"What's that?" I ask pointing to another section. Similar to the shower, it was encased in floor to ceiling glass with a mural of the head of a dark gray wolf. However, unlike the shower, it held two sculpted body recliners that were covered in a mosaic gradation of gray tiles. Towels, again rolled, lined the shelf that lay in between the two recliners.
"Steam room. I like to relax in there sometimes after a hard day of training. Anything in here is for you to use. I want you to feel as comfortable as if you were back home."
"My home, as much as I love it, was nothing like anything here," I point out with a chuckle. I had expected Thorne to chime in with a chuckle of his own. However, all I got was a frown. No, more like a scowl.
"I've already had some of my things moved into a spare room across the hall."
"You're not staying here?" I interrupt him.
"I didn't think you'd want to go into the same sleeping quarters as me. I mean we may know each other a bit better than we did two weeks ago. I just thought you would think that it was too soon."
"Thorne, it's okay. You can stay here. It's your room too. I don't want to kick you out of it."
"Don't look at it as kicking me out Kairi."
"Thorne," I place my hand on his very hard and chiseled chest. Totally the wrong move if I wanted to sort out my feelings. "You just told me you wanted me to be comfortable here. I'm comfortable with you." I swallow lightly at how true that statement is. Our late-night talks helped make him a comfortable addition into my life.
Finally, the smile I had hoped to have before comes back. I wish I had known that was what was bothering him. Part of me wonders if he's as comfortable with me as I seem to be with him. I just have to trust that this whole thing is a learning curve with us.
Thorne grabs my hand from his chest and we walk out of the bathroom. "I'll move my stuff back in by the end of the day." I'm disappointed when Thorne drops my hand to answer the soft knock at the door of the sitting room. I hadn't even noticed that door when we walked by it earlier. "Do you want to rest? Or do you need help getting your clothes in the closet?" Thorne is walking backwards towards the door.
"Nah, I'll get started on the closet." I inwardly cringe at the thought of Thorne helping me unpack my clothes and he winds up with my box of underwear. The image of Thorne with my lacy under things was conjuring a different type of heat in my body. I was really beginning to see the downside to these pregnancy hormones.
I wasn't sure if he heard me because I noticed that his body was now rigid as he stood in front of the open door. I walk behind him and try to offer comfort to him by placing my hand on his back, just so he knew I was there. I hadn't even had a chance to peer up at the person on the other side of the door when the first word from Thorne's voice stilled me to my core.
"Vanessa."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It took me all of a half a second to remember where I heard that name from. This was Thorne's mate; the one the goddess had given him. My heart started pounding in fear. Just looking at her, I could see the longing in her eyes as she took in the man beside me. Thirty-two seconds is how long it took for either one of them to acknowledge my presence in the doorway with them. I know because I counted. And it stung even the more that it wasn't Thorne who acknowledged I was there.
"Oh hello? I'm Vanessa, Wesley's mate." Her dark blue eyes flicker briefly to my left hand as it's still resting on Thorne's back. My face is like stone while I take in her features. Her mousy brown hair is pulled into a ponytail, not a flyaway in sight. Vanessa was about the same height as me, maybe taller by a half an inch. Her voice was a little on the gravely side, and I immediately resented her for being here.
Am I really going to have to introduce myself to his former mate? 'Keep your cool, Kai,' I tell myself.
"I'm Kairi Samuels. I'm-"
"Uhh, Kairi Samuels from the Willowhaven pack. She agreed to help out with some of the Luna duties here." The brief respite that I felt when Thorne's voice finally interrupted mine, is short lived. Is he serious right now? My wolf is pacing in my mind with fury. Shoot forget my wolf, I was heating up with a fury that I couldn't contain.
"Yes, thank you for giving up your room for me. I think I need to get some rest. Bye." I grit out as I push Thorne out from the threshold and into the hallway. The brief look of regret flickers on his face when he manages to catch my eye, but the door is already closing in his face. The door is locked before he can bang himself against the heavy wood.
I don't wait around near the door to listen for the two lovebirds, and head straight for the closet that was set aside for me. While I go through my clothes and figure out their new spots, I fume at the indignation that I've been cast aside twice. First, by my mate who preferred a much inferior wolf than me.
'No, don't be petty.'
Second, by a wolf who gave me hope again but chose his mate, who initially chose someone else.
'Go ahead. Be petty.'
My wolf is in agreement with my decision as I leave my closet space for his. Though he had said that he moved the stuff he needed for the time being, he still had a great deal of belongings in the second closet. I gather all of his suits and shirts, as many as my hands can carry, and walk to the door in the sitting area of the huge room.
After placing my ear to the door, and not hearing a sound in the hallway, I slowly open the door to make sure Thorne is nowhere in sight. The hallway is a desolate as my heart and any hope in Thorne I may have had left disappears like that.
