Intoxicated With You

Chapter 3

Tyler's POV

After dropping Blake off, I head back to the club. Alpha ordered me to come right back here, so here I am. I make my way back into the club, nodding at the bouncer, who is a pack member and is expecting me. Once inside, I look around and spot the person I'm looking for in the back corner booth, near where Blake and I were standing earlier. I slide into the booth across from him.

"Alpha"

"How is she?" he asks, cutting me off.

"She'll be ok. I just dropped her off at home. She was just a little freaked out." I shrug.

"I didn't mean to freak her out. I didn't realize she was human at the time," he says, looking at his hands on the table.

"I know. I had to mind link you to tell you that." I say, leaning back some, relaxing in my seat.

"So tell me about my mate." The alpha says, leaning forward some

"Are you sure she is your mate?" I ask. I want to make sure. It is a crowded club, after all.

"She is. You know this was not the plan for my birthday. I wanted to come here, get drunk, and get laid. I have no intention of finding my mate. I didn't want to find my mate." He growls out. He takes a deep breath and continues, "But I walked in here and smelled the best scent. Her scent. It took me a few minutes to figure out it was coming from her, but when I did... she was standing right over there, dancing by herself in the corner. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Then you came back and drank with her, and she kept dancing. Even when she pulled you out on the dance floor, I couldn't take my eyes off her. But eventually, I did, and I realized... she was grinding on you. I lost it for a second. My wolf took over and pulled you off her. I didn't mean to hurt her." He says, looking at me in the eyes, then he looks back at his hands and mumbles, "I got lost in feeling the tingles and sparks of touching her." He looks back up at me, "I didn't mean to grab her so hard. I didn't mean to scare her."

"Well, thanks for letting me go to her to calm her down. That couldn't have been easy for you." I say, leaning back.

"No. It f*****g sucked, and I wanted to kill you. But I let you live because my mate needed you. I'm debating if I should keep letting you live through since you touched my mate." He growls.

"We were just dancing. And she's the one that dragged me out on the dance floor." I defend myself. "And I stopped the second I knew she was your mate." I remind him.

"Yeah. I guess it would take a long time for me to find a new gamma, so I guess I'll let you live for a little while longer." He jokes.

"Yeah yeah." I laugh

"So tell me about my mate." He says, leaning forward again.

"Well, I've only known her for a week. She goes to my new school. Her name is Blake, and she's pretty cool." I shrug.

"Pretty cool? That's all you can give me?" He asks.

"I've only known her for a week." I shrug. "It's not like she is my lifelong best friend."

"But you have to know more than that." He huffs.

"Well.... teachers don't seem to like her because she doesn't do all her homework or study, but she isn't stupid. She just..... I don't know, busy, I guess. She doesn't have a ton of friends either." I say.

"A wallflower?" He asks.

"A cuttlefish," I laugh.

"A cuttlefish?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. That's what she called herself earlier. She says she blends in like a cuttlefish." I explain.

"Oh," is all he says, taking a sip of the drink in front of him.

"Yeah, her stepfather seems to keep her on a very short leash, says she's the problem child. She was apprehensive about getting in trouble, and I practically had to force her to come here." I explain.

"A problem child scared of getting in trouble?" He raises an eyebrow.

"She's really sweet, but her brother seems to be the golden child of the town, so by comparison." I shrug.

"Oh, and one more thing," I say, leaning forward and looking him in the eye. "She hates being touched. It freaks her out. You can physically see her retreating in herself when you touch her. It's weird."

"She didn't seem to have a problem touching you when she was dancing with you." He says, leaning back and crossing his arms.

"I don't know. It might have been the alcohol. I can't explain it." I shrug. "Every other time, she has pulled away. Even afterward in the car."

"You touched her in the car?!" He growls at me.

"I tapped her shoulder to get her attention. Only for a second." I defend myself but put my hands up in surrender.

"Ok, I won't kill you for that, I guess." He growls.

"I know you didn't want to find your mate, but are you glad that you did?" I ask, leaning back and taking a sip of my beer.

"Mmmm, I haven't decided yet. She's human. They're weak. I can't have that.... but the stupid mate bond won't make it easy." He says with a shrug.

"So you might reject her?" I ask, leaning forward with a horrified look.

"Probably. I wasn't expecting to see her tonight, so I wasn't prepared, but I will next time I see her. You should bring her around sometime, so I can do it before the bond gets too strong." He shrugs.

"She's my friend. I'm not just going to bring her around so you can hurt her." I nearly yell.

"Then I'll just go to your school and do it in front of everyone she knows." He shrugs.

"You're a d**k," I say as I shake my head.

"Well, what do you expect me to do?"

"Why'd you want to know about her if you were going to reject her?" I ask

"I wasn't sure yet until you told me about her. She isn't what I want." He explains

"Well, happy birthday to you." I sigh out and take a sip of my beer. "22 for one day, and you already found your mate."

"I'm going to reject her. It doesn't matter. Come Monday, and I'll be back to normal again." He says, looking at the crowd. Eyeing a specific girl, I guess he found his target for tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday after school...

After my last class of the day, I walk out to the parking lot towards my car, only to see him leaning against my car.

"Well," he says, holding his arms out to both sides, looking around, "where is she? Let's get this over with."

"I didn't think you'd show up to do it this way," I say, opening the back door to throw my bag inside my car.

"Well, here I am. I drove all the way out here, so where is she?" He says, looking at the crowd of students exiting the building.

"First of all, it's only a 20-minute drive, so it's not that bad. And you can look all you want. She's not here." I say.

