"What did you do? Why did he reject you?"
"Why are you assuming that it's something I did?""LC, Soph's an angel. That moron didn't even wait for her. He mated with someone else and already has kids" Reagan defends me. But when it comes to LC, words go in one ear and exit the other. It's like her brain has a filter. She only accepts the things she wants. The rest vanish into thin air. "He's your mate. It doesn't matter who the other woman is. She should step aside now that you found each other""Didn't you hear the part where he has two kids?""It's the twenty-first century, Sophia. Ever heard of co-parenting?"She'd do that. It wouldn't matter if she's breaking up a family or not. LC would demand he leaves them for her. Funny thing is, she didn't use to be like this. Once upon a time, she was the most loving and caring mother and mate. I remember a time when she wasn't such a bitch. When she had feelings and cared about other people. I guess my father's death left her dead and hollow inside. She couldn't give a rat's arse about anyone but herself. Even then, there's a part of me that understands her. She lost her other half and will carry that loss forever. Maybe give me a few years and I'll end up like her.That being said, why should I accept that woman's sloppy seconds when he's my mate? Even if he left her for me, I wouldn't take him. I have to push thoughts of Fred out of my mind so I won't get angry. What's done is done."I'm not breaking up a family, mom. And it's not nice to eavesdrop on other people's conversation""Who is he? Tell me his name and I will set him straight""Forget it. I'm not telling anyone his name" I say looking at Reagan. They might have my best interest at heart but I want to forget Fred. I hope I never see him again."Sophia" LC squats and in a rare show of emotion, tucks my hair behind my ear. Her hands frame my face, reminding me of the mother she used to be a long time ago "This bond between mates, it can't be easily severed. It is so much more than what you think and your mate won't be able to resist it. Rejection is only a small part of it especially since you weren't mated. Mark my words, he will come looking for you and sometimes it won't just be him. His wolf will fight him" she straightens, dropping her hands "And when that time comes, I will be here waiting for him. I want to see if he's in his right mind. No sane man will dare reject my daughter""Sorry Soph, but I'm with her this time"I get up, dusting grass and soil off my jeans "Do whatever the fuck you want. Just leave me out of it. I've rejected him and I'm going to move on""How? Do you have another man? Is that the reason you're so unbothered?""You know what? That isn't a bad idea" I can find someone else and fuck both men out of my system. There's no doubt that Fred will be forgotten since he never touched me but him? He set the bar too high. My expectations have become unrealistic. It's been so long but I remember everything about that day. The taste of his lips, the way his tongue battled mine, his touch, sometimes gentle, sometimes desperate. As if he wanted to memorize every part of me. The way he pushed inside me... Goddess. I want to forget that day. If I can do that, I will be fine "Get up. We're going out tonight""We are? Where?""Not you, mom. Just me and Reagan" I know she wouldn't mind watching me make out with a stranger but that's the last thing I'll ever do. Luckily, LC never brought her men home. And I promised myself not to do it either. Even if it was my mate. Also, I'd never have sex with someone while my mother was in the vicinity. That's just gross."But I want to come along. This was my idea, wasn't it?""No offense but go out with people your age""That's offensive. I could pass off as your sister""Still not bringing you along""Are you sure this is a good idea? We could eat ice cream and binge-watch our favorite shows. We don't have to go out"I want to. Getting drunk and fucking a stranger is exactly what I need right now. I'll probably regret it tomorrow or maybe, it'll turn out to be the best decision I ever made. Reagan takes hours to get ready. She's meticulous when it comes to her makeup and hair. Even her nails. Everything has to blend well with her outfit. It's the reason she needs more than two hours to get ready. I, on the other hand, need that much time to decide what to wear. We complement each other like that. Eventually, I settle on a red latex dress that ends a few inches below my butt. Half my boobs are almost spilling out and I think the message is clear. Take me home and fuck me six ways to Sunday."Soph?" Reagan calls from downstairs "What's taking you so long?" Once she's done, she turns into the biggest nag to ever exist. I quickly spray some perfume and then shoot out of my bedroom before she starts her nagging."What does this dress say?" I ask stopping at the bottom of the stairs."You're LC's daughter and she definitely passed her genes down to you. I mean that as a compliment""Thank you. You look hot too" she's in a green, backless halter with a deep V-neck and a side slit. Her brunette hair falls in thick waves down her back. I've always envied her smaller frame. She is just the right size. Not too big, not