Surprise

RORY

“Morning,” Lucius greets me unusually as I enter the kitchen. Ace smirks over to me normally, but today, he’s grinning as if he’s been successful with something.

“Morning,” I reply with a shy, uneasy smile.

But I grab some cereal from the counter and pour it into a bowl, watching the two out of the corner of my eye.

“Where’s Everett? I didn’t see him last night. Is he okay?”

“I thought you were upset with him,” Ace says, giving me a confused look as I turn to sit on the bar stools to eat my breakfast.

“Well, I was. But I slept on it,” I answer, running my fingers through my hair to get the knots out.

Everett not coming to bed had painful consequences as I got my old alarm clock back.

And I like feeling him next to me in bed, his chest against my chest, his arms draped over me, his hands caressing my back subconsciously.

I love the way he makes me feel inside, the sparks that shoot within me and make me melt for him.

“That’s good to hear,” Everett declares as he comes up behind me and takes the cereal box from the side of me, making sure to touch my waist discreetly before pulling away.

He turns to the side, leaning back on the bar to look at me. He appears to be in a better mood than yesterday, almost…relaxed.

Almost.

He seems to be excited about something.

Why have everyone’s moods drastically changed?

“Get ready. We’re going out this morning,” he declares, which makes me furrow my brows in confusion.

We’re going somewhere? Where? Why?

“Where?”

“Just go get ready, Aurora. You’ll like it, I promise,” he says, tipping my chin up to look at him and using his commanding Alpha voice.

He’s so handsome it’s a crime. He has the body of Adonis with the domineering charm of the perfect Alpha.

I jump off my stool after giving Everett an unsure look, before skipping upstairs.

Where are we going? What should I wear? What is happening?

Everyone is acting so strangely. Everett didn’t come to bed, so I thought he was mad for my defiance, but this morning, it’s like it never happened.

But if it didn’t happen, then he didn’t listen to what I had to say.

I have feelings for him, but if he can’t listen to me, and can’t understand me, how are we ever going to work?

Now we’re just going somewhere on his orders.

I’m grateful for everything he’s given me. But I don’t know if I can stay here anymore. Otherwise, I might fall deeper for Everett, and he doesn’t even like me back.

I throw on some blue jeans and a white oversized sweater with the black and white trainers Everett bought me that have probably the most support you can have in a shoe.

He even put extra padding in the soles and tips so that I don’t hurt myself stubbing my toe.

They’re high tops so my ankles roll less easily, and they cushion upon any fall. They don’t even have laces, just Velcro straps, like an uncoordinated child would need.

But, rightly so, as I skid down the stairs, missing at least five steps, but thankfully fall into the arms of my mate.

“Clumsy as always,” he grumbles, lifting me fully up in his arms, bridal style, and carrying me out to his car, which I have never been in.

Where the hell are we going? And this is an awesome stylish car. I’ve only seen cars like this on TV; even Alpha Nick didn’t own a car like this one.

“How do you own a car like this?” I ask once he straps me in the passenger seat, slings a backpack on the back seat, and slides into the driver’s side.

“My parents left me their business. I have people running it, humans, whilst I am running the pack. The business is thriving, it makes a lot of money,” he explains.

“What type of business?”

“Telecommunication. I’ve never really been too interested in the company, so I pay other people to run it, and it focuses my time on pack and wolf affairs.

“But every now and then I get called in to sort out some problems so I had to learn all about the business.”

“That’s interesting. I didn’t know that.”

“I know,” he replies, glancing over to me whilst driving, and then turning back to the road.

“So, where are we going?”

“You’ll see, little one,” he answers shortly.

I look at his mysterious ways and wonder what he has planned. Maybe this is a date, or something like that.

Maybe he had pressure from the pack at the pack meeting to date me or dump me. But he doesn’t understand me yet, perhaps it’s an Alpha thing.

Because he carries the responsibility of so many lives that he thinks he knows what’s best for everyone and he thinks he understands everyone.

As I begin to recognize the gates he’s pulling into, my head snaps in his direction, my mouth gaping, unable to form words.

When the car stops, he doesn’t even say anything. He just gets out, travelling around to my side of the car and popping my door open.

I decide to get out and stand in front of him pathetically, still at a loss for words. I just stare into his eyes that glisten with amusement for once.

“Why are we here?” I mutter, trying to figure out what this means.

He steps closer to me with a widening smirk adorning his beautiful face. People begin to stare at us, but I just ignore them, only focusing on Everett.

“You’re going back to school,” he declares. “I know you’ve been keeping up with your school work and getting ahead. And I know you liked going to your human school and your friends.

“I know I took you from everything familiar, but I want to give you this. That’s if you want to go. I called the school yesterday, told them you’d be joining again.

“Because you were only gone for a couple of months, you have the same classes and schedules, and you can ask your friends for work you’ve missed and check whether you know all of it.”

I reach out to hug him, my petite body falling into his and being engulfed in his scent.

But my head, instead of moving onto his shoulder, moves forward right to his, and his lips are right there, begging for my touch.

And I want him so much.

I slam my lips on his, which takes him by surprise. The sparks that light don’t even compare to the single touch. They light my entire body, my core going up in flames.

I’ve never felt so connected to anyone in my entire life, our lips locked and moving against each other in sync.

But what if this is just to get me out of the way?

I’ll be at school most of the time, and then sleeping, too, cuts out a lot of the hours in a week.

I pull back, bombarded with doubts. But not a second later, he draws me right back in. His hand supports the back of my head, his other hand moving up and down my back in frantic movements.

But his lips, they move slowly and deeply and sensually, and I love it. He takes complete control, dominating me in this kiss.

He wants this. He wants me. I can feel it.

He dragged me back in to kiss me again. Because he wanted me. He wants me. And he understands me.

He listened to me. He heard what I was trying to say, and he did something to show me what he wanted.

He put me back in school, with Freya and Skye. I love learning and books and work, and he knows that. And he put me back in school because he heard what I wanted.

By the time we finish, it’s because we’ve run out of breath between us, and that’s a long time for a wolf, an Alpha wolf.

I didn’t even realize I had been lifted up during the kiss and held by Everett until he puts me back down on the ground, restoring me back to my tiny height, especially in comparison to him.

“Rory!” a female voice exclaims from a distance behind me. I turn to see my best friend, Freya.

I’ve missed her. I only have Ophelia and Cassidy in the pack, and neither of them are my age.

The female wolves from the high school in the pack just sneer at me like immature human-haters. Plus, their Alpha is hot and they hoped to be his mate.

I beam at her, my grin wide and bright, and she returns it.

“Aurora,” Everett says, and I turn back to him with the same beaming smile. He matches it, a real smile, a smile I’ve never seen before.

The backpack in his hands is passed toward me but he doesn’t let me take it. He insists on putting it on me like I’m his little first grader on the first day of school.

But it’s sweet and protective, and for some reason, I love all of it.

“I don’t like that I won’t have an eye on you, but you’ve been to human high school for over three years without dying, so I’m taking a leap of faith. Just...be careful.”

He chuckles a little, but his last sentence is an order. He hates seeing me hurt.

“Ace will pick you up, okay? You come right out once you’ve finished.”

I nod excitedly and it makes him chuckle again, a sound I never want to stop hearing. It’s like the perfect song.

As he gets in his car, I turn back to Freya to see a bigger group this time. A few footballers, along with Oliver and Bethany. Skye. And Eddie.

Oh no, Eddie.