Chapter 5

YARA

It had taken Hendrix almost ten minutes to convince me to let him drop me off at home and the only reason why I’d finally agreed was because he reminded me that people had been turning up dead lately. After being attacked by a werewolf, the thought of possibly getting attacked again after I left his suite in his hotel had practically made me jump at the offer.

I had screamed on the inside all the way to his car though and now, I was directing him to the apartment building my friend, Willow, lived in because there was no way in hell I was letting him know where I lived. I planned to tell him I wasn’t interested in being his mate after he dropped me off and I didn’t want him showing up at my place some other time to talk about it. Of course, he could show up at Willow’s apartment building but seeing as I rarely went there and he didn’t know what Willow looked like, he’d be leaving empty-handed.

…Also, speaking of the mate thing, I still hadn’t figured out how to tell him I wasn’t interested in being his. I mean, what exactly was I supposed to say?

Hey Hendrix. About that mate stuff, why don’t we just forget about it and not talk to each other again? Cool?

Not cool.

“Damn it,” I muttered.

“What?”

I looked up to see Hendrix staring at me with a questioning look on his face. “Oh nothing. I was just thinking about… my aunt. She must be so worried.”

Aunt Allison wasn’t worried anymore. When I had borrowed Hendrix’s phone in the suite, I used it to call Willow who told me that my aunt already called her to ask if she knew where I was and she’d dropped by the Hendrix Hotel so she knew I wasn’t there. I’d then told her to call my aunt to let her know that I was okay, why I couldn’t reach out to her with my phone and fabricated a lie about what happened and where I was for her to tell her too. I’d be spending the night at Willow’s so she wouldn’t be able to scold me till I went to my apartment tomorrow.

“Oh. I’m really sorry for what happened,” he replied, reminding me that he’d said it was his fault I had gotten injured. “If there’s anything I can do to make you feel better, please let me know.”

“The werewolf that attacked me, do you know him?” I asked and he heaved a sigh.

“Yes, He’s a member of my pack.”

“That doesn’t make what happened your fault.” I didn’t want him feeling guilty about what happened because though I had known him for less than two hours, he seemed like a nice person.

“It is actually,” he said. “There’s a drug going around in the werewolf community. It’s said to have the effects of a hallucinogen and if taken constantly it makes werewolves go–”

“Rabid?”

He glanced at me with a soft smile on his face. “You could say that… I should have made sure none of my pack members got their hands on it.”

I tipped my head to the side, confused again. “How could you have–” Then it hit me. This was the third time he had mentioned his pack and all three times, I had assumed he meant his pack and not his pack. Could it be– “You’re an Alpha.”

I’d intended for my words to come out as a question, not a statement, and when he smiled at me again, that gave me the answer I needed.

“Oh! Um…” Now why am I mated to an Alpha? I waited in silence as I stared at him like the moon goddess would answer me from wherever she was, but that obviously didn’t happen. “This is my first time seeing an Alpha up close.”

This was my first time seeing one at all.

No, seriously, why the fuck am I mated to an Alpha? I’m a witch! Is this the moon goddess’ idea of a joke?

“I took over the White Claw pack seven years ago,” Hendrix replied.

Seven years ago?

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-three.”

“So you took over when you were sixteen,” I muttered, drawing my brows together, and he nodded. My dad had told me an Alpha’s son usually took over the pack when the Alpha deemed them old enough to and I didn’t think sixteen was old enough to run a pack. “Why?”

A muscle in his jaw twitched and after a while passed without him saying anything, I began to wonder if I had asked something I shouldn’t, but then he replied. “My parents passed away.”

Oh… I stared at him for several moments, not knowing how to respond. I didn’t want to say something like ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ because I was pretty sure he’d heard it enough to last him a lifetime. Lord knows I have.

“That sucks.”

A surprised noise escaped him and as he turned to look at me, he let out a soft laugh that was laced with a hum of amusement. “Yeah, it does.”

And for some reason, I decided to add, “My parents are dead too.”

“…That sucks.”

The corner of my mouth tugged up. “It truly does,” I replied and we both laughed at that before he stopped at a red light. Several moments passed by with neither one of us saying anything, then we both spoke at the same time.

