TALIA I had to get up early on American Thanksgiving since it was apparently one of the busiest days of the year for the bakery café. I made my way in at five to clean and open. Valerie, Lucy, Reena, and Liz were already all there when I arrived, clearly having gotten in much earlier than me to set out all the pastries, cakes, and pies for the big day. Right before we opened, Lucy pulled me aside and said, “You should come by my family’s house today. Thanksgiving is always huge at our house, and I can introduce you to another one of my cousins.” “It’s okay,” I replied. “Blake is taking me to Jasmine’s family’s Thanksgiving today.” “You can always come by before. I think they do their Thanksgiving at night. Ours is early, at two.” “Okay, I’ll think about it,” I replied, not wanting to be set up with another one of Lucy’s cousins. It was a very busy morning as it seemed the whole pack descended onto the café, picking up their pastries for that evening. Valerie, Lucy, and Reena all
JASMINE I spent the entire morning and afternoon with my grandmother in her kitchen, the two of us working side by side to put dinner together for that evening. This was something I’d done for most of the past many years, except last year. I cringed, remembering what a sad state I’d been in at that time, embarrassed by how useless I’d become. My parents came over early to help set the table and assist with any last-minute things. Just as we were putting out all the side dishes, the doorbell rang. I went to go answer it to find Blake with his mom, grandparents, and Talia at the front door. Blake pulled me in for a hug and kissed me on the cheek as soon as he walked in. I then gave hugs to all of Blake’s family members, including Talia. “Thanks for coming, Talia.” I smiled at her. “Thanks for having me,” she replied. I wanted to ask her if she’d made any decisions about her mate, but I didn’t want to do it in front of everyone. I’d try to text her later. “Blake!” my dad exclaimed, co
JASMINE I sighed, looking at the ground, and said, “I just feel like I’m not cut out for this alpha stuff.” “What do you mean?” he asked, forcing me to make eye contact with him again by pulling my chin up with his hand. “For a while, I’ve been thinking that maybe that’s why I was mated to the beta and not the alpha. This alpha stuff is just too much for me.” I started walking forward and Blake followed. “But you are mated to the alpha.” He took my hand in his, the warmth of his calloused palm feeling nice in this weather. “You’re my second-chance mate. Anyway, why would you sell yourself short like that? You yourself come from an alpha family. To me, it seems like a perfect match. You’re intelligent, strong, great at fighting, and you have an amazing ass.” He smirked. “What does my ass have to do with being an alpha mate?” “It has everything to do with it. I’m the alpha and I love that ass. I want to tap it nonstop, all the time. Perfect trait for this alpha’s mate.” He had a gl
ALEXANDER On Friday afternoon, I went to meet with the head trainer of the pack to get my monthly status update, as I did on the last Friday of every month. We sat down in his office at the pack gym. I was planning to do my own workout after. I’d become concerned as I wasn’t making quite the same gains I used to. In fact, I’d found my progress had stalled. If anything, I was lifting ten pounds less than I had been before. “Alpha, I have concerns,” he started, and I instantly knew what he was about to tell me. “I’ve been tracking our warriors’ workouts for the last month, and their progress has been very slow. That's fine for some of our more advanced warriors as they’re bound to plateau at some point, and progress slows down. But for the newer ones, they should be gaining strength and endurance quite rapidly. It’s not normal for werewolves to plateau when they’re just starting out. I’ve gone by the high school, and the trainers there have observed the same thing.” “I see,” I said, k
JASMINE I’d never really had a normal relationship with my father, at least not the kind that other daughters seemed to have with theirs in sitcoms. My dad was just never really the goofy, understanding, “his princess has him wrapped around his finger” type. He was always strict growing up. My mom was worse, but he definitely wasn’t the type where I could go ask Dad after Mom said no. It was only in recent years that he’d begun to lighten up some, especially after the whole “secret love child” thing came to light a year earlier. Suffice to say, we’d never been close. However, now I felt even more distant from him, like I didn’t know him at all. While you couldn’t really describe my family as warm, I’d never thought my father was the type to be a cold-hearted torturer. Granted, Tyler was his son, and what had happened to him was horrible and sickening. I still felt nauseous when I thought about it. Blake didn’t spare any details when he told the story, graphically explaining the bruis
JASMINE The next day was Blake’s birthday. After not even realizing it was Blake’s birthday the previous year, I really wanted to find something special and meaningful to give him this year. It took me weeks of deliberating, bouncing ideas off Tyler. And then I finally figured something out that I thought would work. We decided to meet at noon to hike to our secret spot. Ahead of our meeting, I put together a lunch for the two of us. I decided to be ambitious and made pepperoni and sausage calzones, which I wrapped in tinfoil to keep them warm and put into an insulated lunch bag. I also made a tortellini salad and baked some cupcakes. For a final touch, I packed two thermoses—one with black coffee for Blake and the other with hot chocolate for me. I had much more of a sweet tooth than he did. I placed everything into a tote bag and headed over to the packhouse. When I arrived, Blake came out to meet me, climbing into my car. As soon as he got in, he leaned over to kiss me and said,
TALIA The week after Thanksgiving, in early December, Lucy convinced me to go over to her house after we finished up with work for the day. “Luke is so busy lately. It’s nice to have someone to hang out with.” She smiled at me as she unlocked the door to the packhouse. After we walked in, she took Libby from the nanny, dismissing her for the day. The nanny looked relieved as she pulled on her coat and practically sprinted out the door. Libby was in terrible spirits, howling. Lucy looked overwhelmed trying to calm her. She walked the entire first floor of the packhouse rocking her. When she got close to me, Lucy moaned, “I forgot colds even exist! I haven’t had one since I was probably twelve years old! Poor Libby.” She looked devastated looking at her daughter. “It will be so nice once she gets her wolf and doesn’t get sick anymore. Of course, then I’m going to have to deal with a teenager in the house. Ugh!” “How did she get sick?” I asked. “It’s been going around the pack, with a
TALIA I walked home, clutching a bag filled with different medications and a paper that explained how and when to take them. The cold air blew against my hot face. I felt light-headed and woozy as I walked home. I didn’t recall ever feeling this unwell in my life before. Once I got back inside my apartment, I fell into my mattress, only to hear my phone ringing loudly. I picked it up to see that a FaceTime call was coming in from Alex. “Hello, beautiful,” he sang out as soon as I answered the call. “Hi, Alex,” I said. A coughing fit followed. He stared into his screen, looking as if he was concentrating. “Was that your cough? You sound terrible! You look terrible!” He drew his eyebrows together. “Thanks,” I replied, sarcastically. “Talia, you’re always beautiful. But, are you—” He stared at me. “Are you sick?” he shouted. “Yes,” I replied. “I’m sick.” “Fucking Artemis! Did you go to the doctor? Fuck. Talia, we need to get you checked up right away. I’m leaving right now to come