Tears of anger were strolling down my cheeks, my hands clenched in my hair and mindlessly pulling at it. My feet gave up in front of an empty indoor smoking area and ever since I've been trying to get myself together. But my emotions were winning against every shield of brute will I was putting, shattering them into pieces as little as the raindrops falling outside. I couldn't leave this place in the state I'm in, not only because of the gossips I'll start if those familiar hunters are still in the foyer but of the war that will erupt if I'll walk back to Hayder's car like a wailing willow. But I can't stay for too long here either, as Asher will figure out something is off at some point. And the panic that I need to gather myself breaks me even further. I see no escape from this.
I always tell myself that this is the time I'll stand up for myself against him, but he wins every single time. All my will and strength evaporates like water in a desert, and I'm left as a defenceless little girl against the big, bad monster in front of me. I have no idea why I act this way... why is Thomas the only person I can't fight, as much as I wish I could? Maybe because I didn't imagine that the man I could've sworn I'll love for the rest of my life will become my nemesis. Even if, I could've realised he's the enemy the first time he betrayed me. Or the second. Or the third... Had it not have been Asher, I'd have forgiven him this time again. Like I always did.
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I answer right away. "I'll be out in a minute," I tell Asher, surprised at how flawlessly steady my voice sounded.
"Do you want me to pick you up?"
"No need, I'm already walking to the exit," as I speak, I sit up from the chair I've crashed on and walked to the exit.
I've looked at my reflection into a mirror as I was hurrying to exit the hotel and I was looking pretty decently for someone who just poured her eyes out. "See you," I tell Asher, before hanging the phone call and sweeping the few drops of mascara under my eyes. I pumped my lips once before my attention fell on my scratched neck. I raised my overcoat's collar, hiding the bruise I know will appear there very soon.
I step out of the hotel and hurry to the car. The rain almost stopped, but a cold wind was reigning now in its place. Asher was leaning by the car, watching me carefully as I approaching him. His arms were crossed and he looked very serious, for some reason. I don't say anything and walk to the car door. Asher turns on his heels and looks at me over the hood of the car.
"You should've called," he says, before entering the car. I don't understand his words until my eyes go back to the hotel and see the windows of the indoor smoking area. I could visualise exactly the seat I sat on, offering the Lycans a front-row ticket to my mental breakdown.
I don't say anything when I enter the car and neither do they. Not even Hayder doesn't dare to pry about what happened, keeping himself focused on the road and driving more careful than ever. My eyes drift to Asher, but his were locked on the window, his hands clenched and face contorted by anger.
"What now?" Finally asks Hayder just as he stops the car on his usual space at the pack's car park.
"I don't know," I say and exit the car, walking ahead of them to the packhouse.
It was a cloudy and pretty cold day so the wolves weren't wandering around the premises aimlessly, the only ones outside were the guards. The four of us stopped in the living room, taking a seat at the table in the centre of the room.
"You said you already tried asking Kale for help?" Asks Chase and Asher and I nod simultaneously.
"He said it's not within his area of expertise," says Asher and I sigh.
"You're already home?" Asks Bee, coming from upstairs with Phoebe and Tiara.
"Did you find out anything?" Comes Phoebe's question and I look dumbfounded at Asher. How did they find out already?
"Pack telepathy," answers Hayder for his cousin.
"And a curious mate," adds Chase when Bee approaches him. She just gives him an offended smirk and sits next to him at the table.
"So?" Chimes in Tiara, taking the chair next to me. "Did he tell you anything?"
"He did, but not what I wanted." Tiara looks confused by my answer and I sigh before explaining. "He didn't want to answer my questions, he just mocked me like always."
"What an asshole!" Shouts Tiara, taking everyone by surprise with her swearing, except me who I burst laughing. "Asher, tell me you kicked his ass this time!"
My laughter stops suddenly and Tiara realises she really messed up when Asher gets up from the table and leaves without saying a word. He slams the door on his way out so hard that a few werewolves came running downstairs. Among them was Adam who took a look at his mate and our group, before dismissing his pack mates and approaching us.
"I assume the mission went as good as Kale's barbecue dinner on Ancestors' Day?" He asks his mate and I just decide to leave too.
At the base of the staircase, Tiara catches me and motions me to follow her to the second floor. We walk to one of the rooms in the middle of the hallway and enter it. The dormitory was painted in pink, purple and other traditional girly colours, with posters of a British boy band and pictures of Tiara and her family.
"I want to help," says Tiara out of nowhere, making my eyes shift from the photos to her. "I can find out what happened that day if you want."
"How?" I ask, and although I shouldn't take the word of a 16-year old for serious, the determined look on the girl's face made me give her proposal a try.
"The vampires..."
"Thank you, but no, Tiara." I was ready to walk out of her room, but she stopped me again.
"Let me finish! I won't ask them, at least not directly. I-... I have someone on the inside." She whispers the last part and I figured out I'm about to find out some major secret about the pack's princess. I sit on the chair in front of her desk and wait for her to explain to me.
"Last summer, after the First-Turn ceremony, the other kids and I decided to have a party in the woods, like wolves." She sits in the bed, taking a break before continuing.
American werewolves activate their curse later than European ones, apparently. At sixteen years old, a British werewolf has already completed his combat training and is regarded as a full fighter for the pack's army. But Tiara and the rest of the children her age, have barely started training and will only be able to take part in battles after their twentieth birthday.
"And we may have wondered past the pack's territory and ended in Boulder." She fidgets with her hair as she tells this part of the story, clearly nervous for revealing such incriminating things not only to her but to her friends too. "We didn't know until we ended up at some old playground, where some kids my age saw us lurking around. The rest of my friends ran that instant, but I couldn't. I was drawn to that place... to someone that was there actually. He finally looked to where his friends were pointing and when our eyes finally met, I knew what had happened. I may have remained there long enough to get caught if one of my pack mates didn't return for me. I ran from back home, my heart breaking with every mile further apart from him. I couldn't resist the pain, so I returned the next day as a human and met my mate, Aaron."
"How comes he's not here? Or that I haven't heard about him until now?" Although Tiara is quite young now, I know that mates move together when they meet regardless of what age that happens. Even if it's in a parent's house until they become adults, they can't stand being apart from the moment they find each other.
Asher told me this when I accepted to spend the nights in the pack from now on, after the incident with the vampires. I would have accepted to move my things here too if it did have a purpose. But because I'm only staying in Boulder for less than a week, it'd have been just a waste of time. And I wouldn't want Asher to be the one having to pack my things after I'm gone.
"Well, he's a dhampir..."