#2. The Beta's Little Caster(MxM)

CHAPTER 16

"Thanks, ma. That means a lot."

"You're doing great, kid."

I smiled then as I continued washing the dishes. Do what makes me happy? What did that even look like? I've done what makes me happy, I followed my heart and all it did was break me, tear me to shreds, how could I do that again?

"Are we really about to let the mistakes of one mere wolf dictate the rest of our lives? I don't know about you but I'm done letting Jeffery, or Carl, or hell, Kingsley, of all people stand in my way, no sir, cannot be me ever again." Carmen said before howling fiercely into the night sky.

"I wish I were as brave." I mumbled into my arms, unable to stand.

"Honey, you got away..." Carmen knelt before me, taking my hand. "You did what we all couldn't and you got away." He rubbed his thumb on my palm. "You even went the extra mile and got the rest of us... If that wasn't bravery, I don't know what it is."

I snorted. "it was stupidity, I wasn't even ready."

"Yet you came back for me, for all of us. You gotta be a little brave to be stupid and a little stupid to be brave." Then from the bushes came Mitch to collect his mate who'd been gone long enough. "Join the stupidity, my friend, it's great."

I shook my head then and snorted. Could I really? What was to stop my decision from ruining more of my life? What was to stop it from going right either?

I bit my lip and finished the dishes, packing them away and forcing my heart to calm the hell down.

Right after I found myself walking around the packhouse, merely minding my business while for the first real time getting a good look at it. Even as I walked the halls, kids, preteens and teens would be laughing and running around with one another, I'd almost crashed into some of them and recieved a loud and retreating apology and beaming smiles. It was nothing like Creek Mountain Pack. The contrast was too drastic.

This place for one, not only felt like home, it looked like one too. There were pictures of almost everyone here in so many group photos that made you want to stick around. In as much as I was a stranger, nobody looked at or treated me like an outsider.

Was it really okay to want to stay?

As I walked I found myself all the way at the top floor which I had never really been to. It was like a seperate part of the house and yet flowed so effortlessly that it took opening one of the doors to realise it wasn't exactly. Like the door I opened, was an entrance, there were slippers strewn on the ground and as I ventured further, I saw a kitchenette, living room with a life sized portrait of non other than Elijah and his family.

I paused and wrapped my arms around myself as I studied his beaming smile as he held onto his two boys and Donovan held onto them all. They looked so very...happy.

I want that...

"I see trespassing is another quality we should add to your talents." I jumped then, I touched my chest as my heart hammered at the sight of Donovan who smirked while changing into slippers. The man raised a brow at me as he stuck his hands into his pocket.

I found myself looking behind him hoping Elijah was behind him being that I wasn't used to interacting with his mate.

"I wasn't - it's not-" he held his hand up and shook his head with a chuckle only to come stand beside me and look at the portrait he probably gets to look at every day.

"It's fine, it's not locked for a reason." I blinked and flushed still feeling caught with my hand in a cookie jar. "I see he changed it again." He chuckled and admired the portrait, the look of love and adoration was so tangible that a spike of jealousy actually shoy through me.