Why the hell would no one fight for me?
Tears prickle the corner of my eyes as I callously drop his clothes in a careless heap in the hallway. I lock the door and go back to his closet to grab another load of clothes. I continue this process for three additional trips. Each time, I'm dismayed that Thorne isn't in the hallway begging for my forgiveness.
Once that is done and everything of his was emptied from the closet, I also double check the bathroom, but it seems he had already cleared his toiletries out as well. I have to call Lincoln and let him know that I arrived safely, but I feel numb to everything right now even as I pick up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey Linc, I'm here." I fake a smile on my face and stare out the window. My back is to the both the bedroom and the sitting room as I stare out what must be the backyard of Stoneforest's pack house. I find the most delight in watching the children playing tag, some in wolf form while the ones running away are in their human form. Still other children seem to prefer watching the glee of everyone else.
I hope the smile brightens up my voice, but no. Lincoln detects the distress in my voice.
"What's wrong Kai?" In the background, I can hear something shifting, as if he was getting up from sitting or laying down.
One thing about Lincoln that I always loved, when he noticed that something was wrong with me, his first instinct was always to fight for me. The fact that he noticed this time so quickly tells me that he was more stressed about not having met his mate yet than he led me to believe. Because I know that if it wasn't on the back of his mind, he would have picked up on my problems with Julien before.
"Nothing's wrong. I think the pregnancy is just getting to me. I fell asleep on the way here and I feel like my little nap wasn't enough."
"Maybe you should get some rest then." The raised levels of defense have dissipated from Lincoln's voice and concern has set in.
"I am. Thorne took me on a quick tour of the pack house and showed me the room he has set aside for me. It's beautiful here. I haven't met many of the pack yet. Thorne thought it might be too overwhelming. With the way I'm feeling right now, he was probably right."
"Yeah you sound tired."
"I know. I'm gonna lie down and start part two of my nap. I just wanted to call you, so you didn't worry." I chuckle and move away from the window and closer to the bedroom. Alternating brown and light blue pillows beckon me to lay my head down on their softness. My fingers run up and down the stripped matching pattern on the comfo
rter while I free my feet of the burden of my shoes.
"Alright, love you sis," I tell him that I love him back and we both hang up our phones. The adrenaline rush that fueled my anger while I emptied his closet left me feeling just as empty. A proper nap is definitely what I need, but I'm still wound up enough to know I won't be able to sleep just yet.
I get up from the bed and take a more formal look around my new dwellings. It's a completely open floor plan, though for the first time I notice that heavy curtains are tied back at the bedroom and sitting room border. I guess that came in handy when one person wanted to sleep, the other person could continue to watch t.v. or whatever without disturbing them. Or could also potentially save anyone sleeping from the rising rays of the sun in the morning.
The bookshelves throughout the sitting area are nothing to write home about. Most of them are empty save for a few books littered here or there about leadership or wolves. Actually, there are more knick knacks and picture frames on the shelves than anything else.
The children in the frames are unmistakably Thorne and Jackson at various stages growing up. Thorne's striking amber eyes look at me from one picture, unsuspecting as Jackson stands behind him with a huge bucket of water sloshing out, ready to pour. No matter how mad I am at the fool right now, I can't help but smile at the innocence displayed in this one particular picture.
After going around the rest of the room and inspecting his pictures, I grab a random book off of one of the shelves and head back over to the bed. I don't even think that I finish a chapter before I feel sleep dragging me under.
|||
I screwed up.
"Uhh, Kairi Samuels from the Willowhaven pack. She agreed to help out with some of the Luna duties here." Why the hell did I let those words come out of my mouth? I could immediately feel the warmth of Kairi's touch leave me the second the last word was out. I can't make heads or tails of why I didn't lay claim to Kairi with Vanessa was standing there. Why the hell was she here?
I want to ask the question out loud but Kairi's voice is politely telling me to fuck off. She doesn't say it, but the undertone is definitely there. I can't even focus on her words because I'm too stunned to realize that she pushed me out of the way. Too late, I try to slam the door back open, but she's already barricaded behind the heavy wood.
"Trouble in paradise?" Vanessa's voice is sultry and seductive, and if I still felt the pull towards her, I could see myself falling into old habits again. The smirk on her lips, meant to draw me in, I'm sure, do nothing but remind me how hollow I felt when she kissed me goodbye two years ago.
Again, I'm about to ask her what she was doing here when Jackson runs up and pulls her behind her. This is the first I've seen of my beta and cousin in two weeks, since the Alpha's Summit. There's a bit of hair stubble since it appears, he's growing out his beard.
"Sorry Wes. She gave me the slip. I was going to tell you about her being back."
