"I finally found you princess." A voice said next to her as a pair of arms encircled Skye.
Skye gave a scream before she knocked over the guy and hit him.
"Ow, ow that hurts Skye! It's just me, I give up!" Cyrus said as he tried to covered himself.
"What the bloody hell is wrong with you Cyrus? Do you have a death wish? You never ever in your life should sneak up on a demi-vampire; do you want to get some plastic surgery that bad?" Skye yelled at him frustrated before she helped him up.
"Sorry, but why are you hitting and kicking as if you wanted to kill someone, what pissed you off?" Cyrus asked Skye as he looked at her trying to read her expression.
Skye gave a small sigh.
"It's nothing, I'm fine." Skye told him not really wanting to think about it.
"Even I, a guy know that when a girl says that it is nothing or that she is fine it is always all the way around, what's wrong?" Cyrus asked her as he looked up at her.
Skye gave a small groan in frustration before she plopped down to the grass.
"Nothing's wrong Cyrus, I'm just being me." Skye told him as she shrugged.
"You are a horrible liar; did you and Aiden have a fight?" Cyrus asked her, he knew that things were not going smooth between the two of them.
Skye looked at him and that was enough answer for him.
"What did you guys fought over now?" Cyrus asked her as he got near her.
Skye shook her head and before she could even answer Aiden went outside with them.
"Skye, your father is in the phone and he will like to speak with you." Aiden told her as he looked at his mate and immediately received a glare from her.
"Alright, I'll go speak with him." Skye said coldly before she pulled herself up, brushed the dirt of her jeans and headed back to the house without any other single word.
"You screwed up big time, what was it about this time?" Cyrus asked Aiden once Skye was inside of the house and out of earshot.
"What are you talking about?" Aiden asked him confused, did he know now?
"Skye is totally pissed off today, and somehow I have the feeling that her charming bitchy mode has everything to do with you." Cyrus said as he looked at Aiden.
"Two nights ago I marked her." Aiden told him as he remembered.
"And that is why she is mad at you? I mean sure she might be worried that her father will see it and yell at her or something like that but I don't think that would be at all a reason to be that mad at you." Cyrus told him; that was really nothing to be worried about.
"That is not the point, Skye's mark vanished yesterday." Aiden said as he looked at Cyrus.
"Did she-?" Cyrus started to say but eventually trailed off.
"No, she didn't reject me but when I asked her why it was gone she told me that since she was half vampire she would have to mark me first and then I would, that is the only way her mark will stay forever." Aiden said cutting off Cyrus.
"Then why don't you just do it?" Cyrus asked him, what was so bad about that?
Aiden glared at him.
"Are you seriously asking Cyrus? You know the rules." Aiden told him as he glared at his third in command.
"There rules are for stupid macho alphas that want to feel almighty, besides those rules only apply to werewolves and Skye is not that, on the contrary she is a vampire that is how it is for them. Let me make this simpler for you, do you rather lose Skye as a mate just over your huge ego?" Cyrus asked him as he eyed at his Alpha carefully.
"I would do it but my wolf-." Aiden started to say when Cyrus interrupted him.
"There a really no excuses for this Aiden, just think about it very well because before you know you will lose my cousin and she will go off with someone who really loves her and wants to be with her no matter what the terms are." Cyrus told him in a firm tone.
"Are you insinuating that I don't love her?" Aiden asked him, a hint of anger in his voice.
"Not at all Alpha, but I'm just saying that you really have to do your move before someone else does, a pretty girl like Skye won't stay here forever without a commitment." Cyrus said before he started to walk towards the house leaving Aiden there alone in the middle of the backyard with his thoughts.
***
"So are things clear for you Skyler?" Her father asked her for the fifth time through the phone.
Skye gave a sigh.
"Yes father, I understand and I will live up to see that I don't let you down." Skye told him already tired of this overprotective behavior.
"You won't let me down; I just think that you are too young to become a mother." Her father said and Skye would be embarrassed for talking about this with her father but the anger she felt at the moment was enough to avoid any awkwardness by boarding the subject.
'Don't worry dad you have nothing to worry about, if you think that Aiden and I are constantly burning up in passion you are utterly wrong.' Skye thought bitterly as she recalled last night events.
"I know and I agree with you." Skye said as she lay down on the bed and gazed at the ceiling.
"And before I forget Skyler, Jace called." Her father said knowing that Skye had yet not known about this since she did not bring it up.
Skye tensed up before she sat up quickly.
