CHAPTER 2: What You Did

CHAPTER 2: What You Did

KARL’S POV

I woke up and Grey was wrapped around me so tight I thought something was wrong.

I jolted up. He also sat up quickly with me like he had been waiting for it.

“You’re awake.” He said it quietly. And something in his voice was not okay.

“Why are you in my bed.” I looked at him. “How did you get in here.”

He looked at me for a second and then looked away. “You kissed me and walked out.” He said. “I couldn’t just…” He stopped. Then started again. “I couldn’t just stop thinking about it, so I went looking for you. But you weren’t anywhere. I decided on your dorm. But when I came here, I found you on the floor.” He finally breathed in and out.

Without waiting for me to say something, he continued. “So I moved you to the bed and there was this mark on your neck and it was glowing and I—l…” He pressed his hand to his mouth. “I bit it. I frankly don’t know why I bit it. I just…did.”

I touched my neck. The mark was there. And it was warm under my fingertips, nothing like the burning foreign feeling Irina’s forced bond had left behind. This felt like something that was supposed to be there.

I almost laughed. Two years of managing this and Grey Andreyson had undone the whole thing by following his instincts in the dark.

“What?” Grey was watching my face. “Why do you look like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like something is funny.” He was staring at his hands shyly.

“Nothing is funny.” I said.

“Karl.” His voice came out unsteady. “Ever since I bit that mark I’ve been feeling things. More like emotions that aren’t mine. Fear and then something warm and then relief and I don’t…” He pushed his hand through his hair. “What did I do?”

I looked at him. He was sitting in my bed with his hair messy and his eyes looking tired.

“Do you want to know the truth?” I asked.

“What truth?” He raised his head.

“About what you did.” I said. “About why you’re feeling things that aren’t yours.”

He looked at me. “Tell me.”

“I’m a wolf.” I said. “My father is the Alpha of the werewolf. And I am the Alpha in waiting.”

Grey stared at me as if I had grown horns. Then he made a dry laugh.

“You’re joking. Right?” He asked, in between the dry laugh.

“I’m not.”

“Karl.” Now he looked at me like I had just said something ridiculous. “You’re joking. You don’t want to admit that you have feelings for me so you’re sitting here telling me you’re a werewolf.”

“I’m not joking.”

“Werewolves don’t exist.” He said it the way you do say something you had already decided is true. “So either you’re lying or you’ve lost your mind an…”

“Why was there a glowing mark on my neck.” I cut him off. And that made him put on a serious face.

“A glowing mark Grey.” I said. “On my neck. That you felt a pulled to bite. And now you’re sitting here feeling emotions that aren’t yours, emotions that could be mine.” I looked at him. “Explain that without werewolves.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it. And he looked at the wall, and back at me.

“So.” He said slowly. “Wolves actually exist.”

“Yes.”

He was quiet for a moment. Then. “Okay.” He said. Like he was talking himself into something. “Okay. So you’re a wolf.” He looked suspiciously at me. “Tell me about it, all of it. Convince me that you are saying the truth. That you aren’t lying.”

“Do you really want to hear all of it?” I mimicked his voice.

“I’m not kidding dude. Tell me all of it. If you’re going to drop something like that you don’t just stop there.”

I looked at him for a second. “My father is the alpha of our pack in the erewolf land.” I said. “Which means I’m next, in other words, it means Alpha in waiting. And with that comes rules or you can call it expectations.” I paused. “Who I can and cannot be with.”

Grey listened without interrupting. That was unusual for him.

“Three years ago my father sat me down and told me he had already decided who I would mate.” I said. “Her name is Irina. She’s from a strong bloodline with good standing in the pack, everything my father needs the next alpha’s mate to be.” I looked at my hands. “He gave me one season, which is this season. To finish hockey, come home, and do what the pack needs.”

“And Irina.” Grey said. “Was she here last night?”

“Yes.” I inhaled deeply.

“Was she the one who put that mark on you that was glowing when I came?”

“Yes.” I said. “But it was because I was unconscious. She sprayed something and I went unconscious, and she used the opportunity and bit me, because of the condition I was in, I wasn’t able to stop her.” I touched my neck again. “And in the wolf's land, that’s what we call a forced mate bond. She was trying to tie me to her permanently.”

Grey’s expression keeps changing to different shades anytime I say something inhumanly.

“And when you bite it.” I continued. “You severed hers and replaced it with yours.” I looked at him. “That’s why you’re feeling other emotions. So those other emotions were actually mine. That’s what a mate bond does.”

When I finished he was quiet for a long moment. “So this woman.” He said. “Irina. Your father wants you to mate with her.”

“Yes.”

“And mating means biting, or forming a bond.” He exhaled and said again, after about three seconds. “Like what’s on your neck right now?” He asked.

“Yes, like exactly what’s on my neck right now.” I replied with a little chuckle. “Except she put hers on me without my consent while I was unconscious. And you severed it when you bit it.”

Something moved across his face. “So you are saying I replaced it with mine.” He looked shocked. “So we are mates?”

“Yes to both questions.” I laughed slowly.

He looked at his own hand. Then at me. I could see the doubt still behind his eyes, turning everything over, looking for the angle where this stopped being real.

“I can still see you don’t fully believe me.” I said.

He didn’t deny it.

“Tonight.” I said. “I’ll prove to you that werewolves exists.”

He frowned. “Why not now.”

I didn’t have an answer to that. So I did what best I could to shut him up or divert the question. I kissed him.

He went quiet immediately the way he always did when I did that, that half second where Grey Andreyson stopped having opinions, and I felt the bond settle warm between us.

But the door cut it shut as it went opened. And I pulled back quickly.

Coach Priest — the man who trains us in hockey — was standing in the doorway with his hands in his pockets and two women behind him that I had never seen before. 

Then the smell hit me the moment they walked inside.

Those two ladies were witches. The dark aura was everywhere around them. And somehow I was starting to perseve it from Grey too. Is Grey a witch?

The priest looked at me. Then at Grey. Then back at me with a smile that I had known for a long time.

“Morning boys.” He said. “Hope I’m not interrupting.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​