Falling for the Shrew

Unexpected Surprise

Jeremy-

When I arrived home, my father barraged me with questions, while my mother sensed my irritation.  “She wasn’t for me Dad,” I replied simply.  Frustration struck his face as he waved his hand in dismissal, pinching the brim of his nose.  He and my mother retired to the drawing room, where I could faintly hear their conversation.  “Calm down darling, he still has two other maidens to meet,” she says as my father sighs heavily.  I roll my eyes and throw myself onto my bed which I missed so much.  My brother does his two-tap knock and peeks through the door, “Come in,” I say, knowing it was him.  “So big bro, how did it go?” he asks, taking a seat on the office chair.  “I caught her f*****g the Delta,” I reply simply.  A shock strikes my brother’s face as he remains a bit speechless.  I start to laugh as he follows and we sit there in silence for a while, “Well, two more to go,” he says finally.  “Yeah, who’s next?” I ask, knowing he had been following the schedule.  “Aria Redstone, Beta daughter of Black Blood Pack.  Ranked Superior,” he recited.  I sighed, “I hope this one isn’t as eager to get in my pants as Brianna was.”  “Ahh..such a hard life,” my brother replied sarcastically.  I gave Eric the side eye, “Oh, shut up.”  

I would be home for the weekend before being shipped off again to Black Blood Pack.  I spent the whole two days with Jessica, obsessively reassuring her that nothing happened between me and Brianna and that I had in-fact discovered that she was a little she-slut and I wanted nothing to do with her.  I relayed to her the deal I had made to keep her dirty little secret if she left me alone the rest of my stay which she honored.  Jessica finally gave in as we sat in front of the lake.  After many failed attempts, she finally returned my kiss.  I loved how her mouth always tasted like cherry and her perfume smelled of roses.  I intensified our kiss and she pulled away.  “Stop Jeremy, you know we can’t do that,” she whispered.  I groaned and kissed her neck tenderly, forming goosebumps with each time my lips caressed her skin.  She squirmed out of my reach.  “But Jess, I’m leaving tomorrow,” I said as pulled her back into my arms, taking her lips in mine again.  I felt my c**k twitch and pushed her hand against it so she would be well aware of how bad I wanted her.  She struggled to her feet and stood with her hands on her hips, her face flushed, “Jeremy, please respect my wishes.  I don’t believe in s*x before marriage.”  I sighed, she was right.  I knew this perfectly well and still couldn’t help, but try.  When I looked over her thin frame, I couldn’t help, but let my mind wander at the many things I wanted to do to her.  “Let’s get married now and elope,” I said to her.  She rolled her eyes, “Jeremy, that’s crazy talk.  We would become rogues.”  “So what!  We can find a place to stay among the humans.  A cute little house, we can get jobs, a car eventually..” I said.  “A job!?” she exclaimed, “I don’t even know how to do anything other than..” “We can learn new things!  I’m sure they have on-the-job training anyways,” I said, trying to make it sound more appealing.  Her look of disgust said otherwise.  She picked up the drink she had brought me.  It was disgustingly tart, but she said it was her mother’s secret recipe to a healthy body and practically begged me to drink it with her.  She said she wanted me to live a long and healthy life and it all started with taking care of your body.  One glass twice a week for the rest of your life she said and so almost as soon as we had met, we started the regiment.  Of course, at first I just wanted to please her, so I drank it.  There was a time when my family had gone vacation that I had missed two weeks dose worth and I could’ve sworn the first glass she made me was extra horrid, almost making me gag.  She almost cried when I told her I couldn’t finish it, so I clamped my nose and swallowed it down quickly.  She handed me the pink drink and I finished it in one gulp.  She smiled and kissed my lips.  “Promise me you won’t fall in love with one of those she-wolves,” she said as she batted her eyes.  “I love you only Jessica Taylor,” I said as I hugged her tightly.  The scent of roses filling my nostrils and making feel calm. 

