CHAPTER TWELVE
Cade
I’ll never forget how I felt the first time I saw her.
I’d missed the first day back at school because I’d been out with a couple of members from my pack trying to track down a rogue that had shown up a few days before.
We’d managed to track him to the town’s border but then his tracks had just vanished. It was never a good thing to have a rogue roaming in your territory. I had to up the patrols and security around my property.
The only reason I’d been waiting outside the school was to talk to Blake. I was leaning against my car with a couple of girls keeping me company when the smell of wild daisies hit me and I looked to the source standing at the entrance of the school.
It wasn’t her outer beauty that kept my eyes glued to her. There was something about her—maybe it was the confident air about her or the defiant way her eyes had clashed with mine.
When I’d watched her walk over to the beautiful Maserati I’d raced the day before, my interest in her had gone up a level. The thought of a girl being able to drive a car like that made her sexier than before.
She was so different from the girls I was used to. She was like a breath of fresh air and I couldn’t dispute the fact that I wanted her.
When I’d found out from Blake that she didn’t know what a pack meant and he was convinced she had no idea she was one of us, I’d felt protective of her. That protectiveness had made me watch over her that night from the boundary wall of her property.
When I’d managed to get her to come to my house so Blake and I could reveal the truth to her, she’d lost her cool and left.
The fear that had hit me when she’d hit the rogue with her car had scared me. I was in charge, so there were plenty of lives I was responsible for, but I felt something very different when Scarlett had been injured.
But it didn’t matter that I was attracted to her or that I cared. She couldn’t stand the sight of me.
And it seemed the more time I spent with her, the more she disliked me and the more she gravitated to Blake. I usually never got jealous, but for the first time I wanted to hit my best friend because he’d seemed to have caught her interest. Watching it unfold in front of me was more than I could handle.
I looked forward to seeing Scarlett as I made my way downstairs.
When I walked into the kitchen and spotted her sipping her coffee, I felt the attraction I had for her come alive. Even though she’d spent most of the day before so close to Blake, it didn’t stop how I felt about her.
I’d never felt jealous before and it took all my self-control not to beat the crap out of him.
“Morning,” I greeted her as I grabbed a cup of coffee.
“Morning,” she greeted back, holding her cup to her lips to take another sip.
“Are you ready to leave for school?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered as she set her still-full cup of coffee down on the counter.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Scarlett was quiet as she gazed out of the window. I couldn’t help sneaking a few glances at her. She was an enigma that I couldn’t figure out.
I had lots of experience with girls. Being an alpha, I never had a shortage of girls wanting my attention, but Scarlett made me feel things I’d never felt before. Maybe I felt this way because she refused to fall down at my feet like the rest of the girls did.
As soon as I parked in front of the school, she got out of the car and disappeared into the school. I felt anger and frustration at the fact that the girl I liked couldn’t get away from me fast enough.
I’d never been in this predicament before, wanting someone who wasn’t interested in me, and I didn’t know how to handle it.
Feeling unsettled, I got out of my Jeep and slammed the door closed. I wanted to go into the school, but the thought of seeing Scarlett getting closer to Blake was too much to handle. So instead, I sat down on the bench outside the school contemplating whether I should skip school for the day to see if I could track the rogue that was after Scarlett.
I didn’t like the idea of someone out there being hell-bent on hurting her.
“Cade,” I heard the seductive voice say to me.
I looked up to see Nancy standing in front of me. She was a werewolf from Blake’s pack. She wore skin-tight jeans and a halter-top that struggled to contain her big tits.
“Hi,” I greeted her, giving her a smile.
Then it occurred to me. Maybe the best way to deal with what I was feeling for Scarlett was to get another girl to take my mind off her.
“I thought I’d come and keep you company,” Nancy cooed and I smiled. She was definitely game.
“Sure,” I said, running my eyes appreciatively over her figure.
I expected her to sit down on the bench next to me but she surprised me when she stepped closer and straddled me. My hands reached for her waist as she smiled at me seductively.
I smiled at her, thinking that she was exactly what I needed to work Scarlett out of my system.