"She's not here?" He asks exasperated

"She's could be sick or something, I don't know." I shrug

"Well, text her," he says

"I can't. I don't have her number. And if she's sick, I'm not going to make her come down here so you can make her day crappier. I guess you're going to have to wait one more day for your rejection." I say, crossing my arms.

"Fine. But I will not waste my time coming back tomorrow unless I know she is here. So if she's here, text me. I'm done wasting my time with this." He says, walking back to his car.

"Fine." I roll my eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday

No Blake.

~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday

Still no Blake. Ok. Maybe she's really sick.

~~~~~~~~~

Thursday

Seriously where is she? Blake hasn't shown up to school in nearly a week. And I seem to be the only one that notices, and I'm tired of it. Her brother, Mr. Popular, walks around the cafeteria like everything is fine, but what's happening with Blake? Why isn't she here? I've had enough of this. I get up from the table I usually share with her and march over to where he is.

"Where's your sister?" I ask him. He looks up from the girl sitting on his lap that he hasn't stopped sucking face with the entire time he's been here.

"What?" The girl looks up at me and asks. "She's 12. What do you want with her, you perv?" She says, rolling her eyes.

"No, you." I glare at her. "You," I say, looking at him

"My sister? I don't have a sister." He shakes his head. I can hear his heartbeat. He's lying.

"Yeah, i***t. He doesn't have a sister." The girl chimes in.

"Fine. Step-sister. Whatever. Is she ok?" I ask him.

"I don't know what you're talking about, dude." He says, standing up, "Come on, let's go somewhere more private." He says, leading the girl out of the cafeteria. Ok, f**k this guy. I follow them out of the cafeteria into the empty hall.

"Dude, what's your problem?" He says, turning to me, putting himself between the girl and me trying to be the big man. Before he can blink, I have him pinned against the wall by his throat.

"Where is Blake?" I ask again.

"I don't know who that is." He says. He's lying again.

"What's your problem?" The girl yells

"You're Jeff. Right?"

"Yeah." He coughs out, using both hands to hold my arm, trying to get out of my grip.

"Your step-sister is Blake," I say more than ask.

"No!" He lies again. I tighten my grip on his throat. He doubles his efforts to get out of it, but there's no point.

"Liar," I say, tightening my grip.

"Fine. Fine. Yeah, she's my step-sister." He admits. I let him go.

"There. Was that so hard?" I say. "Now, where is she?"

"I don't know?" He says between coughs holding his breath.

"She hasn't been here in a week. Is she sick? Why isn't she here?" I ask

"I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her." He says.

"Since when?" I ask.

"Last I saw her; she was passed out high on our couch in the living room in the middle of the day three weeks ago." He says, looking me in the eyes. He's not lying; his heartbeat remains even, and no physical signs of deceit are shown. "Briana, go back to lunch." He tells the girl. She listens. After she is back in the cafeteria and out of earshot, we continue the conversation.

"You live with her, and you haven't seen her in 3 weeks?" I ask.

"No! I heard some... movement in her room last Thursday night, but I haven't heard anything since.

"Movement?" I ask

Jeff sighs and looks at the ground before looking back at me, "I heard a guy. They were having sex." He says.

"Oh," I say, confused.

"Dude, listen to me. She's kind of my sister, so I have to tolerate her. But she's a mess. When I told you she was passed out high, I didn't mean on weed. She goes on these benders doing hard drugs. Seeing her once every few weeks is normal for her. She might get her s**t together for a couple of hours or maybe a couple of days. But the longer she stays clean, the worse it is when she goes back to it." He says.

"She's on drugs?" I ask

"Yeah. My dad and his friends try to help her. They'll spend hours locked in her room, but all I can hear is her begging for more drugs. There are needles all over the place. They'll take away her drugs, but she just fights them, trying to get them back. It's unfortunate. But she's a lost cause." He shrugs. "Don't waste your time."

"She's not a lost cause," I argue.

"Suit yourself. You'll learn soon enough. Even her mother dumped her on my dad 'cause she couldn't handle Blake." He says, walking back into the cafeteria. How can he be so mean about his sister? That's family. You don't turn your back on your family. f**k this. I'm going to look for her. I'm going to go to her house and see for myself.

Within a few minutes, I am parked outside her house and knocking on her front door. It doesn't take long for a little old lady to answer the door. She looks to be in her 70 and has a cane to walk.

"Hi, I'm looking for Blake. I'm a friend from school." I explain to the old lady.

"Blake... Blake? No, we don't have a Blake that lives here." The old lady says, looking around

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's just me and my husband, Charles... CHARLES!" She calls into the house. She's telling the truth.

"It's ok. I can believe you. Sorry to bother you." I say, stepping off the porch. This is the house where she had me drop her off last Friday night. Why would she have me drop her off at a house that isn't hers? Oh, right, she didn't want me to drop her off at home at all. That's going to make finding her a lot harder. I get back in my car and dial up the one person that could be of some use to me.

"Alpha, we have a problem," I say as I hear the phone connect.

"What?" He sighs

"It's your mate. She's missing."

"WHAT?" He growls.

"She hasn't been to school all week, and her stepbrother says he hasn't seen her all week," I explain.

"So? She's playing hooky, big whoop. Everyone does that in high school."

"I have a bad feeling about this. And as much as you like to pretend you don't care, she's still your mate." I say to him

"Fine. If she doesn't show up for school tomorrow, tell me. We can look for her then." He sighs.

"Thank you." I sigh. Let's hope she turns up unharmed soon.