“Was it–”

“So what–”

He chuckled. “You go first.”

“I just wanted to ask what it’s like. Being an Alpha.”

That wasn’t actually what I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask how Georgia came to be a member of his pack and his friend and if there were other witches in his pack because my mother had told me werewolves and witches naturally despised each other due to a centuries-old feud but I didn’t want to ask that right off the bat.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he let out a harsh breath. “It–It’s a lot. There are times that I like it and there are times I find it stressful beyond measure.”

“And how do you deal with stressful situations?”

“By screaming on the inside,” he said and I couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled out of me while I lightly hit his arm. “I’m serious,” he added, a smile playing on his lips as he watched me, and I couldn’t help but think that if I wasn’t a witch and I’d had a different mother, I really wouldn’t have minded being his mate.

But his friend is a witch. The thought slyly slipped into my mind and I pressed my lips together. The fact that a witch was his friend and a member of his pack didn’t mean he would be interested in being mated to one.

“What about you? What were you going to say?” I asked as the light turned green and he returned his attention to the road.

“Oh. Um… was it when your pack was wiped out that you lost your parents?”

I paused.

Memories of me finding my parents bloodied, mangled bodies flashed through my mind and I swallowed before lying through my teeth. “Yes.” I tightened my hands into fists on my lap and looked out the window. “My aunt took me in after that.”

“She’s not a werewolf?”

“No. Human.”

“Ah. So you don’t know much about our kind,” he said and I bit my lower lip, knowing where he was going with this. “Would you like to join my pack, Yara?”

I didn’t hesitate to reply. “There’s no point in doing that. I’m latent. I’m practically not a werewolf.”

“You are. I mean, you heal. Not as fast as werewolves do but you do heal… And you have a mate,” he said and against my better judgment, I turned to see him staring at me intently with longing in his eyes.

Don’t… Don’t look at me like that?

“Yara, do you not feel anything?” he asked. “For me?”

My heart rate picked up and I plastered a smile on my face before feigning cluelessness. “Is this how you hit on women?”

He didn’t smile at my question or give me an answer. Instead, his mouth set in a hard line and he faced the road. “We’re here,” he muttered just as he stopped the car and I looked out the window to see he was right. We were parked in front of Willow’s apartment building.

“Thank you.” I quickly reached for the door and my heart jumped when he suddenly grabbed my arm after I opened it. What–

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“What?”

He tipped his head to the side. “You told me to buy you dinner.”

“I–”

My statement At least buy me dinner first from when I felt his face on my neck replayed in my mind and I closed my mouth. …Okay, he got me.

“Are you free?” he repeated and I nodded because he’d just try to find out when I was free if I said no. Besides, I still hadn’t told him I wasn’t interested in being his mate. I was even acting like I didn’t know what a mate was so I had to wait for him to explain it to me – something he’d probably do over the dinner date – before telling him I wasn’t interested.

Again, I felt awful.

“Hendrix Hotel?” he asked and it took me a moment to realize that was where he wanted us to have dinner.

“You technically won’t be buying me dinner then. You own the place.”

A radiant smile swept across his face, lighting it up with warmth and joy, and butterflies fluttered in my stomach at the sight.

“What?” I mumbled, feeling shy under his attention all of a sudden.

“You’re unparalleled.”

Heat immediately rushed to my face and the butterflies fluttered even more violently.

“Will you pick a restaurant then?” he asked, still smiling brightly, and I nodded, having been rendered speechless by his previous statement. He then reached out to open the glove compartment and my skin buzzed when his hand brushed my knees. He pulled out a card and handed it to me along with his phone. “Can I get your number?”

I nodded again because there was really no point in telling him no. I glanced down at the card which had his number on it before putting my number on his phone and as I handed it back to him, he made sure his fingers brushed mine as he collected it.

Trouble… This man is trouble.

The air between us became charged as his gaze dropped to my lips and in that moment I knew if he tried to kiss me, I wouldn’t stop him.

“Goodnight Yara,” he stated, snapping me out of it, and I blinked once. Twice.

“Goodnight,” I replied before getting out of the car.