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Chapter 3.
*****
*Jayden*
I watched as everyone messed around while I sat aside like old times, but it wasn’t because of the same reasons. Now I just liked observing Eli and Tamia play… and also, I needed to know what they were doing because they could get hurt or Eli could disappear again and give me another heart attack…
“Daddy!” I let out a cough as Tamia pounced on me, but not to show how much her knee slamming into my kidney hurt. “I’m tired!” She announced swinging her arms around my neck.
I was surprised at what was said, she certainly didn’t sound or act like she was tired. Chuckling, I got up while lifting in my arms with a bit of effort. Despite having been forced to work out with Corey – by Corey, I was still an Omega so carrying her was not as easy as it was when she was smaller.
“Eli?” I looked at him.
“No! I’m staying up all night!” He yelled causing everyone to groan complaints as they rubbed their ears. He gave a sheepish smile mumbling an apology and I laughed.
“Fine, just for tonight,” I said.
“Ma, I’m tired.” I looked at Ashton as he mumbled to Izabella and smirked at the kid. No, he wasn’t, but I understood. I saw Ben and my son laugh and Ashton shot a glare at them.
“Want me to –?” Izabella began.
“No, it’s okay. I want to go with Uncle Jay.” He said quickly. She gave a laugh as she looked at me.
“Come on,” I took his hand and led him to the gaming room where the kids had set up all their beds – it was basically a mess of pillows, blankets and any other soft and fluffy things they could find in the house as they insisted ‘camping’ downstairs, it wasn’t a bad job and they had even created a little blanket fort in one corner of the room. There were about nine kids all together, all below ten years old. Izabella didn’t have to say it for me to know she was glad Kaden and I were staying over.
I tucked the kids in before lying down between them.
“Sing?” Tamia yawned leaning against me. I smiled as I wrapped my arm around her.
“Only if you sing with me,” I said. Both my kids seemed to have gotten my love for music, I was happy for that. They sang pretty well, though Eli’s bass skills were slightly better than his voice.
“Yeah, sing with him.” I chuckled as Ashton encouraged Tamia.
It was funny, the only person who refused to acknowledge that Ashton had indeed found his mate when Tamia was born was Corey; he refused to even think it. I don’t think he would let himself so much as consider that type of thought. I found it cute how protective he was of both of our kids, I loved him for it.
“Fine,” one thing our kids hadn’t gotten from me was their bold confidence, yup, that was all Corey.
I began singing and Tamia joined in. I watched Ashton as he stared at her smiling. It was sweet. If he kept treating her the way he already did, I knew she would be perfectly safe and happy with him. If he did hurt her though, Corey definitely wasn’t going to be his only problem.
Somewhere in the song, Tamia fell asleep and right after she did, Ashton followed. I was too lazy to get up so just stayed there and thought about Corey. Maybe I was being stupid; it really wasn’t that I didn’t trust him. But if I was in his position… There was so many more who were so much better. Added to that was that despite him already being mated and having children, women and men in our pack and not weren’t very subtle about their attraction towards him.
I sighed finally getting up and gently tucked the two kids in taking a moment to pause as I brushed some ice cream from Ashton’s cheek before looking at my daughter. I was being stupid. Completely stupid. Corey loved me. Why couldn’t I just believe that? He did, and he tried everything to make me believe it as well, all I ever did in return was act like it wasn’t enough. Despite everything in my past, he was with me and I still thought he’d leave because of it, even after so long. I was such an idiot. I smiled as I grabbed my phone and dialled his number.
I couldn’t help but grin as he answered his phone up almost immediately, when there had barely been a single ring in my ear.
“I miss you so much.” He spoke before I could. I laughed softly. It had only been about five hours since they left, but I understood the feeling.
“I miss you too. Guess who I just put to bed?” I decided to annoy him.
“Uhm… Kaden?” I laughed and he chuckled. “Tammy, there’s no way Eli’s in bed, it’s way too early for him.” He said.
“Yeah… and Ash,” I said. There was a couple of seconds of silence before I heard an annoyed growl.
“I take it back, I don’t miss you. I’m going to kill you.” He stated.
“Yeah, sure you will.” I rolled my eyes.
“When did you stop being shaken by my threats?” he asked, probably just thinking out loud.
“When I realised how pretty much all of them were empty threats towards late pizza delivery guys and food that burnt your mouth,” I said smirking to myself.
“I hate you.” He said before quickly adding, “I dislike you… sort of… not really… damnit.” I laughed.
“I love you, Babe,” I replied smiling. I heard a chuckle from him that only made my smile wider.
“I love you too… and the kids. More than anything.” I smiled letting myself believe it.
“I know.”
