04

They all nodded at his suggestion, seemingly happy with the decision. « Makes sense. When it comes to the ride home, my dad mentioned that he would send wolves to pick us up if we needed. » Dylan added.

I just listened to their conversation as they continued to talk about Alpha Gabriel’s party. My wolf was paying more attention than me, her presence in the front of my mind as she focused on their discussion.

I didn’t take any notice ; my wolf had been showing herself more the past few weeks than she had in the last year. I assumed she had slowly gotten over her own grief from the death of my parents.

« What about you Lara, are you coming with us ? »

Chloe’s hopeful tone had me mentally groaning. I had never been the party type ; sure, I had been to them, but it wasn’t something I made a regular thing.

I thought about it for a moment, it was either attend the party or have combat training with Alpha Jaxon. Both options made me unhappy, but I’d rather go to a party than suffer training with the Alpha.

« I’ll go. » I confirmed. « I need to grab something to wear while were here though. »

Shopping with Chloe was the definition of torture, she would walk around the whole shop and then walk around it again. She was a nightmare to shop with whereas I was the opposite.

I quickly found the dress I wanted to wear, it was a sleek black dress with thin straps, and it hugged every curve on my body and stopped an inch or two above my knees.

Finally, after another hour of shopping, Chloe had finally chosen her dress. After purchasing both items, we made our way back to the guys who were purchasing some new trainers.

We all said our goodbyes before heading in different directions. Dylan and I walked towards his car ; he had taken my bags from me as we walked through the food court.

As soon as we approached the car, he opened the trunk placing my bags in there before jumping into the driver’s seat.

« I’m glad you’re coming Saturday. I’ve met Gabriel, his Beta Dan and his Third in Command Eli. » Dylan sent me a reassuring smile, he knew that I liked to keep my life simple, parties weren’t my usual event.

I work more than socialise with my friends ; it was just the way I liked to live my life.

« Yeah, I’m sure it will be fine. It’s good for me to get out a little more. I have quite a few shifts next week so it will be nice to enjoy myself at the weekend. » I responded.

Now noticing that we had pulled into our driveway, I jumped out, grabbing my new clothes before heading straight upstairs to my room.

Grace and Julian had informed us this morning that they were having dinner with Alpha Jaxon and his mate Rose.

Dylan mentioned it to Reed earlier and we all agreed to order pizza but for now, I wanted to get a few hours rest ahead of training tomorrow.

I still felt exhausted from the past few weeks of extra training, extra patrol shifts and just feeling down in myself in general.

I left my new purchase in the bag, hanging it off my make-up chair before throwing on a large top and stripping to my underwear, sliding myself into bed and under my comforter.

~*~

Thursday night came by quickly, my border patrol shift had been quiet. I had been running the border with Elle for most of my shift, we stuck to the south side staying close to the edge.

Elle’s parents were both trackers, and she was still in training since she had only shifted around six months ago. Her wolf was like mine ; she had a blonde coat with specs of brown except mine had brown paws.

I was bigger and stronger in stature ; my training more vigorous than hers since she had just started out and the nature of my wolf being a warrior.

It was coming up the end of our shift and Elle and I would always finish at the hilltop, that looks down onto our pack territory. We would always race there ; wolves love a competition and our rivalry amused me.

‘Come on Elle, taking it slow today ?’ I laughed through our mind link, she was close behind, I could feel her presence a few feet to the left of me.

She growled in reply, her paws digging into the ground as she forced herself forward. The muscles in both our bodies exerting themselves as we powered through the forest, jumping and ducking over fallen trees and branches.

‘I’m nearly there.’ I teased just before I launched myself over the finish line which we allocated as a tree stump to stop ourselves from going too close to the edge of the hill.

‘You always win,’ She huffed, laying down on her paws to help slow down her heart rate. My own heart was beating rapidly after running for over 3 hours. ‘You could let me win sometimes ; you know.’

‘I shifted nearly two years ago, you’re newly shifted and still in training. You never know, you might one day win against me.’ I replied, laying down beside her, the warmth of our bodies creating a nice heat as our fur touched.

I laid my head on top of my paws, feeling Elle do the same as we remained in a comfortable silence.

I noticed Elle was more reserved than normal tonight ; she wasn’t as talkative preferring the silence over her usual chatter.

I debated in my mind whether to ask if she was alright. I knew how I liked to deal with situations myself, I was more the suffer in silence type.

Before I could go against my better judgment, Elle’s voice entered my mind.

‘Lara, can I ask you something ?’ She went ridged and tense besides me, shifting herself a little.

‘Sure, course you can.’

She sighed ; her voice tinted with sadness as she questions me about my feelings toward having a mate.

‘It’s extraordinary and special, I’d like to feel the way my parents did about each other with my own mate. I’m not in a rush to find him, but I hope that when I do it’s everything that it’s made out to be. The tingles, the sparks, the need and want to be around them, a connection nobody else can feel but the two of you.’

She never responded, the line in my mind known from the absence of sound.

A thought popped up in my mind, and I wondered if she had already experienced what I had described, that maybe it didn’t end in the way she had hoped. ‘Elle, have you found your mate ?’

I peered up at her to see her nod her head, her wolf showing the raw emotions in her eyes. Sadness, rejection, and desperation.

‘Oh Elle, what happened ?’

‘He hasn’t rejected me, but he’s pushing me away, he doesn’t know what to do. He was in a relationship with another wolf in our pack and he’s worried about hurting her. Yet he can’t see that he’s hurting me more.’

‘It will be alright Elle ; you’ll both work it out. You should talk to him about it, the longer you both leave it, the worse it will be.’

‘You’re right,’ She sighed, clearly in deep thought. ‘We should head home ; I’m going to confront him about it tomorrow before Gabriel’s party. Otherwise, it’s only going to be awkward and it needs to be sorted.’

I nodded my head, standing back up on all fours as she followed, bumping my shoulder into hers as we raced towards home.

I spent the majority of Saturday in bed watching whatever I could find on the television. Chloe had phoned me say that both her and Elle would be arriving around 7 o’clock to pick me up.

We had all changed plans, the guys wanted to get to the party earlier which meant Chloe was going to drive us girls down and leave her vehicle there overnight.

Apparently, the party was being held in the Alpha’s old house. They had moved and were renovating their old property into a second pack house since their numbers were increasing and needed more space.