ALPHA: Heir Of The Four

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Notes: Ava-Rain's POV

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- 'Say goodbye, as we dance with the Devil tonight. . .' -

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I felt his eyes on me. Felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Felt his gaze trail over me as I finished washing the last of the dishes in the sink. Caleb and I had just finished eating breakfast, and because I felt like I needed to contribute something to the household other than my amazing presence, I offered to clean up and ordered him to remain seated at the breakfast bar and continue to look mysterious and gorgeous.

     Jennifer had not been mentioned once in the last couple of hours. For the majority of that time, my phone had remained on top of the kitchen's center island. I figured the out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach would work and, for the most part, it had. But every now and again, the thought of Jennifer would pop up out of the dark corners of my mind. When I reached the point where I was close to giving in, close to storming over to the island, picking up the phone and calling her, Caleb would always intervene.

     He didn't have to say anything to keep me focused; a simple touch or look from him was enough to remind me of the importance of being patient. As much as I wanted to get to the bottom of things, to find out just what exactly Jennifer had going on with the pure bloods—if there was anything actually going on—I would only be getting ahead of myself and potentially screwing up things for Caleb and his pack, who were undoubtedly doing the best they could with handling the situation and extracting whatever truth there may have been.

     I was not a patient girl by any means. Chalk it up to years of experience living with my grandmother, I guess, because it was those years in which I learned the uselessness in sitting around and waiting for her love to one day drape over me like a blanket of warmth and protection. Instead, I went after it. I chased it—the possibility of obtaining her love, the hope that we would one day become a happy family that would thrive simply because we had each other. But when the chase became too hard, too tiresome, too impossible, I had stopped. I stopped allowing the chase to control and govern my life, stopped allowing what I wanted to outweigh what I needed.

     Love.

     I wanted it from my grandmother but I didn't need it from her because I had already found and obtained it through my friends. You couldn't pick the family you are born into but you could pick who your friends were. Kasey, Jennifer and I chose each other. We chose to love each other, to be there for one another because even if the world tried to fail us, we would never fail each other. It was an unspoken promise. A vow. So, despite what Caleb found out, I just couldn't believe that Jennifer would ever betray me. And it was that firm belief rooted deep within me that had made the waiting so unbearable, that had made what little patience I had left virtually non-existent.

     I was sure the reason for his unwavering gaze was him simply waiting for me to turn around and acknowledge him at some point. That, or he just knew I needed to be distracted from driving myself crazy trying to figure out what Jennifer knew. And, well, we all know that what Caleb wanted he always got. So, after the last dish was placed on the drying rack, I picked up the dish towel and began to dry my hands as I turned around to look at him. However, I was not expecting that he was already so close behind me that when I did turn around we would literally be standing face to face, or, rather, face to chest.

     Freaking ninja, I tell you.

     "You really need to stop doing that, Caleb." I said and gently hit him with the dish towel.