Crossing Paths With The White Wolf

Kassia POVAll text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

Gonzalo frowned at my words but didn't say anything. He kept driving in silence. He hadn't said anything since I agreed to come with him and a small voice in my head wondered if he was just waiting to reject me in private. I recognized the little town that was 20 minutes from the packgrounds. Once we were through the town and back onto the open road, he stopped near a tree line next to a little restaurant that looked to be for sale. He turned off the engine and got out of the car. I had no idea what was happening now. He went around and opened my door and held out his hand. I took it, trying not to gasp at feeling the bond sparks again. They were so intense. I had heard stories about it, but vampires hadn't had a fated mate in centuries. He led me past the trees without a single word. We stopped near a ledge. It overlooked a part of the river that ran down the border of Crescent Moon and Guardian Moon. Despite my good eyesight, I could barely make out the packhouses that looked tiny from here. "Guardian Pack used to be called Sky Moon. It was led by Celeste's parents. Less than 15 years ago, Helios wanted to get his hands on her mother, who was a descendant of one of his siblings. He had been hunting them for killing his mother. I found a wolf willing to help us, but we didn't know that he and his entire pack were depraved and sick." I could hear the disgust and guilt in his words. "They murdered everyone they could and took the children and enslaved them, Celeste and Maya among them. Over the course of the last two decades, we bought, healed and rehomed a bunch of those girls. When we discovered Celeste had lived, Helios hunted her. We kidnapped her while she was pregnant with her twins and then tried to sacrifice her at the pyramids in Mexico." I was confused. Luna Celeste told me Helios was her brother and they seemed to get along well. Also, what did that have to do with me? "After Helios discovered what really happened when his mother died, Selene sent him on a quest for redemption. Somehow, Celeste forgave him. She forgave all of us. Not only that, but she accepted Helios as her brother and, by extension, all of us as her family. She restored and gave us her parents' packgrounds to start a new life. She said something that I always thought was insane, but now I understand it."

He took a deep breath and grabbed both of my hands. "She said it was not about the past. We shouldn't want to live in the past. It may hold good or bad memories, but you should only want to learn from it. This place was our fresh start, our clean slate. Kassie, there's a lot of pain in our past for both of us, but I want to start fresh. We can learn from everything we've gone through. I want you to share all of your past with me, and I will do the same. But Kassie, I don't want to be stuck there anymore. I've been stuck in the same dark place for 200 years. I - We deserve a fresh start. You're different. I'm different. I'm sorry I refused to listen to you." His eyes were full of unshed tears as he continued, "I - Evergreen told me what happened that night and after. A summary. I was still hurting from you not running away with me, that I when I heard someone say the princess had taken a Beloved, I never once thought they were speaking of the other princess. If I had known, I would have broken you out of that place. I will have to live with that for the rest of my life."

He closed his eyes for a moment, "I don't know how or why the moon goddess gave us another chance to rectify my mistake, but I am hoping you will forgive me for being the a*****e I've been since you've arrived and that we can start again. You are my mate, my most precious gift. You were precious to me even before that. I want us to get to know who we are now, by sharing our past, but not get stuck living in it again. Can you give me that chance? Or have I f****d it up again?"

I could only nod, I didn't trust my mouth to work. This was what I wanted. There was a small part of me that felt like I shouldn't let him off the hook so soon, but listening to his words, I couldn't. There were a few things in his speech that I would need to correct. We both had too much s**t on our shoulders that needed to be dealt with, but for now, all I could do was rush into his arms and let him hold me. I could feel the pressure in my head returning and a new worry filled me. I was broken. Would I even make a good mate? I took some deep breaths to try to relieve the pressure in my head. He held me tighter and took deep breaths with me. I knew he could feel the tremor of my hand on his back. I listened to his heart beat and let it calm me. The tremor in my hand stopped and the pressure receded. Before I could stop myself, I turned my head and kissed the pulse point in his neck. He shivered but only held me tighter. We remained in the same position for a few minutes before my phone began to ring. I pulled back reluctantly and took my phone from my jeans.

"Hi Adrien," I answered.

"Did you get on the plane?" He questioned.