too small. I, on the other hand, thanks to LC's genes, my hips are wide and my breasts too big. Growing up, I knew I'd end up taking after her and I hated it. I wanted to be tall and slim. Until I met him. The filthy words he whispered in my ears still make my body react. Thanks to him, I started appreciating myself. If I'm lucky, I'll meet someone who can erase him from my mind."Course I do" Reagan's voice pulls me back to the present "I didn't spend that much time to look average. Let's go baby. I called a woober" a few years ago, someone decided to start a woober company. Which is much like the Ubers humans use but this one only operates on werewolf land. At first, people were skeptical about it because most wolves don't need cars to travel when your beast can run twice as fast. But it grew on everyone. With time, people started to see the benefits of a woober. Exhibit A; take us for example. We can't shift after spending so much time getting ready and we won't be able to drive back since we'll be hammered. Assuming we'll come back. Having someone to drive us back is ideal. After all, the ability to heal doesn't make us immortal.As we walk across the pack, to the entrance, people stop to stare. Lenny, one of Nova's friends, whistles "Damn ladies. Y'all looking fine as hell""Careful dumbass. These roses have thorns. Sharp, prickly thorns"He snorts "Don't I know it? Although, I wouldn't mind getting pricked a few times today""Fuck off""Yes ma'am"It's my turn to snort "Please don't bring that attitude with you to the club. We're going to pick up guys. Not scare them away""Noted, your highness""I'm serious Reags" she has this certain attitude towards men that puts them off. Nova once told her that she acts like a goddess and every man is beneath her. I couldn't agree more. Reagan could rave about hot guys all day long but if one approaches her, he gets the cold shoulder. Because she doesn't know how to flirt or make small talk with men. I've tried teaching her how to do it but it's a lost cause."Me too. There's our woober guy" we get in the car and the guy drives us to Cipher. It's twenty minutes away from the pack and the best place to hook up. I'm too anxious to talk. Thinking of all the ways this night could end. Of all the things that could happen, seeing him the moment we pull up outside the club was the last thing on my mind."Kaden?" I whisper. He looks right at the car we're in, and I hold my breath, afraid that if I move, he'll disappear into thin air. Am I dreaming? Is this real?******************************************"Soph, what's wrong?" I blink, looking at Reagan then back at the entrance of Cipher where I saw Kaden. But there's no one there. Was I hallucinating? Am I pining after a man so much that I've started conjuring him up? He looked so real. Older, different, and... Yeah, that was so not him. The guy I thought I saw looked at the car. At me. But Kaden couldn't have looked at me because he was born blind. This only goes to show how much I need to get over him. "Let's go," I say getting out of the car. This obsession I have with that man ends today. I refuse to be a slave to these feelings. Before I left, Kaden had found his mate. The Alpha was over the moon because his son had finally found his other half. I remember wanting the earth to open up and swallow me. There I was, building a future in my head with a man that wasn't meant to be mine. I felt so stupid and heartbroken that I didn't say goodbye to him before I left. After spending hours crying and begging
I pop my eyes open and stare at the ceiling. Focusing on the light bulb because my mind is blank. There's nothing. No thoughts of anything or anyone. Even my wolf is almost non-existent. A fly buzzes above my face and I settle for watching it. What does it feel like to float around in the air? Do flies have thoughts? Like do they understand each other the way humans do? How did it get in here anyway? I'm sure the window is closed and I used a net to cover the vents so I could keep out lizards and spiders and anything that crawls through there. Fucking insects. Tired of the buzzing sound coming from the fly, I time it. My eyes track its movements and when it's close enough, slap it. The action requires me to lift my head from the pillow and just as I go to lie back down, everything comes rushing back. I jerk upright. "What the fuck?" How did I get home? The last thing I remember is Reagan suggesting we go home. There was a voice in my head agreeing with her. I know for a fact it wasn'
"Are you going to hide out here forever?" "I'm not hiding. This is my way of saving LC's life. If I see her in the next forty-eight hours, I swear I'll rip her apart" "She doesn't know who Logan is. You didn't either when you met him. Looks can be deceiving" "Are you defending her?" Reagan sighs "I've been thinking. What if they're just rumors? You saw the guy. He's smitten. The man you're in love with found his mate and Fred couldn't wait for you. What if this is the goddesses' way of making it up to you?" "By sending me a billionaire dickhead? No thanks," it's been two days since Logan showed up at my house. I don't know what he told my mother but she's now obsessed with him. LC has been singing his praises non-stop. Even after I made it clear to both of them that I wasn't looking for a mate, they still wouldn't listen. It doesn't help that he's sent enough gifts to fill my house even after I kicked him out. Now it's not just LC that's pushing me to mate with him. Even Alph
