Chapter 8
Evie
I want to say no. I want to close the door on Alaric. But the look in his eyes and this fricken mate pull makes me hesitate. My hesitating makes him smile and open the door wider to let himself in.
I watch as he steps into the room and takes it all in. My bed is made, and everything is neat and tidy. Not that I have much to make it a mess.
“You know, there should be laundry bags in the cupboard so that you can have the clothes laundered,” Alaric says, noticing my shopping bags still lying on the floor, unpacked.
“I know,” I reply, staring at his back. His muscles are evident under his white shirt, and his scent is intoxicating. I blush when Alaric turns around and notices me checking him out.
“We should talk,” Alaric says, making my heart beat anxiously. Alaric sends me a curious look before stepping towards me. If he’s going to reject me, he can’t unless he knows my real name. And I’ve been hiding that information for so long that I don’t know how to reveal it. I panic, realising I may have to be honest with him before the rejection can work.
Alaric takes another step forward, and I step back, making him stop.
“I wanted to talk to you about what you saw when we met,” Alaric states, placing his hands by his side. When I don’t reply, Alaric begins to speak.
“Dharia and me…”
“I don’t want to know her name,” I interrupt. Alaric looks guilty.
“Look, I know what you saw looked bad… but I stopped everything with her when I saw you,” Alaric says. I nod. It looked like they were together, at least, like she was staking her claim on him by not washing the scent of their sex off.
“Evie… there was a war between my pack and another. My first mate, Teresa, died before I got to her. I thought I’d never get another mate. I didn’t want another mate. I’m twenty-six and…”
“It’s okay,” I say softly. I don’t know what it’s like to lose your mate to death, but I do know how it feels not to want another mate. I don’t want another mate, either.
“Are you sure?” Alaric asks eagerly, stepping forward. He hesitates when I take another step back.
“Look, I…” Alaric begins, but I shake my head.
“I’m really sorry, Evie.”
I look up at him, his beautiful blue-brown eyes pleading.
“It’s fine,” I tell him.
“Sure?” he asks again. I nod.
“Anything else?” I ask. I feel rude, but… I don’t know what to say. He had another female warming his bed less than two days ago. And I caught them! I may not want another mate, but I wouldn’t lead someone on just because I’m bored. If he didn’t want a mate, why have sex with another she-wolf? Especially one who obviously wants him. I shake my head in disbelief at this thought.
“My mate rejected me because he didn’t want to have a mate. He slept around, and I felt it…”
“I broke it off with her as soon as I met you,” Alaric protests.
“I know,” I admit.
“But you don’t trust me.”
“I don’t know you. What I do know is that I didn’t think I’d ever get a second chance mate. And I was happy with that. But I didn’t sleep around. I don’t have men’s smells on me. That she-wolf smelt of you. You didn’t smell of her. It’s obvious to me what she wants.”
Alaric looks guilty. He knew what she wanted, too.
“And you knew. Were you just leading her on?” I watch as Alaric shrugs.
“I just, after Teresa. I didn’t want a commitment,” Alaric softly replies.
“Aha,” I fold my arms and look at him.
“Are you wanting to reject me?” Alaric then says, meeting my eyes. He looks determined, angry even. I’m surprised at the question and the look in his eyes.
“Is that what you want?” I ask. If it is, then I’ll give him my real name, and I’ll leave. I’m not going back to my home pack. I can’t. If Conner is still there, it would be my suicide.
“No,” Alaric admits. I sigh in relief, which surprises me. Alaric smirks.
“Look… maybe we could… take this slow?” Alaric asks.
“Okay,” I agree.
“Have breakfast with me tomorrow?” Alaric asks eagerly. I can’t help but smile back at him.
“Sure. When?”
“Meet me in the food court at eight-fifteen. I have morning training, and after, we can eat together before you start at nine.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
I nod, and Alaric is practically beaming.
“I’ll see you then,” he says, moving quicker than I expect to wrap his hand around my neck and kiss the top of my head. I stand there, surprised, the sudden touch sending tingles down my spine.
“Expect more of that,” Alaric tells me before walking towards the door.
