Rushing back into the room that I had left Roman and Terri in, I could see that neither of them had moved an inch since I had left to change. I hoped that they had at least spoken to one another, but judging from the tension that was hanging thick inside the room, I highly doubted it.
"So, who's ready to get going?" I asked maybe a little too cheerfully, but I was dying to get this awkwardness over and done with.
"We're not going anywhere, until we have had breakfast." Roman stated very matter of factly before turning on his heel, and exiting the bedroom towards the main stairs.
Terri and I followed quickly after him once our brains had caught up with his words, we then instantly began shouting our protests, like how we didn't have time and how we weren't hungry. But Roman continued as if he couldn't even hear us.
"You must not know Em all that well, because if you did you'd know she doesn't eat breakfast!" Terri called after him smugly a smirk present on her face, happy that she clearly knew me better than Roman did.
This however had gotten Roman's attention he halted suddenly before slowly turning to face us, he was almost at the first step down to the foyer. Dragging his fingers through his quickly drying hair, he exhaled slowly through his nose. I could tell he was trying very hard to contain his annoyance.
"Emma will be eating breakfast, you however do not have to. We have a long day ahead of us so I'm assuming that you both want to be operating at your full capacity?" his eyebrow arched in question, but it was obvious that he was daring us to argue with him.
I glanced at Terri out of the corner of my eye, we shared a look. Neither of us wanted to say "Oh no we'd much prefer to operate on diminished capacity, whilst trying to figure out whether or not my parents had been murdered." So we just shut up and followed behind him, like good little soldiers.
I watched Roman's golden orbs dim for a second before returning back to normal, which reminded me I had to ask about that. I'd seen it happen a few times, but I wasn't sure what it meant. Rushing to walk beside him I kept my voice low, so Terri couldn't overhear us.
"What did you just do?" I asked causing him to offer me a sideways smile, whilst we walked quickly down the stairs.
"What do you mean? I simply want to make sure you eat before we leave the house" he answered innocently clearly not understanding my question. But I couldn't tell if that was on purpose or not.
"No, not that! Your eyes, they went all far away a second ago."
"Oh, that's the mind link. As Alpha I can communicate telepathically with any member of this pack, or the pack as a whole if I want. Mates can also communicate this way with each other. It is something that also comes in very handy, in hostile type situations. Or in this case when you're asking for the dining room to be cleared of shifters, so that the human visitor doesn't over hear something that they're not supposed to." he finished nodding his head back at Terri who I hoped was still out of ear shot.
"Ok I have to admit that's pretty cool, can I do it to?" I asked eagerly, I really did need to get the low down on all of my new abilities and soon.
"Of course, you are the packs Luna you can also talk to the whole pack at once if you want to. But you'll only be able to mind link as soon as you've fully shifted" he explained.
"What do you mean by fully shifted?" I asked not understanding at all. Surely I was already a shifter I had my wolf, what more was there?
"We will have to talk about it later when there aren't so many ears about. I know she is your best friend, but it is absolutely vital that our existence remains a secret from the humans. " Roman said seriously now looking me dead in the eyes, I knew he meant business.
I was dying to ask more I had so many questions that I had yet to have answered, but when we had reached the door to the dining room we had stopped walking, and Terri had caught up with us. I knew I couldn't ask him anything else with her present so I just nodded, letting Roman lead the way into the dining room.
Stepping together into the brightly lit room I tried to quickly avert my eyes from the table, my traitorous dirty mind threatened to run through the events that had transpired the last time I was in here.
However my stomach still erupted into butterflies, as my cheeks flamed in embarrassment despite my trying to act casual. I accidentally caught Roman's eye and he sent a cheeky wink my way, a devilish smirk gracing his lips as I barely held it together.
Thankfully Ellie stepped into the room drawing my attention away from my mischievous thoughts, and onto the older woman instead. I greeted her with a warm smile, happy to see her again. Ellie returned the smile and then opened her arms wide, inviting me in for a hug which I gladly accepted, wrapping my arms tightly around the smaller woman.
A small cough sounded behind me alerting me to Terri, who was stood behind me looking very uncomfortable. I quickly introduced the two and they exchanged a pleasant greeting, I was relieved that Terri had decided to be polite.
Ellie then invited us all to pick out some breakfast, which already smelt delicious to wafting in from the kitchen filling the air around us.
Bringing our filled plates and a cup of coffee for me back into the dinning room Roman took his place at the head of the table, with me sitting down in the place I realised I now considered mine on his right hand side, Terri decided to sit next to me which didn't surprise me.
Half way through eating breakfast which was happening in complete silence I glanced up at the ceiling, I noticed that the light had been fixed already as if nothing had ever happened the night before.
Movement drew my attention to the kitchen doorway, where Ellie was now stood tea towel in hand leaning against the doorframe, she quickly shot me a knowing smile accompanied with a wink before disappearing back into the kitchen with a giggle. I felt my face flame once again as it quickly dawned on me that Ellie knew!
Roman must of sensed something through out mate bond because I felt his hand grip my thigh under the table, he raised an eyebrow at me when I looked up at him, but I just shook my head and tried to focus back on my breakfast.
***
We were now travelling back into town in one of Roman's huge black SUV's. When he had lead us after breakfast down to the garage under his house, I was amazed at how many expensive looking cars were lined up in there.
Who really needs that many cars?! Roman had informed me that only some of them were for leisure, before leading me to the row of all different sized blacked out vehicles which Roman said were for pack business.
I had called shotgun very excitedly running for the car but I had stopped short when I realised Terri wasn't going to fight me for the front seat, like she normally would when we were travelling anywhere.
