Chapter 10.

*****

"So..." I broke the awkward silence in the car as I drove. I had convinced Vanessa to let me drive her car all the way to Karabo's house, it had not taken much persuading because it was early and she did not seem to be in the mood to drive. "Why do you work at that restaurant?" I glanced towards where she sat in the passenger seat before looking back at the road.

The windshield in front of me was being flooded with water that was washed away every few seconds by the wipers. The heavy rain had started three hours ago and it didn't seem like it was going to ease up or stop any time soon. The roads were close to flooding, so I wasn't surprised that we were one of the very few cars currently on them.

I had learnt earlier when we were in the sisters' living room that Paige was a medical student who volunteered at the hospital; a typical vampire field. I was confused as to why Vanessa wasn't doing the same considering that it was an incredibly easy way to get blood. Not the most fun way to feed, vampires can compel for a reason.

"I don't drink old blood," Vanessa replied.

"It isn't old, it's... preserved." Paige had said back.

"It's old." Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Paige refuses to feed directly. She doesn't like injuries."

Ashton snorted and I saw Ben shoot him a glare, which he ignored and asked, "What type of vampire doesn't like injuries?"

"Half-blood," Paige said sounding rather confident about it.

"Half-blood?" Ben asked surprised.

"Yeah, Mom was adventurous," Vanessa said frowning to herself.

I nodded as we reached Karabo's house after driving past a park filled with pups happily messing around in the rain. It brought back memories because the rain was one thing my Dad actually didn't mind us playing around in.

After parking in front of Karabo's house, I quickly followed everyone out into the rain before heading inside. It made me question whether Karabo ever locked his front door because we didn't even have to knock to get inside.

"Vanessa! Paige! Guys!" I smiled as Karabo walked out of the kitchen and began hugging everyone.

I locked my arms around him for a few seconds longer than everyone else, happy he was not angry about us leaving the previous day before letting him go as he stepped back looking at me thoughtfully.

"Uh... You–you gave your Dad my number?" he asked somewhat awkwardly.

"What? No! Of course not," I looked at Tamia who shook her head so my gaze moved to Ben and he shrugged avoiding my eyes. "Ben," I growled.

"I was a little angry before I got over it," he admitted in a soft mumble.

"Angry? That doesn't mean you –" I cut myself off with a harsh sigh. It's done. "What did he say to you?" I looked back at my mate.

"Nothing bad, he's really nice." Karabo chuckled.

"I know," I replied.

"You must not take after him," he added with a slight smirk.

"I do not." It was true. Karabo laughed and I chuckled. "Seriously, what did he say to you?" I asked before groaning quickly at the realisation that both my parents were going to be very upset about my not telling them I found my mate to begin with. "Does he know you're an Alpha?"

"I don't think so. If he does, he didn't mention it. Are you guys hungry?"

"Yes. Are you cooking?" Ashton replied.

"Trying. I'm not promising anything about how good it is, I don't usually cook. My mom says it's best if I..." he drifted as my brows rose at him, "Never mind, it shouldn't be too bad." I laughed and my sister shot me a glare from behind my flustered mate making my laugh hitch.

"Uh... I-I'm sure it's great." I said unable to hide the uncertainty in my voice.

'You don't sound too sure.' Ashton linked to me.

'Don't tell him that. Just eat it.'

'And if it's terrible?'

'Keep quiet about it.'

'Can't do that.' I shot my Beta a glare as we followed everyone to the dining room.

'I'll give you light work for a week when we get home, just shut up.' I linked back to him. He smirked nodding as we took our seats at the table. The food smelt good, which was great because I was really dreading having to keep all the harder tasks to myself when we returned home.

"Eli, is your phone on?" Tamia asked looking up from her own.

"No, why?"

"Paps says they have been trying to reach you." She handed me the phone and I read over the message. They? Sean and Paps?

"Um... I'll be right back." I left the dining room to head towards Karabo's office where, once alone, I dialled my father's number on Tamia's phone.

"Hey, Sweetheart," Paps' drowsy voice came through after a few rings. I had forgotten about the time-zone difference again...

"Paps." I replied.

"I can call you that too, Eli."

"Don't," We chuckled, "I got the message. What's so important? Did something happen?"

"Okay." His voice was serious and I nodded figuring that we were going to be talking about the pack, "Nicholas is gone, disappeared a couple of days ago. Last night, Sean was running through some pack finances and he noticed that something isn't right."

"Nicholas stole money?" I asked slowly.

"Maybe. We've looked into it but we cannot seem to find where it may have gone, of course assuming that it was him is the most obvious route considering that he seems to have run away. I need you to try to figure it out, see if there's something we missed before we set off to find him."

"Paps, how about you find him right now and question him while I look into it?" It would be harder to find him after giving him time to get away.

