After we'd arranged all of Layla's books in her and Zak's shared apartment room, she lent me one of her t-shirts which fit me and I folded up Caine's sweatshirt. Layla said that she would go to the infirmary and get her books, while I decided that I would find Caine and return his hoodie.
I decided that I would check the lobby. I walked down into the lobby. A few people were openly staring at me and I was a bit creeped out. I think it was because of the Caine incident.
When people had talked about Caine, I thought he was some guy who was about as old as my Dad with scars on his face, never smiling all that jazz. But when he turned out to be a guy my age and he seemed to be laughing, I had some trouble believing.
My dad was still seated with the two buff guys. As if sensing my precise, he looked up at me. I headed in his direction.
"Yes, sweetheart?" He questioned.
"Do you, um, possibly know, um, where I could find – uh – Caine?" I squeaked out the last bit.
"Caine?" Dad asked, frowning. "Caine Ravenna?"
"Yeah, Dad." I answered, suddenly nervous.
"He should be outside; in the backyard I think." He said, suspicion pooling in his eyes. One of the buff guys, coughed, which suspiciously sounded like a covered up laugh and I turned to see the other one grinning at the ground.
I narrowed my eyes at them. The grinning one looked up at me. "I'm Jackson, Caine's Beta." He held out his hand for me to shake. When I didn't reach out to shake it, he pulled his hand backward and the other guy chuckled.
"He mentioned your little encounter in the morning." The guy who chuckled spoke up. My face flamed up in embarrassment.
"Oh yeah, that." I said, biting my lip. "Anyway, see you around." I nodded my head and left through the backdoor. That conversation was extremely awkward and I didn't want to stay there anymore. I was sure to be bombarded with questions from my Dad once I was home.
I bunched up the sweatshirt under my arm and walked through the backyard. There was a huge pool in the center with teenagers swimming about in them.
Some girls in bikinis were sunbathing on the grass and guys were ogling over them. I rolled my eyes. I looked around the backyard for Caine. He was bound to be around here somewhere. My eyes found Caine sitting at the long outdoor-table with Alpha Reuben. They had many sheets of paper spread out in front of them and Caine was vigorously signing all the papers.
I decided that it had to be something serious, so I sat down onto one of the beach chairs. Alpha Reuben was busy talking on the phone. As if sensing my gaze, Caine looked up at me. He had an intense look in his eyes as he held my gaze. My heart was thundering in my chest and the butterflies erupted yet again.
I looked away after a few seconds and pulled out my phone from my pocket to appear busy. I found that I had a few texts from my cousin in Italy. My mother was from Italy and her family was huge back there. My parents had eloped when my Dad had gone to Italy to help out my mom's pack during a war crisis.
Mom's family had initially been pissed when they found out, but when Layla was born, they instantly forgave mom. Now they doted on all us kids.
I texted with my cousin for a bit. He was really nice and funny guy and his Italian accent is epic. I looked up and found Caine's gaze on me again. Alpha Reuben was chattering off about something to him, but his attention was fixed on me. He stood up and started heading in my direction. Alpha Reuben was staring at him dumbfound.
Some of the girls who sunbathing pointed at him and giggled. Oblivious to them all, he was looking at me with an inquisitive look and was walking forward. I bit my lip nervously and looked down; my shoulder-length black hair fell forward, hiding my face. I looked back down at my phone. I had received a few more texts from my cousin and I was typing back a reply, when a shadow fell over me. I looked up, still biting my lip.
"I'm beginning to think that you're stalking me," He smirked at me.
"I just came to give your hoodie back," I squeaked. Shit. This was Caine Ravenna.
"What's up with all the fear?" He asked, frowning. "I want that feisty Astoria back."
"Uh-huh. Only that feisty Astoria discovered that you were Caine Ravenna." I replied back, handing the hoodie to him.
"So?" He questioned. "You weren't afraid of me when you didn't know who I was."
"Um,"
"Come on, I won't bite. Don't be afraid of me." He said, plopping down near my stretched out legs on the beach chair.
I laughed out. "Sure, you don't bite."
Alpha Reuben was frowning in our direction.
"You do know Alpha Reuben was saying something, right? You just left him hanging." I said to him.
"He isn't your Alpha anymore. I am." Caine replied proudly.