“See you tomorrow!” he calls out cheerily. I watch the door close behind him.
“Yes!” I hear Alaric shout in my head. Tomorrow. I’m having breakfast with Alaric tomorrow. I sigh, watching the door as if it’s mysteriously going to open and Alaric will come in, laughing at what a fool I am. He could still reject me.
I wake early the following day with feelings of nervous anticipation. I slept alright last night, but I’m still unsure what angle Alaric is playing at. I tell myself he didn’t want a mate after the death of his first mate, and I comfort myself with the fact that I don’t want one either. At least those are the words I repeat in my head as I shower and get ready to meet him for breakfast.
The food court is surprisingly bustling at eight a.m. People are setting up for work, putting out food, and pack members in office clothes are sitting and drinking coffee. I peruse the stalls and decide I’ll come back for a fruit salad and water before scanning the room for an empty table with few customers nearby.
Again, I sit there, twiddling my thumbs, wishing I had a phone or something to occupy myself. They should have a bookshelf or something. A table with colouring books and crayons for kids and a stack of newspapers and magazines. While I wait, I sing songs in my head.
“Hey!” Alaric grins, smiling at me as he sits down. His hair is dry,
and his scent is strong from working out. He smells good.
“Hi. How was morning training?” I ask.
“Good. Sorry, I was so eager to see you I decided not to shower first,” Alaric admits.
“Oh. You smell good,” I comment, feeling heat brighten my cheeks. Idiot. Why did you have to say that? Idiot.
“Thanks. So… are you hungry? Do you know what you want?” Alaric asks when I nod my head.
“Yeah. I had a look when I arrived,” I admit.
“Cool, let’s go,” Alaric says, offering his hand. I look at his hand and then at him. I do not want to hold his hand, but I know it wouldn’t be good if I didn’t, so reluctantly, I take his hand in mine. As we walk, Alaric threads his fingers between my own, making the gesture more intimate. It feels nice, but… I don’t know if I want it. The first opportunity I get to let go, I do, fisting my hand by my side.
Alaric leads me to Mecca Coffee, where he orders three bacon and egg wraps, two chocolate chip muffins, a side of bacon and a cappuccino.
“Are you…” I’m about to ask when I realise that is a normal amount for a werewolf to eat. Alaric looks at me as I shake my head.
“Never mind,” I state. When Alaric got his order, he walked over with me to the store where I had chosen to get my breakfast.
“Is that all?” the she-wolf asks after I order myself a fruit salad and water.
“Is that all?” Alaric also asks.
“Yeah…”
“Can you get her one of your blueberry oat muffins?” Alaric asks the girl.
“Sure,” the girl replies, stepping to one side to get the order.
“What?” Alaric asks when he notices my glare at him. I ignored him and thanked the girl for the muffin, walking back to the table I’d chosen earlier with my food.
“I don’t want you to go hungry,” Alaric says softly as he sits opposite me.
“Who says I will?” I ask.
“Look, I don’t want to fight… but even my mother eats more than that…” Alaric protests.
“Because she has werewolf DNA, which gives her a quick metabolism. Look. I’ve taken care of myself for five years. I know how much I need to eat,” I protest.
“I’m sorry,” Alaric replies, looking defeated.
“Alaric, look. I’m just not used to the amount of food werewolves eat. But I will be okay, I promise. I’ll probably eat more the more I’m around other wolves,” I admit. Alaric looks up at me and smiles. I nod at him and begin eating my food. We sit there in quiet when Alaric starts to speak again.
“Try this,” he says, offering me one of his egg and bacon rolls. I hesitate and give him a look. Humouring him, I lean forward and take a bite from the food in his hand. Egg and salty bacon goodness enter my mouth, but the red sauce, whatever it is, sets my tastebuds alight.
“Oh goddess, what is that?” I murmur, wiping a bit of sauce from my lip.
“Sweet pepper relish. I love it. What do you think?” Alaric asks.
“Oh, it’s the best,” I whimper.
“Here, have it,” Alaric says, offering me his other roll.
