit to the Huntley pack. He was not born into the pack, like most beta’s are. The previous beta had no offspring, so there was no natural replacement, and apparently none of the other wolves had met up to Archie’s standards.And then one day Nathan turned up. And Nathan was your perfect beta. He was very strong, fiercely loyal, and upheld every value that traditional wolf packs had.My dad had been quite jealous of Nathan. He often commented that he would make a better beta than Jamie.I disagreed. As good as Nathan was, he was a little too perfect for me. There was no spark to his personality. In fact, scratch that, there was no personality. I found his company incredibly dull.Once I’d straightened out Nathan’s nose (something else