Chapter 2
2200 Words
Chapter 2
“Are you serious, right now?” Sin asked in complete and utter shock. Brandon had just finished explaining to the few who didn’t know what could potentially happen to Sarah and her baby if Carter were to accept her as his mate, and if she were to take him, as well. “Carter’s wolf could potentially kill her baby?”
“It happens,” Brandon replied.
“Not only that, in the off chance he doesn’t kill her baby, and Sarah learns what we are, and wants to be turned…” Aries said, drawing out his statement.
“Oh wow, he could kill her,” Sin concluded. She knew that part all too well. It was the reason why Mikey was apprehensive about turning her when she first brought it up five years ago.
“That’s also why Carter is pissed,” Aries stated. “He may have been born a rogue like me, but we know these things because it’s, in a way, common knowledge amongst our kind.”
“Leah, did you know all of this?” Sin asked.
“I knew some of it,” Leah answered.
“Yeah, this is going to be a lot more complicated, later, too,” Brandon added and shook his head.
“Why?” everyone asked.
“Seriously? Have you guys forgotten that Sarah is interviewing to work at Dorian’s company later this week after he gets released from the hospital?”
“OH SH*T!” Everyone, aside from Aries, exclaimed. He looked at them in utter confusion.
“Holy crap, I totally forgot about that,” Sin admitted.
“Oh, f*ck, so did I,” Leah said and bit her bottom lip with worry.
“I’m sorry, what?” Aries questioned in surprise.
“Oh, yeah, you weren’t here,” Brandon replied. “Uh, Gizmo’s cousin asked for help in landing a job, and she offered to speak with Dorian about possibly getting her one of the front lobby receptionist roles,” Brandon explained.
“You’re kidding?” Aries muttered, unable to believe it.
“Nope.”
“Oh goddess, that’s going to be so awkward for Carter if she were to get hired,” Katie mumbled as she placed cookies and coffee on the table for them.
“Not if I can help it,” Aries commented.
“How do you mean?” Sin asked.
“Beta, if she does get hired, will you let me know? I can steer Carter away from the front lobby until we can figure out what he’s going to do,” Aries requested.
“Yeah, for sure,” Brandon replied.
Sure enough, after Sarah was hired at Dorian’s company, Brandon followed through and informed Aries. Without revealing the real reason for the detour, Aries managed to help Carter avoid Sarah successfully. Carter was unaware for a while until one day, as he was leaving the office and walking through the front lobby, he sensed her.
When Carter saw her, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest, but then he saw her pregnant belly, and all the positive feelings he had turned negative. He hurried out of the building and went home. He hadn’t told the others he was leaving first, and they were wondering where he had gone. When they found out he left without them and that he sensed Sarah at the office, Aries face-palmed himself.
“Wait, did he just say his mate works at the company?” Warlord asked in utter confusion. Aries nodded. “Since when!?”
“A couple of weeks now,” Aries admitted.
“And you knew the whole time?!” Fury questioned in disbelief.
“Yeah.”
“Dude, what the hell?!” Poseidon growled. “You know how he’s been feeling about his mate being the Luna’s cousin, and pregnant at that. And you’ve been keeping this big secret from him? That’s f*cked up, Aries.”
“It was for his own good,” Aries defended.
“And who are you to decide what’s best for him?” Warlord questioned.
“Are you serious, right now?” Aries asked in return. “You were there when he reacted to Allie’s cousin being his mate, and his reaction to her being pregnant. Did you honestly think he would be reasonable if he learned that she was going to be working in the same company as him?” Aries’ question stumped the guys as they thought about what he just said to them.
“Sh*t,” Warlord grumbled when he realized that Aries had a point. Fury and Poseidon nodded in agreement.
“What do we do?” Fury asked.
“Be there for him,” was all Aries said. The guys nodded, and they all went home. Aries ended up staying behind because he had an upcoming assignment and would be leaving the next day to complete a contract.
When the Warlord, Fury, and Poseidon arrived at the pack territory, they headed straight to Carter’s house; unfortunately for them, all the lights were off, and his car was nowhere to be seen.
“What if he parked in the garage?” Fury asked.
“With all of the sh*t that he holds in there, I doubt it,” Warlord replied.
“Where could he have gone?” Poseidon asked as they looked through a window to make sure Carter wasn’t hiding in his house.
“Who knows? But if he needs time alone with his thoughts, then we should respect that. None of us knows what he’s going through right now,” Warlord answered. Fury and Poseidon nodded, and they all went home.
The next day, Carter showed up to work, and the guys bombarded him with questions, but he ignored them and went about his day as usual, albeit a lot quieter. Their day quickly turned into a day from hell when an unwanted guest presented herself at the company, and they all had to stop themselves from gagging in disgust at seeing her. The only good thing was that she wasn’t there for them, so they were able to ignore her presence.
“I hope Sam kills her,” Warlord silently prayed.
“Do we tell Aries?” Fury asked.
“No. He’s on assignment, and we don’t want him distracted. It could be detrimental,” Warlord answered.
“I feel bad for the Gamma,” Poseidon cringed. “You guys know if she’s not here for Aries, she’s here for Mikey.”
“Carter, you’re lucky you never f*cked with her,” Warlord joked, but Carter didn’t react.
