ASHLEY BENSON AS GABI AND CHACE CRAWFORD AS ZACK
Chapter 7
"Taco Bill first!" Sam took a sharp turn towards left making me fall onto his lap.
"G-T-F-O!" He squealed taking his hands off the steering wheel and holding them up like a teenage girl who touched something disgusting.
"PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE WHEEL, ANDERSON!" Carly yelled from the back.
He slammed his hands on the wheel and steered us back onto the right side of the road.
"Shit, you dick goblin." I swore sitting back up in my seat.
"Dick goblin?" Carly asked from behind me incredulously.
"Taco Bell!" Sam sung as we pulled into the Taco Bell car park.
"Did you bring money?" Sam asked me while we walked to the fast food restaurant. Carly and Griff decided to stay in the car but gave me a list of what they wanted with money.
"I'm only buying you your Baja Blast, remember?" I looked at him pointedly.
Sam's face fell into one of sadness and he stopped in the middle of the car park.
"I don't have any money for tacos!" He wailed.
"Shut up you cock-juggling thundercunt!" I hissed grabbing his arm, "I'll pay for your damn tacos just shut up and keep walking."
Sam laughed and skipped beside me all the way to the counter, which concerned me. No sane teenage boy skips.
I ordered all the food, which I got incredulous looks from, and handed over the money. Sam was sitting quietly at a table playing on his phone.
"Order 69!" The register chick called.
Sam got up and helped my carry the food while snickering about how I always ended up having order 69. It was true. At McDonalds, Nandos, Taco Bell, you name it, I'll have order 69.
We were in the car again and everyone had their food. Sam drove us to the main mall in NY and kept grumbling about how his food was getting cold. I told him that I could eat it so it wouldn't be cold and he shut up.
••••••
"So what's happening with you and Axel?" Griff asked as we walked through the mall.
"He wants to meet me tonight." I told her sighing.
"How do you gel about him though?" She pressed.
"I'm nowhere near strong enough to ignore the mate bond." I said unhappily.
"I think you should give him a second chance. I mean, obviously not for free, but lay out some fair rules and if he can follow them, let him in." She smiled softly.
Carly and Sam had gone looking for my birthday present, since it was coming up next week. I was finally turning eighteen and becoming an adult.
"I guess. He did hurt me though. A lot." I pondered.
"Maybe, if you show signs of forgiving him, he'll change." Griffin hugged me reassuringly.
"Let's go find Carly and Sam." I smiled at my best friend and we set off to search for the other two.
When we found them, Carly was in Vicky's and Sam was standing outside pouting.
"Are you guys ready to go?" I asked.
"Yeah. Carly! Come on!" Sam shouted inside the store.
"I'm coming!" She yelled back.
Less than a minute later, we were all walking back to Sam's Jeep. Carly bought something from Vicky's but she wouldn't show any of us.
"Should we stop at In'n'out or straight back to the pack house?" Sam asked.
"Straight back. I blew all my money. They'll have leftovers from dinner." Carly decided.
Griffin and I agreed and the rest of the car ride home was basically silent. Griff and Carly fell asleep while I stayed awake to make sure Sam concentrated on the road.
When we pulled up to the pack house, I immediately left Sam the job of waking them up. I stood behind him timidly. Nobody liked waking these girls up. It was hell.
"Uh... Carly?" He shook her shoulder slightly and she growled.
Sam yelped and jumped back to me.
A great idea popped into my head. I pulled my phone out and searched through the contacts. I'm sure I still had Kade's number. And I did.
I called the number and he picked up on the third ring, "Kendall? Is something wrong?" He answered frantically.
"We need your help waking up Carly." I asked nervously.
"And why would you ask me?" He asked.
"Because you're her fucking mate genius!" I yelled through the phone.
"How do you know?" He asked in disbelief.
"She told me. Do you even want her?" I asked angrily.
"Of course!" He exclaimed, "But she glared at me and ran away."
"Well maybe because you had a slut on your lap?" I spat.
"Mia's my girlfriend though." He said quietly.
"Well, either your mate or your slutty girlfriend. You have one minute to get your ass down hair before she says yes to Alex." I warned.
"Alex?!" He roared.
"Yes. Now hurry." I hung up and slipped my phone back into my pocket.
"Who was that?" Sam asked.
"Kade. Carly's mate." I responded.
"What about Griffin?"
"Can you just carry her in?" I questioned hopefully.
"Fine." Sam sighed in defeat.
Sam lifted Griff up like she was weightless and started carrying her inside.
I stayed outside waiting to see if Kade would show up. Which he did, surprisingly. He showed up at the front door and ran straight over when he spotted us.
"You know I'm really sorry, right?" Kade asked me regretfully.
I sighed, "I know. It's just going to take some time for me to forgive you. It really hurt me, the way you treated me. I was your sister. You acted like I was just shit on the bottom of your shoe." I said sadly.
"I've changed. Bee made me see that. She full on ignored me for five months and it hurt me! Don't you think I would've felt the tiniest bit of how you felt?" He said exasperatedly, "But that's not the point. The point is that I'm just really sorry and maybe we can be brother and sister again."
He picked Carly up gently. She smiled in her slumber and shifted so she was snuggled into Kade's chest.
"Don't stuff this up Kade. She was nearly going to drop you." I said before he went inside.
"I won't." He stared at Carly with a loving look in his eyes.
He left the door open behind him for me and I leant against the car while exhaling. I gathered all the shopping bags easily and carried them inside after locking Sam's Jeep.
When I walked inside, I saw Luke and the boys, including Axel, watching football in the game room.
"Hey," I greeted when I walked in the room.
"Kendall!" Matt yelled jumping up to hug me.
"Get off me pringle dick." I growled tensing up.
Axel growled, and I glared at him.
