Chapter 4
"The worst feeling is falling for someone and knowing that they won't be there to catch you.” – Rashida Rowe
Rose’s POV
Aiden was undeniably attractive. Any girl with eyes could see that. He had an air of power about him, but that didn’t mean I wanted to mate with him. This was way too much.
Taking deep calming breaths like Aiden had guided me to do earlier, I ignored my pounding heart and trailed behind him, wondering what he wanted to say.
"Look…I’m sorry if this is all too much for you." His words came quickly as we stood facing each other. I made a concentrated effort not to get lost in his eyes. "But I…I’m committed to someone else. I can’t be your mate."
"It’s not like I expect you to," I replied honestly, focusing on this one small thing that I felt I had control over. "You should be able to choose who you want to be with. I don’t know much about werewolves, but I do know what a mating ceremony is." I shuddered at the thought. "That’s not something I’d want to do with someone I don’t love. "
"You know…that’s why they want to bring you back," he explained patiently,looking down at me with his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans. "They hope we’ll get to know each other and develop feelings. But I don’t want to lead you on.
I already promised myself to someone else.
" Aiden's gaze was steady. I took in his interesting choice of words. “Promised myself” instead of “love”.
"Do you want to go back? To be with your pack and father?" He looked at me with raised eyebrows, the moonlight highlighting the angular planes of his face.
I shrugged. "I don’t know about the pack, but I do know I want to get to know my dad." I chose my words carefully. "Even if I go back, I won’t expect anything from you," I assured him. "I want to be with someone for love. I want to fall in love."
I smiled softly at the thought. Life was too precious to waste on someone I didn’t love.
For a moment, Aiden looked surprised. Then, shaking his head, he forced a smile.
“As long as we understand each other," he said.
I turned back toward the house, my mind spinning. What now? Should I join the pack and dive into this new life—or stay where I felt safe?
One week later…
In the end, my dad won out, and I found myself packing up everything with Auntie Hilda to move back to pack territory.
Around that time, I finally mustered up the courage to exchange numbers with Jake so we could keep in touch.
I didn’t think my leaving would bother him much, but to my surprise, he’d been visibly upset when he found out I was moving.
He’d never remotely shown any real interest in me before. But I couldn’t shake the memory of how agitated he’d been when I told him. He kept going on about how I was pretty cool for always helping him out. We had exchanged not only phone numbers but email addresses as well.
Now, as Auntie Hilda’s flashy car sped toward pack territory, I checked my email and text messages for the fiftieth time, hoping—maybe even foolishly—that Jake had sent me something.
“So all our money was actually coming from the pack funds?” I asked, sighing as I put my phone aside.
Disappointment over Jake’s silence gnawed at me, but I pushed it down.
I knew what I was doing. I was concentrating on Jake to quell the nerves about joining a new school.
I was still upset over everyone lying to me, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to get to know my father.
Auntie Hilda nodded enthusiastically, bobbing her head up and down with the music.
“The previous alpha dispersed funds for us. I do have my own money—that’s how I bought this baby here.” She patted the dashboard of her car lovingly. “But all of our living expenses were paid for by the pack so we could make sure you had a good life growing up.”
A lump formed in my throat. All this time, I thought it had just been the two of us against the world. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine an entire group of people standing in the shadows as my support system.
“We’re here!” Auntie Hilda’s excited voice jolted me from my thoughts.
I swallowed hard, mentally bracing myself as I stared at the entrance to the place that was supposed to be my true home—the world I was woefully ignorant about.
As soon as Auntie Hilda and I stepped into the alpha’s mansion, a woman with short brown hair and eyes the same color as Alpha Aidan’s rushed over and pulled me into a big hug.
“You can call me Josie, Rose!” she exclaimed, her voice full of warmth. “My, you’ve grown! You are going to be a spectacular luna!”
She pulled back to give me a once-over, her eyes misting over.
“Mom, she doesn’t know the first thing about the pack, let alone being a luna!” Aiden scoffed from where he was leaning against the foyer’s entryway.
I shot him a glare, noting the double doors behind him that led into the huge conference room where my welcome party was taking place.
Ever since my return had been announced, everyone assumed I was going to be the next luna.