“Dude, are you still thinking about your mate?” Fury asked. Carter looked at him in annoyance, but didn’t respond and just walked away.
“You had to go there, didn’t you?” Poseidon questioned Fury and shook his head.
“What? He’s being so aloof about everything. It’s getting depressing.”
“He needs time to decide what he wants to do,” Warlord stated.
“It’s been weeks since he learned about her. I’m more surprised he hasn’t made a decision yet,” Fury countered.
“He saw her for the first time yesterday. I’m sure that’s also playing a factor,” Warlord reasoned. “We need to be patient and just be there for him, as Aries said.” The guys nodded, and they went about their day.
The weekend was fast approaching, and after another few days of not knowing what to do, the guys gathered at Warlord, Poseidon, and Fury’s house. While they were sitting around shooting the sh*t, all of their phones suddenly pinged. Fury was the first to check his phone, and his eyes bulged out of his head.
“Holy hell! Check out the bounty that just came in!” The others, including Carter, gathered around and looked over his shoulder. When they all saw that the bounty was for Katana, the woman they were all trying desperately to avoid. Warlord nearly jumped for joy, Poseidon pursed his lips while nodding his head, and Carter was aloof to the entire thing. His indifference didn’t go unnoticed by the others.
“Carter, seriously, are you okay, man?” Warlord asked. Carter gazed at his friends and nodded, showing little reaction.
“Bro, I think you should just reject her,” Fury said. With Carter’s mood constantly sour and his snapping at anyone who even looked at him the wrong way, Fury was getting tired of Carter’s saltiness. He was acting like a little schoolgirl who wasn’t invited to the school dance.
Fury’s statement irked Carter the wrong way and fueled the inferno within his wolf, Jasper, whom Carter had been trying to control. Without so much as blinking, Carter charged at Fury and grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and slammed him against the wall of Fury’s shared home with Warlord and Poseidon.
“Whoa! Carter! That’s enough!” Warlord placed his hand firmly on Carter’s shoulder to keep him from killing Fury. He was able to push Carter off of Fury. “Control your wolf, Carter!” Warlord warned when he saw that Carter’s eyes were obsidian black.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Carter spat.
“Dude, ever since you found out who your mate was, you’ve been a pain the ass!” Poseidon said from the stool he was sitting on in the dining room.
“And your point being!?” Carter retorted.
“My point is that your wolf longs for his mate. But you’re such a prideful son-of-a-b***h that you refuse even to try and talk to her!” Poseidon shouted.
“What’s there to say! She’s a divorced, knocked-up, and broke!”
“That’s f*cked up, Carter, and you know it! She’s the Luna’s cousin, and she was a sh*tty hand. You holding that against her without even bothering to get to know her is childish, even for you!” Fury said while fixing his jacket. “Hence why I told you to reject her.”
“You don’t have any right to tell me to reject my mate!” Carter spat.
“So, what, you’re just going to sulk around like a teenage boy who’s been rejected by his first crush, and let Jasper take his anger out on innocent pack members and us?”
“I’m not sulking!” Carter defended himself.
“YES YOU ARE!” the others shouted in harmony. Carter jumped back at their exclamation.
“You guys don’t f*cking get it! I feel like I’m being punished! Why was I mated to a human who wasn’t even meant for me!?”
“Who says that she wasn’t made for you?” Warlord asked, tired of Carter sounding like a broken radio. Carter pointed out the obvious about Sarah being a divorcee and pregnant.
“That’s not a valid reason. That’s like saying the Luna wasn’t meant for the Alpha,” Poseidon chimed in.
“What are you talking about?” Carter questioned.
“You don’t know?” Carter shook his head. “Do you guys know?” Poseidon asked the others, who also shook their heads no. Poseidon ended up explaining more about Allie’s past before she met Dorian, which surprised the others.
“What are you trying to tell me, man?” Carter asked in annoyance, hoping Poseidon would get to the point.
“I’m telling you that just because your fated mate was with someone else first, doesn’t mean she wasn’t always meant to be yours, dimwit. I’m sure she was made to be your mate long before you even knew she existed. You can’t say she never was, just because she was married to another person and got pregnant by him. Fate works in mysterious ways, my brother, but it works nonetheless. The goddess wouldn’t have mated you to a human if she didn’t believe it would work between the two of you.”
“The goddess makes mistakes, Poseidon,” Carter retorted.
“Yeah, she does, but that’s not her fault either,” Poseidon said, then launched into a spiel about why mates are rejected for whatever reason, which also isn’t the fault of the Moon Goddess. “You can either accept who she leads us to or reject the most precious gift she can give us and move on. Or, you can suck it up and meet the Luna’s cousin and pray that Jasper is compelled to kill her unborn baby. But if you choose to reject her, you better hope to every deity known to mankind that she, the goddess, gives you a second chance.”
“Which, she doesn’t do very often, so be careful what you decide,” Warlord interjected.
Carter sighed heavily as he absorbed everything his friends told him. He also reflected on the details Allie and Sin shared about Sarah’s past and how she ended up in her current situation. He knew his friends were right and that he couldn’t blame her for leaving her deadbeat husband after his multiple affairs and children born out of wedlock. He kept pondering his next steps and decided to discuss it with Allie before making his final decision.
- Writer