“Sure?” I ask. When Alaric nods, I don’t stop and take the roll from his plate, biting into it quickly.
“What?” I ask when Alaric laughs.
“Nothing. I’m glad you like it. What other foods do you like?” he asks. I look up at him, his blue and brown flecked eyes looking at me eagerly.
“Caramel chocolate. Definitely my favourite,” I state between bites. Our conversation becomes light and easy, taking away some of my nervousness. Alaric tells me about some of his favourite foods before regaling me with stories of his uncle’s favourite food, which is cheese-toasted sandwiches.
“Why cheese toasted sandwiches?” I ask.
“When he was little, mum raised him. It was one of the few foods they could afford,” Alaric admits.
“What about your Dad?”
“She hadn’t met him yet.”
“But… Jed’s a werewolf… surely your pack helped them?” I ask, not understanding. That is what packs are for, to look out for their pack mates.
“Mum and Jed weren’t part of a pack when she met Dad. Their Dad was a lone wolf,” Alaric explains.
“Oh,” I reply. Lone wolves are wolves who live outside packs without pack protection. Kind of like how I was living.
We continue to eat our food, with me finishing Alaric’s bacon and egg roll and half of my fruit salad. I didn’t eat the muffin because I was full, so Alaric ate it instead.
“We should go,” Alaric eventually says. I smile. This breakfast went a lot smoother than I expected. We both stand up, and Alaric starts to leave when he realises that I’m not with him.
“People are lazy,” I admit, gathering our plates on the tray to take to the rubbish stand.
“Yeah,” Alaric agrees, taking the tray once I’ve filled it and walking by himself to the food stand. He offers me his hand when he returns, smiling when I take it.
It actually feels nice holding Alaric’s hand. I can feel his pride through our bond, and it should make me wary, but I surprisingly feel okay about it. We head for the training rooms when a young she-wolf enters the hallway to greet us.
“Lana. This is my mate, Evie,” Alaric introduces. Lana nods and smiles happily at me.
“Evie. Lana will be looking after you today. I’ll meet you for lunch at one in my office, okay?” Alaric says, pulling me into him and kissing the top of my head. My body tingles, and I feel embarrassed as Lana stands by and watches.
“Hi,” Lana says once Alaric leaves.
“Hi,” I say softly.
“I’ve been asked to help you train today. Are you good with weapons?” Lana asks, smiling. I nod, thinking about my father.
“I’m good with the staff, but I haven’t handled one in ages,” I admit.
“What about knives? Archery?” Lana asks.
“Not so good,” I admit. Lana nods and heads for the target room, with ten targets lining up one wall. As we walk past, I see Tatum smile and nod towards me, making me blush. I also see a young wolf look at Lana and wink.
“Who’s that?” I ask, referring to the dark-haired male.
“Oh, that’s Trev,” Lana sighs. Her heart rate speeds up when she mentions him.
“Is he your mate?” I ask. Lana shrugs.
“I’m still seventeen. He’s older than me. I don’t know,” Lana admits as she walks us into a weapons room. I’m surprised at what I see. On the walls are a range of knives, axes, and bows hung up in neat lines across each wall. My Dad would be impressed.
“Have you thrown knives before?” Lana asks, walking to a section of the wall.
“No. What’s this about you being seventeen? How come you’re not at school?” I ask.
“I was put up a year at primary school, so I graduated a year early. Hold these. How do they feel?” Lana asks, handing me some knives.
“I like this one,” I say, referring to the second knife she hands me.
“Good. That’s a good start,” Lana stated, getting the set of knives I selected and putting the rest away.
“Did you always want to be a Delta?” I ask as we walk back into the target room.
“Yes. You?”
“No,” I admit.
“What did you want to do?” Lana asks. Live. I wanted to live.
“Something else,” I tell her. I could tell her my plans and what I wanted, but they are so removed from my current life that there is no hope of going back to it. At least this way, I’m alive.
Lana takes me to an empty target and demonstrates how to throw the knives to hit the target sheet. I give it a go and do pathetically.
“Try this,” Tatum says, adjusting my stance and feet width. She takes my arm and puts it through the motions of the throw.
