Shane watched the duo in front of him spring apart at his voice, and smiled. He remembered they were holding hands when he walked into the kitchen and concluded that this would be the beginning of an interesting affair, which he would be delighted to watch. He couldn't wait to see his soon to be alpha smitten over a human girl, although he couldn't help but wonder whether she was his mate or he was just attracted to her. Whichever one, he hasn't ever looked at a girl twice, so this drama would be too sweet to miss, Shane concluded.
He had watched her trip Derek, and the look on Derek's face when Clem touched her. And one thing he was so sure about was that, the girl intrigued Derek. Damn! She intrigued him too. She had looked so hot when she performed that acrobatics on Derek. So hot.
Looking at them now, both scratching their necks nervously, he chuckled.
When Derek heard Shane chuckling, he cursed silently as he knew that Shane wouldn't let him be when they got home. His gamma was a damn teaser.
He looked at Emma to see her staring at the ceilings. If he didn't know what had happened earlier between them, he would have thought she was really interested in the ceilings. But he knew, and he was again intrigued by this strange girl.
No other girl has caught his fancy, maybe because they were all busy fawning over him. He had never dated, just flings here and there. But the new human girl, Emma, intrigued him. He even feels weird around her, and Maru even confirms her as his mate.
"But Father wouldn't approve this" Derek muttered to himself. Knowing that although the mate bond was something honorable, his father might ask him to reject her, because she's a human. He wouldn't want a weak mate for the pack. They had a lot of upcoming battles to fight, especially with the White wind pack, and a human Luna might be a liability instead of a help to him.
Emma looked down from the ceilings that she had suddenly found interesting to see Derek mutter continuously to himself, and wished she could know what was going in his mind. She watched how his lips moved, and for a second there was an alien thirst within her to taste it. It was an impulse, but a strong one.
"No no," Emma muttered. The guy was a jerk. There's no way it could happen.
But in no time at all, her eyes found its way to Derek's lips. And this time around, his eyes caught hers, and she looked elsewhere. Damn those deep blue eyes, Emma cursed silently. His eyes were the deepest shade of blue she had ever seen.
She looked up to see Shane still chuckling, and thought she was doubly doomed. Now some one else caught in on the tension. Fucking great! Emma muttered.
" Derek, what are you saying? Should we start up " He had asked.
"Yeah, there's a lot to be done" Derek replied.
Emma wondered what she would be doing as the guys worked, she didn't know how to clean. But Derek saved her from the uncomfortable thought plaguing her.
"Emma, you could take a stroll around, just get around to know the place, and maybe get us some food if you're not cold-hearted" He had said, with a funny look on his face, obviously taunting her.
Emma loved the way her name sounded on his lips, and maybe that was why she had bit back her reply, which she knew would be so sacarstc, and just replied in affirmative. This seemed to suprise him, Emma noticed. Taking in his widened eyes and scrunched up eyebrows, she smiled, a little. It felt so good knocking him off the balance.
She skipped around the broken plates on the floor and left the two guys in the kitchen, knowing fully well that they were watching her keenly as she went. This made her nervous, and she faltered on her steps as she walked towards the master bedroom, where she had kept her purse when she was touring the room on her arrival to the house earlier.
As she went, she whispered greetings to the new guys that came around to help. They responded to her greetings with looks of open curiousity. A look, she noticed on Derek's face earlier, including Clem, and she wondered why. But they were all handsome,she thought, but not more handsome than…
'No no,' Emma rubbed her forehead.
"You shouldn't be thinking of him like that, he's the enemy" She peptalked herself as she went, but her mind had its own will. 'His lips,his voice, his strength as he held her, his… no no," Emma mused, cutting of her thought.
"The new human girl is quite beautiful and unpredictable. Don't you think so?" Shane queried Derek, as Emma left.
" Yeah, she is" Derek muttered. He had been so sure of a comeback from her when he had indirectly called her a cold hearted. But she had just replied in affirmative. He wondered what stopped her, and realized in a jerking speed, that he had wanted her comeback so much.
"She's so intriguing too. Don't you think so?" Shane continued smiling.
" Yeah" Derek replied. He knew that Shane wouldn't give up, and could easily tire him out if he doesn't reply.
"Do you think she is a spy? You know this area is only reserved for us. Would you tell your father?" Shane asked worriedly now.
Derek looked up at his friend, and affirmed thoughtfully that it would be a problem if his father finds out that a human was staying around the area reserved for werewolves specially. And suprisingly he didn't want the little witch to face his father's questioning gaze, he felt protective of her.
"That's because she's our mate" Maru said tiredly.
"I don't know that. But I will, in a month time" He thought back.
" But I've already confirmed it. You would rather wait till you're 18 in a month time? What of if someone else claims her then? Perhaps another human? Maru asked
The thought of another guy with the little witch made Derek growl.
"Hey, why are you growling?" Shane asked, walking closer to him.
" Nothing, just thought of something" Derek replied, suprised that he had actually growled loudly.
"What? You thought of her and Clem right?" Shane asked, smiling.
Derek scoffed.
" Clem wouldn't dare" He said, now growling again unknowingly.
