Chapter 24
Stacey’s POV
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“Ace!!”, My best friend, Laila, shouted my name when she saw me entering the packhouse. "Acccceeeee!!", She literally jumped in my arms and hugged me tightly. "I'm so happy to see you after such a long time. I couldn't help myself and waited here to see you, after I came to know that you’re coming here.”, She added in one go without taking a breath.
I smiled and hugged her a little tighter than before. Laila was an Omega and that’s the fact that irked Adams a lot whenever I used to hang out with her or she used to visit me. I never observed when all my friends of lower rank started getting apart because of Adams.
I was really foolish to let my friends go.
“I missed you, Laila”, I whispered in her ear.
“Me too. I wanted you to meet you but you had….been busy.”, She said, breaking the hug. “Anyway, you have to come to my house with your chosen mate because I am leaving right now.”
“What? Why?”
“What, Why!! We all have to see whether the beta of yours is perfect for you or not.”, She said, to which I shook my head. This pretending thing was going far now.
“Who told you about him?”
“Girl!! Everyone knows about him. After all this news is the latest headlines of all the werewolves time. We saw the picture of you two in the newspaper.”
“Laila…”, I started. “I can explain.”
“Save it.”, She placed her hand on my mouth. “I don’t have time right now. My Mate has planned a date and I am already late for it. Don’t forget to come over to my house tomorrow because I have invited each and every friend of ours with their mates."
"But..."
"Bye. Love you.", She kissed my cheek and quickly ran away from there. It seemed like she was really in a hurry.
“Stacey”
“Hey, Mom”, I said before my mother hugged me, kissing me on my hair.
“It’s so good to see you. Thanks to Derek because of whom you’re here.”
“Excuse me! What did he do?”, I asked in surprise and broke the hug.
“He brought you here by telling you a small lie.”, My father replied instead of my mother. My eyes widened when I realized that Derek lied to me. How could he?
“But he didn’t tell you a complete lie.”, My mother said, before I would have thought anything else. “It was just he used your father’s name to deliver you the message. But in reality, it was me who asked him to do so. And I knew, if Derek would have told you my name then you wouldn’t have taken those words seriously.”, She added with a huff.
“It’s not like that, Mom.”
“Really? Then when did you visit us on my call?”, She asked, raising her brow. I opened my mouth to answer her but nothing came out. And that’s when I realized that she was right. “Now, you are going to stay with us for a few days and that’s final.”, She added.
“But, Mom…”
“Don’t worry about your pack, you can handle it from here itself and in case of any urgency, I can visit there.”, My father said before I could have given the excuse of Pack duties.
“Alpha Asher!”, I turned around only to find Derek, holding the box of the cake in his hand. Yeah, the one which I forgot to carry with me in my wolf form.
“Derek!! Why are you taking permission? Come inside.”, My father said.
“Here! Stacey forgot the cake in my car.”, He said, giving the box to my mother.
“That’s so sweet of you!”, My mother said, taking the cake from him. “Now that you’re here. Why don’t you join us for dinner?”, She offered.
“No. Thank you. Maybe some other day.”
“Okay then. But keep this in your mind.”
“Sure, Luna. Now, I would like to take a leave.”, He said like a gentleman. I could feel that he was avoiding me. Why wouldn’t he? After all, I had found his lie.
“Mom, I will be right back after leaving Derek near his car.”, I said and joined him when he was about to leave.
***
“So, you lied?”
“I am sorry. I didn’t want to but I couldn’t say NO to your mother.”
“Hmm”
“Are you mad?”
“Do you care?”
“Ofcourse I do.”, The response came instantly and the moment I looked at him, he turned his face in another direction.
“No. I am not mad at all.”, I said to make him feel comfortable as I could sense that he was nervous, thinking about my reaction and reply.
“Thank the Moon goddess”, He muttered and sighed. I wondered for how long he had been holding his breath.
“I am sorry to ask you again but you have to pretend to be my love interest again.”
“Buy why again?”
“This time, it’s in front of my friends. I mean, yeah, I can tell them the truth but I can’t trust all of them blindly. And I really don’t want Adams to know about it
“Don’t worry about it then. Everything will go as your plan.”, He smiled, before hopping inside the car.”Let me know the time, I will be here to pick you up.”
***
Derek’s POV
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Next Day
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“And there was me thinking that you wouldn’t come.”, Laila pouted the moment, we walked to her place linking my fingers through her. If you guys are wondering how come I knew her friend’s name then let me remind you that we belonged to the same pack. We might not know everyone by their nature or personality but we had seen each other multiple times.
“Not going to happen AGAIN.”, She smiled, pulling her in for a hug.
Once they pulled apart, Laila turned to me.
“Hi Derek! I can’t believe that we have grown up in the same pack but are speaking to each other for the first time.”, She said, smiling widely at me.
“Yeah! That’s true.”, I laughed, nodding at her words.
“And guys, this is John, my mate, the love of my life.”, She introduced herself to the man beside her. Even his face was familiar but I couldn’t recall his name.
“Hello Luna Stacey and Beta Derek!”, He greeted us meekly.
“You can call us by our name, right Stacey?”, I said to make the environment friendly.
“Absolutely.”, She agreed. “But I can’t blame him either. When I showed up last time with Adams here, he ordered him to call us with respect instead of calling us with our name.”, Stacey explained the reason why John greeted us formally in the first place.
I couldn’t help but wonder the damages that Adams had already done in Stacey’s life.
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#TBC