Just then I heard someone calling out my name.
"Tori!"
I turned around to see Chuckie standing there. "What?" I yelled back.
"Your Dad's looking for you!" He yelled back.
"Fuck," I muttered under my breath. I knew this was coming. "I'll catch ya later, Alpha."
He waved to me as I got off the chair and ran over to Chuckie.
"Was that...?"
"Yup."
A few minutes later, I was standing in front of my Dad's office on the first floor. I knocked and he asked me to come in.
I waltzed in and plopped down on one of the chairs in front of the desk. Dad was seated in the chair opposite me.
"You wanted to talk, Dad?"
"Yeah, Sweetheart," Dad said, giving me an awkward smile while rubbing his neck. "Okay, so Layla also got this talk when she was your age and all, but it still doesn't make it any less awkward."
"What are you talking about, Dad?" I asked carefully.
"It's not about the birds and the bees; your mother already talked to you about that."
"Yeah," I said. God, this was turning awkward.
"So, you know, there comes a time when you meet a guy-"
"Oh my god, Dad!" I interrupted him. "I get it!"
"Well that's good," Dad said, his face was flaming. "Please do make sure you don't, like, elope or something."
My face got burnt.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Dad called.
It was Caine. My Dad sat straighter in his seat and gave him a wide smile, which Caine didn't return. My face flamed even more. Caine sat down in the seat next to me and didn't even acknowledge me.
"It's done, Magnus." He said. "I think we can tell the pack now."
I cleared my throat. Caine gave me a sideways glance.
"Of course, son. The Pack's gotta know about their new Alpha." Dad said.
I choked on my spit at the part where Dad called Caine 'son.' I went into a coughing fit and Caine immediately started rubbing my back, which only worsened my condition. Dad filled a glass with water and handed it to me. I gulped it down, trying to calm myself.
Caine's hand was still on my back and tingles were shooting down my spine.
"You alright?" He asked with concern lacing his voice. I nodded my head.
I stood up. "Dad, that talk had been too fucking disturbing. I think I'm just going to go home."
"Hold on, young lady. I'm still not done with you."
"What more?" I groaned and flopped down into the chair. I rolled the chair away from the table, out of Caine's view and started spinning on it.
Dad and Caine talked some more about the pack matters.
You see, my Dad was the third-in-command of the pack and was retiring to training the protectors. But he was very much experienced and was sort of like an adviser too.
"Tori! Are you listening?" Dad called out and I turned to look at him.
"Yeah,"
"Go tell Chuckie to announce the barbeque and pack gathering tonight." Caine told me.
I huffed. "Can I go home after that? Mac's taking me to the river later," I said to Dad.
"Okay, be back before six."
"Okay!" I chirped and rushed out of the room.
I ran downstairs and told Chuckie what to do and headed back home. Ethan, Mac and me raced down to the river where we had a nice swim and had our lunch which Mom had packed for us. We were walking through the backyard, three of us shoving the basket to each other because we didn't want to hold it. I swear, we were all still behaving like teenagers. We had absolutely no maturity during normal days, but when it was necessary we could be proper adults.
We barged in through the backdoor to find the other boys in a water fight. I immediately ran in the direction of the living room to avoid getting drenched. I barged into the living room, only to find that Zak, Layla, Mom and Dad were sitting there giving company to none other than Caine.
I was suddenly conscious about my appearance. I was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a black tank matched with rubber flip flops.
I hesitantly started moving forward to sit down when someone pulled me from behind. I fell to the ground with a thud.
"Tori! You're going to give us away!" Robert hissed at me. His grey eyes had a crazy look in them.
"You fucktard! I'm trying to hide!" I hissed back at him.
"Rob? Tori? Everything okay?" Dad poked his head into the hallway, frown on his face.
"Peachy," I replied, putting on my fakest smile. I was still on the floor.
"Tori, what are you doing on the floor?" Dad questioned.
"You know, giving birth," I said, sarcastically. Rob covered up his laugh with a cough. Dad gave me a dirty look and retreated back into the living room. Rob pulled me up and we were deciding where to hide when Ethan walked into the hallway with the water bottle in his hand. He gave us his evil laugh.