“Get off him,” a female voice demanded. Why would anyone care that Nancy was straddling me and getting a little friendly?
“What the hell?” said Nancy as she turned to look at the girl who’d issued the demand. I was shocked when Nancy shifted off me and I saw Scarlett, angry as hell, with her hands on her hips.
What the hell?
What surprised me even more was the look she gave Nancy. Nancy was about to argue, but the look Scarlett gave her made her bite her tongue.
“Get lost,” Scarlett told her as her eyes shifted to mine. Nancy hesitated for a moment before she turned and walked off in a huff.
I was trying to figure out why Scarlett was acting the way she was. Why would she have a problem with what I did with another girl? It made no sense. Students around us began to watch the unfolding drama with interest.
“What is your problem?” I demanded as I stood up. Most people would have been intimidated, but not Scarlett. She stood her ground.
She was acting like she was jealous. She’d been getting closer to Blake yesterday so I couldn’t understand why suddenly she was standing in front of me acting like a jealous girlfriend.
“You’re my problem,” she snapped angrily. Why would I be her problem? She wasn’t making any sense. She looked so angry and I was trying to figure out why. It was like trying to do a puzzle with half of the pieces missing.
She took a step forward and I felt her hand connect with my face.
Stunned, I stood rooted to the spot. The instant her hand touched my face, I felt a bolt of electricity shoot through me. And in that moment I felt a rush of emotions for the girl in front of me and I saw the emotion for me mirrored in her eyes.
She was my mate.
I was still stunned by the slap and the realization that I’d found my mate. Scarlett stood unmoving as I watched her struggle with the emotions coursing through her.
My cheek hurt. As small as she was compared to me, she’d slapped me hard. Anger flowed in me and I struggled to keep it under control. Slapping an alpha was never a good idea. We had tempers and that type of action would set us off without thinking.
“Fuck,” Blake said and I noticed him standing beside Scarlett. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her behind him.
Even though logically I knew he was protecting her from me, I couldn’t stop the jealousy that stirred in me at the sight of his hand on her wrist. A possessiveness I’d never felt before took over and I wanted to rip his hand off of her. She was mine.
“Get your hand off her,” I warned in a deadly tone, fisting my hands to stop myself from attacking my best friend for touching my mate. He was my best friend, but she was my mate. She outranked him—hell, she outranked everyone. To me she was the most important person.
Knowing I was about to lose it, Blake released her wrist and held up his hand to show me that he wasn’t touching her.
I watched as Scarlett stared back at me. She was mine and I needed to touch her again. With my eyes still on her, I took a step toward her, but Blake refused to move.
“Calm down and I’ll get out of your way,” Blake tried to reason with me, but he didn’t understand. It was the fact that he was in my way that angered me.
I closed my eyes for a moment and took a shaky breath to try and control the anger building up inside.
“I won’t hurt her,” I whispered, meaning every word I said. I opened my eyes and fixed them on Scarlett.
She was mine and he couldn’t keep her from me. I wanted to reach for her and pull her close. I wanted to touch her so bad that I felt a physical pain at not being able to. She looked at me the same way I looked at her. I was hers and she was mine. We belonged to each other.
“Get out of my way,” I warned Blake, not moving my eyes from Scarlett. “You’re keeping me from what is mine.”
But Blake didn’t move. He had no right to keep me from her.
“He won’t hurt me,” Scarlett assured him as she stepped around him, but Blake grabbed her arm to stop her. Seeing him touch her made the rage grow inside of me again. No one was to touch her. I growled at Blake again to warn him and he released her. If he touched her again I was going to go ballistic.
I watched Scarlett take a tentative step toward me. Her eyes held mine as she took another step closer. With every step closer I felt the anticipation of touching her grow.
Blake remained behind her ready to spring into action if I lost it. He hadn’t found his mate yet so he didn’t understand the connection I’d just formed with Scarlett. There was no way I could hurt her, she was a piece of me. Hurting her would be like hurting myself.
She took one more step and she stopped. We were so close. I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. She was used to being in control and I could see something deeper than she understood pulled her to me.
