A/N: Hi! I applied some changes to my writing because I wasn't really happy with how I would always use past tense and present tense at the same time so I'm gonna work to try and only write in present tense!! Enjoy! <3
I wake up again, but my eyes are having a hard time opening. They feel so heavy that I'm unable to open them for minutes on end. I rub my eyes with my fists and it relieves some of the heaviness. My eyes finally open and I am relieved when I see that I'm back in my room, except I realize that it's now dark. How long was I asleep? I ask myself.
I stand up from the floor against the door and open the door to go downstairs to get a glass of water. Anything to avoid having to lay in my bed and think about everything. When I leave the room and close the door, I'm half expecting Evan to be sitting, laying against the other side of the door as if it's some cheesy romance movie. It sounds like something he would do. My expectations are cut short when I realize he isn't there like how I had expected—or more like hoped.
I let out an amused breath when I realize that I'm hoping for too much. I'm hoping that my life will just go back to normal and be perfect. I'm hoping that my relationship with Evan will fix itself and I'll go back to the life I had before all while living here with my real family. I'm hoping for all of that, yet I don't do anything to make it better. My stubbornness isn't going to let me just give in and forgive him. I shake my head in amusement and go down the stairs. From about the middle of the stair, I can see some light coming from the direction of the kitchen. My heart drops at the thought that it could be Evan, but I go down anyway. I'm not going to spend my life hiding from him.
As I enter the kitchen I feel relieved to see that it's Rowan instead of Evan. He was leaning on the island with a mug in front of him. Steam was coming off of it so I assumed it was a hot drink of some sort. "What are you doing up so late?" I ask as I go over to the cupboards and open them one by one until I find a glass.
"I should be asking you the same thing," he says. I shrug and take my glass over to the fridge to fill it with ice and water.
"Can't sleep."
"That makes two of us," he says, taking a sip of his hot drink. After getting my water, I go over to the island and lean against it on the opposite side that he's on so we're across from each other. "Did you and Evan..." he makes a hand motion, allowing me to fill the blank with the words I think he was going to say.
I shake my head and let out a small breath. "No, we didn't make up," I start, picking up my glass from where I had set it down and taking another sip of my water. I set the glass back down and sigh, not sure how to explain our overly-complicated situation. "I'm honestly not sure how I can recover from everything that he hid from me. The fact that I now know that I could've been with you guys sooner if he had just told me is unsettling." Rowan nods after taking a moment to think about it. He takes another sip of his drink and places the mug back down.
"I understand," He finally says. "But have you taken his side of the story into consideration?"
I already know what my answer is. No. He's explained himself and why he had to do what he did so many times and I haven't thought about it at all. "No."
"I suggest you take time to take his feelings and his side of the story into consideration first. Then, think about how you feel after you've done that." I don't think he understands how big the situation Evan and I are involved in is.
"This isn't just something I can forgive and forget—"
"Mom did," he interrupts me. "Even after everything Dad did to her, she still found a way to forgive him. And in my opinion —not that it matters to you right now— forgiving someone for doing the things that Dad did to Mom is much worse than keeping life changing information from you for two years." There's a moment of silence that consists of me staring at Rowan and him staring back at me, trying to drill his words into my head. "All I'm saying is that if Mom can forgive and forget, so can you."
Rowan grabs his now empty mug and goes around the island and to the sink, putting the mug in the sink and going back upstairs and to his room without another word. He and I both know that I wasn't going to take time to understand Evan's side of the whole situation because it isn't about him. It's about me and the information that he was keeping from me for the two years he knew about it. It might not be as bad as everything Orion had done to my mother, but comparing the two drastically different situations doesn't make the validity of mine any lesser than my parents' situation.
Right now, it wasn't realistic for Evan and I to make up and continue on with our lives as if nothing had ever happened. Both of us had done things to make the situation worse. Evan took my first kiss, which isn't a drastic issue, but the fact that I didn't consent to it and he knew I wasn't ready for anything like that, is what makes it worse. I refused to listen to him and let him explain himself. I shut him down multiple times, which only ended in us yelling at each other and making the situation worse than it already was.
I sigh and decide to follow my original plan. I was supposed to come down here to get a glass of water to distract me from my thoughts. That obviously didn't work, so now I'm going to wash mine and Rowan's glass and go back up to my room and try to get some sleep.
*
The next morning, I wake up to a knock on my door. I groan in my sleep and finally sit up when the knocking continues. "Yeah?" I call. Lily opens the door enough to peak her head through.
"Just letting you know that uncle Orion is starting training back up again at 7:30 in case you wanted to join us today."
I let out a long yawn and stretch my body. Surprisingly enough, I was able to fall asleep quickly after I got back up to my room and I was grateful for that because it meant that I didn't have to spend any more time thinking about Evan.
"I'll be down in a few," I say and she nods before closing the door.
I had heard about Orion pausing training for the last three weeks in order to devote all their time to finding me. In my opinion, that wasn't a very good idea considering he leads the strongest pack in the world. He needs his people and warriors trained in case someone tried to attack. I'm grateful that he tried devoting all their time to finding me, but I don't like the fact that he had to run the pack differently because of me.
After minutes of stretching my body and trying to will myself to get out of bed, I finally did. I go over to the closet where I had stored all the clothes and other things I was able to salvage from the ruins of my small rogue pack. I open the door of the closet and audibly gasp when I see that the closet is full of clothes, shoes, and other accessories. A surge of excitement goes through me at the thought of being the owner of all of this. I have to find out who filled my closet up and thank them for it.
Everything in the closet is organized into different categories from jeans, dress pants, leggings, dresses, blouses, tee-shirts, and every other article of clothing I could possibly need. I grab a pair of leggings and a loose tee-shirt, along with clean underwear and change in there. I put some shoes on before gathering my dirty clothes up and throwing them in the laundry hamper I spotted in the corner of the closet when I first walked in.
