Claribelle's Mate

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Claribelle's POV

When I woke up, I was back in bed, but Max was still with me. He cradled me to his chest, snoring softly beside me. My eyes were puffy from crying and I had a massive headache, but I was done crying over him. The pain in my chest was still there and I doubt it would ever go away, but he doesn't deserve my tears.

As I disentangled myself from Max, trying to get up to go to the bathroom, he woke up. He sat up and looked at me worriedly. "Are you okay, Clari?"

I nodded slightly. "I'll be fine," I assured him. I leaned over to hug him and he pulled me to him tightly. "Thank you for being there for me."

"I'll always be here for you, Clari," he promised.

We sat like that for a while, just hugging one another until I pulled away. "I have to shower and get ready. We're supposed to go to Fangs today."

I could see the worry in Max's eyes but he didn't voice his opinions. He just nodded, watching me carefully as I gathered some clothes and headed into my bathroom.

Stripping quickly, I climbed into the steaming hot shower and just stood there, allowing the hot water to relax my muscles. While I washed, I decided to push yesterday's incident to the back of my mind. It would stay there unless someone brought it up, hopefully no one would.

Climbing out of the shower, I pulled on a cute, flowing skirt and a matching tank top. The dress code at the club is fancier at night, but I still like to look nice when I show up during the day. As Uncle Xavier always says, "It's Fangs, Belle!". After pulling half of my hair back in a clip to keep it out of my face, I stared myself down in the mirror.

"You will not think about him today," I told myself. "He is not worth your time and you won't waste it on him. You have an entire family, pack and coven that love you, what's one more werewolf?" The love of your life, I answered myself, but quickly shoved the thought away. He was not the love of my life, he hated me.

Sometimes, living in this pack, it's easy to forget that vampires and werewolves hate each other. I grew up around them coexisting because of my mother and father and it worked so seamlessly that I forgot other packs and covens are too pigheaded to do the same.

"Stop it," I scolded myself. I wouldn't think of him or anything to do with him. As far as I'm concerned, yesterday never happened.

If only it was that easy.
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My mom and dad knew, as did Uncle Eli and Aunt Alice. I'm not surprised Max told them considering I slept all day yesterday and through the night, with him at my side, no less. They were supportive, but I told them I wanted to pretend it never happened.

I saw the pain in my mom's eyes as she looked at me. She knew what this felt like. She knew the feeling of her mate hating her because she was a vampire. Well, she knew the idea of it. My dad had never actually hated my mom, she just thought he would and so she didn't tell him about it until she sacrificed herself for him in a fight, died and became a vampire. She'd had dormant genes that could be triggered by a bite or death and her sacrifice triggered those genes. She woke up thinking my dad would never forgive her.

If only my mate was as wonderful and caring as my dad.

Knock it off! I yelled at myself. I was not to think of him. It was supposed to be a fun day at Fangs and I was going to forget about yesterday and go enjoy myself with the coven.

I smiled at my mom when she wrapped her arm around my shoulders and led me out to the car. She understood when I told her I wanted to forget and she was doing her absolute best to be normal, even if I could see the mix of sympathetic pain and burning anger in the back of her eyes.