"Sorry," Matt said to Axel before picking up his X-Box remote and falling back onto the black leather couch.
"Do I have to do the training tomorrow?" I asked Luke.
We ended up scheduling three warrior leaders from our pack each morning to train. I had most days since I was Supreme Warrior but others were lucky to be stuck with one or two mornings at most.
"No. It's your sleep in day," Luke grinned.
"Great!" I sighed happily plopping onto the LayZ-boy chair behind me which rocked back.
Twelve o'clock. By the Willow tree.
That voice, it was in my head. I was sure. And it was... Axel's voice. I turned towards my mate to find him staring straight back at me.
"I'm going to my room. Early night," I said goodnight to everyone except Axel and walked upstairs with my shopping bags, plus Carly's and Griffin's.
I got to Alex, Sam and my room without any bad run-ins and glared at the door. There was a Blood Moon pack member in my room. No Northern Lights member was in there so he or she was by themselves.
I barged in with my canines showing and growled. Zack was sitting on the plush arm chair staring at me.
"Hi," He said simply.
"What the fuck are you doing in here?" I hissed.
"I wanted to talk to you," He replied.
"Well I'm sure you'll have a better audience with your little slut," I snarled.
"Don't call my girlfriend a slut," He defended.
"Whatever. What do you want?" I asked.
"I want to know why Lilia hates us," He said.
"She hates you and Gabi because you treat her like shit. Gabi bullies her, to a few attempted suicides I might add," I told him coldly.
At the mention of suicides, his eyes widened and the now common emotion of guilt was written across them, "What about me? Why does she hate me?"
"You'd never stand up against the bullies for her, you starting dating Gabi and you completely ignored her for the period I was gone!" I yelled throwing a lamp at him which he barely dodged.
"They told me to! She was weak and unpopular. I can't associate myself with people like her!" He yelled back.
I sat on my bed and stared at him with as much influence as I could, "Well, you can either have your slut, Gabi, and fake, popular, dumbass friends, or Lilia, me and my pack as real friends. Your pick," I pushed him out of my room and shut the door.
At twenty to twelve, I started getting ready to meet Axel.
I didn't want to put much effort in. He doesn't really deserve it anyway.
I threw on an ombré white and cyan Victoria's Secret PINK jumper with palm trees on the sleeves and grey semi-tight Nike sweatpants with NIKE printed on the side of one leg in mint green. I slipped on my black UGGS and brushed my hair so it was shiny, smooth and felt soft.
Once I was happy with my appearance, I grabbed my black iPhone and headed outside. I passed the games room where the boys were all asleep across the couches minus Axel.
The air outside was chilly, and drops of dew had started to form on the green blades of grass. I crossed my arms over my chest and headed towards the only Willow tree in the garden. There were lights all around, lighting up the garden like it would look in daytime. It was really cool. A twenty-four hour daylight garden.
When I got to the Willow tree, Axel was standing beside it facing away from me with his hands shoved in his tracksuit pants. The back of his hair was messy, but good messy. He was wearing a navy blue fitted t-shirt that exposed his tanned arms to the cold.
"Hey," I said quietly walking closer to him.
He turned around and a nice smile formed on his face, different to the other cocky, smug smiles and smirks.
"Hi," He breathed looking me up and down quickly making his smile grow a tiny bit bigger.
"Why did you ask me here?" I asked bluntly. Call me rude, but It was nothing to how he treated me.
"I don't know. I just wanted to see you I guess. I also wanted to apologize, but I know nothing I said would be good enough, so I wrote it all down for you," He blushed slightly and handed me a lined piece of paper that had been folded in half.
I opened the letter and began to read.
Kendall,
Words will never fully express how sorry I am, but I truly hope that it is a good start:
I'm sorry.
I regret nothing more in life than what I have done to you. It was wrong, stupid and immature and you do not deserve any of the grief and anger I have caused you. I was thoughtless when I rejected you. I had this whole fantasy in my head that I could be the bachelor desired by everybody for the rest of my life. But that's not true.
I can't bear to see you unhappy because of my actions. My job was to love you, make you happy, make sure you were heard and treated perfectly. I failed. I failed both of us.
But I want to make amends. I really do. You're too important of a person to lose and I hate myself for realizing that now rather than earlier. I understand the gravity of the situation, and I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
Love, Axel
When I finished reading, there was a pool of tears in my eyes threatening to spill like damn waterfalls any minute.
I looked up at my mate and stayed silent.
He looked at the ground and played with his fingers, "I know it's not much, but I want you to know that I mean every single word on that piece of paper,"
"Axel, I-" I started.
"No, don't. You probably won't ever forgive me. I know what I did was that bad. You don't have to say anything. Goodnight," Axel said quietly.
He was about to turn around and walk back into the pack house but I touched his arm gently and pulled him into a hug. I nestled my face into his warm chest and breathed in his scent. It was really true. The pull you feel from your mate is indescribable. I should be so angry at him now, but I can feel that he's telling the truth and I can't find it in my heart to not give him a second chance.
Slowly, he wrapped his arms around me pulling me closer. I heard him breath in and smell me, which made me laugh quietly.
I stepped back and instantly missed the feeling of being pressed against him.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to lay down some rules. You follow them and I'll give you a second chance at being my mate," I kissed his cheek softly and walked back into the house.
As I lay on my bed facing the ceiling, I imagined how things could have turned out.
Maybe it wasn't the smartest idea, giving Axel a second chance. But it felt right. And I'm pretty sure it will turn out right as well.
••••••
I don't really have a day for updating. When I feel like it, I'll come and write some of my story and it depends which one I want to write most. I try and make my chapters long for you guys :)
Can I pleaseeee have 10 votes on this chapter before I update next? And maybe a few comments?
Thanks xx