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Chapter 13

"Do you know who she is?"

She froze in step at my question, her head tilting as she turned around. Her eyebrows lifted as a smirk tugged on her lips.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

I sneered, the pen in my hand almost snapping to pieces. Clearly, I wasn't in the mood for her little games, but she could care less about how I felt and she was the closest source I had to gaining any information about my mate, so I had to play nice.

As nice as I could be, at least.

"Can you answer my fucking questions for once?" I grumbled.

"Why the hell would I ever do that?" she crossed her arms, leaning against the door frame.

My chest grew tight and I shut my eyes. I had to swallow my pride if I ever wanted to get anything done with her.

"Please, Alana." I looked away from her mischievous eyes, my words straining at the back of my throat. I gritted through my teeth," I need your help."

A wide smirk took over her face," Would you like to repeat that?"

Oh, fucking hell. She was giving me a headache.

"Don't push it." I said, rubbing my temples.

She chuckled and I almost told her to forget I ever asked, regretting ever opening my mouth when her eyes softened.

"Yes, Rowen. I know who she is," she admitted, her arms falling to her sides as she pushed off the frame," but I won't tell you. Not until she's ready for you to know. I actually kind of like her and you'll just fuck everything up."

I set my pen down and relaxed my hand, somewhat relieved I had some confirmed answers even if it was the bare minimum.

"You've met her?" I questioned, leaning back in my seat.

"Does it matter?"

"You and I both know, it does."

She rolled her eyes," Whatever, I'm leaving."

"Wait." I said, quickly, pulling her eyes back to me as she sighed dramatically.

She looked at me expectantly, but the words were stuck in my throat. This whole conversation was difficult for me, but if it meant getting closer to my mate then I would do it. Even if it meant having a few awkward conversations that felt scarier than nearly dying in battle.

"Out with it, Rowen." Alana prompted over her shoulder, pausing in the doorway. "I have shit to do."

I felt stupid considering asking for help with my mate, but I was growing desperate at this point and if I asked my younger sister, Lilo, I would be trapped in an endless conversation that would only leave me fucking aggravated. Trust me, I tried and there was no way I was asking my mother either. She was worse.

That left my second and only other option, which wasn't very promising either, but Alana could know at least a little when it came to girls, right? She technically was one, relatively speaking, and although opposite of her violent nature, she liked all the stuff they were into.

"Can you buy her something?" My cheeks heated and I didn't even dare to make eye contact. This was embarrassing enough as it was. "Something nice. I already gave her something before, but it was small. I'm not even sure if she liked-"

I fell into a nervous tangent, feeling like a high school girl mulling over a crush. If I heard myself talk like this a few months ago, I'd cut off my balls myself.

"Okay, loverboy, I get it," she teased, but a small smile spread across her lips," Anything else?"

I looked out my window at the trees, a warm feeling in my chest as I remembered the first time I heard her voice in the woods. How much I longed to hear it again. I missed her and all I had done was talk to her.

"Take care of her, Alana." I held her hard stare. As much as we bickered, Alana was like a little sister to me and I trusted her with my life. "Please."

After Alana had left, I found myself looking through my files, my eyes glued to a darker one close to the back of my bottom drawer. My heart picked up in my chest as I pulled it out and flipped it open, something I had been urging to do since I came home, which was saying a lot. I never wanted to look at this thing.

It was documents containing information about floating wolves. The descendants of power-hungry beasts who betrayed our pack long ago in cohorts with the demons in an attempt to kill my great-great-great-grandmother. They were part of the reason demon wolves came into existence after they tortured and murdered innocent wolves with demon blood, so they could create an army of vicious creatures and rule over the supernatural world as well as the human realm. Rogues were terrible enough to deal with, and much worse savage, magic-wielding monsters running around killing indiscriminately for their own pleasure.

My hatred for them usually boiled in my blood as it did for everyone else in my pack, but a bugging thought plagued my mind. I didn't want to ask Alana, though I doubt she would tell me even if I asked.

I flipped through the papers, ignoring the ones who lived on the far northern end of the territory, serving at the Old Manor, where my parents stayed most of the time after they retired. It was a few hours away by car, but a little faster by wolf.

I grazed over the Hamiltons and again through the Pentz family when I halted, lifting the photo of one of their four children. Golden eyes stared back at me and a knot formed in my stomach. My thumb ran across her beautiful features and I was allured in a daze. I couldn't take my eyes off her, the attraction I felt toward her too undeniably strong to turn my head. 

Fuck, this complicated things.