Her Imposter, Her Imprinter

Chapter 12

About a week had passed since Henry had finally returned home. Carine had thought that things in Clastgrove were going to return to normal. She figured that Tony could lessen his workload and she'd see Henry walking around the pack again. Instead, however, Henry once again took to disappearing within the pack without a word of where he was going.

On the day he had returned, he ignored Carine's questions of his whereabouts and merely brought her in for a large bear hug. She struggled with all he might, spewing questions at him (which fell on deaf ears) while she did so but he was not letting go. And she had been worried that he wouldn't let go! He has stood there in the threshold for for almost 5 minutes, simply hugging her tightly. He said no words as he finally let her go and didn't waste anymore time to hole himself up in his office.

Carine had been left there by herself with her nerves. Seeing him act that way, seeing his expression, the crazy, wild look on his eyes, unsettled her immensely. She had never felt that way when it came to Henry before, and she's felt some really strong emotions when it came to him whether it be fury, frustration, vexation, or agitation. But never uneasiness, never fear. She found it quite ironic that she had felt unsafe in the presence of an Alpha. But the fact that he had left her alone after that ceased anymore red flags to pop up in her mind.

But that didn't mean he was off her radar. Despite her usual nasty attitude toward Henry, she did worry about him. He had been looking at Carine as a mate the entire time she's been in Clastgrove when Carine had only seen him as a friend. They had spent more than enough time with each other for Carine to discover more of the endearing charms of him. He was a very dedicated and hardworking man who loved to play football and drink beer. He loved to be outdoors for any occasion and loved being with his friends.

The fact that she didn't see him doing those things anymore told her right out that something was wrong. He just didn't look..."there" anymore.

Carine wanted to talk to Forrest about this. Maybe he'd have some insight or advice about how to deal with her Alpha, because even though she cared about Henry's well being, he was beginning to scare her.

Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten a call from him since they had first made contact. They had texted occasionally, but messages had been brief on both sides. Carine supposed that their contact had been limited due to their crazy schedules. Upon returning from her vacation, Carine was loaded with jobs for babysitting. She had come back home everyday, smelling like baby powder, play doh, and goldfish crackers no less, utterly exhausted.

Of course it was worth it, not just because of the pay but also because of the experience. That was priceless. But the work did tend to drain a person. Carine could only imagine how much busier Forrest was.

She decided to message him anyway, in hopes her worries might persuade him to call her. She didn't expect him to answer right away so she quickly shoved her phone in her pocket afterwards. However as she did she felt her phone buzz and she practically peed her pants in surprise. Once she took it out to check she was disappointed to see that it was not from Forrest. The gloomy attitude didn't last for long however, once it firmly clicked in her brain about who just texted her.

Joseph Faulkner. 11:32 p.m. "Call me" he texted.

Holy shit it's been so long since she's talked to him. That was definitely not her fault , however, no way! She would have loved to have seen and talked to him more, but his job required 100% of his attention and focus.

After all, practically living as a babysitter 24/7 was no walk in the park.

Joseph was an admirable man. Carine knew him from high school which she found was odd since she went to an all human school at this point. What was even more strange was that he was a 20 year old senior. Heck, make that a 21 year old Senior since his birthday had been a week after school had started.