The change ( his mate)

Chapter 19: New member

Lara

Grayson was nowhere to be seen when I went inside, he must have gone to his room.

I stayed up, talked with Leo for a while after Kai and Ralph had left.

“Grayson wasn’t in a good mood when he returned, you two still not getting along?”

I sighed and picked at the cake on the plate. “Nope.”

“He really is in love with you, you know. And I know it’s not my place to interfere with your relationship, if you don’t want to be with him you have every right not to be, but I think you feel the same way about him, if it’s fear stopping you, you don’t need to be afraid when it comes to Grayson, he’s a hot tempered wolf with some issues when it comes to violence, but he acts only for the pack.”

He shifted in his seat turning to face me properly. “But I suspect it’s not his violent nature that bothers you. Grayson isn’t like other men, he doesn’t think like other men, in his mind a mate is for life and nothing we say or do can make him change his mind, that’s just how he is wired, he will never leave you, cheat on you, break your heart, you’ll never have to worry with him, he’s chosen you as his mate and forgive me for the crudeness, but if you were to marry someone else or god forbid pass away, nothing would change for him, you’d still be his mate and he wouldn’t find another.”

I nodded silently and Leo leaned back and patted my shoulder. “Alright, that’s enough deep talk, just think about what I’ve said, and if you still don’t want to be with him then you need to tell him and be firm about it, don’t leave him under any illusion you might change your mind if you know you won’t. He’s own feelings won’t change, but at least he’ll know and he will stop bothering you so much.”

I looked up at Leo. “He doesn’t bother me.”

“So what are you holding back for?” He smiled and winked, then got up and left me there to think.

All the next day I was nervous about a new werewolf joining the pack, ok, I was nervous that she was female.

Grayson ignored me all day, a twinge of panic hit me, he’d never gone quiet on me before.

All the pack had turned up except for Kai and Ralph who were now on their trip, everyone was excited to meet not only a new pack member, but a female one. Leo hadn’t made his final decision, but just in case no one wanted to miss out.

The house was filled with male laughter and playful banter while we waited. Drinks and food were laid out along the table.

I was still awkward as hell, so I hid mostly in my room and when I had to come down I stuck to the side wall in the living room.

Grayson found me a few hours later still huddled there, sighing, he grabbed my hand and pulled me with him into the kitchen. Without a word he pulled me a drink and grabbed me a plate of food. Reese was sat on a stool, he had short mousy brown hair with beady black eyes and was tall but slender unlike the other males in the pack who had more muscle. He was a d.ick too. He knew he couldn’t touch me or flirt without risking Graysons wrath, so he made nasty jokes instead.

Once he’d realised how sensitive I was about the subject he’d delighted in tormenting me about my weight, how even now I was still considered fat for a werewolf. I wasn’t, but I still had that insecure fat girl mindset so I believed him.

“Up,” Grayson said to him.

Reese looked up at him confused. “What?”

“Get up.”

“I was here first.”

“I don’t give a f.uck, let Lara sit down.”

“No, I was here first.”

“If you’d rather I make you move—”

He’d barely finished the sentence when Reese stood up and stormed off.

“That doesn’t win me any points with the pack when you do that,” I whispered.

“It’s your house more than it’s his. Sit.”

I sat and held his hand for a moment, looking up and letting him know I was grateful. He gave me a tender smile and then slipped away to talk to Leo.

When the door knocked the whole place went silent. Leo answered it and welcomed in Amber. Every male in the house stared at her, well, Grayson was looking at her with contempt. She was really beautiful, strikingly beautiful with soft dark skin like Halle berry and light hazel eyes. Her face was as flawless as Halle berry’s too and her body was as slim and slender as the wolf’s. Lean and almost athletic she was tall, at least to me, maybe five eight. She wore slim worn jeans with a white vest top tucked into them, and she had short tight curly hair. Stunning came to mind.

She smiled politely at the rest of the room as Leo took her somewhere more private to talk.

“F.uck, she’s hot,” joey said to one of the others, Reese joined in while the others agreed along with them.

Probably to try and wind me up Reese nudged Grayson and said, “she’s hot isn’t she.”

Grayson snorted and got up making his way to the living room.

Leo had taken Amber into his office room, well, it wasn’t quite an office room, it did have a desk and a chair, but it also had a brown leather armchair in the corner next to a small side table with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s underneath, more a relaxing room for him than a work room.

Grayson was sitting on the sofa in the living room probably wanting to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Nosy,” I teased.

“Just making sure he thinks with his head and not his d.ick like the rest of the pack.”

“His alpha you shouldn’t question his authority.”

His head spun to me and he quickly said, “I’m not, I would never—”

He relaxed when he saw me smiling and realised I was only teasing.

“Maybe you should have been alpha.”

“Nah, I’d be s.hit, too violent and hot tempered, I’d make rash decisions and Leo knows it.”

