“Fuck. I wish you weren’t the enemy.” Brandon covered his face with his hand, angry at himself.
My wolf stirred and sudden joy rushed through my blood.
He kissed us.
It was like the kiss sent a shock through my whole system, which woke up my wolf and every cell in my body. I hummed back to life.
I was about to lean in and bring his lips back to mine again but the sound of twigs snapping and leaves crunching snapped me out of it and the moment was quickly gone.
Brandon heard it, too. He leaned back from me and turned around.
“I better go.” Brandon left as soon as he came. I was too stunned to do anything, all I could do was stare after him.
He walked back to the cemetery entrance, his strides long and effortless. I turned my head in the opposite direction and saw Bella coming towards me, coming just in time to miss the kiss. Fortunately, she didn’t catch us.
There was a questioning look in her eyes but she didn’t say anything.
I stared off into the direction of where I saw Brandon fade back into the woods. What did that kiss mean to him? I hoped it meant to him what it meant to me.
I touched my lips, the taste of him still lingering, thinking of him.
Thinking of Brandon.
*****
When I got back to the castle, Albert was pissed. He demanded that I report to his office so he could yell at me. I didn’t care what he had to say.
“Where the hell have you been?”
“I’m not some weak Omega, I can do whatever I want.” I said hotly.
You tell him! My wolf supported my backtalk.
“No, you can’t because our wolves picked up Brandon’s scent just a while ago.”
I stilled, not moving an inch. I prayed to the moon goddess that they couldn’t sense my scent intertwined with his. Albert would literally kill me.
I tried to keep the nervousness out of my voice. “Did you follow it?”
“We lost it,” Albert’ eyes dropped to the floor, disappointed in himself. He was always hard on himself. I nodded, relieved.
“Are we done here?” I asked, crossing my arms.
He nodded.
“I can escort Amy back,” Leslie offered. I smiled at his kindness, even though I wanted to point out that I didn’t need an escort for the millionth time. I just wished my brother was nice like our Beta.
“She’s off limits,” Albert growled, “I’ll have Bella escort her back.” He didn’t want any boy to be around me, even his super loyal, right-hand man.
I didn’t wait for Bella to escort me out. I left on my own.
*****
My phone vibrated in my jean pocket and I frowned, not expecting a call. I rolled onto my stomach and looked at the caller ID.
It read Keith.
“You missed it.” He said as soon as he picked up. He sounded a little mad.
“Missed what?” I asked nervously.
“Missed Bad Movie Friday.” Keith said in an obvious tone.
“Crap,” I mentally kicked myself. Keith and I had this tradition where we would watch the worst movies ever and make fun of them. We did it every Friday and of course, I just had to forget this week. We planned to watch a random movie on our own TV’s and then talk about it because we never broke tradition. But I just did.
“I’m so, so, so sorry! I totally forgot.” Plus, service here sucked.
“I picked The Notebook.” Keith added.
“I actually like that movie!” I loved how Noah and Allie still thought of each other even after they were apart for years. I loved how cheesy the dialogue was and the abundance of clichés in the storyline. I lived for that kind of love, it made my heart soar.
I just had to accept that my love life will never be like that. As long as my mate lived, I would be happy.
“Girls,” He snorted, “And I get it, you’re busy and stuff. No need to apologize.”
“I’m so sorry, I’m the worst friend ever.” I apologized anyway since I felt so guilty. I didn’t even bother to call. Some friend I am.
“Do you have time to talk now?”
“Yeah. What’d you think of The Notebook?” This should be good. Keith hated romantic movies with a burning passion.
“Don’t get me started on the plot line. I mean, it makes no sense. Like, why would Allie marry another guy? Did she just forget about Noah or something? She says she loves him but then she just leaves him. If they love each other why don’t they actually get together? It’s not that hard. And then there’s that whole kissing in the rain scene. And what’s up with all the swans? Do they really need that many? Talk about stupid.” He ranted and I laughed. His reviews always made me laugh.
“True, there were a lot of unnecessary swans. But the point wasn’t about Allie leaving him for someone else, she had to. It was just that she was rich and he wasn’t. They were forbidden to be together.” I explained, trying to get him to see that the movie had potential.
“Forbidden love is overrated.” Keith definitely just rolled his eyes on the other end of the phone.
“True love isn’t.” I was a sappy, hopeless romantic and I was proud of it!
“I guess,” I could tell he still didn’t buy it, “But I still can’t get over the swans.”
The swan scene was beautiful. Well, I thought it was.
“Anything else?” I smiled, knowing he had a lot more left to say. I shifted the phone to my left hand.
“Tons,”
We spent the next two hours talking about the “bad” movie and then about school. Keith said he had to get back to his homework since he’d been procrastinating the whole time and we said goodbye.
I locked myself in my room the whole night and watched The Notebook again.
Noah and Allie were very similar to Brandon and I. Class separated them, our packs separated us. And people tried to separate them as Albert will likely try to separate us when he finds out. It was like my life was a reflection of the movie.
But in the end, Noah and Allie ended up together. They didn’t care about their class or what anyone else said. They chose each other.
I just hoped Brandon and I had the same fate.
*****
I walked down the stairs to Albert’ office. It was after dinner so I knew he was there, since he liked to do pack work when everyone was asleep.
I was about to open the door, my hand on the doorknob, when I heard my name. I stopped and decided to listen in. I pressed my ear to the door and used my super sonic hearing to eavesdrop.2
It sounded like Albert was talking with Hunk.
“We just got a demand from Brandon’s pack.” Hunk was saying.
“A demand?”
“To send Amelia Pureblood to the front gates of Alpha Brandon’s territory by sundown or else they’ll have no choice but to attack.”