"No, I'm heading back to the packhouse," I said as Gonzalo started leading me back to the car.

"Thank f**k. Did you talk s**t out? It's almost dawn, are you someplace safe?" I looked down at the phone. We had about 30 minutes before sunrise.

"We're only 10 minutes away. I will get her back before the sunrise." Gonzalo said near my ear, his breath on my neck making me shiver. He smiled at my reaction.

"Good. See you here. I need all the tea." He hung up.

"Let's get you home," he said, as we reached the Lamborghini. His words made something inside me stir. Home. I haven't had a home in 2 centuries.

"Is this your car?" I asked, finally allowing me to admire the luxurious interior of the car.

"No, it belongs to Helios. He and Nat have a thing for cars. Why? Do you like it?" He asked.

"I think everyone would have a hard time not liking a $300,000 dollar car, I just didn't think it was your thing," I said.

"I do prefer more practical vehicles; however, these were extenuating circumstances and I wasn't about to decline the speed this thing could reach." His hand suddenly touched the top of mine on the middle console. He took it back as the sparks surprised him, then he asked me nervously, "Can I hold your hand?" I nodded, unable to keep my face from blushing. I suddenly felt like that girl I was in Italy 200 years ago. Shy and knowing nothing about love. He wove his hand into mine and slowed the car down. We only had 15 minutes before the sun rose and I could see the beginning red rays.

"The sunrise must be truly spectacular," I said and felt a quick squeeze of my hand. f**k was I really talking about the sky? We reached the packhouse and Adrien was waiting for me at the front doors.

"You're almost late, Snow White. I was getting worried." He said, rushing at me and hugging me. Gonzalo went to the back to grab my luggage bag. "Did you work things out?" he whispered.

"You can ask when you're both safely inside your wing," Gonzalo said, my bag over his shoulder, and he grabbed both of our arms to lead us inside." Your arms and necks are already getting red." He explained. There were too many windows on the first floor, so we got into the elevator and went up to our floor. He put my bag inside my room and looked at Adrien.

"I'm not leaving until I get my tea," he said, crossing his arms, but at a look from me he added, "But I do have to tell Elias that I will be gone for a little while longer, so I'll be right back." He huffed before he left.

"I guess I'll leave you to your tea," Gonzalo said, his lips trying to hide a smile. He approached slowly, and a bit awkwardly. He reached his hand out and touched my cheek. I closed my eyes slightly. I had thought just a couple of hours ago that I would never feel his tender touch again. He closed the distance and kissed my other cheek. "Go on a date with me? Two days from now?" He asked, then cursed. "Go on a date with me next week? We leave for the next raid tomorrow." I nodded and he smiled. He kissed my cheek again and left. I heard his laughter explode at the door. "You're one of a kind, Adrien." I heard his receding laughter and Adrien walked in blushing.

I raised an eyebrow. "Get caught eavesdropping?"

"Maybe," he said as he stomped over to the bed and sat down expectantly. "Come on Snow White. I want the tea. I don't have a naked hot wolf mate in the other room waiting to ravage me for a summary either. Get over here and give me a detailed account of what happened." I laughed and he rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll get it started. Did he acknowledge he acted like an asshat? Did you kiss and make up? I am guessing there's more to it than that or you'd be riding him in his bedroom right now instead of talking to me." I sat down and told him everything that happened. When I was done, he looked so happy. "Yes! I knew it! He's a good one. I always wanted a dad." He hugged me as I laughed at his choice of words. "I am going to let you get some beauty sleep. We will talk more tomorrow and we'll pick something sexy for you to wear. We need to get you some makeup too."

"We've still got training first thing after sunset." I said, confused.

"I mean for the date. Duh." He looked at me like it was obvious.

"That's not for a week Adrien," I rolled my eyes.

"We have to be prepared!" He said as he got up and hugged me. "Sleep, we only have half training and then we leave. It's a 3.5 hour flight to Atlanta and I don't think we'll need to stay the day, but we'll find out tomorrow at the meeting." "Thank you Adrien," I said as he walked to the door. He nodded at me and closed the door behind him. I took a shower and went to bed, not before I pulled the ring from the discarded jean's pocket and put it in the drawer.