"Back?" My eyes whirl to her direction from Jackson's gaze. "What do you mean back? And is she why you haven't been answering my mind link?" I ask Jackson. Rather than having this discussion out in the open, even though no one ever ventures to my floor without expressed consent, normally at least, it's still better to be in my office.
No one speaks a word until we're behind the confines of my sealed office. I sit behind my desk while the other two, my former mate and my cousin stand in front of me. I can sense the nerves coming off of Vanessa like waves of unease. The confidence she showed before Kairi has long since faded and before me is someone who looks like a scared little pup awaiting a scolding.
"What does this mean, you're back?" I ask her, but Vanessa would rather look demurely at something on the floor, than at me. I briefly wonder what happened to her in the pack she left me for. When I knew her, she was just as feisty as Kairi, a trait I admired in both women. Kairi, though I can understand what happened rocked her self-confidence a little, to the degree that she wasn't herself. The Vanessa I once knew and thought I loved, would have been standing defiantly, face held high, and eyes straight at mine.
This was definitely not the Vanessa I once knew.
Nor did I feel anything towards her.
So why did I freeze up when I saw her?
"Marvin was killed last week." Vanessa explained. Marvin was the wolf that Vanessa left me for. He was a Delta for another pack, one that was just starting out. The Alpha, Alpha Fastian had invited me and a few of my pack to help teach them to grow and such. We stayed for a little over two and half months, while I made constant trips back and forth between my pack and his. Vanessa was one of the wolves that had accompanied me. Her family had just transferred to my pack and since we were able to slow down and get to know one another before we mated, it felt right for her to be by my side. However, on the trips I took to come back to Stoneforest, she stayed in Alpha Fastian's new territory. Little did I know, while I was back home, she quickly started a romance with Marvin Fastian, the alpha's son.
The day we were supposed to leave for good was the day that I found out about the affair. The two of them had managed to keep from being physical until it was time for the cars to roll out. Even to this day, I remember the anguish I felt when their lovemaking began to affect my physical being. It was how I was able to recognize that same pain in Kairi the night of her birthday.
The other alpha present and I were standing outside the door when they came out of hiding, and without another word I left the pack. In the four years since I last saw her, the only word that I've heard from her was that she was happily mated with two pups.
"I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?" I ask and pick up a pen and some files laying on my desk. I hadn't planned on working today. I had wanted to spend the day with Kairi and making sure she was settled in okay. Nothing made me happier when she admitted that it was okay for us to share the bedroom. It meant that she was comfortable with me. I'm sure that's to shit right now.
"It doesn't really matter just a rogue attack. His father never really liked me, so I was given five days to mourn and pack. I grabbed my stuff and the boys and came home."
"I will give Alpha Fastian a call to offer my condolences." I barely notice a flinch in Vanessa's demeanor with my dismissive tone and turn instead to Jackson. "You can put Vanessa and her children in a room in the barracks."
"What? You can't do that! The barracks are like prisons. I can't put my children through that!"
"You know she's not going to like that." My mouth twitches ever so slightly at the game Jackson and I used to play to drive people crazy. We would have full blown conversations about them, as if they weren't standing right there with us. Our mothers wanted to strangle us a time or two while we were growing up, and often times it was due to this game.
"I don't care what she likes or demands."
"That's my room upstairs that you have that bitch staying. And you want me in the barracks?"
"And Jackson, let Vanessa know that she has no claim to the Luna title, responsibilities, or benefits of Stoneforest. And those benefits include me." I make sure my point drives home while looking into her eyes. "And anytime she sees Luna Kairi she is to treat her with the respect of my mate." Vanessa is shocked, her eyebrows practically reach her hairline with my declaration.
I non-verbally dismiss Jackson and Vanessa by turning my attention to the file before me. I'm just about to sign my signature to a proposal when Vanessa says my name. I look up to see that Jackson has her by the arm and has dragged her to the door.
"Would you really put your own son in the barracks?" Vanessa asks while Jackson and I make eye contact.
"What are you going on about V?" Jackson asks for the both of us.
"He remembers, that night before we left for Fastian's pack." She's right I did remember. It was our first and only time together. Originally, I hadn't wanted Vanessa to come with us. But she claimed she didn't want to be separated from me. I should have known something was up when I needed to return to Stoneforest and she didn't put
up a fight to stay. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, they say.
"You're right. But there was also a condom between us. So, I don't know what you're talking about, but none of your children are mine."
"Then the condom broke, because MJ is your son."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
One look at my cellphone and I can see that I fell asleep for much longer than I had planned to. The light that poured in from outside was considerably softer and my stomach growls with the intensity of a monster truck. My hand automatically goes to my stomach to silence it, but it's determined to make it known that it is hungry.
The Rejection (Luna of the Pack Series) Page 15