Sweat trickles down my hairline, back, and the valley between my breasts. I spent the last hour running because my wolf is hiding. She's still hurting from Fred's rejection. As much as I hate to admit it, LC was right. Saying the words isn't the end. A week after rejecting each other, my wolf became depressed. Which means I am also depressed. Negative thoughts have been popping out of nowhere. All of a sudden, I'd wonder if I wasn't pretty enough for Fred. Then I'd start thinking about his mate and how she looks. If she's better than me. More than once, I've caught myself on the way out to go looking for him and ask him that. He showed me a picture of his children but not her. Judging by how beautiful they were, I'd say she's pretty. But Nova just told me the other day that he would leave his fated for me. Why couldn't Fred leave his chosen for me? Was LC right? Should I hunt them down and break them up so we can all be miserable? Will that make me happy? It's thoughts like these tha
"I'm going for a run" I call out pulling the front door open and slipping outside. LC is still busy calculating what she'll do with the money to pay me any attention. If she looked up, she'd see that I'm not dressed for running or doing any exercise. Granted I'm not taking any luggage in case I bump into someone and they go talking but she could at least look up. I don't know when I'll see her again. I'm not even sure where I'll end up. But I have to go. Glancing one last time at her, I step out and close the door behind me. Aside from my phone, I have a purse with my savings and ID card. In case things don't work out where I'm going, I can have some money to relocate. As I walk towards the east, I take in Bittercrest for possibly the last time. There's no guarantee I'll be coming back. We've moved to so many packs that a part of me resented LC for uprooting us. I wished we would stay in one place and never move again. I wanted to plant roots so my kids could have a place they called
Past I'm an almost eighteen-year-old virgin and Walter thinks it's time I get some experience under my belt since I'm about to shift. His argument was that it would be embarrassing if I met my mate and didn't know what to do with her. Being blind doesn't mean I'm inexperienced in other areas. But he's my older brother and I know he only wants to help. Out of everyone, only Walter and Dad don't treat me like a disabled person. They don't feel sorry for me or whisper behind my back the way others do. I think the rest of the pack doesn't understand that my other senses work just fine. Maybe a bit too fine if you asked me. Especially my hearing. I could be sitting in the pack house but hear a conversation that's going on at the other end of the territory. Compared to humans, wolves have advanced abilities but our sense of smell is the sharpest. In my case, I've come to realize that every other sense is better than even my father's. Walter once told me that maybe i
Past I almost crumbled right there. I've never had anyone speak to me like that. He's the cutest boy I've ever met but he has the filthiest mouth. Not five minutes after we met and he was offering to pay me double to sleep with him. At first, I thought he was pretending to be blind. These disabilities are rarely found in werewolves. They're not unheard of. Just happens like once in a decade or a millennium. So my first thought was that he was pretending to be blind so he could sleep with me. But it's real. Not that it bothers me in any way. I could spend all day staring at his handsome face. It's even better since he can't see me doing it. I wonder why he needed to pay someone to sleep with him. I wouldn't need money to do it. His hand lands on top of mine then slide up my arm and to my neck to hold my face."You have the smoothest skin," he says rubbing his nose along my cheek. Should I stop him? There's no way he'd want to have sex here. Right? Do I want to
"Why? What's wrong?" "I just... I can't be here, Hector. Please turn..." Someone knocks on his window, cutting me off. Hector rolls it down. I half expect to find Kaden standing there but I remind myself that he's blind. He won't receive visitors. Besides, the pack members won't let him do anything. He's probably screwing his mate in that cabin or in their house. Or maybe he's trying to put their pups to sleep. Bile rises up my throat, and I struggle to swallow it down, blinking against the tears that are threatening to spill out. This is so much worse than mating with Logan. I'd rather go back and do it than hide out here. "I'll have some guys unload the cargo. Come with me. We prepared a room for you. I bet you'd both kill to lie on a bed" "You have no idea" Hector pushes his door open and gets out while I continue to sit there, frozen, my insides twisted into knots. Images of Kaden kissing his mate pass through my mind. The both of them walking hand in hand with a little girl