"Where are you going, Celeste? Jeremy's been looking for you," Nancy's voice rang out from behind her.
But Celeste ignored her and continued walking straight ahead, her mind racing with the mess of emotions. She wasn't ready to talk to Nancy right now. She didn't know how to speak to Nancy without risking her wolf taking over and causing a scene.
"Oh, Jeremy, so you're here? You two were just..." Nancy's words gradually faded away as Celeste walked further and further away. She had no interest in hearing Jeremy's response. And her mind was also too occupied to care about whether Nancy had noticed the weird dynamic between them.
Her mind was in a state of confusion. But not only that. Now her brain decided to play tricks with her.
She walked away from Jeremy, but his scent and warmth seemed to have stubbornly lingered on her skin. She could still feel his soft lips on her cheek and the tickling brought by his stubble.
And her own lips. They seemed to bear the imprint of Jeremy's breath. She could almost feel what it would be like to have Jeremy's soft lips on hers. Celeste felt like her blood was rushing back to her face and neck again, and the places that Jeremy had touched were all burning up.
She shook her head, trying to push those sensations out of her mind. Her inner wolf protested, but Celeste chose to ignore her. But how long could she keep ignoring her inner beast? How long would it take before everything was crushed right in front of her?
Jeremy and she had almost…
Celeste could feel the magnetic attraction between them, drawing them in like two planets in orbit. She couldn't deny the bond. Nor could he. The air crackled with electricity, and her heart raced with desire as they teetered on the edge of something dangerous.
Their chests had been so close. They were two wolves circling and yearning for each other.
They could have done more than that. And they wouldn't have stopped at the kiss that hadn't happened.
She shook her head once again. Now that she was away from Jeremy, her mind was able to run a bit more smoothly. And she realized that the cocoon enveloped them was not her imagination. It was the hormones they were emitting, intertwining and binding them tightly together, urging them to give in to their primal desires.
If Nancy hadn't interrupted them, they might have done something irreversible. Celeste had a feeling that they would both be tormented and regretful if they did.
But weren't they already being tormented now?
She couldn't ignore the bond between them anymore.
This time, they had Nancy stop them. But what about the next time or the time after that? One day, the desire between them would burn their rationality away, and both she and Jeremy would be controlled by their animal instincts. She had no hope that they would be able to handle the consequences.
Perhaps they could give in to the bond and ignore all morality. Perhaps their bond could help them overcome the difficulties and they could end up together. But what then? Their wolf pack wouldn't accept them. If their bond was strong enough, they could run away together and become rogues, but Celeste didn't have faith in either of them. Their feelings wouldn't last, and they wouldn't be able to start a family.
This was so fucked up…
Celeste sneered at herself for even thinking about the possibility of being with Jeremy.
The wolf pack was facing attacks from hunters and rogues. And their current Alpha was losing the trust of the pack.
The pack would need them. Or at least, the pack needed Jeremy. And Celeste couldn't take Jeremy away from her pack so selfishly. And compared with Jeremy, Celeste seemed so unimportant. At best, she would help by doing meaningless patrols which yielded no result at all. But if she continued to stay in the wolf pack, she would only hinder the search for Jeremy's Luna...
"Cel?" The sound of her name being called made Celeste pause for a moment, her feet automatically halting.
She looked up to see Byron staring at her. In her eyes, the Alpha now looked like a stranger, and she couldn't help but wonder how many secrets he was hiding from them.
"You didn't come back with the others, we were all worried. Jeremy is losing his shit," Byron said.
Despite the situation, Celeste was suddenly a bit amused. Why was everyone she met reminding her that Jeremy was worried about her?
"Cel?" When Celeste didn't speak, Byron took a step closer to her, his face full of concern. "Are you okay? What happened? You seem off."
"What do you mean, 'off'?" Celeste repeated Byron's word and folded her arms. "I think that's a question I should be asking you. What makes you suddenly decide you should let Jeremy be the Alpha? And what's going on between you and Howard? One second ago, he was your best friend. And the next second, he threw you under the bus."
Clearly, Celeste's sudden questioning caught Byron off guard. His hand that was reaching out to comfort her froze in mid-air. He dropped his arm and knitted his brows.
"I'm starting to realize that I do not know you at all. How many secrets are you keeping from us?" Celeste took a step closer to Byron. "And what's your relationship with Kent? He was the one who tipped you off about the hunters, wasn't he?"
Byron visibly flinched at the mention of the rogue. His reaction only confirmed what Kent had said.
"How did you... How did you know that?" he hissed in a low voice. He immediately looked around the corridor anxiously, but now the corridor was empty, and no werewolf could hear their conversation. Nevertheless, the two of them still didn't speak loudly.
Then, Byron leaned in and sniffed Celeste. They were very close now, close enough for Byron to smell Celeste's scent. "Wait...you've already met Jeremy? You have his scent all over you … and Kent's? Did you meet Kent, too? Did he tell you?"
Celeste suddenly felt a bit too uneasy. She took a step back, opening up some distance between her and Byron, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "So what if he did? At least he's not hiding like you are."