"What? He called you?" Skye asked him not quite believing it.
"Yes, he gave up on calling you since you never seem to answer him. Why are you avoiding him Skyler, you do know that you are hurting him by doing that?" Her father asked her, why was his daughter acting like this now?
Skye gave a sigh and got up.
"Please dad don't you make me feel guilty as well." Skye said as she started to pace the room.
"Then tell me why have you been ignoring his calls and his text messages, he would really like to speak to you. This is the longest time both of you have been separated." Her father told her, ever since he could remember they were always together.
"I'm just afraid that he will be angered at me for the decision I took, that he will hate me for that." Skye said in a soft voice knowing that there was a chance that Jace wouldn't forgive her for that.
"But why would Jace hate you, he loves you and you know that very well Skye, he would do anything for you." Her father told her in a calm voice.
"Exactly that is the point I'm trying to prove here, dad, if I speak with him I know that I won't be able to keep anything from him. Jace knows me very well and he will know that something wrong is going on, that this whole Nigel thing is affecting me now just like it was before, he will want to come here to look for me and try to drag me back to the UK and you know I cannot let that happen, I can't let Jace come here because by doing that he will be risking his life for me, he has done it before and that resulted with me almost losing him and I cannot let that happen again. What type of person would I be if I let the people I love the most get hurt?" Skye asked him, she could still see that night when Jace had gotten badly injured when they were assaulted by all those vampires.
"Just because Jace is in the UK that doesn't mean that he is completely away from the danger, this morning he tried to reach you but you didn't answer." Skye's dad said accusing her of this all-time crime, she had ignored him.
"I was practicing dad, I didn't hear the phone." She told him in her defense, she couldn't take her phone to practice since she would be distracted.
"Did you at least check his voice message?" Skye's father asked her, she had to at least hear it.
"What voice message?" She asked him confused, once she had grabbed her phone there were no upcoming messages much less a voicemail.
"The one he left for you this morning." Her father told her, Jace had told him so about his plan and what he would tell Skyler.
"There was nothing when I got here to the phone, I'm using Aiden's phone right now and in my phone there is not a single message from Jace of this morning." Skye said confused, she had not seen it at all.
"Jace told me he left the message before he called me, so I don't think it just vanished by itself." Her father said already knowing who was the responsible for erasing that message.
Skye gave a sigh.
"What did the message say?" She asked him, well at least she could find out about if from her father.
"Just the normal that he really wants to speak with you, he needed to tell you something, but you really haven't given him the chance. Nigel was at the house, he spoke with Jace." He said in a calm voice, he couldn't let his daughter hear the panic in his voice.
Skye stopped walking and stood there frozen.
"What? Nigel was there with him? Is Jace alright?" Skye asked him worried; this was anything but a good sign.
"Jace is alright, Nigel only spoke to him but Jace fears that now that Nigel knows that you are in Washington it will be brief the time you will have here before he decides to attack." Her father said; he had already made sure to reinforce the protection for his daughter but there was so little he could do with all the werewolves in the territory.
Skye stood there in the middle of the room unable to move for a few seconds.
"Skyler are you still there?" Her father asked concerned, had something happened to her?
"Yes, I'm just struck with what you just said, I honestly wasn't expecting that but I will try to speak with Jace as soon as I can but I can't do it meanwhile I'm in this house, the others will be suspicious for my odd behavior." Skye told him in a hushed voice, she couldn't risk to be overheard at this moment.
"Don't worry, Renee is almost at the house, she is ready to pick you up." Her father said before he hanged up.
After she finished talking to her father Skye immediately changed into some black jeans, a black rocker tee, and her red converse and headed downstairs where Aiden and Cyrus were.
"Where are you going?" Aiden asked her, he didn't want her leaving the house.
"Out, I'm going out." Skye said as she grabbed her black messenger bag and placed it on.
"With whom are you going? Skye you know it's too dangerous for you to go outside by yourself, I can come with you." Aiden told her as he got up and followed her.
"No, you won't." Skye said as she held her hand up to him. "I need to be away from you for a while and don't even bother to send some of your pack members to secretly follow me, you have nothing to worry about I will go with Renee she is here to pick me up and then we will go to the city." Skye told him in a stern tone, she was tired of being followed all the bloody time.
"Skye, look I'm sorry about last night I just-." Aiden started to say before she rudely interrupted him.
