“Hey Violet,” a warm voice greeted me. I gave a small smile to Garret.
It’s been about three days since the incident with Derek and I haven’t seen him since, not even in the middle of the night when I would wake up, but that’s what I asked for. Today I was being released from the hospital and Garret was here to pick me up.
“Hello,” I said, my eyes dropping.
“You don’t have to lower your eyes in my presence,” he reminded me. He told me that often but I couldn’t, I was still wary of his presence, especially after the whole Mallory incident. A small part of me wanted to be his friend because he seemed so genuine, but so did Mallory.
I couldn’t shake that. But the fact that Garret had a mate brought some reassurance.
“Violet, you ready?” he asked politely. I nodded.
His mate, Hannah, helped as well. We made it to Derek’s house, and they stayed to have lunch with me. I wasn’t sure if Derek was in the house or not, it was quite. The cooks served us some sandwiches and macaroni salad. We sat at the table.
Hannah was taller than me with long sleek black hair, a pale complexion, and slanted eyes. She had a fit, slim figure and was dressed in a long, navy dress and a jean jacket. Garret was dressed similarly in dark jeans and a navy shirt.
Lunch was comfortably silent, and they finished after I had, only eating a few bites.
“Violet, are you feeling better?” Garret asked, making conversation.
I silently nodded, and Hannah smiled at me. A phone buzzed right as Garret was going to say something, he pulled out his device and excused himself.
“Sorry girls, I have to see someone,” he got up, and smiled at me, and turned to his mate, “I’ll be back tonight,” he kissed Hannah on the forehead.
She kissed his cheek, “okay, I’ll stay here for a few, bye Gare bear,” she smiled at him. He opened and closed his mouth, eyes flickering to me before giving a small smile to Hannah and whispering something in her ear causing her to giggle.
“Bye,” he nodded to me and left the table.
Hannah turned back to me and smiled, “he hates when I say that in public,” she chuckled. I gave a small smile back and picked up the dishes to take them to the kitchen. “Oh, let me help!”
She took a plate and walked with me, and once a chef saw us, he quickly grabbed the dishes and shooed us away. My face turned pink and Hannah just laughed, dragging us out to the living room.
She sat on the sofa with me, smiling brightly.
“So,” she dragged out excited, “how are you and Derek?” she asked.
A sad, small smile formed on my lips.
“Aww,” she cooed, her accent slipping on her words. “Why?”
I blushed embarrassed, I went to speak, but no words were coming out.
“I’m sorry if you don’t want to talk about it,” she assured, “I was just curious.”
I nodded, “it’s okay…”
“You wanna watch a show? I know a good one, Parks and Rec. on Netflix,” she got up and grabbed the remote to the television, turning it on and sitting next to me.
Throughout the show, she would ask me ice-breaker questions and I would respond, I even ended up asking her questions. She was nice and it was refreshing to have another girl around.
“So Vi, if you don’t mind me calling you that,” I shook my head indicating that it was fine and I didn’t have a problem with it, she smiled at me. “So I’m just wondering if you and Alpha slept together?”
I choked on my saliva, my eyes widening, and my cheeks burning as I looked at her.
“I- uh…” I trailed my eyes finding my lap.
“I don’t mean to intrude, I’m just wondering, maybe I should’ve worded it differently,” she thought for a second, “have you completed the mate bond?”
“Um, no…” I squeaked out.
“Oh,” she mused, “I was just curious because I see you have his mark, I asked Garry but he didn’t answer me,” she rolled her eyes at the memory.
Something in me felt comfortable with her so I started to tell her.
“Um… he marked me when I was in heat, we didn’t… you know,” I motioned with hands that caused her to laugh.
“Oh!” she chuckled, “well, I figured when he marked you, the pack kinda felt a shift, but he never announced that he found his mate,” she shrugged, “but Garry told me, so I knew, and then the rest figured it out when Mallory was executed.”
My mood dampened at the memory of Mallory.
“Oh,” it came out soft.
“I’m sorry,” she picked up on my somber take on her words, “I didn’t mean to… um, so you guys haven’t completed the bond?”
“No,” I shook my head.
“Oh,” she wiggled her eyebrows and I gave her a questionable look. “You know your heat will come back until you guys complete the bond, right?” she gave me a giddy look, excited about the ‘girl talk’ happening.
I blushed red, “oh, um, I’m not that into s-sexual… things…” I mumbled.
“Oh,” she said, and then her eyes lit up like she just remembered something, “oh! That’s cool, I’ll tell you about how I met Garry one day, and other things. But let me tell you some tea!” she smiled and leaned in.
“Oh, I’m not thirsty,” I told her, not wanting her to burden herself with making tea.
She smiled, “no, not that type of tea, I mean like gossip, shady information about people.”
“Oh,” my cheeks reddened, “are you s-sure, like are the Betas a-allowed to…” I trailed.
“Oh, yeah it’s fine, I mean, you’re the Luna, so you know,” she waved off.
“I… I’m not the Luna,” I mumbled.
“Ugh, you will be anyways. I’m so excited to tell you! No one else can know from me because of the Beta Female title and stuff. So while you were in the coma, guess what happened?” she spoke, lowering her voice, and leaning in.
I leaned in as well, intrigued.
“So Lindsay, basically the pack pass-around like got snippy with Derek, and he threatened to kill her for slander!” she exclaimed.
“For what?” I asked, mortified.
“Well, Lindsay is a total bitch, she thinks she’s better than everyone just cause she’s slept around with people, especially Dere… oh,” she studied my reaction.
“It’s okay, I a-already know…”