Before leaving the closet, I make sure everything is as I had found it. I then leave and close the door behind me, going to the vanity and grabbing my hair brush and hair tie. I start running the brush through my hair and tie it up into a ponytail. When I finish, I make my bed and then head downstairs.
Pack members are gathered around the kitchen, serving themselves breakfast. As I enter it, I roll my eyes when I catch myself looking for the one person I want to avoid. I shake my head and smile amusingly at myself.
I'm brought out of my thoughts when someone hands me a bowl and spoon. I accept them but I don't realize I accepted them until they're in my hand. I turn to the person who handed them to me and I realize it's my darling little cousin, Lily. I smile at her and thank her for handing me the bowl and spoon. "The cereal is over there," she says, pointing towards the cupboard that's right next to the fridge. I wasn't planning on having breakfast, but since Lily handed me the bowl and spoon and she was holding one for herself, I decide to accompany her.
We weave through the crowd of people that are gathered throughout the kitchen until we finally make it to the dining room after serving ourselves some cereal. The room is empty since most people decided to eat their breakfast outside or in their rooms. Lily and I sit down next to each at the table and we start eating.
Lily waits until she swallows what was in her mouth before asking me, "Where's your friend? I haven't seen him in a while."
Playing it cool isn't as easy as I originally thought it would be. "He's... around," I shove a spoonful of cereal in my mouth in order to avoid having to further explain.
"By around I think you mean right here." I nearly spit out my cereal when I feel his hands grip the back of my chair.
"What the hell are you doing?" I can practically feel the smirk he has on from behind me.
"I'm not doing anything." It shocks me that his voice sounds exactly like it did when he kissed me. His voice sounds like he doesn't care about the outcome of whatever he's planning to do and it's full of mischief. It scares me because that's exactly what it sounded like when he kissed me out of no where. He knew I would get mad and he didn't care —obviously— because he did it anyway.
Without turning around to look at him, I let out an angry breath. "Leave."
"Sorry, but I don't let people boss me around." Is he serious?
"Leave."
"No."
"Leave."
His voice snaps back into his normal voice; the voice that I'm used to. "Norah—"
I turn to him out of nowhere, angry. My glare is so intense that it makes him flinch slightly. Not enough for anyone to really notice, but enough to notice if you're close to him. "Do you not understand what I'm saying? Do you know who you're talking to? You aren't back at our old pack. You're in my pack. My family's pack. I'm the alpha's daughter and I know damn well he would end you for me. So I suggest you leave before I'm tempted. I'm not letting you bother me anymore. If you want to fix anything with me, leave me alone to think about it." The air in the room thickens with every word. I shock myself with how much sharpness I implemented in my voice. I turn back around and take another spoonful of my cereal. I'm glad everyone is in the other room. No one needs to hear my arguing.
Spoken like a true queen, Taryn whispers in my head and for the second time, I almost spit my food out.
Don't you even dare. Taryn's snicker irritates me and grows my already growing headache. I know it'll pass though. This headache was just an 'in the moment' type of thing.
The look on Lily's face is priceless and it almost makes me smile. Her eyes are wide and her face is red. Little does she know that the arguing between Evan and I is starting to become a normal thing for us.
"Sorry about that," I grumble, but she doesn't say anything and continues to eat her cereal.
I'm not sure when Evan leaves because when I get back up with my empty bowl, he isn't behind me anymore. I go to the kitchen and wash my dishes and Lily does the same after me. Everyone was already outside waiting for training to start in a couple minutes, so Lily and I were the only ones left in the house.
"I see you found the surprise in your closet," she says out of no where.
My eyebrows crease, not able to believe her. "That was you?"
She smiles and nods her head. "It wasn't just all me. Uncle Orion told me to get you whatever I thought you needed and left me money to pay for it all before you left for the coronation." I had never expected Orion to do all that for me. Before I got to know him better, —which I still don't know him much at all— I expected him to live up to the reputation that everyone else in the werewolf world knows him by.
"I'll have to thank him next time I see him," I tell her. "Thank you." I inch towards her hesitantly with my arms extended outward, unsure of whether she wants me to hug her or not. She extends her arms also, accepting my invitation and we wrap our arms around each other for a couple seconds.
"Of course!" she says. "I hope you don't mind, but I looked through your clothes for sizes, and the ones I couldn't figure out I guessed." It's a little weird to me that she was in my room and looked through my things, but I didn't mind too much. It's not like her intentions were bad.
"That's okay," I tell her.
Training was going to start in the next few minutes, so Lily and I decide it would be a good idea to head to the field. The field isn't far at all, so by running, we get there in just over a minute.
Everyone is already here and in their spots. I see Orion at the front of the block that the pack members formed and Lily and I part ways as I walk over to him. He's talking to Ace and as I approach them, their conversation stops as they see me walking towards them.
"Hey, Norah," Orion greets me with a smile. He goes to say something else but cuts himself off when my arms wrap around him.
If he wasn't shocked before, he's most definitely shocked when I tell him, "thanks Dad."
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Hey y'all!!!
We got a chill-ish chapter today since the last couple ones have been full of drama!!
What do y'all think about Norah calling Orion Dad????
I don't know what else to say other than the fact that the Discord server is finished!!! Here's the link ----> https://discord.gg/vGSTbcAS
I decided to make a server for all of us to hang out, to talk about my books, to give each other tips and share our stories and other things! It's also a place where I'll be giving updates on when future chapters could possibly be coming out!! I'll be putting the link in my bio as well!!
Anyways, Happy Holidays and I'll see y'all in the next chapter!!!