" You like her then" Shane commented with a smirk
"Yes I…" Derek paused, and glared at Shane who was now walking out of the kitchen laughing. He roughed his hairs widely, and cursed himself silently, for he knew deep down that the new girl had already laid a hold on his heart. He liked her. The acknowledgement of this made him curse again.
"Traitor heart" He muttered, as he walked out of the kitchen.
Emma’s eyes were as active as anything active as she watched the elders slowly walk into the hall reserved for judging cases, like Annabel’s. As she watched them, her feet kept dancing on the floor in a funny unsteady motion; she was unsteady. One, one. Then two, two. Then one two. Once, Amelia had looked at her, with a piqued eyebrow. ‘What is that?’ Her eyes seemed to ask, but Emma had given no answer. What is it? It should be what are they?! When they were hurrying over to the hall, after convincing the guards that they would be around for the trial too, her sister had whispered that the cabin, her parent’s cabin, had been burnt by the master, Slediv. It had brought Emma up short, making her stagger on her feet for two reasons. That Slediv had really traced them, even without her then, and that the cabin was burnt; the loss it meant for her parents. Would they regret helping her then? Prescott didn’t think so. But Emma was still worried about it, just like her mind had tried
One week later:Emma had run to the clinic, immediately Adah had burst into her apartment with the news that Annabel and Amelia were awake. Over the couple of days in class, they had bonded over gossip, and training, seeing as the latter was the only one that had been sincerely interested in her. Emma had run with Prescott in her hands, and Adah right behind her. And when she arrived at the room she had frequented daily with prayers, and saw her sister and her friend chatting tiredly, she let out a scream of happiness and hurried over to them. “Amelia! Annabel!” She called gaily, garnering the attention of the two females sitting cross-legged on the same bed. Before they could let out a shout or smile of their own, Emma’s hands were already around them. “Oh my goodness, I am so happy for both of you…” she paused. “but give me a heartache again, and I will skin you both alive..” Annabel and Amelia divulged bouts of laughter, with the nurses. Prescott and Adah weren’t left behind,
Caden sighed in relief at his mate’s words, wanting to believe at all costs that the years he had spent with her, that the love they had shared, hadn’t been in vain. He didn’t know what he would have done otherwise. Cry, brood? Neither was acceptable in these times. And so, he wasn’t moved when his son piqued an eyebrow at his mate’s words, or when his daughter’s lips turned up—in disgust or curiosity, he wasn’t sure. But he didn’t care. He just hung on to the thread that his mate was spinning with. “I didn’t cheat on my mate, I’m sure he would have found out if I had done so, considering the mate bond and all that…” There was a pause, where relief sunk its foothold the more in Caden and his children. “So, if that’s what you are thinking, Caden… if that’s what you all are thinking, cut it out. I was surprised too when Claire had met me with the news at first, and I didn’t tell you, Caden, because I wasn’t sure how to explain the phenomena to you. I knew you held the lineage of you
Chyra didn’t know what Clem was talking about—the end of the world, and all that—but she knew that she was to blame for Claire rejecting her mate considering what she had soaked into her daughter’s mind about the alpha’s family, about how the Luna seat was her birthright. She also knew that she shouldn’t be working with Arnold. But she was too proud to concede to that, to concede to anyone, and so she shrugged her shoulders to Clem’s question. In the next second, she saw why that had been a wrong play on her part. When she saw Clem fume in anger, when she saw Claire glare at her stinkingly, when she saw her mate watch her like she was foolish, she knew that she had made a mistake. It would have been best if she had kept quiet, than giving off that nonchalant attitude. But her pride held her back from apologizing. Why should she apologize for being a mother caring to give her daughter the best? “Mother, are you so daft that…” Clem was saying when his father shouted him down. Caden
At this point, Clem didn’t know what to think about his sister, Claire. He had thought that their parents had been her motivator to reject Curtis, to follow Curtis up and down, to join the meetings that prince Nathan held with the others, but from the thick astounded silence that dwelled in the room, it could be safe to say that his sister had been acting on her own, without any external influence. He didn’t know what to think of that. He looked at his mother; she looked more shocked out of her shoes and mind than his father, quite expected since the mother and daughter duo were quite close, since his sister had no mind of hers, except put into place by his mother. As much as he was not happy with his twin, he was happy that for once his mother had no part to play in her recent escapades. “What do you mean…Claire?” Caden asked, pushing himself ahead, his elbow resting on his knees. “What do you mean when you say that Curtis is your mate? When did that happen? When did you find out?
What Claire saw first when she stepped into her father’s room was her parents sitting in the living room, with Clem, their backs hunched, the air filled with pregnant silence, waiting. They were waiting for her. She knew it from the moment she had dropped a note in Clem’s mind that she was on her way home. That he hadn’t bothered with a response, should have been enough to let her know that her twin was still angry with her. But she had held out hope, until she had reached the borders of the pack and he hadn’t been waiting for her. This was very different from the times they had quarrels. She knew, however, that this quarrel was different. She had denied her mate, because of the throne; had gone ahead to push Emma away from the pack; and when Derek still hadn’t chosen her, she had returned to Curtis because he was an Alpha. Would she have returned to him if he wasn’t that? She didn’t know. That was the truth. She didn’t know. She might have gone back to Curtis, even if he wasn’t a