by Casey Morgan
He hopped down the last step and lowered himself into the closest chair. Every inch of his body was tense, and I assumed the pain he bore was terrible. And yet, he acted like everything was normal. I was determined to give him his dignity.
“May I get you a cup of coffee, Sir?”
He nodded and smiled slightly.
“Bring one for each of us.”
I moved from behind the counter, poured two cups and quickly brought them to the table he was sitting at. When I took the chair across from his, he had his eyes closed. I said nothing and waited until he was prepared to speak.
His eyes were bright green when he opened them. They focused on me with a harsh intensity. Mr. Blenko brought his coffee cup to his lips and took a quick sip, as if to wet his throat before starting.
“I’ve had a call, Mr. Whitepaw,” he explained. “Terrell said you spoke to him this morning.”
I nodded, happy to know the other alpha’s name. Terrell. It sounded familiar but I couldn’t think of why.
“This is a problem,” Mr. Blenko continued.
His tone was logical, and he was very calm.
“I must ask you to leave. My agreement with Terrell goes back ten years. He came to the shop one day and recognized Celeste for what she is. He would have taken her right then, but I protested and made a deal. He lives in town. He will teach her the ways of the Weres when her first shift comes.”
I eyed him. He was holding something back; I could tell by the way his narrow lips quivered.
“You’ve been trying to keep her from changing.”
His face went pale and he dropped his eyes for a second.
“Yes. I pray every day that my daughter doesn’t become a beast like you. I would have her in God’s eyes always. If she doesn’t shift, then she doesn’t go to that…werewolf, that alpha.”
He said the last few words in disgust.
I put a hand to my coffee cup but didn’t pick it up. I felt the warm ceramic against my skin. I used the feeling to keep me grounded.
“I love her, Mr. Blenko.”
I kept my voice a whisper.
“You do not. You cannot. You don’t even know her.”
His eyes burned into me.
My protest hung on my lips.
“Let me be very clear, Mr. Whitepaw,” he continued. “I disliked Celeste’s plan to have you in the bakery, but I allowed it. I am aware of your dealings with Mr. Dominic and Big Dog. I thank you for your efforts, but we are fighting against an ocean tide. Your splashes make little difference in my word. You are a beast and a poor one at that. You have no house, no family, no… pack… to offer my daughter and you don’t even have a job.”
His words of admonishment cut me to the core. My throat closed with a choke and I could barely breathe against the truth he was speaking.
“Now, I understand, from Mr. Terrell, that your presence might bring about the one thing that will take my daughter away from me,” he continued. “And if you push her to change, you might not be able to control her?”
“That is true.”
I laid myself bare and emotionally crushed before him.
“Then why are you still here?” he hissed and leaned towards me. “Be ashamed for what you have taken from her and go before you make it worse!”
I couldn’t deny that he was right. I couldn’t offer Celeste anything. Without my sense of smell and my fading alpha powers, I couldn’t dominate her. I couldn’t bind her. I couldn’t protect her. I was a danger to her and her family.
I stood and moved towards my bag behind the counter. Loss filled me, but I would do this. I wouldn’t demand that Celeste marry me; I wouldn’t tie her to a lame alpha. Her life was worth more than that.
She deserved someone who could protect her. She deserved a real pack master and not a hopeless lone wolf.
I packed up my few things and turned to go. Mr. Blenko stayed in his seat. Our conversation had left him tired, but clearly relieved.
“Mason?” Celeste’s voice was musical and sweet. It brought a lump to my throat.
The kitchen doors swung open and she wandered in. Immediately, she looked over and saw her father slumped at the table.
“Dad? Oh my God, what are you doing downstairs?”
Celeste swung the door back and called to her mother. Both women hurried into the seating area and gathered around the old man.
“Why are you down here?” Mrs. Blenko asked.
She held his thin hand in her own and brushed the dark hair from his forehead.
“I was coming right back up when your soup was done.”
He leaned lovingly into her touch.
“Be still, Mama,” he murmured. “All is right now. I came down to tell Mr. Whitepaw that it is time for him to go and he agrees.”
Celeste jumped back from her father.
“What?”
She shifted her weight and put her eyes on me. They had the slightest hint of blue-neon in them.
“Mason?” she snapped.
Her body was ridged. Her anger was almost visible. She was getting dangerous and I was making it worse.
“I have to go, Celeste,” I told her, trying to keep the pain out of my voice.
I put my backpack over my shoulder and grabbed my coat.
She met me as I rounded the counter and blocked my way to the door.
“Mason?” she begged.
Her icy blue eyes had tears in them.
“I don’t understand.”
I held my hands up before me, palms open.
“Your father thinks I’m not good enough for you, and I… I agree,” I tried to explain.
“Nonsense!” she yelled and then turned back to her father. “Daddy, if this is some church nonsense then I will not stand for it. Mason is a good man. He wants to marry me and come work here with us.”
Both her parents pulled back and hissed at the word “marry”. Celeste ignored them. She stomped over to the table where her father was sitting and dropped to her knees.
“He needs to stay, Daddy,” she pleaded. “I can’t live without him. I’m sure he will join our church.”
