(Willa)
“I didn’t know what to wear. I’ve been living in jeans and t-shirts for a few years.” I shrugged; more self-conscious after seeing him.
“I told you whatever you wore would be perfect.”
“You didn’t tell me where we were going.” I gave him a look.
“You don’t like surprises?”
“Depends on the surprise,” I countered, crossing my arms.
His eyes narrowed as he studied me. “Do you like sushi?”
I almost laughed, thinking about how I already assumed that would be his go-to.
“What?” He demanded.
“I just thought you would be the kind of guy to go to a gluten-free sushi place instead of the diner.”
He almost smiled. “There is definitely gluten there.”
“Oh well then, I’m appeased.”
“Do you have everything?” he asked, looking behind me.
“Just let me grab my purse.” I left the door open as I went to grab it and give Emmett a kiss.
“Who is at the door?” Emmett asked. I shook my head. I didn’t want to lie to him, but I wasn’t sure how to explain it.
“A friend that I’m going to eat some dinner with.” Cali raised an eyebrow and followed me back to the door.
“Thanks for the pizza,” she said, leaning against the open door. “Even if you think I’m snarky,”
He nodded slightly. “It's the least I could do.”
“Have fun.” She turned to me. “I won’t wait up,” She winked.
I shook my head and closed the door behind me, mouthing 'thank you' to her. Caspien reached his hand out, and I placed mine in his. He seemed to relax a bit and I let the warmth and sparks flow through me.
He led me to his car, something shiny and silver and low. I had no clue what it was, but it looked expensive, and I'm sure it was. He helped me in before going to the driver's side. He reached for my hand as soon as he got in and I let him. Being a werewolf, we didn’t do the whole dating thing, not with our mates at least.
Nolan brought me to his room immediately after he claimed me. He took my v.irginity, and marked me within the same day. This flirting and dating were foreign to me, but it actually felt so right.
I knew I was being negative, but having Nolan claim me immediately and then reject me in such a humiliating way, I had to be sure that wouldn’t happen again. It wasn’t just me involved, or my parents this time. I couldn’t let that happen to Emmett.
I didn’t notice that he parked until the lights turned on in the car, the silence didn’t feel awkward. Honestly, being with him felt natural. All the nerves and worries I had before he showed up washed away as soon as I saw him.
-
He led me to an elevator that had a view of the entire city as we ascended. The sparkling lights of the sprawling city mirrored the stars above. I had never seen any city from this view and it was breathtaking.
“What you see here is all Cresent Moon’s territory. Humans live here, but it's technically ours.”
“Where is your pack house?”
“A building near here, there’s an old one in the woods over there.” He pointed past the buildings. “It's hard to see at night, my parents live there along with some of the pack but most of them moved to the city.”
“Is it hard having everyone so separate? And intermingled with humans?” I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. At Blue Ridge, there were only werewolves and the pack was secluded from other packs and pretty much everything else.
“It’s what I know, what we’re used to.” He shrugged. “It would be easier if everyone living in the territory were werewolves, but it doesn’t work that easily in a city,” Half of his face tugged up in a smile.
I nodded, taking in the sight. I couldn’t imagine this all belonged to him.
“Who owns the buildings then?”
“Mostly the pack does, but we let some humans own them too. It looks a bit weird if one company owns most of the city.”
That was a lot of money.
“The pack building is expensive to keep up, a lot of the money goes back into the pack and city,” he said, answering one of my silent questions. “We’re here.”
The elevator opened at one of the top floors. The walls were made of floor to ceiling windows, with almost a 360 view of the city. A woman dressed in black smiled at us. She was human.
“Mr. Dracos.” She nodded. “Your table is this way.”
We followed her to a table against the windows. There wasn’t anyone else inside the restaurant. The woman left us, nodding deeply to Caspien and giving me a smile that seemed genuine.
“You said you wanted to go somewhere quiet to talk.” He raised an eyebrow.
“There’s no one else here?” I looked around again to confirm. I didn’t even see any servers around.
“It’s closed, for everyone but us.” His steely eyes met mine.
“That seems like a waste of resources.” I tilted my head.
“Or just giving most of the staff time off,” he shot back.
“Fair.” I smiled as a man in all black came up and poured us a glass of white wine.
“I hope this is okay. I didn’t know what you liked.”
“I’m down to try anything.” I smiled at the server as he backed away. “No menus?” I asked, glancing down at the table.
