She saw that Lucas was almost close to them; he had paused for a bit when he saw her running away.
“Let's just go, please we'll talk about this outside,” Ava persuaded. She didn’t wait for Nicole to respond, instead she turned around, her eyes searching and looking for another way to exit the large restaurant.
“Even if you want to leave, where will you pass? There’s only one exit and he’s in the way of it you know, you'll still bump into him.”
Just then Ava’s eyes caught the waiter who had disappeared into the door behind the marbled counter, she grabbed Nicole’s hand again and started in that direction. Entering the kitchen, she saw the waiter giving an order to the chef.
“You’re not supposed to be here ma’am, this area is restricted to staff only,” the cook turned to her with a frown.
“We are really sorry,” Ava muttered. “It’s an emergency,” not even waiting to hear a response, she pushed away the waiter blocking her way and rushed out through the kitchen door that led to the back exit, she had to leave this place as fast as possible.
Both friends ran out of the restaurant and into Nicole’s car that was parked at the front, she sat in front at the passenger’s seat beside Nicole.
“Drive!”
“Are you seriously going to run away from him? Is that what a Luna does? Running away from what she’s supposed to do???” Nicole snared.
Those words sent daggers into Ava’s heart, pricking her guilt. She knew the right thing to do but she chose to ignore it instead; she knew she was ignoring her responsibility by running away and worse, she was doing it in front of a witness, her best friend. But she didn't have much of a choice; this was too much for her, too unexpected, she needed some time and space to process all this.
Lucas had just come out of the restaurant; his eyes were looking around and Ava knew it wouldn't take long before he found them in this car.
“I beg you in the name of the moon goddess,” Ava put her two hands together to show her desperation to Nicole. “Please, just take me away from here.”
“I don't think you know what you're doing Ava.”
Ava wanted to slump in frustration, why did Nicole have to be like this? Why did this friend of hers have to be so difficult at times?
Nicole then started the car and began to reverse much to her relief, from the car window, she looked at her mate whose eyes where still searching, he had spotted her in the car at that moment and their eyes met again, before Nicole drove her out of the scene, she never turned her eyes away from his, not until he completely faded out of sight.
**********
“You owe me one!” Nicole snapped as she drove away.
“Thank you so much,” Ava could breathe now, she didn’t know what would have happened if she had to look at that handsome devil right in the eye and watch his heart shatter into pieces. Why would the moon goddess have to mate her with someone so attractive? Did the goddess not consider that she had duties to fulfill? And those duties involved rejecting her mate?
Just then, Nicole received a phone call.
She was still deep in her thoughts when Nicole snapped her out of it.
“Jiro just called me now, he wants me to pick up some things for the party on the way, and sorry, you can’t be there.”
Jiro was Nicole’s mate, she thought her friend lucky that she’d been mated to someone from within the pack, it would have been much easier for Ava if the moon goddess mated her with a moonlighter. Whoever he was, he’d understand that as the future Luna, she had duties to fulfill and he’d respectfully accept her rejection and look for another mate. But with the man she saw today, she wasn’t so sure.
“Hello!” Nicole snapped her fingers in her face again.
“Sorry, but why can’t I come? I mean its just a few hours to the party.”
“You know your Alpha; he doesn’t want you to be there when we’re planning anything for you.”
“Ughhh!” Ava hated all these surprises, sometimes she just wished Ray would let her plan her birthday with him just once without any surprises, but no, he wouldn’t hear of it.
“So, if I can’t be there when you’re shopping for supplies and I can’t go home now either, where will I go?” She’d gone out with Nicole today to while away time before the celebration in the midnight, and now that Nicole’s services were needed, where would she go and how would she while away the remaining time?
“I’m sorry bun, but you know Ray, and you know he wouldn’t be pleased to see you back at the house when it’s not yet time. You can take a walk or something or let Layla play.”
Layla howled within her; she always loved the idea of coming out to play.
“Fine, you can drop me off at the next bus stop.”
“Ok dear, I’m really sorry about this.”
“No, its fine.” She just hoped that whatever surprise Ray had planned this year, she wouldn’t hate it like she’d hated the previous ones.
Nicole drove until she reached the bus stop and parked.
“Are you sure you'll be ok?” Nicole wanted clarity. “You know I can just call him and tell him I won’t be able to do it.”
“No. I'll find somewhere to spend the time, don't worry about me,” Ava said.
“And what about him?”
When she mentioned “him,” Ava knew she was referring to the one she’d just scampered away from, she shouldn’t worry too much about that; the distance Nicole had driven them was so far away from the restaurant, he’d be crazy if he thought of following them here, she should be safe from him for now; or so she thought.