"There's a big possibility of it not being him. I mean, Nicholas had nothing to do with the pack's bank account, he had no access to any of the information he would need to... steal from us." I sucked in a breath annoyed.

"Did Dad tell you not to go after him?"

"Yes," Paps sounded annoyed. I grit my teeth as I ran my hand through my hair annoyed. God, maybe Dad could be a little less kind-hearted? I mean questioning Nicholas didn't necessarily mean killing or even hurting him. Sean must have agreed with Dad though because Paps didn't sound too happy about it. Damn it.

"Okay, say I look into this and it is him. How are you going to find him? He's already been gone two days and we're still giving him more time to get further away. It's going to be practically impossible."

"I know, that's why time is important right now, so take a look at everything and call me back."

"I'll do that." After hanging up, I took a seat at Karabo's desk but paused as my eyes moved to the closed office door. I bit my lip feeling somewhat crestfallen.

Karabo and I were not doing much getting to know each other, were we? I actually wanted to have lunch with everyone, with him. It was weird that I had reason to miss him when we were in the same house or area because one of us were always busy. I shook my head. We still had time and following up with Paps was more important than lunch at the moment.

I linked to Karabo telling him I was working on something serious and he replied with a defeated 'I get it. Maybe we can see a movie later?' He did not sound happy at all... 'Of course.' I linked back before looking at the PC to begin working.

-----

I leaned my cheek against my fist while staring at the screen confused before nodding as a thought crossed my mind. Maybe the money was recorded as deposited but had not been to begin with? I would have been notified if it had been. I scrolled back through the document on the screen and noted that it had been 'deposited' the day after we landed. The bank statement did not second that and no one had contacted me to confirm.

Grabbing Tamia's phone, I dialled Sean's number and told him to question Natalie, but he already had because she was our secretary so I told him to speak to anyone she might have handed the money to if she was busy. He said he would do that and call me back just as the door to the office opened.

"Could you stop working?" Tamia asked when I had hung up.

"I have to wait for either Sean or Paps to call back and –"

"They can leave a message. Eli..." She shut the door behind her, "We're here for, what? A couple more days and you have barely spoken to your mate." she said.

"We had lunch the other day –" I stopped talking when she shook her head and sighed. "I guess..." I drifted.

"They said they could handle it, let them," she said.

"Right. Let's forget the part where they called me for help, right?" I said. She stared back at me emotionless and I let out another sigh. I needed to stop before it became a habit. "What are we doing?" I asked logging out of everything on the PC and then getting up. She smiled.

"Well it's still raining so... run?"

I chuckled. "Sure."

I joined everyone for a run, we didn't shift because the vampires were not as fast as we were in our wolf forms. I was carrying a backpack in case anyone wanted to shift and kept a distance behind the others while Karabo led everyone because he knew the forest surrounding his pack best. We ended up playing hide and seek – because Karabo – before the group found a sandpit that had turned to mud and Karabo tackled Ben right into it without hesitation. As Ben retaliated and everyone joined in, I stood back leaning against a tree while watching them, somewhat amused but still distracted. I kept glancing at my watch every few minutes wondering whether Sean or Paps had already done what I asked them. Had they called me back?

Despite my chat with Tamia earlier, I had brought my phone along. I would have to call Paps considering that they probably called Tamia's phone if they had called back and it was still on the desk in Karabo's office. I looked at the bag placed on the ground beside my feet dropped on the ground beside my feet. Everyone was so busy, they wouldn't notice if I disappeared to make the call, right? I would not be too far away.

"Hey, Eli, come on!" Vanessa's call made me look up at her and I shook my head giving her a thumbs up.

I ran my eyes over the trees around us. With the rain and the noise everyone was making there was no way we would be able to tell if anyone was around us. We would not notice if anyone was planning to attack, so at least one of us had to be alert at the moment. We could never be too cautious.

I stepped forward a few times and turned around to survey the forest behind me. The trees were much too dense to see through, Karabo's pack had absolutely amazing land. I shut my eyes and focused on listening to the sounds around us beyond my friends' yelling, the wind and the rain. Somewhere nearby, there was the sound of water splashing roughly showing that there was a river not too far from us. Other than that, all I could really hear was the sound of rain tapping against the leaves and falling to the ground.

"Stop working so much!" I let out a cough at the sudden impact of Ashton's shoulder slamming into my stomach as he speared me sending us both falling into the mud. I rolled over quickly when my back splashed against the cold, wet sand so that I was on top of him before grabbing some mud and dropping it onto his face. He tried to wiggle out from under me to retaliate but I kept him pinned, somewhat suffocating him in mud.

"Eli!" I laughed as my sister pushed me off her mate.

"What? I'm helping him exfoliate!" I said faking innocence as I looked up at her from where I sat in the mud. "Does sand do that?"