She glanced at me and I gave her a blank stare. This had nothing to do with religion, but her parents didn’t want her to know the truth. They didn’t want her to know what she was. And who was I to interfere with their wishes?
“Celeste.”
Her father took her hands in his. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the crown of her head.
“Please understand. Your mother and I know what is best for you. Mr. Whitepaw is changing you. He is making you angry and needs to leave. He agrees with me; this isn’t something I’m forcing on him.”
Celeste shot to her feet and pulled her hands away.
“Are you serious?” she snapped. “I yelled at Mary once and this is how you punish me. You two are being ridiculous. Mason has helped us. In two days, he has done more to help this business than you, Father, have done in years.”
She stamped her foot, but I was watching her clenched fists. The lines that defined her skin were beginning to blur. She was close to shifting. Her anger was going to make her shift, if I stayed. I needed to get out of there.
“Celeste,” I barked.
She turned to me with glowing eyes, neon blue and beautiful. Her face, her body, and her soul were everything that I ever wanted, and I was going to let her go.
I pushed past her and put my hand on the front door handle.
“Celeste,” I repeated. “I’m going to leave now. I’m sorry that I can’t be the husband you need. I know you’ll find someone better. You shouldn’t blame your parents for this.”
I threaded some of my alpha will through the last few words. I hoped that would help calm her and not inspire the blood lust more.
I pushed the door open and walked out into the cold. No one followed. My feet took me quickly to the end of the street.
When I looked back, the street was empty. My mate hadn’t come out of the bakery to stop me. Part
of me was glad, but mostly, that fact ripped my heart into two.
Chapter Nineteen
Celeste
Every cookie I touched broke and crumbled in my hand. It had been like that all day. I tried to work on the cookie basket orders, but everything I touched was destroyed.
It was like the worst run of bad luck ever. Cookies burnt, cellophane wrapping ripped, the handle of one basket even broke off in my hand. I hadn’t even pulled it hard.
I stood, leaning into the kitchen counter, and staring at the latest of the cookies I broke. It was a heart, broken in two. How fitting.
It was two days until Valentine’s Day. We had twenty-five more orders to make and were running out of time… and room. Finished cookie baskets in shades of red and pink littered the wooden table at the back of the kitchen and part of the left-hand counter.
Mom, Mary, and I had been working all day, running ourselves ragged to make the baskets and attend to the stream of customers who came in. We were busy for once. When we opened that morning, there was even a line outside. It really felt like the curse that the Southland Gang had brought was gone.
But a new curse had come—me. I couldn’t do anything right and my temper was getting even shorter. I tried to put what happened the day before out of my mind, but I couldn’t.
Mason leaving was just unbelievable. I had wanted to follow him out into the street and beg him to stay, but his mind was clearly made up. I would have only looked pathetic—and caused my parents to be even angrier at me. I seemed to have no choice but let him walk away, and I was mad at him for showing up to take my virginity and then leave.
All day, I expected the next person through the door to be him. I ached to see his dark eyes. I longed for his warm hands on my skin. I knew my parents said he was wrong for me, but I didn’t care. Mason was in my heart now.
Even though I was mad at him, and very confused about why he would leave, I felt very strongly that he still loved me. He thought this was best for me, but it wasn’t. I still had hope for us.
He had to come back, or I would never be the same. The thought was ripping me up inside.
I swore under my breath, still looking at the broken cookie, and not caring if my mother heard. She had been giving me space and not ordering me around too much. She knew I was heartbroken and didn’t want to push, even though we were in a rush. When I pushed myself to work harder, it just seemed to make things worse.
Tears came to my eyes as I stared at the broken cookie. But I held them back until my mother went up front to help a customer. Then I let them flow.
My loneliness and my need for Mason overwhelmed me. My chest burned and ached. My knees buckled and I sunk down onto the floor.
“Celeste?”
Mary ran to my side and sat down on her knees. She patted my back.
“Are you okay?”
I wasn’t okay. She knew that, but I held back from yelling at her. Mary was just doing her best to be a good friend. She was trying to be kind.
“I’m… I’m just sleepy,” I told her, not looking her in the face.
I stared at the tile on the floor.
It wasn’t a total lie; I couldn’t sleep the night before. I just tossed and turned and watched the clock as the hours ticked by. My body ached and burned. No position I lay in was comfortable.
My mind was equally uncomfortable. I kept thinking of Mason grabbing his bag and leaving the bakery. Leaving me and the promise that he had made behind. I had been helpless to stop him.
Using a hand that Mary lent me, I pulled myself up to my feet. She hurried over to the little wooden table, uncovered a chair, and brought it to me. I sank down, exhausted and depressed.
“Why don’t you go find him?” she whispered.
I looked up into her blue eyes. Mary was serious.
“He left me, Mary,” I argued. “Besides, I don’t have any idea where he went to.”
She nodded but reached into the pocket of her apron. A business card was in her hand when she pulled it out. She passed it over and I looked at the card. It was for the Woodside motel.
“I found this on the floor near where Mason kept his bag,” she told me. “I was sweeping and saw it this morning. Maybe he went there.”
