"Call me as soon as you arrive." Amelia stated, walking down the steps with her arm wrapped in Sarise's.
Jacob stood beside the back-passenger door of a large black luxury car; hands pushed into the pockets of his pants as he watched the women walking down the stairs.
"Honestly you're worse than my mother." Sarise laughed when they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Just promise me you'll call." Amelia repeated and Sarise laughed, kissing her cheek.
"Okay mum." She answered, stepping back and winking at her. "Wanna give me a chat about the birds and the bees before I go as well?"
Amelia poked her tongue out at her before looking at Jacob.
"She's all yours Jacob." Amelia called and Sarise glanced between the two.
"Have you provided my dowry?" She joked, winking at Amelia.
Amelia merely laughed, slapping her arm lightly before reaching over and kissing Jacob's cheek.
"I'd say take care of her." Amelia stated, looking at Sarise before turning at Jacob "But I think it's you that's going to need the help."
Jacob inclined his head lightly, pulling the door open and stepping aside for Sarise.
Sarise turned to Amelia, biting her lip lightly and Amelia grabbed her, hugging her tightly.
"Call me." Amelia whispered and Sarise nodded.
"As soon as I get to Intelligence Pack." She answered, stepping back and wiping a tear from her cheek. "I got it mum."
Amelia frowned at her playfully, rubbing the top of her arms and Sarise turned to the car, climbing into it.
Jacob shut the door behind her, walking around the back of the car adjusting his jacket.
When he reached the back door of driver's side of the car, he inclined his head to Amelia over roof of the car, pulling the door open and climbing in.
Sarise put her hand on the window, mouthing goodbye to Amelia as the car drove away.
As they pulled around the fountain Sarise turned in the seat, watching through the back window as Noah stepped and wrapped his arms around Amelia.
She sighed, biting her lip, fighting back her tears as she waved her best friend goodbye.
"It's not like you won't see each other again." Jacob stated beside her and Sarise turned to glare at him.
"Don't talk to me!" She snapped, turning in the seat and looking out the window.
"You're angry?" He pointed out and Sarise snorted.
"Angry doesn't even begin to describe how I'm feeling." She snapped, not taking her gaze off the landscape. "I got an hour to decide whether I was going to come with you or not."
"You didn't have to." Jacob pointed out and Sarise turned to glare at him, seeing he was reading a file.
"You know as well as I do, that I had next to no choice!" She snapped.
"We always have a choice Sarise." He pointed out again. "You made the choice, don't be angry at me because of your decision."
Sarise ground her teeth and turned back to window, watching the landscape whip past as they drove through the city.
"Were you like this when you left Zone Nine?" He questioned and Sarise growled lightly.
"Like what?" She demanded.
"Angry at Amelia." He added, flicking a page within the file.
"I had ample time to make my decision." She snapped, crossing her arms across her breasts like a sulky child.
"Yes, a few hours from what I've been told." Jacob added and Sarise turned to glare at him.
"You've known for nearly thirteen hours that we're mates." He glanced up at her. "At what stage did you think you wouldn't be returning with me to Intelligence Pack?"
She went to speak yet clamped her mouth closed, turning to look out the window again.
He was right of course.
Neither of them had rejected the other and over the passing hours the bond between them had grown.
She could hear her wolf demanding to be pleasured by the man beside her, demanding to be marked.
"No response?" He questioned.
"Don't talk to me!" She snapped.
"I assume your temper is a defence mechanism?" He added and she turned to look at him, seeing he was still reading the file in his hand again.
She rolled her eyes and heard him growl lightly.
"What did I say about rolling your eyes." He snapped, glancing up at her.
"Are you always like this?" She asked and he raised an eyebrow in question closing the file in his hand.
"Like what?" He enquired
"Egotistical." She answered and he shook his head lightly at the comment.
"Generally speaking, yes this is what I'm like." He answered, looking at her lightly. "Although most people wouldn't call me egotistical."
She rolled her eyes again, hearing a light growl from him.
"So, people just call you condescending then?" She quipped hearing the driver chuckle from the front before she turned to look out the window again.
"You would be the first to voice such an opinion openly." Jacob stated, glancing at the driver as Sarise snorted.
"I'm surprised you don't hear it on a daily basis." She retorted.
"You are aware of who I am?" He pointed and she turned to look at him.
"A patronising man with a position?" She asked, throwing him a mocking smile and he shook his head lightly, a smile dusting his face as he looked out the window.
"I have no qualms with who I am." He said lightly, before turning to look at her with his light green eyes.
"Although I assume people think much the same about you." He said lightly as she frowned at him. "You also have quite the patronising nature."
"You know nothing about me." She snapped, looking out the window again.
"I know enough." He answered, looking at the graceful line of her neck. "Although I do wonder why you never decided to continue your education after high school." Sarise turned to glare at him.
"Obviously you don't understand the Zones as well as you think." She snapped again and Jacob raised an eyebrow.
"Enlighten me then." He offered, putting the file on the seat between them.
"Most people in the Zone's don't even finish high school let alone go on to tertiary education." She stated, snorting at him lightly.
"Then how is it you are so educated?" He asked and she turned to him. "I was surprised when I discovered you had only a high school education."