"Prepare to die," He smirked. My eyes just then found the glass of water on the living room coffee table. I ran in and picked up the glass, earning a dirty look from Mom. I ran out into the hallway and dumped it on Ethan just as he emptied the bottle of water over me.
I let out a screech. "You jerk!"
Ethan got out another water bottle from his back pocket as I ran into the living room, dripping wet, to escape him.
Layla yelped as we dashed in and stood up on the couch. Ethan chased me around the coffee table with the bottle in his hands. I caught Rob's eyes in the hallway and he chucked a water bottle at me. All the while everyone in the living room were gaping at us. I unscrewed the cap and splashed the entire contents on Ethan just as he did the same to me.
Just then all the boys ran into the room dripping wet. All their eyes were on me.
"Oh, no no no" I muttered.
I began to run into the dining room when a pair of strong arms wrapped around me. My heart was thumping hard.
"Gotcha," It was Mark.
"Fuck!"
Rob grabbed my legs and together, they hauled my writhing body towards the pool.
"Put me down!"
And in they put me. I fell in with a huge splash and scream. I emerged on the other side of the pool yelling obscenities at them.
I hauled myself out of the pool to find half of them rolling on the ground with laughter and the rest wiping tears from their eyes.
Ethan who was almost at the edge of the pool was laughing so hard that he almost fell in himself. I just decided to help him. I trudged forward and gave him a nice shove, so he too fell into the water. Another wave of laughter erupted and those who were standing fell to the ground in laughter. This time I couldn't help but join in with them too.
By the time the 'grown-ups' came into the backyard half of us were drenched and Mac was in the water cursing Ryker. My hands were on my knees and I was laughing uncontrollably. And that was when Ryker and I spotted Layla looking at us with an amused expression. We trudged forward with evil grins on our face.
"Guys, no – HEY!"
We hauled up Layla with her hands and legs and all the while Layla was screaming for Zak who laughing and egging us on.
We swung Layla a three or four times and threw her into the pool. By now even Mom and Dad were laughing. Hell, even Caine was. He caught my eye and winked at me, which caused me to turn red. What was up with him flirting with me?
Ryker gave me a high five and he resumed his guffawing. Zak hauled Layla out of the water and gave her peck on the lips.
Half of us made gagging noises and Ethan caught my eye giving me a knowing look. It was about the bet.
"You okay?" He questioned Layla. He had a concerned expression on his face.
"Of course, a little water won't do anything," She gave Zak a kiss on the cheek.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
It was Mom again.
"Dining room! Now!"
And she sounded pissed.
We were all seated in dining room, still dripping wet. Caine was leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded. Though I suspected that he folded his arms just to make his arms bulge. He caught my eye again and we held each other's gaze. Mom started yapping about how we weren't behaving properly and we were adults and all that. But I didn't dare look away from Caine.
The butterflies erupted again this time it was different. I could feel heat rushing in down there. Caine's blue eyes turned brighter and I could see his pupils dilate. His eyes were heavenly and they totally matched with his jet black hair.
And then someone kicked me under the table. It was Layla. She looked a bit panicked. She looked back and forth from me to Caine. I frowned at her.
"Later," she mouthed to me.
Ethan cleared his throat and looked awkwardly at me as if he knew what was going on.
"Alright, go have a shower, you lot. And Tori, please wear a dress. None of that leather jacket thing like last time." Mom said.
"Okay," I mumbled. I decided that I was thirsty and went to the kitchen counter to grab a glass. I gulped the water down, put the glass in the sink and was about to go, when I faced with Caine standing right behind me when I turned.
He was standing right behind me. He was so close that I could see the flecks of black in his eyes and a faded scar right above his left eyebrow.
His placed his hands on either side of my waist on the counter and looked intensely at me.
Fuck. Was he turned on by me?
We were standing really close. Our breaths were mingling and I could smell him clearly now. He had a really musky and masculine scent. I bit my bottom lip nervously and his eyes flitted down to my lips. I stopped biting my lip.
He leaned down as if he was going to kiss me, but he went down to my neck, where he placed a wet kiss. I jumped slightly and took in a sharp breath. Caine stayed there with his lips for a few seconds and then retreated back. My whole body was tingling and my face felt really warm. He removed his hands and exited the kitchen.
:::___:::