I started to unpack but figured I'd finish tomorrow, so I went to sleep. I woke up the next afternoon to a knocking on my door. I instantly assumed it was Adrien so I got up and gave an unimpressed "come in" while taking off my shirt to grab a sports bra from the dresser.

"s**t Kassie," I heard Gonzalo's panicked voice and turned around in time to see him covering his face and slamming into the door frame as he tried to make a hasty exit. I gave a small shriek that got stuck in my throat and grabbed my shirt again. "Sorry! I thought you were Adrien!" I said, laughter bubbling out of me. "I'm dressed now."

"Do you always change in front of Adrien?" He asked with a frown.

"Uhh, you know he's gay, right? I thought you werewolves were OK with nudity?"

"Yeah, well, I'm new to the whole werewolf thing. Give me a break," he laughed. His blush was adorable.

"What's up," I said a little awkwardly. I was never the most articulate after waking.

"We're having the meeting before evening training. I made a new path to take you and Adrien to the conference room safely. I'm here to escort you," he said.

"I need to change. I'll be back," I said as I grabbed the sports bra and my suitcase bag and ran into the bathroom. I took the quickest shower on record and brushed my teeth. I quickly grabbed a pair of leggings and a looser workout shirt. I brushed my hair and came back out. Gonzalo is leaning against the nightstand while Adrien and Elias are at the door. They stopped talking when they saw me and I grew uncomfortable at the looks they were giving me. "What?" I said, annoyed at the attention.

"They are waiting for us downstairs." Gonzalo said, pushing off the night stand while Adrien rolled his eyes at me and pulled Elias with him and out the door. Gonzalo came up to me and held out his hand. I took it happily and we walked out of the door. Adrien gave an excited little squeak as he clutched his mate when he saw us pass in front of him with our hands held. Gonzalo coughed, trying to disguise a laugh, but didn't say anything about his reaction. I blushed, but couldn't bring myself to feel anything but happiness at the moment. Gonzalo led us to the elevator and to the other side of the awning. There were giant blackout curtains hanging from the stair case with those temporary light fixtures stuck to the wall that you push to turn on. When we arrived at the base of the stairs, he stopped.

"Wait here, I just have to move one thing," he said. I heard him pushing something on the floor on the other side before I could hear him running up the stairs and saw a hook coming from up top. I heard his steps coming back down before he appeared at the opening and held out his hand. I took it and stepped forward. A few feet in front of the staircase was a tall Chinese-style partition with what looked like a home-made base of weights for stability. At the top, for assurance, is my guess, where two spikes come up from each end. Another set of blackout curtains were hanging from it stretching over the entire partition and up to the beginning of the awning. This tiny tunnel ended at the entrance of the hall to the conference rooms wing. He led us to the first door, which opened to a room where everyone was waiting for us. Here, too, the entire windowed wall was covered in blackout curtains.

"I have to go remove the partition. Be right back." Gonzalo squeezed my hand and went back out the door once Adrien and Elias were inside. I stared at the group, who were now looking at me with soft smiles on their faces. It was disconcerting, considering that while not outright rude, only Luna Celeste and Alpha Markus had ever been more than just professionally courteous to me.

"I'm so happy you didn't leave Kassie," Celeste was the first to break the creepy uncomfortable silence.

I smiled at her, "I couldn't have either way. There was a mix-up with my flight and I would have needed to rebook." I heard Adrien's snort turned to cough coming from behind and I turned around. "What? What am I missing?" I questioned. Gonzalo came back in and noticed everyone looking at Adrien, "What's happening?"

"OK, well, you guys are really hard-headed and these guys are bad at remembering what century we're in. None of you thought about just calling Sebastian back to the packhouse instead of Gonzalo speeding like a crazy person to get her. Not that it wasn't a romantic AF gesture, but really. This is the 21st century. Just text next time. The wind disturbance you pushed our way as you sped past us almost drove us off the road." Adrien was rambling, which told me he had done something he didn't want to admit to doing. "Evergreen was the only one with enough sense to text me that Kassie should not leave because Gonzalo was on his way to talk to her." We all turned to Evergreen who was glaring at Adrien for throwing him under the bus and blushing. I turned back to Adrien. "Well, I knew he wouldn't get there in time so I....kind of... asked Evergreen to change her flight ticket to sometime in the day and to reboot their system so she wouldn't be able to get back on the flight until they had finished boarding so that he would be able to get to her before she left."