"I'm not angry because of that, why did you erased Jace's message? And don't say that you have no idea what I am talking about because Jace called my dad and he told me that he had left a message, that he had called me in the morning and you were there in the room so why would you erase it?" Skye asked him demanding for once an answer, why would he do something like that?
"Why is he so important to you? Why do I feel like all the time he is more important to you than I could ever possibly be?" Aiden asked her, why was her guard up whenever they spoke about that guy?
"Because Jace is always there for me, no matter what I ask for he will do whatever it takes to give it to me and he understands perfectly the fact that I am a Demi-vampire and the terms that come with all of it." Skye said before she headed outside of the house to the driveway where Renee was already waiting for her.
***
Jace strolled down the hallway looking for his keys; he fumbled around everything before he found them along with one of Skye's old gray sweaters. He grabbed the sweater and headed to Skye's room which was right across his, he entered and looked around. It was always nostalgic to enter here knowing that Skye wasn't there, he looked at all of her things scattered around the whole room creating a huge mess, the last time Skye was here was that morning after the party, if Jace just wouldn't have a hangover he would have been able to know that Skye was acting odd, that she wasn't planning to go to Italy with Paolo but to Washington after a reckless idea. He remembered the last time he had hugged her and how she had kissed his cheek like always and then she was gone, now Jace never knew if she would come back home.
When Renee had told him what Skye was doing in Washington and why she couldn't come back Jace felt anger and rage tearing apart everything inside of him. How dare that filthy werewolf decide to make Skye stay just like that as if he owned her, Skye was free, untamable she had been like that and now some werewolf Alpha had suddenly claim a right on Skye, his Skye. Jace remembered all the nights he would wake up to calm her down after those nightmares, especially after Nigel's outburst when she was fifteen, Jace had spent all his life looking out for her, making sure that nothing would ever harm her again and now how was he supposed to do that when Skye was in a complete different country?
"Are you alright?" A voice said behind him nearly startling him due to the previous dead silence.
Jace turned around and looked at Charlotte, she stood there in front of him wearing her white shorts, black flip flops and her pink lose tank top.
"Sorry, the door wasn't locked so when I knocked and you didn't answer I decided to enter since I saw your motorcycle out there." Charlotte said as she entered to the room getting near him.
"It's alright; you just startled me for a second I didn't know you were here." Jace told her as he forced a small smile.
"Are you well? You seem sad; does this have to do with you missing Skyler the girl that lives with you?" Charlotte asked him in a wary tone.
Jace gave a sigh.
"Charlotte, I already explained you what my real relationship towards Skye is." Jace told her as he looked at her.
"I know that Jace, you just seem aggravated that's all." Charlotte said as she grabbed his hand.
Jace stared at Charlotte's hand before he looked up and met her dark brown gaze.
"Why are you here? Were you looking for me?" He asked confused, it was odd for Charlotte to come here.
Charlotte nodded.
"I know you told me to give it a try with you but, last night I met him." She told Jace in a soft voice.
"You found him?" Jace asked her as he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Yes, I found my mate and it only seemed fair and right for me to tell you about it, I don't want to hurt you. I will like to have you as a friend and I know that one day you will meet your mate if you haven't already." Charlotte said as she pulled her hand away slightly until Jace finally dropped his.
"I know that, wait how did you get here?" Jace asked her hoping that she hadn't taken the train or walked here.
"In my car, why do you ask?" Charlotte said as she looked at him confused.
"Could you take me to the airport?" Jace asked her with a small smile.
"Of course, but can I ask where you going?" Charlotte asked him as Jace headed to his room and grabbed the suitcase that he already had ready.
"I'm going to take a small sudden flight." Jace told her before they headed outside to Charlotte's car.
Once in the airport Jace headed to buy his ticket seeing that the outgoing flight he wanted to take would be in a few minutes.
"Destination," The woman who sold the tickets asked him.
"Seattle, Washington please." Jace said with a small smirk, he was not going to give up this time.
After the woman gave him the ticket Jace headed to the gates before he boarded the plane, soon in eleven hours he would see Skye and he would do whatever it took to bring her back.
***
"What was all of that about?" Derek asked as he entered the house.
"What did you see or heard?" Cyrus asked him as he opened his soda and sat on the couch.
"I just bumped into Skye as she stormed out of the house furious, she normally apologizes for everything but this time when she nearly shoved me down to the ground she didn't even glance up once to say sorry or stop to see if I was okay, who pissed her off like that?" Derek asked with a small smile, it was scary to see Skye like that.