I stand here on the grand porch of the Black Blood Pack house.  I sigh as I knock on the white door.  At least this pack has a normal taste.  Exquisite landscaping while the house was red brick with white pillars and framing.  A tall butler opened the door and took my bag, “Right this way, Alpha Jeremy,” he said, leading me out onto the patio.  There was a big table adorned with all sorts of breakfast items.  The Alpha sat at the head of the table, along with his Luna, the Alpha son and daughter, their mates and pups, and the Beta and his wife.  “Jeremy!  Come have a seat son, join us for breakfast,” the Beta gestured to an empty seat.  I sat down and a maid came over to serve me a helping of everything.  I thanked her and began to dig in.  “Welcome to our home, young Alpha,” the Alpha said as he sipped his orange juice.  “Thank you Alpha Derek, Luna May,” I said.  I turned back to the Beta who had now risen from his seat, he began introductions of the Alpha family.  “I am Beta Andrew and this is my wife Sofia, our daughter, Aria, will be along shortly,” he continued around the table with introductions when Aria came through the patio doors.  She quietly took her seat next to me and began serving herself.  “Aria?” Beta Andrew called to her. “Yes father?” she responded without looking up from her plate.  “Aren’t you going to greet to our guest?” he motioned towards me.  “Oh yes, how do you do?” she said as she shoveled eggs into her mouth.  I chuckled at her disregard to manners and replied, “Nice to meet you.”  She was quiet the rest of breakfast and bolted out the door as soon as it ended.  The Beta apologized for her behavior and the butler showed me to my room where he had already placed my bags.  School would be starting soon so I headed downstairs after gathering my backpack.  I was told that Aria would show me the way, so I waited in the lounging area.  It was getting pretty late and she still had not come down.  A maid passed by and I asked her to see if Aria was almost ready to go, “Oh, I’m sorry Alpha, but she already left.  About thirty minutes ago.”  I was a bit taken aback, usually these she-wolves were all over me, but she seemed to be avoiding me all together.  “Oh I was told she would show me the way,” I said.  “Don’t worry, it’s not hard to find.  In fact, you can see the building from here,” she walked over to the window and pointed to a building in the distance.  “But I can arrange a car to take you, since it’s so late already,” she walked away quickly and I soon saw a black car pull into the driveway.

Training was first, a thirty minute sprint to warm up, followed by a brief obstacle course, and finally sparring.  I was paired up with the Alpha’s son, of course, and where as at my pack we would usually switch off every ten minutes, we sparred the entire hour.  This guy was brute, but slow.  His blows hit hard, but I was able to dodge a fair amount of them.  He pinned me on more than one occasion, whilst I knocked him to the ground on various.  Aria was paired with another she-wolf and they seemed to be enjoying it more than I was.  I could hear their squeals and laughter over all my grunting and growling.  Not once did she look my way, or anywhere else for that matter, paying full attention to the blonde girl she was matched with.  When the coach blew the whistle, I clasped hands with the Alpha and headed for the showers.  He had worked me hard and I knew I would be sore in the morning.  School was uneventful and I noticed how odd it was that Aria had completely ignored my existence, even though we had every single class together.  Instead, she and the blonde girl stuck together like glue.  When school came to an end, I caught her waiting for the car to take us back to the packhorse and decided to wait with her, not wanting to walk back as my muscles were already sore.  When I approached her, she rolled her eyes and turned her head away from me.  Odd.  “I was wondering when you would come bother me,” she said, avoiding eye contact and almost as if talking to the wind.  “I just don’t want to get left behind again.  My legs are too sore to walk,” I said casually.  She scoffed, “Oh yeah, sorry about that.  I like to be early to school.”  “I don’t like to be late,” I replied with a chuckle.  She folded her arms as we both waited in silence.  She started to lightly tap her feet impatiently.  Finally she turned to me exasperated, “So like, what’s the deal?  Aren’t you going to be obnoxiously annoying and try to win my hand?”  She had turned to give me her full attention as her eyes bore into mine.  “Uhh…I actually want nothing to do with you..No offense,” I replied as she eyed me suspiciously.  She turned away, mauling over what I had said.  “So like what?  I’m not pretty or something?” she asked, clearly taking offense.  I laughed, “No.  It has nothing to do with you.  I just..I found my mate already and I’m kind of here against my will.”  She eyed me, still not sure if I was being truthful or not.  “Well, if you found your mate, why are your parent’s making you do this?” she asked curiously.  I cleared my throat, “Well, I won’t know if she’s my fated mate until my birthday, but we know how rare that is and I’ve already fallen head over heels for her, so..”  The car finally pulled up and we piled in. 