—
*Corey*
“Cause I want it all!” I unscrewed the cap on my orange juice, “Or nothing at a –!” I threw the bottle’s entire contents in Sean’s face and he began coughing and spluttering as everyone laughed. Once regaining his composure, he growled at me and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“It’s a long drive, Sean, I’ve already told you five times to shut the fuck up,” I said as he glared at me before he grabbed some paper towels and began trying to clean himself and the car up.
“Asshole, I was providing some much-needed entertainment.” He replied shooting another scorching stare at me as he grabbed a towel to try to clean himself up. Maybe I should have used water instead of juice…
“You mean you were trying to give us all ear problems and irreparable scarring, Alpha?” Zeke asked from the driver’s seat.
We laughed as Sean flipped him off but Zeke did not even see it being so focused on the road.
“So much disrespect. I bet Ian never got this from his Deltas and Beta.” Sean shook his head frowning.
“You’re not Ian. You’re an idiot.” I joked. He rolled his eyes before chuckling.
“Alright, the first plot is right around that corner,” Antonio spoke up from the passenger seat while pointing ahead.
“Is it next to a forest or in it?” Jason asked.
“Next to.” Antonio replied, “Unfortunately, there’s a small pack that lives not that far off so there will be some borders on their side.” He said.
“Small?” Keisha asked.
“About a hundred in population,” Antonio replied. A hundred. It was significantly small for a werewolf pack, they would not be a problem to us at all. Unless…
“Types of wolves?” I asked.
“Same as us. Novulaní.” He said.
“Then we have nothing to worry about,” Sean said.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
We were the strongest Novulaní pack on the continent; these guys would be nowhere close to being a threat to us, not even being as few as we were in the car at the moment, because we were some of the strongest wolves in our pack.
As we came to park in front of the clearing where we would build our houses, Sean instantly began shaking his head and I did not even have to properly study the place to know it was already a no. We climbed out of the car and I frowned scrunching my nose slightly.
“Smells bad, my guess is it’s an old landfill site,” Sean said, “The forest also seems pretty dry, I doubt many animals live here – definitely not enough for our pack to hunt without taking them out completely.” He added.
Antonio showed us a picture of the place. It was the complete opposite of what we were looking at.
“Talk about false advertising…” He said making us laugh.
“Alright, so this place is a no, let’s go. The quicker we run through this, the faster we get home.” I said.
“Sorry, Beta, the next place is a day’s ride away, there’s no way we’re getting there quickly.” I groaned as I let my head fall back and stared at the clear blue sky. “Bright side is that there are three of the plots on our list quite close to each other so we’ll be able to stay in one place.” He added.
I wanted to get home as fast as possible; I knew the unfamiliar dread would completely disappear as soon as I was close to Jayden again… but then the stupid arguments would start up again. I sighed running my hands through my hair annoyed at my Beta status once again, as I had been so many times over the past few years, but of course I was happy about the natural strength that came with it. “Let’s go.” I shrugged.
“Hey, how about we treat this like a much needed holiday and book a hotel when we get there?” Jason smiled.
“Hey, how about we don’t.” Sean gave a smile.
“This is work,” I said backing him up. “Keep your mind on that.”
“Come on, guys. What’s wrong with a few nights in a bed rather than sleeping in the car? I doubt that will hinder our working minds very much, might actually help us make a better decision, Corey.” Zeke asked.
I looked at Sean who looked back at me and we sighed. The others smiled before the words even left Sean’s mouth.
“Fine. We’ll find a hotel.” He said.
We drove for twenty hours before reaching our destination and then we drove around town for another hour until the others found a suitable hotel. I honestly couldn’t care less where we were as long as I got to take a shower, call Jayden and go to sleep. Luckily my phone hadn’t died yet because I had barely used it.
We ended up walking into a massive, glittery, obviously very expensive lobby and I quickly shot a glare at Jason. “We’re on a budget.”
“It’s just a couple of nights, Beta. I’ll get our rooms.” He walked away grinning like an idiot before anything else could be said.
I clenched my jaw studying one of the massive chandeliers overhead. ‘Agreeing to this was a mistake.’ Sean linked to me.
Yeah, I’ll say. “Hopefully they’ll behave,” I said.
“Says the biggest party animal we’ve all ever known,” Zeke smirked at me. I rolled my eyes but chuckled as my phone began ringing.
My smile broadened as I pulled it out of my pocket and saw Jayden’s smiling face on the screen. I figured it was best to have one of him awake attached to his number because my home and lock screens had pictures of him asleep and cuddled up with our kids. I was about to answer the call but a voice calling out distracted me.
“Corey? Is that you…? Oh my God, no way.” I turned around and looked at the woman confused.
‘Who is this?’ Sean’s voice popped into my head.
‘I have no idea.’ I replied.
