Chapter fourteen
"I just received a text from Luke that his parents went with mum and dad somewhere," I hear Jason say when I made a move to exit the car.
"So it's alright if I can go with her?" Ryder asks him.
"Yeah, just don't take too long."
Ryder grins at me and exits out of the car. He wraps his arm around my waist, almost possessively.
"S'up man," Luke says to Ryder and they did their guy handshake. "Grace," He nods at me.
"I didn't even know you knew my name," I can't help but say.
"Honestly, I thought you were called Gabby at first," He shrugs.
"No big surprise there," I say bluntly. This is shockingly the longest conversation we've had. Luke always forgets my name and calls me Gabby or even Gina.
He sheepishly grins. "Anyways, I was expecting you to come here. I was supposed to pack Lily's stuff but I have no clue what to bring."
"Alright, you can unlock the door and we'll go in. Is there anybody else inside right now?"
"Yeah, Dean is in there."
"What's Dean doing here?"
"Well, since he is the second closest person to Lily, I thought he might help me out, so I called him over. But, he really isn't."
"Again, no surprise there," I rolled my eyes.
"Isn't Dean the guy who sits with you at lunch?" Ryder asks me. I was surprised he even remembered that.
I nodded at him.
His gaze immediately hardens. "You guys are just friends right?"
"Yep," I say.
His grip on me tightens. "Alright then."
"Are you alright?" I asked, concerned with his sudden mood swing. I mean, it's not like I was dating Dean. We're just friends. How can he get so jealous of that?
"I'm fine," He lied as we walked inside.
"No you aren't," I frowned at him. "If this is about Dean, you don't have to be so envious. He's my only guy friend."
"Is he mated?"
"No."
"Then I have every right to be envious," He pouts. "Plus, I heard that he has a crush on you."
We stopped walking and I tippy-toed to peck his lips. "Don't worry," I reassured him. "I'm yours."
The arm he had around my waist pulled me closer to him and he kisses me deeper. "Damn right you are," He mutters against my lips.
"Get a room," I hear Luke cough.
Ryder pulls away and grins at Luke. "Gladly."
"You guys are just bragging off in front of me right now," Luke sighs. "I want a mate."
"You have one," Ryder says. "You just haven't found her yet."
"Well, I hope I find her soon, because I'm tired of screwing a bunch of girls every week."
Wow, Luke was the entire opposite of Jason. I thought Luke wouldn't want a mate since he was that typical teenage alpha.
He's not really that bad looking. Okay, so maybe lots of girls in our school have a thing for him. I used to have a crush on Luke for a month but only because he was cute.
Luke had blonde hair but he dyed it to a dark brown color that almost looks black right now because of the lighting. He also has a few tattoos on his chests and arms so that whole bad-boy look thing might be the reason why girls are so attracted to him.
Jason was similar to him. His hair was naturally black and he has a few tattoos, but not too many, present on his body. People say he looks like me, but I wouldn't think so.
"Yo dude," I hear Jason say. We all turned around to see Jason also coming in.
"Hey man," Luke greets and they also do their guy handshake thing.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"Mum and dad just called me," He says. "They're going to be gone for a week because of some family problem in another city."
"What happened?" I asked with concern.
"Our cousin is in the hospital. They said something about her getting beat up by her own brother and stuff. I don't know, she lives in a crazy town, man."
"I didn't know we had a cousin."
"Yeah, I was surprised too. Mum said that she doesn't like to talk about it. So they're going to drive to Virginia."
"What about my parents?" Luke asks.
"They're going too," He replies.
"It must be pretty serious seeing as both the Alpha and Beta are going," Ryder says.
"It seems like it," Jason shrugs. "You and I gotta look after the pack, Luke."
I hear Luke curse under his breath. "Do they think two teenage guys really can look after a whole pack on their own?"
"Of course not," I hear Dean say. We all turned our heads toward to him as he walked down the stairs. I felt Ryder's grip on me tighten. "I just got a call from my dad. Since he's third-in-command, he says he's going to help you guys or something." His eyes lingered on the arm that Ryder wrapped securely around my waist.
I looked at Ryder and saw a look of smug cross his features as he stared at Dean.
This caused me to roll my eyes and turn to Jason.
"Will our cousin be okay?" I asked. I needed to focus on more important matters, not the rivalry going on between Ryder and Dean.
"Yeah, mum said there were some major injuries, but nothing too life threatening."
I actually wanted to meet her. The only relatives I've met were my grandpa and grandma. I wonder why mom never told us about our other relatives.
Our parents are probably stressed out now. Me leaving off to Cali forever would make them even more stressed.
"Well, I should go and pack Lily's clothes now," I say to all of them. "You boys can talk... Or do whatever you boys do."
