Caught

"How did the project go?" My mom asks as I step foot into the apartment. She even moved the chair so it would face the entrance, just to wait for me, smiling like a detective that has solved a murder.

"Alright." I avoid her stare and rush to get to my room.

"It must be an important one. You spent hours on it." She continues, even more determined, seeing that I get redder than a tomato. "I will take a wild guess and say you didn't even finish it. And you will start to spend a lot more time at the library."

She emphasized the last word with air quotes.

"Mom! Stop! I know you know!"

"But they don't have to know that I know that you know that I know!" She laughs.

"You've been binging too much on that N*****x show! You start to sound like Georgia!"

"And you act like Ginny! Someone should make a show about this and give us money!" She gets up with a devilish smile. “Come on, tell your mom everything. You never had someone to lie to me about. It’s exciting!

I roll my eyes and walk past her, but she grabs my arm. His expression shifted into a serious one as she takes a moment to look at me.

"Sweetheart, I want you to have fun and I want you to have your privacy. I won't pry into it. But don't lie to me. No matter what, no matter what you do and how outrageous it is, I will have your back. If I know about it."

"I know..." I soften up. I feel horrible to lie to her and I know she won't judge me or do anything else than be supportive. The problem is... saying it out loud to someone else makes it more... real. And I am not sure I am ready for it. "I just... I want to deal with this on my own."

"I see. Then I will be off your back. But promise me you will come to me if you can't handle it. Worst case scenario, we break into the holiday fund. Alright?"

Ah yes, the holiday fund. When my dad died, she started to put every extra dollar she had into this fund. In case something terribly bad happens, we have enough to leave everything behind and move to the other side of the planet. Or as my mom called it when she explained it to me, go on an eternal holiday.

I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.

"I love you!" I whisper in her ear, with tears threatening to start falling.

"I love you too, sweatheart! The most!"

Once back in my room, I keep rewinding the night in my head. All the promises, the kisses, the whispers. The secrets. Tomorrow will come and at school I will have to act like nothing happened. I will have to put my head down and watch Caroline be all over my mate. And I will have to do it without a flinch.

I shake my head. One year. It's worth it! One year of pain to spend our lives together.

And so, with this acceptance in my heart, the trouble begins.

The first day wasn't so bad actually, though at that time I didn't know it. Axel acted like he was still pissed with Caroline, so he avoided her. Except for when she plugged herself into his lap at the class we shared together and started kissing him, while asking for forgiveness.

With my eyes on the ground for my entire life, I never realized how random and inappropriate their displays of affections are. And how… exercised her action were. Like she was recreating something she saw in a movie rather than feeling it herself. The teacher was talking and then suddenly, Caroline started to moan while grinding herself on top of Axel. And no one batted an eyelash. He didn't really answer, but he didn't push her away either and that made my blood boil enough to refuse to see him in the evening.

Even though I know it’s not really what he wants either. Caroline is not only the Beta’s daughter, her family has connections with other packs too. She is powerful in the true sense of the world and not even Axel can do much about it. But still…

The next day was better. Axel told Caroline that she was too pushy and that he didn't want to see her for a while and, although fuming, she knew better than to go against his orders. So it was quiet, but we couldn't see each other in the evening as he went hunting with his father. The pack comes first… This is what I came to realize and the more I think about it the more afraid I am of the day he would have to chose between me and them.

The weekend came and went without anything more than a few messages and a night-time call because he was in a delegation at another pack. The attacks of the rogues are getting closer to us and if the pack falls like the others… I shiver thinking about it. No survivors ever came from those attacks in the south. Ancient packs are wiped from existence in one night and then everyone else pretends it never happened. Pretends that they are strong enough to avoid the same fate.

As I think about that, that power that I felt with Caroline returns, boiling under my skin. A calling, something that awakens inside me. And I crush it. I push it back down with so much force and fear that it feels like the blood froze in my veins. Goddess knows all I want is to survive this mate bond, the war is not my problem.

I find myself walking the corridors on a Monday morning with a bitter taste in my mouth.

"Rose!" I hear a voice from an empty classroom, but before I can even turn my hand, a hand grabs me and pulls me inside, slamming the door behind me. "Missed me?"

Axel throws an avalanche of kisses all over me, and although I want to be mad, I can hardly resist his touch.

"Why should I be the one that misses you? I am easy to find, I am not the one that is away all the time!" I protested, weakly.

"Pack business comes before anything else." He says, looking me dead serious in the eyes.

"You don't have pack business today..."

Axel smiles and wraps his hands around me.

"I don't! I will pick you up after school. We can spend the day at our house."

Our house... I blush thinking of it. Our place, something that belongs only to us and not to the rest of the world.

"How about we don't wait until then!" I said, pressing my lips on his, pulling him closer in a kiss that I desperately needed for days.

"In a dark classroom? I like this side of yours!" I feel the corners of his lips rising up in a naughty smile.

"I waited enough!" I growled, pushed by my body's desperate need. "I want you!"

And I know he wants me too. The way he deepens every kiss, the way his hands move along the curves of my body, the way he grabs my T=shirt and pulls it so close to breaking the fabric. I wish I could be one of those girls that use this, use his lust for their own advantage. tell him no until they get what they want. I wish I could tell him that he is not touching my body until he goes out of this room and screams to the world that I am his mate. the one and only woman he will ever love.

But I am not one of those girls. I am a girl that gets too easily lost in his warmness to remember who I was before him.

"You have no idea how much I want you too, Rose!" His hand crawls in my hair and grabs it. Axel playfully pulls it so I put my head back while he bites my neck. "But..."

With that, he takes a step back, letting me gasp for air.

"I want to do this right. How you deserve it. I want you to remember your first time as more than a quick fuck in a classroom."

I can hear what he says, and I can perfectly understand it, but my panties are wet as fuck and my legs are shaky, while he seems perfectly composed. I can't help but pout.

Axel laughs.

"Tonight, my beautiful rose." He takes my hand and gently kisses it.

I want to protest some more, but a sudden burst of light distracts me. Axel places himself in front of me and looks back at the now opened door.

"I looked for you all over the school, my love!" Caroline's voice makes my heart stop.

Oh fuck!...