CLAIRE "Claire!" Someone shouted my name, startling me and almost making me drop the cup I was cleaning. I looked up and saw that it was one of our regular customers at the café. I smiled at him and watched as he smiled in return."Good morning," I said as a greeting. He waved the greeting away. I shrugged and continued with my cleaning. When the man refused to leave, I looked up again. "Is there something you need?" I asked him. He rolled his eyes at me."Why didn't you come to the cafe yesterday? I and some of the boys waited for you but we couldn't find you around." He lamented. I finished cleaning the cup I was holding and sighed. When the man said the boys, he wasn't talking about teenagers in this context. He was referring to his gang members, who were his hype men when it came to gossiping. They were all over 40, yet gossip was their middle name. They usually ask me about what was going on with Alex, his brother, the pack Elders, his mother, and the enthronement of the Alpha

ALEXAKIS By the time I spent another two hours with these people, trying to figure out a way to clear this mess while making sure my pack didn't lose much and they also didn't lose out completely, I was spent. "Are we all good now?" I asked."Yes, Alpha." Everyone answered. It took all the will in me not to shout 'finally' with the way I was feeling so stressed out. Kieran, who was beside me, must have noticed how tired I was because he chuckled slightly when I sagged against the chair. I didn't want to waste any time before calling the meeting to an end -just in case they happened to think of another crisis for me to sort out. I got up from where I sat and watched as they all did the same. "In that case, thank you all for your time," I said. "This meeting has officially come to an end.""Yes, Alpha." They all bowed to me, and I sighed in relief. But just because the meeting was officially over didn't mean that I would be able to leave right away. I still had to mingle with the r

ALEXAKIS It has been a few days since I gifted Claire her laptop back. It wasn't easy to get the item back from her friend's house as I had to stalk the house and wait for the woman to leave for her job. After she left, the brother stayed around and was almost acting like he wouldn't leave in a million years anymore. Of course, I could have gotten her a new one, but I felt like she might have some pretty important things stored on her former one. From the way she reacted when she found the laptop, I could tell that it was more appreciated than a new one would ever be. From the moment she booted the thing and saw it was what she needed, she had stayed stuck with the laptop. While I was happy that the woman was finally having something nice to do, I was also sad that I barely saw her anymore. Again, it pleased my heart that she didn't have to sit around, idle all day long because she couldn't figure out a way to kill boredom. A small part of me was sad that she didn't have my time an

ALEXAKIS What the fuck was that? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop myself from asking that one question. What the fuck was wrong with Claire and the odd attitude she just projected at me?I tried to move but my feet wouldn't do what I bid them to do. I didn't know if it was because I was confused about her attitude or if it was because I was embarrassed to move in the presence of the people she had yelled at me. I looked up and saw them all looking at me with different kinds of expressions. I looked down, not wanting to bother with them. Even though I was supposed to react one way or the other, I found that I couldn't.My mind was only set on the woman and wanting to see if she was okay. That was the thing, I knew the kind of person she was. So I could tell that something was either bothering her or she had acted that way because she was cranky the past few days after she didn't bother to leave her room for days. Either way, I knew that she was that way because something wa

CLAIRE I was just about to close my laptop for the day when an email popped into my inbox. My first reaction was to ignore it because I wasn't expecting any important mail. But a part of me, one that felt like I should see what was going on, insisted that I open the mail. Before I could talk myself out of it, I did just that. I was shocked when I saw that the mail was from my stepmother, Becky. I closed the app, not willing to read any form of negativity with how bad I was already feeling. Almost immediately after I closed the mail app, I opened it again and began to read the content. If it was all curses and abuses as usual, I would use that as leverage to justify all the anger that was mounting up within me for no reason.*Dear Claire. How are you? How have you been doing? Your father let me know that you came by the house the other day. Why didn't you stop by my room and say hello? Never mind how harsh your father acted towards you. You should know by now that the man is always li