My hand lifted to her face and I trailed my knuckles down her cheek. Her skin was so soft. She closed her eyes at the feel of my touch. I felt the anger begin to disappear and I felt complete. She was the other half of me and when I touched her, I felt at peace. Nothing I’d ever experienced was even close to what I felt at that moment.
My eyes drank her in. She is mine.
She is my soul mate.
She opened her eyes and tilted her face to gaze up at me. I could see she felt the same as I did, complete. I wanted to feel her skin against mine.
Slowly I threaded my hands through her soft, silky hair as I pulled her closer. My eyes flickered to her lips and I leaned closer. The smell of wild daisies was intoxicating. I’d wanted to kiss her since the first time I’d met her.
The moment my lips touched hers, I felt an overwhelming desire to hold her close and never let her go. She gripped my arms as I moved my lips against hers.
No one else existed as I tilted Scarlett’s face up to mine to get better access while my lips moved against hers. I needed to taste her. My tongue swept across her bottom lip; her lips were so soft. Her grip on my arms tightened and she opened her mouth.
The first taste of her as I touched my tongue to hers was addictive. I twirled my tongue against hers and I felt her pull me closer. I wanted to keep kissing her and touching her, but then I remembered we were kissing each other with an audience that included Blake.
She groaned when I pulled away, ending our first kiss. She was breathless as she still held onto my arms. I liked that I had this effect on her.
I rested my forehead against hers as I struggled to catch my breath.
“We need to get out of here,” I whispered to her. We’d just found out we were mates and we needed time by ourselves to figure things out. I half expected her to say no, but she surprised me by saying, “Yes.”
I turned to Blake who was still watching us from the sidelines with a smile.
“We need time,” I said to Blake who was still smiling as he watched me put Scarlett’s hand in mine. “I’ll be in touch later.”
I knew we were skipping school, but what had just happened between the two of us was more important.
“Sure,” said Blake with a nod.
Not wanting to waste another moment, I walked Scarlett to my car and opened the passenger side. I helped her into the seat before I closed the door. I walked around the front of the car and got into the driver’s side.
As I started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot, I reached for her hand and held it. Just touching her made me feel calm. I liked it.
The ride was quiet. She seemed as content as I was to just be together with our hands touching.
I wanted to take her somewhere where we could talk without distractions or interruptions, so taking her back to my house wasn’t an option. I decided to take her to a place I didn’t tell many people about, a small house I’d inherited from my grandmother.
It wasn’t flashy or anything like that. I could have renovated it but I liked the way it was—small and lived in. It reminded me of my grandmother and it was a place that I went to when I needed time alone or to think.
I’d never brought a girl there before.
The house was secluded, with tall trees lining the dirt road that led to a house surrounded by more tall trees. I parked outside the front of the house.
I watched Scarlett look around and take a deep breath. I was feeling nervous, unsure if she’d like it here. She was used to a certain standard of living that this house didn’t live up to.
I reached for her hand and led her to the door of the house. I reached for the key in its usual hiding place behind a potted plant beside the front door and unlocked the door and stepped inside.
“It’s not much, but I like to come here when I need to be alone,” I said as I entered the house. Normally, I was the only one who came here other than the cleaning lady once a week. She stepped inside after me and looked around the small house. I waited while she scanned the house.
“I like it,” she said, surprising me.
“I thought it would be better to talk here than at the house where there are too many distractions.”
She nodded her head in agreement
I knew her well enough to know that our talk was going to get heated. She was my mate, but she was no pushover. It was something that I liked about her, but I knew there were going to be times that same independence was going to drive me nuts.
I don’t know if it was the way she looked at me or just the fact that I needed to touch her, but I wanted to kiss her again before the fighting started.
“But before we talk, I need to do this again,” I said before I reached for her and pulled her closer. My hands cupped her face and tilted it upward as my lips touched hers.
The urge to move my lips to her neck and mark her as my own was nearly impossible to fight, but I knew she wasn’t ready for that yet and there was no way I’d mark her without her consent. I fought against the urge as I continued to kiss her.
I lost myself in the moment, moving my lips against hers. The thought that she was mine made me so damn happy.