I stared at the little cartoon cabin on the card. The Woodside wasn’t that far away. Just a few blocks, near the forest path that Mason and I had taken a few days ago when we went out running.
I found my hand trembling. If he went there, he was still close. I had to talk to him. I had to find him. This couldn’t be the end for us.
“Thank you, Mary!” I told her, so grateful for such a good friend. “This gives me hope again.”
“I’m glad,” she said, with a smile on her face. “I think you were very brave to walk into that bar and get him to come help. I can tell you like him, and I never saw you like anyone before. So I just want to do what I can to help.”
“You’re the best friend I could ever ask for,” I said, and she looked at me like I told her she had won the lottery.
The double doors to the front swung back and my mother walked through. She saw me sitting down and Mary hovering beside me.
“Celeste? Are you alright?” she asked.
Her voice was calm.
I dropped my hands and slipped the business card into my pocket.
“Yes, Ma,” I told her. “I’m fine. Just tired and so Mary was helping me. I got a little dizzy.”
Mom nodded. She looked over at the counter I was working at and eyed the pile of broken cookies. She sighed but didn’t admonish me.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and take a nap?” she suggested. “Mary and I can finish up. Closing is only an hour away.”
I jumped to my feet, thanked her, and ran to the stairs. I couldn’t get away to find Mason until my parents had gone to bed. So, a nap sounded like a great idea. I needed to catch up on my lack of sleep from last night, as well as rest up to leave tonight.
I opened the door to my little room and flopped down onto my bed.
I will find him, I told myself. Just a few hours from now and I will have Mason again.
I pulled the business card for the motel out of my pocket and stared at it. Now that I had a plan, I felt more resolved. I would find Mason and convince him to stay. I would convince him to be mine forever.
Chapter Twenty
Celeste
I woke feeling agitated. Moonlight from the full moon flowed into my windows and illuminated the floor and bed.
The clock showed ten-thirty. My parents hadn’t bothered to wake me for dinner, but that was fine with me. They would be in bed by now and I could leave home easily, without them knowing.
I got up and stretched, trying to work out my muscles, but they wouldn’t relax. My whole body was tight and aching.
It was an odd feeling, like my body wasn’t mine or the right shape. The ache made me angry. I wanted to yell, but I wanted to yell at Mason.
I wanted to scream into his stupid, handsome face. This was his fault somehow. He was supposed to be mine forever. Instead, he had left as soon as my dad had disapproved, which we both had known he would do. He had broken my heart and it felt like the pain was literally breaking my body apart.
I ripped the little card for The Woodside Motel to shreds. It no longer carried any comfort for me. I would still convince Mason to stay, but I would also make sure he knew how much he hurt me. That thought made me grin.
I dressed in my jogging clothing of sweatpants and a sweatshirt, pulled on my warmest winter coat and then snuck downstairs. My steps were silent. I slipped out the front door and into the moonlit night.
Jogging easily, I made my way to the motel. I could smell Mason. My anger was like a beacon driving me towards him. And I never questioned it. As I ran through the cold streets, my feet lead me towards him.
My hands itched to touch or claw his face. I wasn’t sure which action I would choose.
How could he leave like that? He promised to marry me. He said he love
d me. Was that all lies? Did he just say that to get into my pants?
I thought of his long hard dick and my pussy ached. I hated him, but I still wanted him with every inch of my body. And part of me was very determined to have him.
“Well, if it isn’t Ms. Muffins!” I heard a voice yell out, out of seemingly nowhere.
I stopped in my tracks. My head snapped to the side and I eyed Big Dog coming towards me through the shadows. His shoulder was still bandaged from when Mason had beaten him. After a few seconds, Dominic was at his side, along with three other gang members. This was getting scary.
The black-clad men circled me. All of them were leering at my body and giving me wide grins.
“What’cha going to do now, Bitch?” Big Dog snapped. “Your big boyfriend is nowhere around.”
Next to him, Dominic nodded. I noticed the gang leader didn’t speak. I bet—with the damage that Mason had done to his throat—that he couldn’t.
I grinned back at them, making sure to show my teeth.
“I’m in no mood, Big Dog. Why don’t you all find a new street to canvas and new people there to bother? We’re done dealing with you.”
They all laughed. Their laughing made my temper worse. My hands formed into fists at my sides.
“Look,” I yelled. “I don’t have time for this. Leave now.”
I felt the oddest sensation, like part of me was leaving my body and pushing the Southland Gang to go away. Like I had a force or influence over them.
Big Dog frowned at me; he started to inch back but then held his ground. His face was strained, so he did look like I had affected him somehow.
Interesting.
Maybe my father was right, and I really did just need to treat them like the big boys they were.
“Go on!” I ordered in my most motherly tone. “Go find somewhere else to play.”
Big Dog’s lips twisted, and he gave Dominic a worried look. Each man started to shuffle closer together.
“She one of them?” One of the men whispered.
“Never seen that before…” another said.
I wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but I liked the direction of their movements. I waved my hands, shooing them away like they were chickens or some other kind of farm animal. Maybe this force was some kind of Valentine’s Day magic and I could put a spell on them or throw orbs at them from my fingers, or something, like I had read about in books I snuck from the library and hid from my parents.