"Do you want me to go up with you?" Ryder asks.
I shook my head. "There are some things Lily doesn't want anybody to see. I'll call you when I need help, okay?"
"Wait," Dean says. "Can I go up with you? I need to talk to you about something. Plus, this could be our last time together."
I hear Ryder growl and he pulls me closer to him, if it was even possible.
Dean raised his arms up in defense. "I won't try anything, I swear. I just need to talk with her."
"If you're going, then I'm going," Ryder says, narrowing his eyes on Dean.
"Anything to keep my head from being ripped off," Dean jokes.
"Oh god," I hear Jason mutter to Luke. "If Ryder is so protective of his mate like that, then I wonder how we'll act with ours when she's with a guy."
Ryder flips them the bird and I got out of his grip. This earned me a questioning look from everybody.
"Ryder, Dean won't try anything on me. I've known him ever since middle school. We just need to talk privately," I say. "You can go and talk to Jason and Luke. This is the last time you'll see them too for a while."
He takes a glance at the two guys who were giving him a weird grin. I see him roll his eyes and he looks at me. I decided to use my puppy dog face. He groans and gruffly says, "Fine."
Before he walks over to them, he grabs me by the waist and kisses me, hard. He then glares at Dean and says, "Watch your place, dog."
I look at him incredulously as he walked towards a snickering Jason and Luke. I catch Dean nodding at him.
"You know, I've always appreciated the power you had over all of us," Dean says to me as we walked up the stairs.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"All you have to do is use those eyes on anybody and you can get them to do anything you want."
I grin at him. "It's one of my main specialties."
He grins back. "I wish I had that ability to charm anyone."
"Well, too bad. You don't have it." I stick my tongue out at him.
He places his hand over his heart in fake hurt. "Thanks for bragging off, Grace." He then laughed, causing me to laugh a little. "You know, I've never seen you act so playful. Usually it's Lily doing it and you're just so serious."
I scoffed. "I must have acted playful before. I'm not that serious."
"Uh, yes you are. You worry a lot about school and stuff and that's the only emotion I catch from you. Aside from that, you're like a robot."
"For your information, I have plenty of emotions. I just don't like to show them a lot."
He gives me a little smile. "Maybe Ryder is just bringing them all out."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Like, you know," He continues. "It's only been a few hours since he discovered you were his mate. And when I saw you, you looked extremely happy. It was different from what I saw last week."
"So you think that having my mate changed me?"
"Yep, and I've always resented Ryder. Maybe because you were mated to him or because I thought he was a giant douche and doesn't deserve you. But now I don't really feel that way anymore. He's made you happier and I respect him for that, I guess."
Well I'm glad that Dean accepted Ryder. "How long have you liked me for?" I asked him randomly. I'm just curious. I haven't had anybody liked me before, or at least nobody has told me.
"Ever since we met," He smiles at me and awkwardly scratched his head. "I thought you were really cute and stuff."
"Why didn't you tell me then?"
"Well for one thing, your brother was pretty scary for a beta back then. You remember his huge growth spurt in 7th grade right? Luke was pretty tall too. Every time a guy went near you and Lily, your brothers would glare at them."
I sighed. "And let me guess, Jason threatened you?"
"Something like that," He grins. "He was alright with me around you but he knew about my crush. He kind of wanted you to find your mate instead of letting me date you. He wouldn't let anybody near you, especially the girls, because he was afraid you might get backstabbed or something. He didn't want to see you cry and most of the girls were bitches and still are."
I never knew Jason was that protective over me. No wonder me and Lily were ignored by everybody.
"Well that explains everything," I say as I put Lily's clothes in her suitcase.
Dean nods. "I should go now. I wouldn't want your mate to get suspicious. Oh, and if you want to talk, just call me." He gives me a paper with his number on it. "I mean, who wouldn't want to talk to me though?" He cockily says.
I rolled my eyes and got my phone so I can add Dean as a contact. I saw that I had eight missed calls from Lily and ten from my parents recently. Hah, oops.
I sighed and decided to call my parents first. I mean, they're still mad at me. It's the least I can do for them.
I instantly got sad when I realized that the last time I talked to my parents was with a fight and I won't see them for a while. My parents can't visit me because of their beta duty and I probably can't visit them either because I'll probably be trying to learn how to be a freaking alpha queen.
The thought of being queen made me go from sad to nervous. What if nobody liked me? What if I made a fool of myself? Ugh, everything is so stressful.
The phone rings four times before I heard my mom say, "Hello?"
"Hey mom, you called?"
"Uh yes, I was about to ask if you wanted to come with us to see your cousin. I'm sure Jason has told you about her. But your father and I are already on the border of Mass, so never mind."
"Oh, okay. Well, what's her name?"
"Emma Jointer," She says. By now, Dean has already left the room.
