Warmth ✔

Chapter 23

After exiting Ciara's house, I start walking towards the pack house. On the way, I come across someone whom I've been avoiding since the women training started. And that person is none other than my cousin, Joshua.

"It's been a long time," he says.

All I say is, "Yeah."

"I didn't know you had Alarick wrapped around your finger," he comments.

"What do you mean?" I ask, offended.

"You know exactly what I mean. Tell me, how were you able to convince him?"

"Convince him? I don't understand..." I'm confused now.

He raises his eyebrows. "You don't know?" At my blank face, he laughs. He pretends to wipe his imaginary tear. "You don't know what's going in your neighboring pack? That's a shame. I wonder why people think that you're the perfect fit for being a Beta when you're so clueless?"

"Are you done?"

"I've not even started."

"Don't you get tired of bitching about me?"

"Tired? Are you kidding me?" He asks in astonishment. "I enjoy it."

"I'm glad that I'm a source of entertainment to you." I remark sarcatically and walk past him, towards the Dawnfall Depths pack to find out what Joshua is talking about.

*

After arriving at my mate's pack, I head to his pack house and find that it's locked. I ask one of the pack members about Alarick's whereabouts and I'm informed that he's in the training ground.

I head to the training ground. When I reach there, I'm left ashtonished. I blink my eyes several times as I can't believe the sight in front of me. I see Alarick training women along with men.

When Alarick senses my presence, he turns around and gives me a smile. He lets Charles and Daniel take over the training and he approaches me.

"What's going on?" I question when he stands before me.

"I'm training women," he says as if it's a normal thing.

"Since when?"

"Since you decided to do the same," he tells me as he leads me away from the training ground so that we can have some privacy. "I wasn't lying when I said that it's a good idea to train women. If my mother would've been trained then things would've been different."

His eyes reflect all the suffering he had to undergo as a kid and as a son. I hug him to give him some comfort. He hugs me back and we stay like this for a while.

When we pull away, I find his eyes glossing with tears. I squeeze his shoulders and he blink back his tears. He shakes his head and says, "I'm sorry. I was just overwhelmed."

I nod as I understand what he's going through.

"So, how's the women training in your pack going?" He asks as to lighten the atmosphere.

"It's going great."

Before I can say anything more, my phone beeps, indicating the incoming message. I look at the screen and find that Lucy has texted me.

Chriselda, I've got good news! I met Selena and she's ready to help us! Now, we can finally execute our plan!

A smile automatically takes place on my face.

"It seems as if I have a competition," Alarick says in a teasing tone.

"What?" I ask as I look up from the phone's screen.

"Till now, I used to think that I'm the only one who could make you smile through a text but I was wrong. Apparently, there's someone else too who can do the same," he says, continuing the same light tone. "Who texted you?"

My smile fades away at his question. "Lucy," I say without thinking.

His jovial mood fades away and he becomes serious.

"You won't tell me what she texted," he states.

I remained silent. I don't know what to do.

We are mates! We are supposed to confide in each other!

Chriselda, we are mates. We aren't supposed to hide things from each other.

Alarick's words echo in my head along with my own words. Our voices and words overlap each other in my mind that it becomes unbearable. The words in my head are challenging my conscience. I have reasons for not telling Alarick about Lucy's plan. But my heart wants to tell him everything since he's my mate.

I took a deep breath after reaching my decision. I will tell him the truth. He deserves to know.