“I’ll be fine Nicole, don’t worry,” she responded before opening the car door. As she was about to come down, she remembered something she was supposed to tell her friend.“Nicole, can you promise me something before you go?”“What is it?” Nicole feared what she was about to say.“I don’t want Ray, Ethan or anyone to know about what happened today. Can you keep it a secret?”“Are you sure? this isn't something you should keep Ava, if you're so uncomfortable about rejecting him yourself why not tell Ray? I'm sure he'll agree to stand by you when…”“No! I want to do it on my own, Ray didn't need my help when he rejected his mate, I should be able to do the same, the only thing I need you to do now is not to tell him what happened, promise me you won’t tell him.”Nicole sighed defeatedly. “If you say so.”“
‘Shit, so he'd followed us here;’ she didn't expect him to do that. This was one of the things Ava hated about being a werewolf; scents. You can never avoid your mate except he or she chooses to leave you alone bla bla bla.... she rolled her eyes as she recalled one of the most important rules of the mate bond. She knew from the onset that he might just follow her; he wouldn't have a hard time doing that since he could track her scent easily even if she ran to the ends of the world but she still ran anyways, hoping that he would give up on chasing her at some point and just leave her alone. She would admit that she felt a bit flattered that he went through such lengths to find her, and upon seeing that he was persistent having followed her all the way here, he at least deserved an introduction.She stood from the ground and walked up to him, not fully aware that she was back in her human form and was standing completely naked in front of him. She could
He reached his hand out to her and she knew what that meant, this is how Ray would reach out to her too on the day of the joining ceremony in front of the pack, and she'd be expected to accept his claim according to the tradition, then she'd become his Luna and be joined to him forever. The man standing in front of her offering his claim was the one she was meant to reject so she could accept Ray, she ought to do it now, but why was she so finding it difficult? If she accepted Lucas now, she knew there'd be no turning back. She was unsure of what to do at this point, her heart told her to accept him but her mind, which always told her to do the responsible thing had been shut down, it wasn’t there to tell her what to do this time, all that was left to do was follow her heart, which bing-banged loudly for Lucas.She did the same thing every she wolf does the moment she sees her mate for the first time. She slowly melted to her knees in front of him, putting her han
"You're pure, innocent. You don't have another male's scent on you; which means I'm your first. And do you know how that makes me feel? Do you know what that does to me precious?" He groaned subtly into her ear and brought his hands to massage her breast whilst kissing her cheek and her neck before he continued."It only makes me want you more my precious, it turns me on and it only makes me want to do things to you that I've never done to another woman," then he brought his lips to hers again.Ava didn't understand what he'd said by wanting to do things to her; but her curious mind did want to find out. She brought her arms to his back and pushed him closer to her body. Leaving her mouth and a hot trail of his kisses down her body, he brought his head in between her legs, and the thought of what he was about to do made her flush the minute she felt his wet tongue at the opening of her clit. Her clit was so sensitive and swollen, he started to lick an
Ava jumped right out of the bed the minute she realized this. Did it really happen? Did I lose my... Oh no! she cried within herself.'Layla! Layla!!!' she called out to her despairingly.Layla always tends to be inactive mostly in the mornings, sometimes Ava wondered why she had a wolf if she couldn't get to her when she needed her.Was he here? If he was, where had he gone? She tried to pick up his scent, and then she noticed that he was in the cabin too, just outside the room. They were alone in the small building and he was sitting by the fireplace, playing a guitar, she could hear the charming melody right from where she stood in the room and it tempted her to go outside to go and meet him, or to continue from where they finished last night. No! She scolded herself, doing that would just add more fuel to the fire, would worsen the situation, last night wasn't even supposed to happen and it did. She had to find a way to escape before
The wondering feeling she had last night about whatever surprise Ray and the other pack members were planning for her flew right through the window and was replaced by the intense desire she had for Lucas,….. t-the desire the mate bond made her have for Lucas. All because of what happened, she had missed her own birthday party surprise. In all her 18 years of being in her pack, of growing up as a moonlighter, she had never for once missed her special day with them until yesterday. Even though she didn’t like Ray’s surprises, spending her special day with her pack members was something Ava always looked forward to every year, even when the trio moved out of the pack house, she still celebrated her birthdays with the moonlighters every year; it was like Christmas to her, and she was looking forward to it yesterday before she met Lucas in that blasted restaurant, and now she missed it all; she had forgotten her own birthday, and it was all thanks to her mate. A
This was strange, how could she prefer the touch of a stranger to the touch of the one she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with? The mate bond gave the answer to that question. She noticed that Ray was still kissing her; she found it strange that he was enjoying this whereas she wasn't. Didn't he know that what he was giving her was far from pleasure? She felt bad about how she felt; Lucas's touch was supposed to be the one that repelled her, but no, it was exactly the other way around.Ray then brought his hand to touch her breasts, and she pulled away from his kiss at that moment, panting heavily. He saw her expression and dropped his head in his hand, he was disappointed but tried well to hide it."I'm sorry," she muttered."No, no, I should be the one apologizing, I know how you said we should wait and all, but I find it hard to restrain myself whenever I'm with you."Ray reminding Ava of the reason she refused him whenever he t
Lucas was already getting tired of the wild goose chase between him and his mate. Why did she keep running away from him? He wondered, last night she'd submitted herself willingly without any hesitation to him and then the next morning she was gone all of a sudden. She ran away; just like she did at the restaurant the first time they'd met. Why was she playing games with his mind? Did she think it was funny?He recalled their first night together, remembering how much he couldn’t get enough of her body, her sweet innocence. After their intimate moment, he took her while she slept in his arms to his log cabin, one of the properties he owned in the forest that bordered near Chester and watched her sleep on his bed, he wanted more of her, but didn't want to wake her up, no need to do that. They could always continue when she woke, in the meantime, he picked up his guitar and went to the fireplace, he began playing a song. He would sing it to her once she woke u