We all stood there wide eyed at Adrien until Gonzalo walked over and grabbed his head and placed a giant kiss on his forehead, making Elias growl and the rest laugh. Gonzalo pulled back and raised his arms but you could hear the emotion in his voice when he said "Thank you" to Adrien. Adrien looked at him happily before he cuddled up to Elias and Gonzalo reached for my hand before we all sat down for the meeting.

"Right, that story makes it hard to focus on business, but we're off to the airport in a few hours so we need to get this going" Alpha Helios said, smiling at the room. "I don't have a lot to add from the previous meetings, only to say that I've confirmed the reservations and flights that Gonzalo had already made before hand. We leave promptly at 9 pm. We've got the bus rentals meeting us at the airport. We've got a hotel booked for half of us. The other half will come back that same day. Only Kassia, Adrien and a few of us will remain behind to make sure they aren't caught out in the sun with any vampires we rescue and a few of the shifters that require more intensive healing so that Nat can take breaks and not wear herself out."

He looked down adoringly at his Luna before looking back at us. "Markus and Celeste will be coming back with the ones that don't stay behind." He cleared his throat and grabbed Luna Natalia's hand and pulled her up to him. I could see excitement in Celeste's eyes and confusion from Gonzalo and everyone else. "Nat will no longer be joining the raids until after everything has been secured. She won't stay behind, because we all know the incredible help she is in healing the wounded and the people we rescued, so we've compromised that she won't put herself in danger for the sake of our pup." He finished with a grin.

The entire room erupted in cheers and congratulatory remarks. Even I got swept into their happiness. "We only found out a couple of days ago and were waiting for the right time to have everyone we care about together in one room. She is also heading abroad with us, but in a healer capacity as well. No fighting until our little one is born."

"Dude, you gotta go tell Mama Isabel before she gets mad at you." Theo said.

"She knows. We decided to tell her before this meeting," Luna Natalia said with a broad smile.

After a few more rounds of congratulations, Alpha Helios cleared his throat. "Alright, if no one else has anything, we've cancelled the half training for tonight. There's food being catered outside where we'll give everyone else the news, so I hope you will all attend." Alpha Helios said. People started filtering out before he called, "Kassia, Adrien, can you both stay behind for a moment? Elias you can stay as well."

I tensed at the serious tone in Alpha Helios' words. I felt Gonzalo squeeze my hand and, by the look of encouragement he gave me, he must know what he wanted to discuss. He waited until all of Crescent Moon was gone before they all gathered in front of us. Alpha Helios cleared his throat again. "We wanted to say a few things before we start. I, and everyone here, wanted to apologize for the less than friendly welcome you've received. I hope you understand that we were trying to protect Gonzalo, but that's still no excuse. We shouldn't have intervened as much as we did. We were missing information and judged you based on the information we did have. I can't help but recognize that keeping you away from Gonzalo caused more harm than good for both of you and for that we're sorry."

Gonzalo looked surprised, this must not be part of the plan, though the rest were all nodding their heads in agreement. Gonzalo shook his head. "It was my fault, Helios. I was too stuck in my grief to see anything else. None of you have anything to apologize for. Your responses towards Kassie were based off my own."

I took a deep breath before I spoke. I had honestly not expected anyone to apologize. "Gonzalo and I still have a lot to talk over. I think there's misplaced blame on both of our shoulders over the last 200 years that we need to clear up. I hold no resentment at any of you for protecting him. I'm glad he has such wonderful people that care for him in his life," I looked at him and smiled before I looked back at Alpha Helios. "Let's not get stuck in the past. I would like a fresh start. That's what Guardian Moon is all about, right?" I let go of Gonzalo's hand and walked up to Alpha Helios, extending my hand. "Call me Kassie, please. I'm happy to be here for as long as you'll have me."