“Your turn,” Tatum tells me. I nod and attempt another shot. My knife hits the target handle first and ricochets off, bouncing on the floor.
“Almost,” Tatum smiles, walking away.
“Almost hit someone, you mean,” I mutter, making Lana laugh. We keep practising, with me getting increasingly frustrated at my attempts.
“I’m really hopeless at this, Lana,” I admit.
“No… you’re not. You got the target twice,” Lana says. I pout.
“Yeah, that won’t work. Knife throwing isn’t my forte, obviously.”
“Lana! Lana!” a girl says, running up to Lana. Lana laughs and picks up the little girl, giving her a hug.
“Sonja, this is my friend, Evie; say hello,” Lana says.
“Hi!” Sonja greets.
“Hi,” Isabella says, walking over.
“Hey Iz. What brings you here?” I ask. Isabella blushes.
“Oh, Sonja wanted to see her sister. But we’ll let you go,” Isabella states, giving Lana a look.
“See you, Sunny,” Lana smiles, kissing her sister’s cheek.
“Bye, Lana! Bye, Evie!” Sonja says, waving at us as Isabella walks away with her.
“You have a little sister?”
“Yeah. My parents struggled to have kids. We were both miracles,” Lana smiles, watching her sister and Isabella walk away.
“You know Isabella?”
“Yeah. She was one of the first people to be nice to me here. I like her,” I explain. Lana nods.
“Okay. Archery?”
After half an hour of me uselessly aiming but failing to hit the target with a bow and arrow, I sigh in defeat. Even Pandora was laughing at me in my head.
“I guess I’m not suited to weapons like this,” I admit to Lana, who, to her benefit, has been really good to me about my lack of skills in this area.
“That’s okay. You only need more practice,” Lana tells me brightly.
“Not everyone is good at weapons,” Lana mutters under her breath. I shake my head, feeling awful at her comment. I know I could be a great Delta, just not with knives. Or archery.
“Let’s head for the fields,” Lana states, returning to the weapons room to put away my equipment.
“We meet here every morning at five to train. You’ll be expected to turn up at this time as well from next week,” Lana explains as we walk towards a large field where some Deltas are currently sparring.
“So I’m still being considered, then?” I ask.
“I’m here to observe you, Evie. Like I said, you need practice. But you have promise. Plus, you said you’re better at the staff, right?”
I nod as we walk up to the tree line, a Delta running up to us with a backpack in his hands.
“Lana!” the Delta greets Lana with a smile.
“Evie, this is Danny. He’s my team leader,” Lana introduces.
“Hi,” I greet.
“Hi, Lana,” Danny says, handing the backpack over to Lana. Lana thanked him and opened the bag, revealing two ziplock bags with clothing inside.
“I’ve been told you’ve got a good sense of smell. In this task, your job is to sniff the clothes of two of our pack members and find them. They’ve hidden themselves somewhere in the woods,” Lana explains as she pulls the ziplock bags out.
“And I’m one of the people you need to find,” Danny grins.
“Okay,” I agree.
“Amateurs,” Pandora smirked in my head.
“I’ll see you later then,” Danny grins, running into the trees.
“We’ll give him a ten-minute start, and then you can go. But there are a few rules…” Lana begins. I nod. I can already see Danny’s scent trail disappear into the trees. There are also a few fresh scent trails and some much older ones.
“Is this where you normally train your trackers?” I ask, curious.
“Yup. The other two people have entered the forest elsewhere. You will be timed on how long you get all three back here. But… you cannot shift into your wolf while you track.”
“Why?” I ask, Pan snorting in my head.
“Your senses aren’t as strong in your human form. We want to know if you can use other cues to track. Not just your enhanced powers,” Lana explains. I shrug.
“Fine,” I admit. I don’t see being in my human form an obstacle at all.
“Okay, this is one of the people you need to find,” Lana says, handing me a plastic bag. I open it up, the scent of bubble gum and honey on toast filling my nose.
“Sonja? Your sister is one of the people I have to track?” I ask, recognising the scent.
“Yup. How did you know?”
