Caleb’s P.O.V
Shane took one look at me and his eyes widened in surprise.
“You know…” he whispered through swollen lips.
I nodded, debating on how to handle the situation. Even if he had acted out of anger and resentment for Aurora hitting a nerve close to home, he had crossed several boundaries and he had to face punishment for them accordingly. If going to this camp in New York helped him become a better person, so be it.
He was pretty beat up. Now that it was broad daylight, I could see that his entire face was pretty badly messed up. I had gone too far as well. In my anger, I hadn’t acted very rationally as a future Alpha should.
“I’m sorry, for hitting you like this.” I told him, because I didn’t want him to leave on a bad note either. Shane had been my friend since we were little and he had already gotten his punishment. What was the point of me adding salt to his injuries?
“I deserved it.” He said now, lowering his head. “I shouldn’t have acted like a jerk all this time. I shouldn’t have let it all get to my head. But I guess…it’s too late to say all this shit now, isn’t it?”
“Why?” I had to ask him. “You knew there would be consequences if you messed with a human. Yet you did it anyway and you did that in front of all of us! Why, Shane? It’s like…you wanted to get into trouble…on purpose.”
Shit! The realization made me stand up straighter as I turned to look at Shane, who, despite his fucked up face, had a smirk forming at the side of his lips.
“Fuck! You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“I wish I was.” He whispered, but that smirk stayed on. “You’re right, I wanted this. Being send to New York as a punishment is probably the best fucking thing that can happen to me.”
“But…why? Shane!” I held onto his shoulders, shaking it lightly. “I heard that the training there is grueling. Why would you want that?”
“Because I’m fucking tired of this, Caleb!” He snapped at me, his eyes wild with a kind of fury I hadn’t seen before. “I’m fucking tired of my parents looking at me like I’m a fucking disappointment! I’m tired of having to cover up my bruises and I’m fucking tired of having to live up to my parent’s expectations even though I don’t want to.”
I was a little startled at his sudden outburst at the end, but then again, what he said was right. It was hard living up to our parent’s expectations, and being a wolf didn’t exempt up from any of the normal teenage bull any other human would face. And Shane was a proud person; borderline arrogant and conceited. I bet it took a lot for him to admit what he just did. But that didn’t mean I was going to forgive him.
He took out his frustration at someone who didn’t deserve it, and she suffered far worse because of him.
“Then you know just how difficult it’ll be for me to convince Aurora that I wasn’t a jerk.” I told him. “And you know just how difficult it would be for Aurora to trust any of us. She’s my mate, Shane. I was so close to try and mend things between us and you just went and fucked it all up.”
“I had a hunch…” he spoke through gritted teeth. “ When you went all the way across town to that tiny diner, that too on the same day I made fun of her about getting an F…I made the connection and it made me even angrier. I was your best friend, and you didn’t even notice what was happening with me but you felt sorry for some pathetic human girl.”
“What the fuck?” Was he serious right now? “You knew that Aurora could be my mate and yet, you tried to screw things up between us!”
Shane was really fucked up if he thought that he could get away with any of this! And what the hell was he even trying to accomplish by going to the camp anyway? Was this some kind of sick way for him to say ‘fuck you’ to his parents or just him acting out because he wanted attention?
And why was I always at the centre of all this mess?
Was it because I was the future Alpha? Did they think I was a brainless idiot? Easy to manipulate and easy to win over?
I sighed and ran a hand down my face. I was tired of dealing with Shane. He had a ton of issues to solve for himself and maybe going to New York was the best thing that could have happened to him.
But right now, he was the least of my problems. So I decided to make amends before he left, in hope that this was the last time I would see this version of him. But now, I wasn’t so sure anymore. I wasn’t sure if this was the last time I was going to see him being a dick and I wasn’t sure if he was ever going to get out this phase where his family’s opinion of him dictated majority of his life.
“Put it all behind you.” I told him finally, placing a hand on his shoulders. “Forget what happened and train hard. I want you to come back a new person. As a friend who would have my back no matter what. Do that for yourself, Shane, not for your parent’s, not for anyone else. Be who you want to be, be a better person because you want to look in the mirror and be proud of the person staring back at you.”
When Shane looked up at me, his grey eyes were glazed over. “I promise. You’ll be proud of me.”
I pulled him in for a tight hug, giving him some form of comfort that would help him last two whole years outside of his pack. And then he was on his way to New York, to spend the rest of his high school year and to train to become a better soldier and hopefully, a better person.
I would miss him, but I also missed the boy who he used to be before anger and resentment clouded his mind.
Caroline entered the room about half an hour later; to tell me the news that Shane had left the pack territory. I hadn’t gone to see him off, mostly because we had already said our goodbyes and also because I needed time to process my own emotions.
“So?” Caroline came to stand beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “How did it go?”
“As good as it could’ve been.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “How are things with your parents?”
She gave a nervous laugh as she shook her head. “They still believe that if I stick close to you, maybe the bond will reform. They’re still hoping for a miracle…a chance for their daughter to become the future Luna of the pack…”
“I don’t understand why people think that the mating bond can be manipulated.” I shook my head, still astounded by the idea. “Just because some premonitions have come true in the past, doesn’t mean that the bond had been manipulated. Those had just been lucky coincidences. Accidents that felt like the will of the goddess, but they were just that…accidents.”
There had been stories that sometimes people had been able to manipulate the bond after falling in love with a different person. But those were just that, baseless stories. Our mates are decided the day we are born and the Moon Goddess provides us all with our most deserving mates.
“You’re the future Alpha.” Caroline reminded me. “There will always be people who would want to manipulate you into one thing or another. Being able to control you would mean being able to control an entire pack.”
I nodded. “I know that. But it doesn’t hurt any less when people I trust and care about try to do the same.”
Caroline stayed quiet, letting me settle down before she asked me what she was possibly dying to ask. “What do you want to do now?”
“Now, I need to visit Aurora.”