The next few days were about the same.  Me and Aria almost completely avoided each other.  I felt she still wasn’t sure if I was being truthful or not.  I had two days left now before I went back home.  I found myself on the balcony early one morning, unable to sleep as I missed Jessica so much.  It was around 5am when I heard something coming from Aria’s balcony.  To my surprise, Aria and the blonde girl slipped out quietly.  The blonde girl was about to climb down a rope when Aria pulled her into a kiss.  My mouth nearly hit the ground, no wonder she wanted nothing to do with me.  The girl climbed down and Aria began pulling in the rope as the blonde girl darted away into the night.  I cleared my throat and Aria’s face darted to my direction.  A smirk formed on my face as Aria’s face flushed red.  I smiled and waved as I went back inside. 

Later, Aria found me at training and pulled me aside.  “Listen, what you saw this morning..it wasn’t what you think,” she began as I simply smirked.  “Oh, do you kiss all your friends on the lips?” I asked cunningly.  Her face flushed again as she looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear.  “Relax,” I said, “I’m not gonna say anything.  I really don’t care actually, although it does make sense to me now, why you aren’t drooling all over me.”  A group of girls passed by us, every single one making eye contact with me and smiling innocently.  I rolled my eyes to find Aria still flushed.  “I wasn’t lying when I said I was here against my will.  I don’t want any of this,” I said and Aria finally smiled.  “Tammy, is my fated mate.  And my parents won’t let me be with her because it won’t produce an heir.  So they are making me choose from the male suitors,” she spoke, her eyes on the verge of tears.  I felt for her, she was in the same situation as me.  “Why don’t you try to convince the council?  Fated mates are rare and shouldn’t be intervened,” I reasoned.  She nodded, “And what if they deny us?”  I smiled and blushed a little as the words left my lips, “I’m sure many males wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with two females.”  I was surprised by her laughter, “You know, my friend said the same thing.”  “You got a smart friend,” I replied.  The coach blew the whistle as we huddled together for today’s assignments, “The Alpha wants me to change things up a little, so everyone will have a new partner.”  Aria rolled her eyes and whispered to me, “Here we go.”  The coach read off of the list on his clipboard when he finally reached mine, “Jeremy and Aria.”  “There it is,” she told me.  “I overheard my father talking about how we weren’t spending enough time together,” I nodded in understanding.  

Aria wasn’t exactly a match for me on the mat.  She was too weak for any of her punches to hurt and I was too scared to hurt her so I had to restrain my strength quite a bit.  After training, Aria introduced me to Tammy and I spent the rest of the day following them around while Tammy helped to ward off my unwanted posse of un-mated she-wolves.  Tammy had quite the reputation at collegiate and had all the she-wolves scared of her with one dirty glance their way.  I was really impressed, actually.  I sat with them during lunch and explained my situation in fuller detail to which they both understood immediately.  They suggested I speak with The Council as well.  It didn’t matter what rank Jessica held, those things didn’t matter because a fated mate could be one of any rank, even human.  What mattered to the The Council was that Jessica was not from another pack, which meant our union would not join together any of the packs, which we had worked so hard to make peace with.  I told them that I had no interest in running the pack to which they both looked a bit shocked.  I told them of my brother, who I thought would make a better Alpha than I.  What was even more, was that he actually wanted the title.  I told them of my aspirations to travel the world, not wanting to be confined to one place and have the same repetitious routine. I really don’t know what made me feel so comfortable telling them all my secrets, maybe it was because they were kind of in the same boat as me.  Having the ones they love only to be told it was forbidden.  Once we realized that neither of us was interested in the other, hanging out with Aria and her mate was refreshing from my time in solitude.  That’s how I spent the rest of the week until it was time to leave.