That fact clearly grated on Aiden’s nerves, and his anger had latched onto the one person who was just as helpless as he was—me.
Was it fair? No. But I didn’t want to create unnecessary drama so I chose to ignore him.
“Aiden!” Josie admonished, turning on him. “That’s not very nice! Rose is beautiful and a smart young woman! Do not underestimate her!”
“It’s okay,” I said, keeping my voice nonchalant.
I shrugged as if his words didn’t bother me, then made a beeline for the refreshments.
But inside, it did bother me. I was short and plump, constantly wondering when the awkward lumps on my body would give way to the hourglass figure Auntie Hilda always promised would show up one day.
I hated my chipmunk cheeks—the very ones that made everyone think I was still a child.
But no one would ever know how much Aiden’s words had actually stung.
Josie, however, wasn’t letting him off the hook.
“Aiden Austin Sinclair!” she scolded, rounding on him with a voice so shrill that almost everyone in the room turned to see their powerful alpha being reprimanded by his petite mother, who usually doted on him.
To his credit, Aiden didn’t get angry—not even a little—despite the very public scolding.
“She’s a lovely young lady, Aiden!”
“She is not my mate!” Aiden retorted coolly, his hand going around the beautiful blonde next to him. She was tall and skinny, holding a designer handbag in one hand and wearing a leopard print dress.
She was exactly the type of woman men like Aiden ended up with.
“No one’s asking you to take her as your mate right now!
” Josie stated. “We’ll revisit this topic once things settle down.
You be nice to her and make her feel welcome.
That’s all anyone is asking from you. No need to be so rude.
She’s part of the pack and your responsibility, just like everyone else in this pack. ”
Aiden didn’t say another word, though he looked like he wanted to. Instead, he merely snaked an arm around his girlfriend's waist.
“I am so sorry about this,” Josie whispered to me as she led me to the drinks table. “Aiden is usually a nice, cheerful boy. But ever since his father passed away, his entire demeanor changed. He’s become more serious…more solemn. And very rude too,” Josie added angrily, shooting her son a glare.
I could understand being overwhelmed. But it didn’t make his comments hurt any less.
“Let’s get out of here, baby,” I heard his girlfriend, Lexia, coo.
I turned to spot her running her perfectly manicured fingers through his dark locks. He didn’t hesitate, and with a mischievous grin, he pulled her out of the pack house.
Meanwhile, I clenched my plastic cup a little too tightly.
You are not supposed to expect anything from him, I scolded myself.
But that didn’t stop the sting of rejection.
Ever since I’d met him, I couldn’t get his achingly handsome face out of my mind. He had those dark blue eyes—eyes that reminded me of comfort, of home.
No. Stop.
I shook myself out of it just as people started gathering around for introductions. I forced a smile, letting them welcome me. And in all honesty, it felt good to finally be part of something.
I owed it to these people to be what they needed me to be.
Weeks turned into months and I slowly assimilated into the pack.
I made friends with a warrior-in-training, Layla.
She took me under her wing and showed me the ropes of pack life.
I even made friends with Aiden’s younger brother Anthony–Tony, as everyone called him.
He took over as Beta a few months after my arrival.
Dad joined the Council of Elders that had the power to veto decisions made by the pack alpha. It was interesting watching Dad butt heads with Aiden constantly. Amidst all of this, I finally got to know my father.
He took me around the pack territory, explaining the significance of each area.
Some parts were more fertile than others, ideal for farming.
A creek ran through the land, home to unique aquatic life and special plants.
I knew he was teaching me the lay of the land in hopes that I would one day become luna.
But he didn’t see what I saw.
Aiden wasn’t interested in me—at least, not in any romantic way. Now that I lived in the pack and attended high school here, I got to witness firsthand the epic love story of Aiden and Lexia. She was the daughter of an alpha from a neighboring pack. They had gone to high school
It was exactly what I had always wanted for myself.
I was a hopeless romantic.
Sometimes, during class, I’d wonder about the what-ifs. What if no one had tried to abduct me as a baby? Maybe Aiden and I would have grown up together, fallen in love naturally, knowing we were fated to be mates from the start.
But that wasn’t how things worked out.
