Chapter 36

Izabella’s POV

I wasn't looking at him. I couldn't because I did not want to see how scared and hurt he was. My own pain was enough. I didn’t want to see his too so I looked behind me.

"What do you mean you're not coming home?" He asked.

"Exactly that, Sean. I'm not going back to Galaxy or Inferno." I said.

I heard him sigh. My wolf whimpered inside me, and I felt my stomach knot before I forced myself to turn and look at him. His eyes were black, the same black they had been when we always fought at school when I made him so angry he would almost beat me up, and if his friends weren't there, he probably would have beaten me up. I was afraid of him. I didn't trust him with those eyes even though I was certain they weren’t black because of anger at the moment. But it wasn't that...

"Izzy, come on, let's go." He said almost pleadingly, when I didn't move his face dropped as he looked at me.

"You still don't trust me? That's fine, Izabella. But I'm going to spend the rest of my life proving that I will never hurt you or let you or anyone you love get hurt again, and not just because you're my mate. Just come with me, please." He said, his eyes fading to their normal green.

"No..." I whispered. He looked away seeming upset now.

"Why?!” He shouted at me, “Why is it SO hard for you to accept me as your mate? Why is it so hard for you to love me?" He asked.

"I... I don't trust you, Sean. I trust that you'll protect me, you'll protect the entire pack. I just... I can't believe that you'll protect everyone I love because if someone or something threatened our pack, you'd give yourself up." His jaw dropped a little when he finally realized exactly what I meant, "And I can't lose anyone else... I can't get close to you only to have you die because of me, and I can't stay at Galaxy or Inferno because all I'll be doing is putting everyone in danger..." I swallowed the knot in my throat before taking a deep breath, "I'm not coming back with you, Sean." I said feeling tears in my eyes as I looked down to avoid his eyes. "I'm not going to accept you, Sean. I'm never going to. So just reject me and be happy... Ban me from the pack." I said looking up at him. I was asking him because I knew there was no chance my father would ban me. He shook his head.

"Don't accept me, Izabella, but I am not going to reject you. You leave, and I will find you. I'll follow you. If you're not in the pack, then I won't be either –” he was saying.

"You're going to be Alpha, you can't just leave –” I was saying.

"I can, and I will. You're my mate, and even if you weren't, I was bound to admit that I liked you some time. I have a huge responsibility to Galaxy, but so do you, Luna." He said.

"Exactly, Sean. I'm going to be Luna, so if leaving the pack is what I have to do to protect everyone in it, and everyone in Inferno as well, then that's what I have to do. That's my responsibility." I said. He clenched his jaw.

"Yeah? Well, I don't care about those responsibilities right now. You're my responsibility; you're all I care about right now. If you leave the pack, so will I, Izabella. I'm not changing my mind about this." He said seriously. I sighed.

"Sean –”

“Where are we going?” He cut me off.

“You can’t… You can’t force me to stay by saying you’ll leave. It’s… wrong.” I mumbled looking at the ground. I couldn't let him leave the pack, he was to be their Alpha within just two years.

"You'll get over it." I looked up at him, and he smiled. I gave a soft, choked up laugh. "Come home, Izabella. We'll figure it out as we go." He said, his smile now gone.

He just watched me as I walked closer to him until I was right in front of him. I raised my hand and touched his cheek rubbing my thumb on a bruise that was disappearing from his skin until there was no sign he had ever been hurt there or that he had even been in a fight other than the ash.

"That day you cursed me in the hall, right before my birthday, and Jason had to stop you from killing me," I watched his confused eyes as they searched mine for the reason I was reminding him of it. "Who would have thought that a few months later, you would be begging me to stay and hopefully accept you?" I smiled. He frowned at me and I laughed.

"I'm not beg..." I raised my brows, and he drifted before letting out a defeated, annoyed sigh as he looked by me and grit his teeth, "Fine. I'm begging." He pouted as his eyes met mine. I laughed.

"Maybe one day, if you keep begging, I'll eventually accept you." I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek, my hands on his chest helping me keep my balance. He chuckled, and I raised my eyebrows questioningly.

"You didn't say I would hope that you fall in love with me." He smirked. I felt my cheeks heat up. He was right; I didn't. "So that would mean you already have?" He said taking my hand. I pulled my hand from his rolling my eyes.

"Believe that if you want to, little Alpha." I smirked as he frowned at the word 'little', it always irritated him when people said that. "Race you home," I added before sprinting away from him.

-----

"Wait, we need more people to help –” Alexis was saying.

"Sorry, can't help, I have to go speak to my dad about work and my… mom." Sean shrugged. I frowned at him, and he smirked walking out into the backyard but could not help but smile when he glanced back at me to wink. I had tried not to, but seeing the smile on his face when he looked at me made it impossible.

"You know what? My father could use some company too, so... Yeah." Cohen said walking out of the kitchen.

"I'll join him," Gray said walking out after our brother.

"They're so lazy." Bianca, Gray's mate, said.

We were all supposed to be serving everyone at the joint pack barbecue. The Titans were also there since Joe and my dad found out they actually had a lot in common with Vincent once the three of them stopped arguing long enough. And a few people from our packs were mated to Titans, so they had to make peace.

"Now we're three people down. I refuse to work faster. This is our barbecue too." Jason frowned.

"I know someone we could use." Kaden smiled, "Jay?" He said to Tyler.

"Ah! Jayden! Yes, fetch him, Kade. He never leaves his room." Tyler said.

"I'll come with you," I said to Kaden as we jogged upstairs.

"You'll like Jay, he's really cool, one of my best friends. He writes music and plays the guitar, also pretty good on piano; he has an awesome voice too." Kaden said as we walked up the stairs, "He's pretty self-conscious though, but don't tell him I said that." I laughed but stopped as we got closer to a room at the end of the hall and we could hear singing. Kaden wasn't joking about Jayden's voice. He really sounded amazing. He stopped immediately when Kaden pushed his door open. "Jayden! We need help downstairs and your name came up." Kaden said.

I watched as Jayden pushed his hood off and looked at us. He was quite handsome and looked the same age as Kaden. He looked at the young Alpha narrowing his brown eyes. "You brought it up." He muttered.

"Basically, now stop being antisocial and come help us. This is Izabella, or Izzy, Alpha's niece," Kaden said.

Jayden's dark brown eyes drifted to me and he gave a crooked, shy smile. "Hi..." He mumbled.

"Hey, you can sing really well." I smiled.

"Oh, uh... Thank you," he said avoiding my eyes. He seemed to be quite shy but he was adorable.

"Come on." Kaden smiled.

We walked downstairs. Kaden told me about Jayden's failures in training while Jayden told me how Kaden couldn't dance to save his life. It was funny as they began playfully arguing.

We walked into the kitchen, and Jayden stopped mid-sentence as he saw someone. I followed his eyes to Corey's shocked face, and I instantly knew what happened.

Corey finally found his mate.

THE END