That's a pretty name. "Alright mom, I should go now. I'm packing Lily's stuff up right now."
"Okay honey, I love you," She says softly and I felt like crying. Even though I wasn't that close to my family, I still loved my mom and dad.
"Drive safe," I say. "I love you too." I wonder when the last time I said 'I love you' to my parents.
"Thanks, hun." I almost can feel my mom smiling. She must be so happy that I said it.
"I'll miss you," I say sadly, my voice cracking.
"Oh sweetie," She says. If only she knew. "It'll only be for a week. Once I get home, I'll make you your favorite meal and we can talk about you and Ryder. I mean, when I saw you in the woods, you looked so happy. I've never seen you with a boy before so we can have one of those girl-talks."
"Honey," I hear Dad say warningly in the background.
Mom laughs. "Oh relax, Rob. She's a teenager. She can't be a virgin forever."
"Mom!" I say, my face flushing red. "We didn't do anything!"
"Sure, Grace, I believe you even when you came out wearing his shirt. Well, you should go and pack now. Say, you sound a little different."
"How so?"
"Well, you're saying 'I love you' and stuff and you sound a lot happier than usual. But anyway, bye honey."
Wow, did I really sound so serious before I met Ryder?
I sighed. "Bye mom."
I hung up and put some more clothes in my suitcase. I felt bad for keeping all these secrets away from them but if I told them, they probably would turn back and lock me in my room forever. I can't have that happening.
"You seem stressed out," I hear Ryder say. I turned my head to look at him. He was leaning against the doorframe and staring at me.
"I'm always stressed out," I admit and shut the suitcase. It was true. I worry about every single thing.
I felt Ryder walking toward me. He wraps his arms around my waist, hugging me from behind.
"Thinking is dangerous, you know. You just need to stop sometimes." I hear him inhale loudly.
"It's not as easy for me."
"Well maybe you just need to try a different technique." He buries his face in the crook of my neck and starts to kiss it softly.
I gave him a small smile, even though he couldn't see it. "And what would that different technique be?" I asked in a teasing tone.
"I'm glad you asked," Ryder says and turns me around to roughly smash his lips against mine. I kissed him back, instantly forgetting about what I was thinking about.
Wow, I've made out with Ryder about ten times today and we haven't even known each other for a whole day yet.
He pulls away after a few minutes and I look confusingly at him.
"We shouldn't be making out in your best friend's room," He says breathlessly.
I nodded and watched him grab Lily's suitcase.
Now we have to go to the plane.
"What will your dad think?" I asked worryingly. I was actually kind of scared of him too.
"Don't worry. I won't let him touch you. My mom might defend you too and you know she's a soft spot for him," He smiles reassuringly. He adds, "Just like how you are for me."
This caused me to blush.
He chuckles. "You look cute when you blush."
We went downstairs with him carrying the suitcases despite me protesting that I can carry it.
"All set?" Jason asks as he takes his car keys out. We nod. "Luke is coming with us. He wants to see Lily for the last time."
"Okay," I say and I noticed Dean standing there, giving me a small smile. "Bye, Dean. Make sure you visit sometimes. And if you find your mate, make sure Lily and I are the first ones to find out," I warned.
"Aye, aye captain," He grins.
I rolled my eyes and walked towards him to give him a hug. He hugs me back tightly.
"I'll miss you," He says.
"I'll miss you too," I say. We part and I ruffled his hair playfully. I went out the door with Jason, Luke and Ryder following me from behind. Luke takes the passenger seat and Jason takes the driving seat. Ryder sits next to me.
Dean waves to me when we drive off and I wave back.
Luke sighs. "Man, I love your car."
"It's my baby- the most important thing in the world to me."
This caused me to roll my eyes.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, Grace. You're just jealous that you're the second most important to me," Jason jokes.
"Whatever you say," I say as I glanced at Ryder. He was quiet when I went to hug Dean. Right now, he was staring into space with a glum expression. I noticed that Jason and Luke were in their own conversation now so I could talk to Ryder without them listening.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
He snaps out of his daze and glances at me. He forces out a small smile. "It's nothing. I was just thinking about some things."
"Thinking is dangerous, you know," I repeated what he said to me earlier and smiled.
He looked almost surprised with my response before he gives me a real smile. He shakes his head as if he was disagreeing with something in his head and grabs my hand, intertwining his fingers with mine. It sent butterflies to my stomach.
"It really is, princess," He says and looks out the window as we rode together to the airport. "It really is..."
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Picture of Luke. Just imagine him with tattoos though hehe >>>>
(might have revealed a spoiler in this chapter about my other book-- it's about their cousin)
(Also the picture is of the model Ben Bowers, if some of you can't see him or if you want to know who plays Luke)