My One Exception - Book 1

My One Exception - Formality

He chuckled "That's why I love about you, Charlotte. Well, that and the fact that you are a beautiful blonde, blue eyed woman. You challenge me. You're not afraid of me...in fact, you're a lot like me." he said proudly.

Charlotte just let it go, she didn't feel like getting into that right now. Way too many people around.

He looked at the time on his phone "Oh good, our reservation is in 20 minutes." he told her.

"Reservation for what?" she asked, confused.

"Lunch" he said with a smile. "I scanned this whole section, by the way, there's nothing in here for you. After we eat, we'll find your dress."

"I should get this dress for Allie, though. It looked nice." she told him, picking the correct size off the rack. Peter took the dress from her and went to the counter to pay for it. He walked back over to Charlotte and offered his arm "Shall we?"

He guided her to his car and they drove out to the extremely nice restaurant on the golf course. "This was one of my favorite places before the fire. Reservations are six months out." he said as he opened the door for her.

"Well, then how did we get-" she started.

"Welcome! Reservation name?" the nicely dressed host asked them. "Hale." Peter said politely. "Right this way". The host led them to a private balcony where it was quiet and secluded. As Peter sat down, he slid the guy a couple hundred dollars.

"Thank you for accommodating us." Peter said with a smile.

"My pleasure, Mr. Hale. Enjoy your meals."

After ordering and the waitress left, Peter's expression became serious. "Not to ruin lunch, but we need come up with our exit plan. We're getting close" he told her.

"Oh, right. I've been thinking about that. Well, really the only way out of my family is to die." she told him honestly.

He just stared at her. Whatever he thought she was going to say, that wasn't it. "We have to fake my death." she exclaimed.

"Ok, how to you propose we do that?" he asked.

"I call Kate, tell her I found the alpha. Convince her we can do this on our own. You take care of her, and we make it look like you drug me off into the woods completely tore me apart. Like unrecognizably, don't bother getting a casket, torn apart."

Peter considered her plan and then nodded his head in agreement. "It'll work."

They about places that might be nice to visit until lunch came out. Once everything was served and they were alone again, Peter spoke. "Tell me your story. You know a good part of mine, so I'd like to learn yours." he said. He wanted to know what he was getting into, which was fair.

She laughed, "You sure we've got enough time?"

He just smiled. "I've got all the time in the world for you."

"Ok, I was born in New York to André and Marie Argent. They're both fanatics. They believe that werewolves and other beings should be wiped off the face of the earth. My mother had a difficult pregnancy which resulted in her not being able to have more children. They were extremely disappointed that I was not a son because they wanted a warrior. So they turned me into one. Every chance they got, they reminded me of that. They started training me as soon as I could walk, making plans as soon as I could talk. I hated it - I just didn't understand why we needed to hate you guys so much. But I kept quite, I didn't dare let those opinions out. When I was sixteen, my parents sent me out here to spend a week with my uncle for "field training". They wanted his assessment of me. I thought my parents were bad, but my god. If hatred had a face, it would be his."