"Meaning?" She snapped again and he smiled, shaking his head lightly.
"You are more educated than you let on." He pointed out. "I was intrigued as to your track of thought during the meeting this morning."
"I've always been inquisitive. My parents used to tell me I was a natural genius." She answered, folding her arms across her breasts.
"Yet you never followed through with your education after high school." He added.
"My parents are the lowest of the low in the Zones." He answered, looking at him angrily. "They couldn't afford to send me and no one from the Zones..."
"We have scholarships." Jacob pointed out. "And there have been plenty of people from the Zones who have studied at the universities and trade schools in Intelligence Pack." He leaned forward lightly. "It sounds like an excuse."
Sarise's frown deepened as she glared at him.
"I'm the oldest in my family." She snapped. "Once I left high school I tried to provide for my family. My parents are old, broken from a lifetime of hard labour of trying to provide for my sister and I so..."
"You tried to gain employment right out of high school." He said with a nod. "Yet until you were offered a position as Amelia's Beta you've been unable to find a stable full-time job."
"It's not that easy..." Sarise began and Jacob cut her off.
"Your sister, is she a natural genius as well?" He asked and Sarise frowned at him.
"She is exceptionally talented." She answered and he nodded lightly.
"So, what have you done for the last five years since you left high school?" He asked, looking out the window as they slowly left the city.
"Other than tried to find a steady job?" She asked and he looked at her nodding.
"I spent time at the library. I'm curious by nature and like to find out everything I can about everything." She pointed out, folding her arms across her breasts.
"Surprisingly enough the Zones have access to an extensive library, remnants of the Pack." She snorted, turning back to the window. "It's probably the only thing of the Alphas that survived."
"Yes, the revered renegade Alphas of packs long gone." Jacob drooled, turning back to look out the window and Sarise turned to glare at him.
"Better to revere a memory than rely someone who could care less about the welfare of the people they're meant to protect." She snapped and Jacob turned to her in an almost lazy manner.
"Let me tell you about your precious heroes." He said lightly. "They defied a King, tried to have him assassination and started a war that killed tens of thousands of our kind, made children orphans, women widows, and destroyed lands before they were stopped and..."
"Murdered you mean." She pointed out. "There are still some in the Zones that know the story of The Cull." She turned from him and he frowned. "They're more than happy to tell the tale to those that will listen."
The Cull, the assassination of the renegade Alphas and their bloodline that had been ordered by Caius in order to show dominance over the packs.
It was the most notorious act that the wolves had ever inflicted upon their own kind and since then it had been wiped from history.
Callum the first, son of Caius had seen that history was rewritten, anyone who spoke of The Cull was imprisoned or banished.
While it had inevitably ended the war, it had tarnished the reputation of the Royal Family, many too scared to defy Callum as they believed he would do as his father had done.
Over the centuries the Alphas had insured that the knowledge of The Cull had remained a baseless rumour, making sure teachings stuck to the doctored history that Callum had engineered.
For the most part it had worked and there were very few, a thousand years later; who knew of the dark events that ended the Pack War.
It seemed however that the story of The Cull survived in the lands of the Zones, but then again, they were former Pack Lands and the people who lived there would constantly feel the lack of bond due to the absence of their Alpha.
Even though Jacob governed the Zones Four, Five and Six he had no bond to the land or its people.
His zones were former Independence Pack Lands and most of the people living within them were of Independence bloodlines.
"Nothing to say Alpha." Sarise breathed, not taking her attention from the landscape outside the window.
Jacob growled, turning his attention back out the window as he spoke.
"There is no point trying to sway the opinion of someone who refuses to believe otherwise." He stated, sticking to the thousand-year-old tale and Sarise spun to look at him.
"The people in the Zones will believe anything that will give them some sort of redemption from the events that saw them lose the war."
"Do you have any idea how the people in the Zones live!" She snapped and he turned to her. "In squalor. The Regulators chosen a thousand years ago to govern the lands handpicked from the packs of the victors. Even now they only breed with pure blood!"
He went to speak but she continued.
"Heaven forbid their precious bloodline mix with that of the zones, of the bloodlines of defeated wolves that are forced to live in subjugation. The people of the Zones, descendants of the so-called renegade packs that are continuously punished for crimes we didn't commit in a historical tale that has been doctored to suit the victors!"
Her brilliant blue eyes flashed aqua for a second, barely noticeable if you weren't paying attention yet he had seen it.
His eyes narrowed at what it meant.
She rolled her eyes, turning from him and without thinking he grabbed her, pulling her across the seat until her torso lay on his lap, head resting against his right arm.
"I thought I had mentioned how I hate eye rolling." He stated as she glared up at him.
"You're impossible!" She snapped, going to sit up when he bent down, touching his lips to hers.
"And your exquisite when you're angry." He added as she shot him another glare and he let her get up.
"Don't think a kiss will make it all better." She snapped "I'm still pissed at you!" She sat beside him and folding her arms across her breasts.
"I assume that's your way of winning an intellectual argument!"
"I enjoy the fact that you're more than happy to have an intelligent argument with me." He stated laying his hand on her thigh.
"Goddess knows no one else will." He added, removing his hand and turned his attention back to the scenery outside the window.