Cyrus gestured Aiden at him who was more than furious with himself.
"Her father told her." Aiden said with a clenched jaw, he knew it had been him.
Derek looked at Cyrus questioningly but he shrugged not knowing either what Aiden was talking about.
"Told her what?" Derek asked confused, maybe his Alpha had finally lost the small sense he had left.
"That Jace called her in the morning and that I probably erased the voice message he left for her." Aiden said more than furious this time.
"What did the voice message said?" Derek asked him, why would it be so bad that Aiden had to erase it?
"The usual, what I expected all this time to hear from him; that he missed her, that he loves her and that he needs to speak to her urgently." Aiden said spitting out the words.
"Do you think that Skye has told him about you and the whole mate thing?" Cyrus asked him; maybe that was why the guy had called in the first place.
"She didn't but he already knows, Renee told him but she also mention the fact that now Skye is not quite herself, that she is acting strange and that she is worried but I think that Renee doesn't trust me due to her past werewolf problems." Aiden said as he plopped down to the sofa.
"Dude, don't worry okay? I'll talk to Spencer or with Emma though I doubt that my sister will be willing to help out but I know Spencer will make anything she can within her hands to make Skye stay here, to convince her because I know Spencer really likes her. Nobody in the pack quite understands Spencer in her taste as Skye does." Cyrus told Aiden trying to reassure him that everything would be completely fine.
"I should probably call her and tell her that I'm sorry for erasing the message." Aiden said as he grabbed his phone.
"Whoa, chill Romeo! Skye clearly said that she wanted some space so just do that for now, give her time and space to be alone or she will seriously start to consider that you are some sort of clingy or possessive werewolf." Cyrus said as he snatched away the phone from Aiden's hand.
"Fine, I'll wait." Aiden said giving up.
"Besides you can apologize to her later, right now we need to head over to the south." Derek said gesturing Aiden to get up.
"Why?" Aiden asked him confused.
"Cody's pack and he would like to speak with us, discuss the matters of why so many vampires are not only entering your territory but his as well." Derek told him with a knowing look.
Aiden gave a groan.
"Does it have to be now?" Aiden asked him, he hated to be within Cody's pack.
"If you don't talk to him today Cody will take that as a sign that you have favored the vampires over the alliance you have with him and you know that by doing that we will end up in war." Derek told him clearly knowing that it was enough reason to alarm anyone.
Aiden gave a sigh in exasperation before he got off the sofa.
"Okay, then we should better go." Aiden said in defeat, it was the best to go after all.
Once they arrived to the pack house at Cody's Aiden saw that they were already waiting for him.
"Finally Aiden Darkwood decides to show up." Cody said with a smirk.
"You called so what do want to talk about?" Aiden said as he approached to him.
"About your sudden interest on protecting that blood sucking parasites, it seems like you have sided with them now." Cody said as he got near them with two of his front best pack members.
"They are called vampires not parasites Cody." Cyrus said correcting him, now that he knew who his cousin really was that term bothered him now more than ever.
"They act like parasites so that is what they are to me. It's honestly not my fault that you have decided to side in with them." Cody said accusing them.
"We have not sided with them." Aiden told Cody with a growl.
"Really, then why have they informed me that James Shawnfield the King of Vampires went to visit you in your pack or the merely fact that his daughter this particular blonde girl lives with you and supposedly is your mate, how can you let yourself be brainwashed by her Aiden, vampires and werewolves are not compatible, they can't be each other's mates they are natural enemies." Cody told him as he shook his head, Aiden was an idiot in his opinion to let this happen in the first place.
"Aiden's mate is not like other vampires, she is half human, granddaughter of Jonathan White, you have met him before and you have seen to yourself that he is human." Derek told them trying to distract Aiden before he burst out.
"That doesn't change the fact that vampire blood runs through her veins, that she drinks blood or that she is the daughter of the King of vampires, she is a threat to us as any other vampire would be." Cody told them, he was not going to let them make a fool of him; he was an Alpha after all.
"Does that matter to you? Does it really?" Aiden asked him, he better than anyone knew that Cody just loved to stir problems with anyone just to prove a stupid irrelevant point.
"I will do whatever it takes to protect my pack and you know that very well Aiden, so if I see her or her family members I will kill them as the blood sucking vampires they are." Cody said with a smirk, he was trying to provoke Aiden now.
Aiden gave a growl, threatening his mate like that wouldn't pass by so easily.