The woman laughed. “You’ve changed so much, it’s almost impossible to recognise you, Button-head.” I froze at the name. Only one person had ever called me that….
“Wait, Carrie?” My jaw dropped she hugged me tightly, “Wow, it’s – it has been forever… seriously.” I said wide-eyed as she pulled away.
“Carrie?” Sean’s eyes widened.
“Sean!” She exclaimed.
“You grew.” He said as she hugged him.
I rolled my eyes as Carrie did too, “Wow, Sean, you expected something different?” I asked. He shot me a look saying I knew what he meant and we chuckled.
The last time we had seen her was when we were almost seven, her father had a bad fallout with Ian and Cole and they left our pack, she had been my best friend since birth until they left. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to her. I remember that Izabella and Hayley only knew her for a few months having only spoken to her because they became my friends and the pair had never gotten along with her.
“You grew too, Sean… You look… You look amazing, Corey.” She said to me.
“You’ve gotten… absolutely gorgeous.” I admitted. She gave a smile. “I really never thought you would grow into those –”
“Stop!” I laughed as she smacked my chest. When we were little, she had quite bushy eyebrows, they looked nice on her now. “I can’t believe this! Running into you here is, wow…” She smiled running her eyes over me. I chuckled nodding. It was a surprise, I never thought we would ever see each other again.
“Hey, we should all catch up. Would you like to join us for dinner?” Sean asked, Carrie nodded, “Great, we’ll meet back here after we get settled into our rooms – at seven? Corey, you should call your mate back.” I had barely heard Sean as I stared at Carrie but snapped out of it as he nudged my arm and I nodded looking back to my phone. The call had ended a while ago. It seemed Jayden thought that I was busy because he did not call twice like he usually would have.
“Mate?” Carrie asked me surprised as her eyes fell onto my neck and her mouth opened into an ‘o’ shape. “Wow… You-You’re marked…” She whispered still staring at the mark on my neck.
“Yes, and they have two adorable kids. Corey can probably show you pictures.” Sean gave Carrie a blatantly fake smile before shooting a glance at me and walking away with the others after Jason handed me my room card. I watched them confused. What was up with him?
“So…” I looked up from my card to see that Carrie looked quite shocked, “Family man.” She said. I chuckled shrugging. “Since I’m already booked in, how about I just accompany you to your room?” she asked.
“Sounds good. We can catch up.” I replied.
We walked up to my room talking about any and everything, there was so much we didn’t know about each other, so many ways we had both changed, it was hard to believe that we were once inseparable. Our moms had been very close and they thought naming us similarly would be ‘cute’.
“My mom still has that picture!” I groaned as she laughed while mentioning that and I threw my bag onto my bed.
It was where she had gotten the nickname ‘Button Head’ from: her mother had begun calling me that when we were four. We were at her house one day, messing with glue and I had somehow gotten some on my hair and ended up rolling in buttons succeeding in sticking a lot of them to my hair. My mom had been incredibly mad at me because she had to shave it all off and she had loved my curly hair. It grew back; which was why I never understood why she was so upset about it.
“Mine too. Unfortunately. She showed it to my mate and he hung it in our fricking hallway.” I chuckled at the thought of Jayden, suddenly missing him more.
“Oh? I found my mate, he was human. Asshole.” She frowned. “Hey, remember when you gave me that ring?” She smiled at me. I furrowed my brows trying to think before tilting my head.
“The one I made in art class?” I laughed as she nodded, “Wait, you still have it?” I asked, my eyes widening slightly. She smiled, “No way.” I said.
“Of course I kept it. You only get married so many times, Corey. I adored you and we never got divorced by the way.” We laughed. It was a little weird that she had kept a crappy plastic ring with beads stuck to it. We were twenty-seven now, so about twenty-one years? “Where’s your wedding ring?” She asked suddenly. I looked at her and then instinctively glanced at my hand. “I noticed Sean wearing one. Jason’s being a player?” I laughed nodding. “My mom always knew he would take after Delton.” She said mentioning Jason’s older brother, the pair were quite alike. “Where’s yours?” She added.
“Oh, I’m not married,” I said.
“But you’re mated?” She asked. I nodded, “And have children?” she added furrowing her brows.
“Yes, and we’re both marked,” I said.
“You mark someone when you have sex with them, Corey. It’s involuntary. It doesn’t mean you love them.” She said.
“Well, I do love him,” I said already having told her I was mated to a guy.
“If you say so.” I looked at her questioningly and she laughed, “I’m just joking, I’m sure you adore him.” Carrie smiled at me, “You’ve changed so much and so little…” She said, “He’s very lucky he got you, Corey.” She added.
I gave a chuckle as I put my phone in charge. I would call Jayden back later, right after dinner. “Let’s go meet the others,” I said.
*****
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