No Werewolves Allowed

Chapter three

" We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become a part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds."

---Libba Bray
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3 years later.....

It had been the same for almost three years. The same loving family I met when I had stumbled upon them, heartbroken and lost.

Ashton trained me harder than anyone I'd seen him train. Every morning at three o' clock, he woke me up and made me run eight miles as warm up, and then push ups, boxing and many other things.

After a year of having me train my ass off, we clicked and he asked me out one day.

I said yes without hesitation.

Ashton was only a year older than me, he was seventeen and I was sixteen, but he never treated me like a baby. He treated me like a girlfriend and loved me more than Cael or anyone ever would— and that included my biological family. If I ever had a nightmare about a beating I'd received at the Moonstone back, he was there to comfort me as I blubbered and sobbed into his chest. The nightmares had long since disappeared.

Ashton's mate had died before they met. He'd told me he had felt the most excruciating pinch in his chest when she passed away, but I guess the mating bond wasn't as strong when you hadn't met them yet. Though, some days I caught him sitting out in the front porch of the pack house, staring off into the starlit sky. I couldn't blame him.

The twins were — well the twins, and they always argued with each other over the smallest things ever. Like who got the last pancake, or how much closet space they were taking up.

Sometimes it made me wonder what would've happened if Cassie and I had that kind of a bond. If she'd stepped up and protected me like an older sibling was supposed to. My blood boiled in my stomach every time I thought of her, though it had begun to dissipate as the years passed.

Alpha Tyler was pretty ridiculous at times, and he horsed around more than he used his authority.

Ava and I became friends immediately after Tyler introduced us and since then, she'd been there for me whenever I needed a good rant, or worse — whenever I felt Cael forgetting his morals with someone at night.

At first, I'd felt an agonizing pinch in my heart, and my stomach had twisted into a dozen knots that had left me a sobbing, blubbering mess. Not even Ashton or Ava could stop my tears. But now, it was normal to feel it almost every Saturday the pain faded into a dull ache. The mating bond was fading away between us. I didn't know if I felt sorrow or joy.

I couldn't have asked for a better family, and I could really care less how my old pack reacted when I left. They probably never even minded, unless their new housemaid was unable to fulfill her chores.

The three years had done me well, puberty coupled with the immense amount of training I did everyday. I appeared to be a completely different person, though my dark hair and facial features stayed the same. My body was just more toned.

I was happy now and that was all that mattered to me. I still cooked for the The Nightshade Pack now and it was not because I was forced to. I'd realized early in that after all those years, cooking had become a big part of my life and a hobby of mine. I couldn't bear to lose that part of myself.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning when I opened my eyes that day. The sunlight seeped through the closed curtains in my room, illuminating it to be brighter than I would've liked, stinging my eyes.