"You are forgetting something Cody, she is my mate and Alpha's mate and by harming her or her family you will be wining a war with my pack and the treaty will be over endangering your pack." Aiden told him, he was not going to back down now.
"She doesn't bear your mark, how can we know is she is truly your mate. When all know what a vampire has to do in order to be marked as a mate and you don't have her mark so I guess neither has she." Cody said with a smirk, he had found out all about their mating rituals the vampires had.
"That doesn't change the fact that she is my mate and you know the rules very well Cody and I know that you will not be stupid enough to endanger your pack's wellness just to prove a point." Aiden told him as he glared at Cody; he was not going to let this happen.
"Fine, but let me put it this way. If your mate or any of her family members get any near to our territory we will kill them as simple as that." Cody said with a smirk as he leaned back in his chair.
"There's no need for that, every single person she cares for is in the pack and she won't have anybody coming over from the UK to Seattle to visit her." Aiden said before they all left.
"We'll see that." Cody said as he watched them leave with a smirk plastered in his face.
***
"What's wrong with you?" Renee asked Skye after a few minutes.
Skye snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Renee who sat right across the table.
"Nothing is wrong, why do you ask me?" Skye asked her confused, was it that obvious now?
"Something is definitely wrong Skye and don't deny it. Ever since I can remember Vanilla ice cream with strawberry chunks has always been your favorite, within seconds you would eat it all and ever since the waitress brought you your ice cream all you have done is play around with the chunks of strawberry that are in your ice cream and as the adoptive mother I am to you I know when something is bothering my beautiful daughter, so what's wrong? Spill Skye, tell me everything." Renee told her as she met her gaze.
Skye straighten up in her chair and looked at Renee, her brown eyes shimmering as she looked at her.
"Nothing, honestly I'm fine." Skye said reassuring her with a small shrug.
"And you do know that I'm not buying that, right?" Renee asked her as she shook her head.
Skye gave a sight.
"Alright, I'll tell you but only if you first promise me that you will not tell my dad about it." Skye told her as she set her spoon down.
"It depends; you know I can hardly keep things away from your dad especially when they are about you. Does this somehow endanger your life Skye?" Renee asked her, she always did what was best for Skye.
Skye paused and thought about it before she shook her head slowly.
"No, it doesn't." Skye said finally after a few seconds.
"Fine, I promise and swear that I will not tell your dad about it. So what is it?" Renee asked her, she would keep her word and not say anything now.
Skye gave a sigh before she bit her lip nervously.
"So yesterday in the afternoon when you thought you saw something on my neck but at the end there was nothing, do you remember?" Skye asked her, she still had it until Renee had brought it up.
Renee nodded.
"Yes." She told her, she had seen something but then it was gone.
"Well I did have a mark, a bite mark that Aiden had done be the previous night but it vanished as you saw so last night when he asked why it was gone I told him how things were with us, the vamps and how the female has to mark first and well-." Skye trailed off not wanting to say the words.
"He didn't let that happen?" Renee said cutting her off, she knew it would be like that.
Skye nodded slowly.
"Yes, he said that the guy was always the first one to mark and that as an Alpha he had more reason to do that, I just didn't know that he would end up being such a-." Skye said before she shook her head.
"Macho Alpha, is that the term I believe you're looking for?" Renee said finishing the sentence for her.
"Yes, I never imagined him like that not after everything and you have raised me to be treated equally like others male and female." Skye said as she looked at Renee.
"Not equally Skye, better you are a princess after all." Renee said reminding Skye of her title.
"So much for the princess and her power, I feel stupid now." Skye murmured before she shoved a spoonful of ice cream to her mouth ignoring the toothache she got as the cold ice cream made contact with her teeth.
"Skye you have to give him time, I was with an Alpha werewolf before and I understand his statement but I am not siding with him, soon he will enter in reason, say that he is sorry and he will give in to this whole marking issue. You have to understand that he is an Alpha and as such the decisions he takes cannot only affect him or his pack but others as well, even cause problems with packs over other nearby territories." Renee told her trying to make some sense enter her.
Skye gave a sigh as she placed her chin on the palm of her hand.
"I just don't know Renee; sometimes I just wonder especially so often that what if-. Never mind, it's not important." Skye said shaking her head.
"No, please tell me Skye, you know you can trust me." Renee told her as she grabbed Skye's hand.
"That even if you are the mate of a werewolf as a vampire can you still mate on someone else that is not your mate, on another vampire that is just like you?" Skye asked her as she spoke her voice trembled nervously.