CLARA

#Chapter7 CLARA I take a deep breath to steel myself to face the inevitable because some things just had to be done. I turned off the ignition and parked the car in the driveway of the pack house. The packed house was this huge building in werewolf packs that housed the superior ranks and other wolves in the pack who had no one else. It housed the offices of all the rank-holding members of the pack, which meant that Samuel’s office was in there too. “We’ll get our bags later. Ariel and Ben, I need you to obey your brother and be close to him at all times, ok?” They nod and I give them the best possible smile I can muster in the moment. Since we were not in our pack, our wolves had lost the ability to mind-link with the wolves back home and with each other temporarily. It had something to do with different energy systems in different packs. Without the possibility of communicating through a mind link, I pointedly stare at Kyle, hoping he will understand that he will have to take care of his siblings and be on guard here. He nods at me as if he understands what I’m trying to say, and I smile back at him. Aaron comes up to me, completely ignoring Kyle who’s getting out of the car too. He’s only wearing a pair of basketball shorts which he must have grabbed after shifting back into his human form a couple of seconds ago. Ignoring him, I open the rear door and gesture the twins to sidle out of the car. Ariel dutifully grabs onto my hand while Ben happily clings to Kyle. Aaron stumbles for a second when he watches the twins. “Um, follow me, please.” I nod and the four of us follow him as he climbs up the steps to the pack house and opens the heavy wooden doors, bursting a myriad of memories in my mind. I clench my eyes for a second, not wanting to relive them right now. I needed to control myself right then because that was the only way I would be able to get through the day. Aaron walks through the front gallery to the sitting room on the right and I focus my eyes on his broad back to prevent myself from seeing other items in the house. Not wanting to remember. Not wanting to relive it. I had not anticipated that coming here would be so tough for me. I wished Brad was here with me right now. He would know what to do, how to calm me down, how to help me focus, and how to make everything alright. Aaron turns around and speaks while looking at me, ignoring my children by my side. “The kids will stay here while I’ll lead you to meet the alpha in his office.” I nod and pointedly look at Kyle, hoping he would do his best to contain the twins. I smile reassuringly at the twins and tell them that everything is going to be alright and that I am going to come back in a few minutes. They nod and cling to Kyle in these unfamiliar surroundings. After making sure they’re going to be alright, I nod at Aaron to lead me towards Samuel. Without looking back at my children, I follow Aaron up the staircase and onto the first floor, where all the official offices of the pack are. He didn’t need to lead me to the Alpha’s office; I knew where it was because of the number of times I had visited it in my youth. Aaron knew it too, but pack protocols were strict in every pack and no beta wolf was going to let an outsider free reign in the pack house. At the end of the passage, he turns around to look at me. He tilts his head towards the solid oak door on my right and gestures for me to go in. “He’s waiting for you inside.” With a deep breath of courage, I twist the doorknob and enter the large room designed to be the alpha’s office. I had been in this room so many times that my mind skipped over all the details and instead settled on the forbidding figure of the man sitting behind the huge mahogany desk. I heard the door close behind me and with shaky legs, I walked towards the desk to look closely at Samuel, wanting to see what effect time had on him. The last time I had seen Samuel White, I had been his mate, and every time my eyes met his, a sharp and pleasurable zap of electricity traveled down my spine but now, ever since Brad had marked me and broken the mate bond, I didn’t feel any remains of the mate bond between us, no zap of electricity, no breathlessness, no increase in heartbeat and no flush rising in my cheeks. It was as if I was meeting a friend after a very long time. Even before I knew Samuel was my mate, I had been in love with him and so were half the girls my age. His chocolate brown hair always looked silky, and his sparkling blue eyes were always so intense that they always left me a stammering and stumbling mess. He was always polite to everyone, respected the elders, never preyed on the weak, and stood up for everyone who needed it. He was the kind of alpha anyone would love to have. At least he had been. I had no idea what these two decades had done to him if they had changed him favorably or made him a tyrant. #