“True,” I sighed, sitting beside him.

He shoved me and I shoved him back.

He tickled me and I screamed so loud he slammed a hand over my mouth. “F.ucking hell, they’ll think I’m murdering you.”

Gregg another pack member now in his eighties, but still looked early thirties popped his head in, when he saw us he rolled his eyes and left us to it.

When Leo came back out he smiled and introduced everyone to Amber who was now part of the pack. Everyone was friendly and polite and welcoming, even me, everyone except Grayson, his lip curled when she came to say hello and he didn’t even bother to answer her, he was so rude he walked past her and into another room.

“I’m so sorry about him,” I cringed.

She laughed. “It’s ok, I’m new and it’s natural he might not be so eager to welcome me with open arms just yet.”

“Or ever,” I muttered.

She laughed, “so is he the one Leo was telling me about then? The scary hot tempered one?”

“That would be him.”

“Then you must be his mate, the bitten werewolf?”

I nodded, not denying being his mate.

When Leo walked by us I watched her watch him, when he came back and handed her a drink she grew flustered and thanked him. So she liked Leo? That was a first, usually it was Grayson girls wanted.

I knew she was older than me, closer to Leo’s age, but that didn’t stop us becoming good friends. Amber was really nice and kind, like Leo she was one of those people you felt comfortable with, she always had a smile and she was quietly confident.

A month passed by with her living with us in the house and Grayson had gotten used to her, there was one problem though, he hated how much time I spent with her. Me and Amber liked going to the movies and eating out or shopping, ok I hated shopping, but I enjoyed it with her because it was nice to be out and have a fellow female I could be myself with and not worry about hiding what I was.

Being out a lot meant Grayson didn’t see me as much and he didn’t like Amber taking up all my time and attention. In the end I think Amber saw it as her mission to win him over and to make him realise she wasn’t the bad guy.

When she wanted to go for a run when the others didn’t she always invited Grayson, being more wolf meant he never passed up the opportunity to run in wolf form so he always agreed, very slowly he came around to her and dare I say, even liked her.

We were playing a game of rounders outside with Kai who was back from his trip, Reese, Joey and Charlie. Leo hit the ball sending it flying and ran, Grayson ran for the ball, got it, raced back and dived onto the grass, arm outstretched, ball in hand and touched down two seconds after Leo had already passed by.

He grumbled and got to his feet, Amber slapped his back playfully and laughed, “cheer up, we’ll get him next round.”

He narrowed his eyes towards Leo and nodded.

It was fun and when we were done me and Amber made plans to go watch a movie, it was a chick flick, so when Grayson tried to join us I told him how girly it was, how lovey dovey it was going to be and he decided he wasn’t quite that desperate to follow me.

I’d learned from Amber that she left America to start over here after a bad break up, she’d lived in Salem and never met any other wolves funnily enough, she’d tried dating a human man, but as with all werewolves it didn’t end well, all the lying and sneaking out late at night to change, it got too much and her partner was convinced she was cheating on him. Heartbroken she’d come here to try and move on, she had enrolled in Royal Holloway University to finish her law degree.

It made me sad to hear how heartbroken she’d been and I was glad she’d joined our pack, the way she looked at Leo and blushed, grew flustered and stumbled over her words everytime he came into a room was something I knew well, from my own school crushes and I’d been no different when I’d met Grayson.

Hopefully something could blossom between them, Leo gave nothing away to what he thought towards Amber, so I didn’t know how he felt, but no one could deny she was absolutely beautiful.

Even as we left the cinema men were staring at her, I may as well have been a ghost beside her.

She wanted to go into a H&M clothes shop, she knew by now how much I loathed shopping, so I let her know I’d be in the book store three stores down.

It was around half five by now and I knew I had maybe twenty minutes before they’d start closing up. It was still winter and was dark now.

The town was a weird layout, to get to the bookshop I had to walk around the back of the building along past the parking lot, I was halfway there and it was silent, I was the only one here, but my nose kicked in and I smelt them before I saw them.

Werewolves. I looked up ahead to my right and saw four mutts walking towards me, all male. They had been chatting and hanging out by a rundown ugly orange car and caught my scent. C.rap.

One was classically handsome with dark brown hair and an athletic build, he wore jeans, loafers and a trench coat over a white jumper, he seemed to be the leader, the more dominant as he led the way.

The one to his left had greasy red hair, a smattering of freckles across his face and was lanky more than lean, he wore grey sweatpants with a striped blue and white polo t-shirt, he must have been freezing because even us werewolves felt the cold.

The other two were dressed similar to the red head, one who couldn’t have been much taller than my five foot one height and the other well over six foot.

“Whats a pretty wolf like yourself doing out here alone?” The leader asked. The others laughed and as they circled me I found myself trapped.