It seemed as she had no interest in sitting next to Roman who was driving, and that was fine by me as I normally got very travel sick in the back.
As we drove through the compound I watched Terri curiously in the rear view mirror, as she took the compound in for the first time in daylight. She looked simply taken aback by it all. I still remembered my first thoughts after seeing this hidden town inside the woods, and knew her mind was currently in the process of being blown.
Terri however didn't say a word to anyone as she peered out of the heavily tinted windows her nose almost pressed against the glass struggling to see clearly. We rolled down the street in silence, on our way to the main gates.
Once the large wrought iron gates began to roll open we exited the compound, I watched as it got smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror, a feeling of deep sadness overwhelmed me which had caught me completely off guard.
We drove deeper and deeper into the woods on the way to the human part of town, and for some reason I found myself hating the thought but I just put it down to nervous excitement.
***
After driving for a while we watched as more familiar sights came into view, it had felt so long since I'd been back so I wasn't surprised this time when another wave of emotion washed over me, this time though it was a feeling of nostalgia more than nerves.
I stared out the window and watched as The Brew came up on our right hand side, I wanted nothing more than to ask Roman to stop the car so I could go in. I knew however that showing up there after nearly a month wouldn't go down well. I didn't have the time or the will power to answer all the questions, that I knew would come my way from the customers and other staff members.
Even though there wasn't a mate bond between my best friend and I, she knew me better than I knew myself sometimes so when she reached from the back of the car to squeeze my shoulder in support I wasn't surprised. I slowly reached my hand up to cover hers, in a silent gesture of thanks.
Before long a familiar street came into view, I instantly felt a heard of elephants start a stampede in my stomach as we got closer to the house. I didn't know why, but I felt extremely sick at the thought of going home.
Looking up at Roman I saw that every now and again he would glance my way as he drove. When our eyes finally met his hand landed on my knee, rubbing it softly as he drove. Taking a deep breath the stampede died down, as we came to a rolling stop outside my house.
"I thought we could stop off here first, before heading to your parents house. Hopefully come up with a plan of action?" Roman spoke only to me, but I couldn't tear my eyes off the house.
Terri however couldn't get out of the car quick enough, jumping out before the car had even come to a complete stop. I on the other hand still hadn't moved an inch, still staring at the house from my seat inside the car.
It just felt so surreal to be back here, after everything that has had happened, it just felt like this house wasn't apart of my life anymore. It was as if the house in front of me was from a different time, a different life, a different me.
"Emma, just because things have gone a little different than how you had planned, doesn't mean things have gone wrong" my wolf said calmly inside my head, her voice grounding me in an instant.
Nodding my head at my wolfs words even though I wasn't even sure if she could see me but she was right, just because this wasn't how I had planned for my life to turn out, doesn't mean this wasn't what was meant to be.
Unbuckling my seatbelt I forced a smile over at Roman who was still watching me cautiously from the driver seat, I could see that he was beginning to regret stopping here first. I didn't blame him though, who wouldn't want to go home after being through what I had?
"I spoke to Alexander Crane before we left, to let him know we'd be feeding the cat his break-"
At the mere mention of Pepper I was out of my seat and racing to my front door, before Roman could even finish his sentence. I passed Terri at a jog who had be stood by my gate, but was now staring at me with a smirk on her face as Roman tried to keep up with me.
"Mentioned the cat didn't you?" she quizzed raising an eyebrow at him.
Roman only nodded in her direction with a smirk of his own, as he watched me race to my front door like a mad woman on a mission. I was just stood staring at my front door, when I heard the others finally catch up to me.
I was just about to ask Roman how we were going to get into the house. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd seen my own set house keys, so they must of been long gone by now maybe even still lay in the woods somewhere from when I was taken.
I didn't have to ask though as Roman came to stand beside me, he reached into the front pocket of his jeans and retrieved "his" key to my house. Roman turned the key and my breath hitched in my throat when I heard the lock disengage with a loud thud.
"Ahh! So he is the crazy man that stole a key to your house!" Terri blurted causing me to choke loudly, as I watched the shock appear on Roman's face.
"Oh my god! I totally forgot that I had text you that!" I wheezed tears forming in my eyes.
I was trying so hard to contain the explosion of laughter within me I really was, but Terri was looking all innocent where as Roman was looking furious. I just couldn't help myself. Terri and I broke out into fits of laughter simultaneously as Roman fumed on the doorstep, which only resulted in us cracking up more.
"I am not crazy." Roman bit out crossing his arms over his large chest.
We were so deep into fit of giggles we were at the point where no actual sound was coming out anymore, thick tears were rolling down our red faces as we tried desperately to catch our breath. Roman was just stood watching us, like we were some sort of rare species just discovered on the discovery channel.
Eventually our giggles died down and we were able to catch our breath, I dared not even look back at Terri though for the fear of cracking up again.
I passed Roman as he looked down at me simply shaking his head in disbelief, but I didn't miss the small smile on his face.
Centring myself I reached for my door handle, looking back quickly at Roman for support, his smile instantly filled me up with courage.
I was ready to go home, I could do this. With that mantra filling my head, I pushed down hard on the handle. I felt the hinge give way then I stepped confidently over the threshold, and into my home.
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We hit 15k! ♥
I know this chapter is a day early but when we hit 15k reads, I thought I'd celebrate with an early chapter!
I just want to personally thank each and every one of you who have read, voted and commented on any of my chapters you have no idea how much it means to me.
When I first started writing Caught I never thought anyone would actually want to read it! Seeing as it is my first ever book, so thank you again for all your support.
Anyway I'll stop rambling now, I'm just honestly blown away. ☺
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Until next time,
-S.Snow