He loved someone else.
In all honesty, I didn’t love him. It was just the thought of what I had lost—the opportunity to love him—that made me wistful.
Still, I couldn’t deny the slight sense of relief when Aiden announced he was leaving to pursue his studies abroad in the spring of my senior year.
Lexia was going with him. He had enrolled in an exchange program for his bachelor’s degree that required two years of study in Europe.
Tony and Ezra would run things in his absence.
He would be gone for two years before enrolling into the local university to finish his degree.
On the eve of his departure, the pack threw him a farewell party. That’s when Aiden pulled me aside, leading me to the back lawn of the alpha residence.
“How are you doing, Rose? Do you like it here?” he asked, his gaze meeting mine.
I hesitated before answering. The evening was unusually cold for June.
Carefully, I sat down on the metal swing situated on the back lawn.There was a small slide attached to it, and I pretended to study it.
It was easier to think when I didn’t have to stare into his deep blue eyes—the color of the sky after a thunderstorm.
“I’ll be starting University in the fall, and thanks to the college level classes I took, I’m actually a sophmore,” I finally said slowly, keeping my eyes averted.
I was pretty proud of the fact that I would graduate within three years with a bachelors in pre-med.
“I’m passing my time by getting familiar with members of the pack.
Josie is helping me. Everyone in the pack has been really nice. ”
I wondered what he wanted. He had spent months ignoring me, so why was he suddenly interested in speaking to me tonight? A sinking feeling settled in my chest. I looked up at him sharply.
“Do you…do you want me to leave?” I asked warily.
“No, Rose, I don’t want you to leave,” Aiden assured me softly. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. Listen, Rose—” He exhaled before pushing forward. “We still don’t know who’s been planning to harm you since you were a baby…or whatever half-werewolf infants are called.”
I studied him as he came to stand in front of me. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes… something flickered in them. Out of nowhere, he reached down and clasped my hands in his.
A jolt shot through me, searing and electric.
Aiden flinched, dropping my hands as if they had burned him.
I gasped. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” he said quickly. Too quickly. “It was nothing, Rose.”
“No.” I stood abruptly, the metal swing hitting the backs of my knees, eyes wide. “I know you felt it too, Aiden.”
His expression darkened. “That’s Alpha Aiden to you,” he growled.
Something in his voice sent a shiver down my spine, but I refused to back down. I shouldn’t have called him by his name. We weren’t friends. But he didn’t have to be so mean about it.
“Alpha Aiden,” I corrected stiffly. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you and brought you out here only to end up yelling at you.”
I made sure my tone was pointed—after all, he had pulled me aside.
For a second, it almost looked like he wanted to laugh. But he didn’t. His whole body was tense, his mood sour. He was avoiding me for a reason. And now, I had a feeling I knew why.
The mate bond. That electrifying jolt had been because of the mate bond.
“Look,” he said, running a hand through his dark hair. “I just want you to be careful while I’m gone. Your father has been given additional authority as Alpha Regent. Tony will make sure no one targets you. You’re in good hands, but keep your guard up.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. “Thank you, Alpha.”
“You’re part of my pack. It’s my responsibility to make sure you’re safe.” His eyes flicked to my upper arm, where my mark was visible beneath my tank top. “Keep that covered, especially when you aren’t on pack territory.”
I simply nodded again, kicking a small stone with my sneaker. I didn’t want to talk to him anymore. I didn’t want to acknowledge how much this affected me. He was leaving tomorrow. Why did that hurt?
Aiden hesitated before speaking again, his tone softer this time. “I’ll see you around.” Then, with a small smirk, he added, “Come on, Princess, the least you could do is give me one of your beautiful smiles before I leave. One for the road?”
I looked up, startled. He thought my smile was beautiful?
Before I could stop myself, a small smile broke across my face. It wasn’t hard when I was staring into those deep blue eyes, when his grinning face made his dimples stand out.
Damn it, why did he have to be so breathtakingly handsome?
He started walking backward, giving me a mock salute before finally turning to rejoin the party. I watched him go, then looked up at the full moon.
They said mates were a gift from the Moon Goddess.
So what had I done wrong for mine to be so royally messed up?