“I met her, remember? So the other person is Isabella, then?”
“Uh… yes. Wow. You’re the first person to recognise that,” Lana muses. I nod. This is going to be a cakewalk.
I enter the cool shade of the forest and run, following Danny’s scent. He had been working out all morning, so his scent was strong, which I guess is why he met me at the tree line first. He’s meant to be the easy target.
I follow his trail through the underbrush, where he had sloppily pushed ferns and shrubs aside when he had rushed past. I run for five minutes, knowing I’m closing in on him, when the scents of my two other targets cut through his trail. These scents are still fresh but older, and I hesitate about which direction to take.
“I can smell Danny clearly. Follow Iz and Sonja,” Pan instructs. I grin. I’m not sure how others feel about their werewolf halves, although I remember discussing having another entity or soul sharing your body when I was a child. But I don’t see Pan as being a separate personality to me. I see our similarities, our likeness. I don’t think I would have survived if Pan and I had not been as in sync as we are.
I turn and follow Isabella and Sonja’s scent instead. I feel good about my choice until I’m met with a small pond in the middle of the forest.
“Huh?” I say, scratching my head. I scan the view before me. The pond is small, as in it’s a few metres across in diameter, but I’m stuck as this is where Sonja and Isabella’s trails stop. Which means they cut through the water. I take a left, noting any changes to the foliage around me. I’m about to turn around when I see water sparkling on a fern frond. Looking ahead, Sonja’s scent trail appears. Smiling, I run, noting Sonja’s scent as I trace her steps. Her scent stops at a tree, and instinctively, I look up. I see two shoe bottoms swinging high in a tree and grin. How she got up there is beyond me, but I start my climb.
As I approach the tree, I see Sonja bent over, headphones on her head. I step onto the branch she sits on, making her flinch in fright.
“You’re early!” Sonja yells. I laugh and take her headphones off her. Ignoring the phone in her hands, Sonja wraps her hands around my neck and hugs me. I wobble on the branch with her on my lap, but this makes me smile more.
“Can I have some candy floss now?” Sonja asks, making me grin.
“We have to find Isabella and another person first,” I admit.
“You mean you found me first?” Sonja asks.
“Aha. You ready?” I answer. Sonja nods, a pleased look on her face.
“Usually…” she begins, but before she can continue, I’ve wrapped my arms around her and jumped off the tree branch onto the ground below. Sonja squeals in fear before wrapping her arms tightly around me in fear.
“Let go,” I cough, struggling for breath.
“You could of warned me!” Sonja grumbles.
“Sorry.” I put her down on the floor and led her back to the pond, heading around the perimeter where her and Isabella’s scent veered off.
“Usually, it takes forever for them to find me,” Sonja admits as we walk.
“Was I fast?”
“Yup. Usually, I get through a whole episode of Mr Bean first.”
“Mr Bean? How old are you?” I ask.
“Five,” Sonja admits, showing me five fingers on her hand.
We continue to talk as I scan the perimeter of the pond. Although I’m engaged in the conversation with Sonja, I’m also carefully listening out for any strange noises I can hear.
“Mr Teddy?” I answer when Sonja asks me if I know Mr Beans Teddy’s name.
“No, it’s Teddy!” Sonja laughs.
I hear a slight giggle and movement to my right, which perks my curiosity.
“This way,” I instruct, leading Sonja closer to the water. Sonja keeps talking, and I just nod. There is no scent trail around the water, having lost it a few metres back, but I know that’s because Isabella has entered the water.
“Found you, Bella,” I state, talking to a fallen log over the pond’s edge.
“Oh man,” Isabella complains, standing up. Her clothes are wet, and she’s covered her face and arms in mud to disguise her scent.
“How’d you do that?” Sonja asks.
“I could hear her heartbeat, plus she laughed earlier,” I tell her.
“Dam,” Isabella states, trudging out from behind the log, water splashing around her feet as she walks towards us. Sonja squeals as the water begins to hit her and runs to hide behind me.
“Let’s go find Danny,” I smirk, picking Sonja up and placing her on my hip.
