EmilyCole was avoiding me.He somehow managed to completely disappear on Saturday, despite me spending the best part of an hour looking for him.I had a sneaky feeling Annabell was helping him, as I saw her a couple of times with a mischievous grin on her face as she watched me walk by.From the little I had seen of him though, he looked like he was doing better. The black circles under his eyes had gone, and his smile looked real instead of forced, like it was last week.I just hoped that he was finally moving on.It wasn’t until Thursday that I realised I was missing something, when Casper asked,“How was Cole on Saturday?”I found the question odd, as Casper made it clear he didn’t want to be involved when I asked him to speak to Nathan last week.Casper was not one to pry into other people’s business. He was a very private person himself and so he didn’t enjoy those sort of conversations, and avoided them at all costs.“He was doing better, why do you ask?” I said, carefully ob
JoelI was a sell out. A fake. A waste of space. A pathetic little….A door opened to my left making me snap to attention in my uncomfortable, plastic, olive green chair.A member of staff walked passed me, too engrossed in a file in their hands to even notice me.The noise of their high heels clicked down the otherwise silent corridor until they walked through the door at the other end. The door closed with a thud and it was silent again.I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, which gave off a creak of protest under my moving weight.I glared down at the offending object, daring it to even think about collapsing. It wasn’t like I was overweight; far from it. It was just that at 18, I was about 10 years too old to be sitting in it. It was just another symbol of the divide between me and them. I was sat on this shitty green excuse for a chair, while they would be sat on the best hand carved, Indian Oak chairs with velvet inlays and extra padding.Ok, I didn’t know if that was technic
Joel“So how did it go?” Lyla asked while draped across my bed.“Fine,” I replied snarkily, “and what are you doing in here when I’m not?” I asked while setting my bag down and pulling off my hoodie.A slow wolf whistle made me turn to Lyla and raise a frosty eyebrow.She deliberately looked me up and down taking in my interview outfit and giving extra notice to my hair.“I know!” I said patting it gently, a beaming smile now on my face. “It took me the best part of an hour getting it to look like this!”Lyla snorted and I wrinkled my nose at her unladylike noise.That just made her laugh louder.I deliberately ignored her and turned on my radio.She shut up instantly. “Oh no, no, no” she said, getting off the bed and turning the radio back off again. “I want details, Joel. What was it like? Did you see any of the family? When will you know if you got the job?”I looked over at her eager face and suppressed a smile. She looked really cute with her big curious eyes, like a little pu
I suddenly felt a haribo ping off my cheek and smiled sheepishly as I realised Lyla had been talking to me.“Anyway...” she said raising an annoyed eyebrow at my lack of attention, “I heard from Michelle that there’s going to be another ball coming up soon. Wouldn’t it be amazing to actually get to see what one looks like!”“Oh yes, I can’t wait to serve all those stuck up idiots.” I jumped up and put on my best Jeeves pose. “Would you like a brandy with that Sir? No? Well might I suggest a lovely scotch instead, it goes ever so well with the braised beef parcel with red currant jus.”Lyla rolled about laughing.“Anyway,” I added, “it’s unlikely that I’ll get to see anything. I wash pots remember. I don’t think I’ll be allowed out of the kitchen in case I contaminate the guests with my lower class disease.”Lyla just shook her head at me and gave a little smile. She was used to my rants. For some reason I had never taken to the whole hierarchy system that existed in the werewolf pa
CasperI squared up to the large black wolf in front of me. I snarled with my teeth bared and felt tingles go down my spine as all my fur stood on end.The black wolf circled me, mirroring my actions. He was impressive looking when he was stood like that. But I wasn’t worried. I could easily take him.I quickly jumped forward and nipped his back leg, making his head fly round in my direction. This was what I had been waiting for.I lifted my head up and sprang from my powerful back legs, landing with my nuzzle on the back of his neck. I clamped down hard.The black wolf twisted round, almost moving within his skin and managed to throw me off.I jumped back round, on guard, facing him again.I could see I had wounded him, but I also knew that it wouldn’t stop him.The dance started again as we circled round each other once more.I needed this. I felt the tension and stress of the past few days filter into every sinew in my body. My muscles were primed. I felt invincible.In a fl
I showered and dressed in some jeans and an old t-shirt that I had left here. Not a common outfit for me, but they would do until I got to my room.I headed out and set off towards the stairs that would take me to the family’s living area of the house.“Master Bournville might I have a word?”I spun round to see Duncan, our head butler standing before me with his head bowed.“Of course,” I said and followed him into his office.I liked Duncan. He had been with the family a long time and had earned our respect and trust.“I’m sorry to bother you but I just wanted to confirm a few details about Saturday.”“Ok, sure, what do you need to know?” I had no issue with discussing Saturday’s ball with Duncan but I did think it was a little odd of him to ask me about it. My mum and dad usually dealt with all the logistics. I merely turned up, and quite frankly they were lucky I even did that sometimes.“I was hoping you would just take a quick look over the seating plans and make sure they l
JoelMan, I was bored. Washing dishes had to be the worst job in the whole world.My hands had shrivelled up like two sad, deflated balloons in the water, and this was just in preparation for the ball! Another chef passed a dirty saucepan my way. I say saucepan, but these things were so huge I could probably have a bath in it!I scrubbed away at it, letting out small curses at the chef who had let the sauce burn onto the bottom of it, making me feel like I was trying to scrub off concrete.I couldn’t even imagine how crazy it was going to be tonight when we served the 4 course meal to the 200 invited guests. At least my uncle had drafted in extra help for later so I wouldn’t be on my own.Speak of the devil….my uncle came racing into the kitchen, nearly knocking the pastry chef off his feet. A fluster of apologies followed before he zoned in on me and started heading over.“You ok there Uncle? You know if that vein in your neck throbs any harder, it’s going to burst all over the lov
CasperI stared at myself in the mirror and sighed. I hated these things. Not mirrors, balls.Admittedly, at first I had been excited whenever my father threw me a ball. The first couple of years I was filled with anticipation, hoping that today would be the day when I would finally meet my mate.Now I just felt like it was a huge waste of my time.There was a knock on my door and Jamie, my Beta, stuck his head round the door.“Come on Casper, the first guests are due to arrive any minute.”He disappeared again, just as quickly, probably keen to go and get a good spot downstairs.Jamie also hadn’t found his mate yet, so he too was eager to meet as many she-wolves as possible. He had only just turned 20 though, so he still had plenty of time left.I stood up and took one last look in the mirror.I guess I looked ok. People always told me I was good looking, but honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was just because I was their future Alpha. I mean, who would tell their future leader that the