“I said it was a surprise.” His face fell a little bit. “Or is this too much? Too controlling? I’m not used to dating.”
My brows furrowed. “I don’t believe that,” I snorted.
“Okay, you caught me.” He smiled. “I’ve been on a few dates, but nothing serious. I haven’t ever had a girlfriend.”
“Why not?” I picked up the glass of wine, taking a sip. It was good.
“Why waste time with someone I knew wasn’t going to be forever? It wouldn’t have been fair to you- to my mate, or my girlfriend. I trust The Moon Goddess enough to know that nothing else would compare to the gift she gave me. I had some fun, sure, but I didn’t see the point of anything serious.” His eyes seemed to bore through mine.
“That makes sense.” My voice sounded small as the weight of his words and the truth in them settled on me. “I didn’t really have time to think about the whole dating or mate thing. I found mine, or one of mine, the day I turned eighteen, so I don’t know what I would have done.”
“Really?” He looked surprised. “You said you just got out of something,”
I shrugged, looking down. “I haven’t been with anyone since Nolan, anyone besides him actually,” I whispered, “I know I said I recently got out of something, but what happened with him and me; it still feels pretty d.amn raw,” I admitted, the anger starting to flare inside me.
“What happened?” His voice seemed to turn a bit darker when he asked.
Food started coming, and I leaned back, our gazes not moving from each other.
I took a deep breath and told him everything.
We paused to eat some of the food; it was delicious. I wasn’t lying when I said I hadn’t had sushi before, and it was different and way better than I expected.
“It’s not always this great, but this is fresh, and that is key,” he explained. “Go on.” He nodded at me. “If you want to,”
“Basically, that was it. I didn’t just lose my mate and my future position. I lost my home, a place that I never thought about leaving. I lost any sort of familiarity and comfort. The people that I knew my entire life, you get the gist.” I tried to smile. “I lost everything.”
“Did he force you to leave?” His eyes flashed black, and it was such a contrast to his icy blue eyes.
I shook my head. “I didn't really have a choice. He didn’t f.orce me to leave, and he didn’t banish me. What was I supposed to do? Stay there at my parent's house and watch him live a life with someone who I didn’t know but seemed to relish in my pain? Watch the pack inevitably accept them and forget about me? I debated staying just to show them all that I was the victim. At first I planned to have my baby there..” I trailed off.
“Why didn’t you stay in the end?”
“I held out hope. Even after he cheated, h.ell even after he rejected me publicly while holding my pregnancy test.” His eyes went wide before they flashed black again and didn’t turn back.
I took a deep breath. “I was blinded by my love, or infatuation, whatever it was. I wanted to be with him at any cost, and I was willing to give up everything for that. My pride, my dignity, everything just to stay with him.” I admitted that out loud for the first time. Things that I didn’t even dare admit to myself were all laid out between us.
He stayed silent. I knew he wasn’t trying to draw information out of me but making me comfortable going on.
He reached out his hand across the table, an invitation. I placed my hand on his and he closed his around mine. I let the warmth spread through me, helping calm some of the emotions I was reliving.
“I knew that, well, I knew that it was really over. No matter if I went through with my pregnancy at the pack, it wouldn’t change anything. He made his decision, and after hearing he had already accepted another Luna and she was also pregnant days later. I mean, it was over then for me. Completely.” I tried to smile, but I couldn’t even pretend that this didn’t still slice through me and rip open an old wound that never fully healed.
“Sure, it would have made things harder for him if I stayed.” I let out a low laugh. “But at what cost? I knew that I would have been even more hurt and broken watching it unfold. It wouldn’t have been good for me or for the baby.”
“Did you ever think of giving him up? Adoption or anything?” He spoke for the first time in a while.
I shook my head. “I thought the baby was going to be born into a loving family,” I scoffed, and his hand tightened around mine. “I mean, he was, but very different than what I expected. But it wasn’t any hope for Nolan and me that I decided to raise Emmett myself. I wanted him, and well, that's that.” I shrugged.
“That’s that,” he repeated, nodding at me. His icy blue eyes seemed to fill with an emotion that I hadn’t seen from him.
“I’m sorry that you had to go through that. No one should ever have to suffer that.” His hand seemed to shake in mine, and he shut his eyes tight, taking a deep breath. “I hate that you went through that. The only thing keeping me from driving down to Blue Ridge and ripping that pathetic Alpha’s heart from his chest in front of his mate and pack is the fact that you’re here letting
me hold your hand.”