*pops out of nowhere* Hey!
A lot of you had given up on me, I know. But when I say I don't give up on a project, I mean it. Life was hellish and I needed time to clean it up, but I never gave up on Gabriel and Leah.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who wrote kind messages, reviews and feedback to me. They were much appreciated in a difficult time. Some others were mean and selfish, but I hope they will one day understand that sometimes, Life is a royal Bitch; she just throws everything at you all at the same time, and it takes a long time to fix it.
I was a bit rusty and this chapter wasn't edited—it's been such a long time that I haven't dared reaching out to my former editor (that's my own fault, not his—he's wonderful), and I really wanted to get this out as soon as possible for you guys. So hopefully there aren't too many mistakes. *bites lip* I'd suggest a re-read of Chapter 7, just to remind yourselves of what happened.
Enjoy!
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Chapter 8
One month later
A dim morning light barely lit the bedroom when I opened my eyes. Gabriel was still deeply asleep beside me, so I moved as slowly as I could as I got out of the warm bed, so not to wake him up. I picked my nightdress from the floor with a smile, pulled it over my head, and wrapped myself in a light night robe before sneaking out into the corridor. The whole house was silent and the floorboards seemed to creak twice as loudly as usual as I tiptoed my way barefoot, down the two flights of stairs to reach the hall, pulling my heavy curls up into a loose bun as I walked. I went to the patio doors to the veranda, and padded down the wooden steps to finally reach the dirt path that led over to the lake.
It was early July and a warm summer breeze blew gently, rustling the leaves in the tall trees that surrounded the house behind me. The air was hot, but it still felt wonderful against my skin and ruffled my hair, blowing a stray black curl from its loose tie to hang in my face as I walked all the way to the end of the wooden dock.
I sat down and let my legs dangle over the edge of the dock to dip my feet in the blissfully fresh water, then let my gaze travel over the calm, placid lake in front of me, reflecting the trees and the paling sky like a large mirror. The hot air was thick with humidity, even this early in the morning; although I had just come out, my light clothes already stuck to my skin, and the back of my hands glistened with sweat. I closed my eyes and welcomed a second gust of soft winds. Moments when I could be on my own had gotten rare in the past few weeks, and I intended on making the most of each of them. Dawn was the best, I found: everyone was still asleep. Even the lake had not awakened yet, it seemed, aside from the occasional trout swimming up and breaking the smooth surface of the water to catch an unfortunate low-flying insect.
So much had changed in the past month, since the morning Gabriel and I were mated. In the week that had followed, I had emptied my apartment, and my cat and I had moved into the Alpha's flat in Westmount. I had also given my notice to M. Beaulieu, who accepted it without great surprise; no one expected the Alpha's mate to work as a lowly clerk. But still, I had not hated my job, and the prospect of greater responsibility, paired with the fact that I had absolutely no idea what to do with it, made me more than a little nervous.
No one asked me anything yet, so I naturally followed my mate around, listening. Learning.
I was given an opportunity to change things. I was a Turned wolf who had found her mate in the first Turned wolf to become Alpha. We were the first ... of everything. I wanted to do this right.
These weeks spent with Gabriel had given me more time to get to know the people around my new mate. I already knew Cedric, Isabelle and William, of course, but the other three members of the Six had been a mystery to me until I was mated to their boss.
Elise, the tall redhead, took her job seriously. We didn't talk much, and I had yet to learn how she had become friends with Gabriel, but she was a peaceful presence in the group. Mark was the eldest. I had no idea what his real age might be, but he was old enough to have grey strands streaking his pale-brown hair. He was deeply respected by everyone, especially Gabriel, who told me the old werewolf had been one of those who had been most welcoming to him in the pack when he was Turned, and a big supporter when he became a candidate during the Alpha elections. "Big" was the right adjective for him, I thought; he was just a tall as Cedric and William, but at least sixty pounds heavier, with a ridiculously large set of shoulders that contrasted with his gentle, diplomatic nature.
If Marc was the elder, Thomas was perhaps the child of the group. It was hard not to find him likeable, with his easy-going attitude, his endless optimism and the permanent smile etched upon his face. Barely ever serious, he made up for it with his charm and his handsome features, and could be counted on to lighten up any atmosphere.
Not exactly my best friend before the mating, Cedric had warmed up considerably to me, and I to him. We both knew how important the other was to Gabriel. But when he learned that we thought I had been bitten by his older brother gone rogue, he shut like an oyster and reverted to his former silent, brooding self, and had barely looked me in the eye in the past few weeks.
And then there was Joseph MacKenzie.
Joey was my responsibility. He had been transferred to the lake compound after getting out of the hospital; everyone was helping him, of course, but Gabriel had asked me, in private, to keep an eye on the poor man, as I had been Turned in circumstances similar to his.
To be honest, it felt quite painful to watch him and be reminded of a time when I would sneak out into the woods during the weekend to let my wolf out. It wasn't the same for Joseph, though; I had been on my own, but he had some help and, here on the compound, his wolf was free. Only four weeks after becoming a Were, he already had pretty good control over his wolf form, and remembered most of what happened whenever he shifted. But while he could now shift on his own when he wanted to, strong emotions or bursts of adrenaline still triggered his shifting at any given moment, without him being able to contain it. Until he controlled that, there was no way he could be let back to his home to live in the city with hundreds of thousands of humans.
He understood that, of course. But his human wife obviously couldn't be allowed into the compound, and he had trouble coming to terms with that.
As far as everyone in the pack was concerned, this new pack member was a poor random human who had been attacked by a rogue. No one but the Six and I knew of his long-term friendship with Gabriel, let alone that Joey—and his wife Marie—had known, for the past thirty years, of the Weres' existence. Everyone naturally supposed that Joseph would leave behind his family, as all Turned Weres did after their transformation—as
I
had done.
