Chapter 39 TROUBLE IN PARADISE
DEREK’S POV
It’s been two days after the induction ceremony, and my living conditions have frustrated the hell out of me.
Waking up to Amber’s sleeping figure every day, craving to touch her, and being unable to has been driving me insane.
It’s torture each day I wake up to find our bodies entangled, and once I move a muscle, she wakes up and disentangles herself from me, putting distance between us.
It’s frustrating to have her scent all over me and having to wash it off to later yearn for it, and then feel the yearning get maximized when I perceive my scent on her.
I find myself unable to focus half the day away from her, and the other half, I’m hurrying to complete everything I have to do and go back to her.
It's annoying that in two days, she has become the pinnacle of motivation and inspiration for me. The mere thought of subconsciously holding her in my arms has me rushing back to the room each time.
Every feeling that was easy to ignore and control back then, including my hunger for her, seems to have tripled ever since the induction night. She has become the center of my focus, and everything leads up to when next I get to see her.
My wolf has been whining and trying to convince me for 48 hours to make peace with her and get her to consent to mating, longing to feel her naked against us and hear her moans of pleasure again, and so far, so good. I’m almost making up my mind to do it.
I’m currently in my study with Damien, who is mindlessly giving me details about the pack's security while I mindlessly stare at him.
I don’t know what his problem is; he hasn’t been his usual annoying, seeking-for-death self, but I haven’t gotten around to asking him about it, being too focused on my dilemma.
“The patrol hasn’t picked up any threat or signs of attack at the border. The precautions are still mounted and checked daily, but so far so good, everything is peaceful and –” he keeps saying, but stops immediately when a pack soldier suddenly busts through the door.
“Alpha, there’s trouble!” Cedrick says frantically, and has us sitting erect and alert.
“What’s wrong, Cedrick?” Damien asks.
“Alpha, beta, Alpha Trenton at the front of our gate right now with an army of werewolves behind him, demanding to see the Luna,” he says, and with one look to Damien, we both spring up from our seats and rush out of the pack house.
I’m already annoyed before I get to the gate, wondering why he’d travel a distance just to get on my nerves by demanding to see my mate, someone I had to pry out of his fisted hands.
He should have gotten the memo that Amber stopped being his concern the moment she packed a bag and left the Spirit pack.
I get to the gate with Cedrick and Damien behind me, and I open it to see Trent dismounting his horse.
“State your business, Trent,” I say, standing in front of the gate, and he walks closer to me.
“It seems you have incapable soldiers because I already said why I’m here,” he says, casting a glance at Cedrick before settling his gaze on me.
“This is me giving you the benefit of doubt, Damien, because what he told me you came here for makes no sense,” I say, leveling him with a threatening look.
“I came to see my sister Derek,” he says, his stare hardening.
“I don’t think you have relations with anyone here, Trent,” I state, and he steps closer to me.
“My sister is within these walls, Derek. Don’t play games with me,” he says, fiercely, “I can’t feel her connection anymore, I cannot feel her essence, so you will produce my sister, or I will rain hell on you and your pack,” he says furiously, and I scoff.
“You mean my mate. The Luna of this pack,” I say, matching his fierce tone. “Not everyone is permitted to see the Luna, especially not an outsider.”
“You know how the initiation goes, she loses her connection to the old pack to be connected to the new,” Damien says while I stand toe to toe with Trent, who looks a bit at ease after hearing him, and I realize he thought she was dead.
“I still have to see her. I will not leave until I do,” he states, his voice still packing authority but with less conviction.
It makes sense that he decided to come see if she is fine and alive since he stopped feeling her connection, but it doesn’t make sense that after he’s told the reason, he still insists that I present my Luna to him, the alpha of an enemy pack.
Regardless of his relationship with her, that’s who he is, and I wouldn’t put it past him to hurt his sister to hurt me. Who knows what the Snows are capable of?
“You are not seeing the Luna, Trent, go home,” I say, and he growls.
“So, I’m supposed to trust your words that she is alright and relent?” he asks, aggravated.
“You can trust whatever you please, but you are not seeing the Luna,” I state firmly, and his soldiers step closer.
He is about to reply when I feel Amber close by, “Derek!” I hear her scream behind the gate, and I turn to her for a second before looking back at Trent.
I see two soldiers standing in front of her, blocking her path.
“Amber, stay there.”
“I want to speak to my brother, Derek,” she says, sounding out of breath, and I can tell she ran here.
“No.”
“He is my brother,” she yells, and I can tell she’s frustrated.
“No,” I say again, and for a moment, I don’t hear any sound behind me before I hear the sound of a blade being unsheathed.
“Luna, no,” I hear a soldier say, his voice a panic.
“Don’t come close to me or I’ll cut myself,” I hear her say, instantly drawing my attention.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask her, seeing Damien already heading back to her, but I don’t move, I can’t with Trent still in front of me.
“I will cut myself!” she yells at me, glaring at Damien and the soldiers. Dread washes over me.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask, turning to see her with a blade pressed forcefully against her wrists.
The waves of hurt and betrayal that rush through me while I watch her as shock blurs my vision.
“You would kill yourself just to defy me?”
“I just want to speak to my brother Derek, I’m not trying to defy you,” she says, and I realize how stupid I was becoming.
To think for a second that because I made her a part of the pack, I had magically changed her DNA.
She is willing to endanger herself and my baby with a suicide attempt without a thought because I don’t want her talking to her brother, who would just end up driving the sadness that has faded with time back into her heart when she was finally finding peace here.
“Fine, come outside,” I say, relenting and moving away from Trent, who looks shocked as well, and I realize that I was a fool for a second. I believed that we had a chance of having a real relationship.
LOSING BOTH OF THEM