We laughed as Ashton threw mud at me but I dodged it before someone tackled me from behind. I smiled at the smell of their scent, his skin against mine causing my heart to pick up. I quickly shoved him off me and we began to wrestle in the mud as he tried to pin me back down in it. I lifted him and dropped him into a really soggy spot but he grabbed my shirt and pulled me down with him causing us both to land with a splat. We laughed as he tried pushing me away from him into the mud but I grabbed his face and pulled it close to mine.

"You're not stronger than I am, you will not win this," I said staring into his dark brown eyes challengingly.

"I'm way stronger than you are." He shoved me.

"Do you guys really have to make everything a competition?" Tamia groaned.

"Yes!" We yelled as we tried to pin each other again.

But within a few seconds, we had forgotten about trying to prove who was stronger and were once again just pushing each other and laughing whenever we managed to shove anyone face-first into the mud. I realised at one point that instead of trying to bury Karabo, I was just trying to hold him against me while he fought to get out of my grip.

"Stop," he groaned randomly as I pushed his shoulders, submerging his entire body but his face into the mud. My knees were on either side of his waist and I smirked at him while still holding him down. Obviously, I had won.

"What?" I asked.

"They left us." He frowned. I furrowed my brows and looked around. He was right, the others had all disappeared. The rain had subsided and I could hear water splashing. They must have been getting cleaned up in the river. I looked up and realised it had completely stopped raining but heavy grey clouds still filled the sky making the late afternoon seem as though it was already evening. We all had gotten carried away out here...

"I'm hungry," I mumbled, had been for a while.

"You want to head home with everyone? Why are you still holding me down?" He tried to push my hands away but I grabbed his and instead intertwined our fingers before laying our hands beside his head in the mud. He raised his brows as he looked up at me and I smiled.

"I can wait a little longer..." I mumbled leaning down to brush my lips against his. I chuckled tasting the mud we had on our faces, "Gross." it didn't stop me from kissing him again though, which made him laugh as he shook his head to break away.

"Why would I let you torture yourself like that?" he asked. Right, my stomach was growling pretty badly... but I really wanted to stay here with him. If we left either one or both of us would get back to doing some type of pack work.

I smiled at him for a few seconds before kissing him again, the kiss gentler and longer as he actually had time to respond; neither of us seemed to be in much of a hurry with it, as though we both realised the moment would not last long and just wanted to savour the feeling, the taste and warmth of just being there together for a few minutes. Eventually we had to break apart to get some air, though we didn't move very far away. We were still close enough for our foreheads to touch, our breaths brushing against each other's faces. My hunger was at the back of my mind.

It's not torture. Leaving there seemed like it would be.

Karabo gave a breathless chuckle and I realised I had spoken out loud.

"We can stay... sounds like they left," he said. I listened but heard no splashing at the river. Nodding, I pushed myself up off Karabo and held my hands out to him. His brows lowered in confusion. "I thought we were staying?"

I shrugged. He hesitated before grabbing hold of my hands, and I tugged him to his feet. He tried to pull his hands from mine once he was up but I held onto his left hand and kept it that way as we walked to the river talking about how we had not noticed the others leave. Twice. We joked about our Alpha senses were fading.

When we reached the river, I didn't hesitate getting completely undressed before diving in. Karabo stood on the bank staring at me when I surfaced.

"You just contaminated the entire ocean," he said seriously.

I splashed water on him and gave a smirk, "With sexiness?"

His nose scrunched adorably as he cringed. "That's so lame."

"I know." We laughed and I was about to go back under the water but saw him beginning to get undressed. I leaned my arms on the grass resting my chin on my hands and he stopped midway to pulling his shirt off when he noticed me staring at him. "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just enjoying the show." I smiled.

I laughed as he tossed his shirt into my face and heard a splash beside me as he dived in. I rolled my eyes before looking at him once he surfaced. How annoying.

"I'm sorry, I don't strip without payment."

"There's plenty of payment..." I said suggestively as I swam over to him.

He opened his mouth to reply to me but I pulled him against me keeping my arm around his waist. I chuckled at the fact that unlike me, he had kept his underwear on. His chest was warm against mine despite how cold the water was. I leaned my head down and kissed his jaw just below his ear softly before trailing kisses down to his neck as I felt his hands grip my arms.

"I need a deposit first," he mumbled.

I chuckled against his skin as I kissed him again a few more times before my lips met his and I felt his hands slide from my arms onto my neck. He pulled me closer trying to deepen the kiss as I playfully avoided it until he gave a soft growl that made me laugh, in turn giving a moment for our tongues to meet. The playfulness seemed to disappear at that moment as his fingers ran into my hair to grip hold of it and I turned to shove him against the river wall while my hands began to trail down towards the band that still hugged his waist. I froze feeling Karabo tense beneath my grip as a distant siren sounded and we both broke apart.

My eyes opened to see his wide with concern as his head snapped in the direction of his pack.

"Is-is that your pack alarm?" I whispered.

"Yes."

*****