Let me start off by saying, I'm sorry for not updating! I am managing to do this in the midst of exams, so I can't make any promises about the next update, but after I slug through this critical time, there will be chapters up much more regularly.

-Jasmine

Chapter 26:

Camila couldn't stop staring at the tangerine coloured lipstick on Jane's teeth. She unconconciously wiped her finger across her own insicors. She knew it was completely uncessary. She wasn't even wearing liptick. But it was partway through dinner and damn that lipstick was persistant. It was like a traffic cone. At least it was distracting enough to keep her from looking at Taine.

The conspicuous lipstick stain coupled with Jane's scary, beady eyes made everytime Jane asked her if she wanted "more potatoes or salad, or wine?" feel unsettling and just plain creepy.

Jane tried to monopolize most of Camila's time. She'd ask the most ridiculous questions. Questions Camila could only manage to answer with a monosyllabic word or two before Jane used them like catapults. Hurling the conversation into one where she could talk about herself. As much as she found hearing about Jane's new houseplant absolutely riveting, she was desperate to overhear what Adrian was saying to Taine.

"Yes Camila, you know I can really see his personality shining through these days. His leaves perk up so well when he's near the sun."

That's called photosynthesis Jane.

Needless to say, Camila was trying to mentally block out her incessant chatter and visually trying not to burn her retinas by looking at that orange lipstick for too long.

Adrian periodically slapped Taine on the back and made inopportune jokes that she was itching to hear. The most surprising part of it all was that Taine was actually laughing at some of them. She hadn't even been able to penetrate his steely-gaze. She hadn't even been responsible for so much as a chuckle.

After hearing one of these half-baked jokes, (about as underdone the potatoes) Camila could see that Taine was probably using all 7 of his brain cells to force himself into hysterics. Adrian lapped up every burst of laughter, it egged him on until he became red in the face with the sheer thrill of his own humour.

Sometimes you just had to play the game to please the people.

Adrian spoke in sharp spasms before he faded into wheezes of laughter. He rushed and stumbled over his words like if he didn't say them quickly or loudly enough they would kill him from the inside out. She could barely understand him, but Taine seemed to be having little to no trouble. Fake-ass wolf.

Apart from sensing a separation in the 'male side' and 'female side' of the table. Dinner was good. Camila enjoyed the lightly seasoned meat and avoided the potatoes like the starchy bricks they were. She selected fresh bread as her carb of choice for the evening.

The fifth guest at the table, Jane and Adrian's sweet fourteen-year-old granddaughter, was a silent participant of the meal. Camila could practically see the drool coming out of her mouth and let's just say it wasn't because of the food.

It was rather cute really. That this teenager was so besotted with the alpha. Camila watched the way she fluttered her eyelashes at him and barely blinked when he spoke. If only she knew what living with him was like. Better to let her keep existing in a fantasy. Life was easier that way.

When Adrian left to go get an ancient and expensive bottle of wine, Camila kicked Taine under the table. He ignored her. This time she put a little bit more power into it.

Despite remaining victim to Jane's rant about the PH levels in the pack's rainwater, and how her exotic pineapples were struggling to cope, he still managed to glare at her with sharp daggers. Camila tilted her chin and gestured towards Katie, who had half a leaf of lettuce hanging out of her mouth. Her brown eyes were wide and starry-eyed as she looked at Taine. She clearly had forgotten how to chew. Camila could relate, except her emotion towards him was closer to disgust than adoration.

I mean he wasn't even that gorgeous. He had eyes, nose and mouth just like everyone else. It didn't make a difference that his brown and green eyes pulled her in like magnets and made her forget her name. And she didn't even care that every time she got close to his jaw she was subconsciously afraid it would cut her. And what didn't even matter that she couldn't look at his lips without thinking about kissing him until she physically couldn't anymore....

Taine responded to her very deliberate gesture by narrowing her eyes and looking at her like she has just started speaking pig Latin. Camila smiled sweetly at Jane who was staring back and forth between with pair with a vested interest.

Camila cleared her throat and tried again. Taine's eyes followed where she was directing them to. He looked straight past Katie and gave a half-glance at the painting of a deer directly behind her. He looked back at Camila and gave her a plastic smile that said, 'I don't see why that painting was so special, you weirdo.'

Even though he missed the point completely, Katie looked like she had just forgotten how to breathe and was about to pass out face first into her plate.

Camila clenched her fists under the table. Why was he so frustrating.

She kicked him again. She momentarily distracted Jane by asking her a question about chlorophyll and managed to point and mouth at Taine. 'Talk to Katie'

Once again, Taine looked at her like she had been snorting werewolf crack.

Jane, having run out of things to say about the colour green, clapped her hands together and gushed. "Oh, you two are so sweet. Young mated love is so beautiful."

Camila snorted. Yup, you could practically see the hearts in their eyes. They were almost as red and pulsating as the bruise that she knew was forming on Taine's shin.

Camila darted her eyes towards Katie one last time. Taine sighed and with reluctance turned to her. "So Kathy, how old did you say you were again?"

Katie's really did look like she was about to faint. It seemed her new name was Kathy now. She was practically already changing her Instagram handle.

After being stunned for a few moments, she managed to splutter out, "Four...fourteen....but I'll be, umm fifteen soon..."

Taine nodded and turned back to Adrian who had returned from his trip to the wine cellar. Even though that crumb of pleasantry was all he could offer the poor girl, she looked as if she was ready to die a happy woman. Camila felt a self-satisfied smirk spread across her face as she listened to Jane engage her with another story about the complexities of watering plants.

---

It was getting late and all Camila wanted to do was rip off her fake eyelashes and jump into bed. She glanced at Taine helplessly, but he just shook his head to say, 'we can't leave yet.' Oh, so he understood that form of non-verbal communication.

She began to wonder when her mate had turned into such a social butterfly and she began to come up with all the ways she could kill herself using the various flora scattered all over the house. Too bad the venus flytrap wasn't big enough to swallow her whole. Jane had finally settled down and was leaning against Adrian's chair, in a half sleepy state. Despite her having the personality of a cell wall and him having a laugh louder than a wolf howling, you could see that they loved each other.

As the clock struck eleven, it seemed that only now they had started discussing pack related issues. What Taine had really come here to talk about. Camila sat up straighter in her chair and pinched her thigh to keep awake.

After another gruelling forty-five minutes of circular negotiations, only the three were left at the table. They had finally reached a middle ground. Even though he would never admit it, the whole debate would have taken much longer if Camila hadn't helped Taine grease some elbows.

The tension in the room began to melt away and the adrenaline she felt was slowly being replaced by exhaustion. Taine had a light glow on his face from the eventual success of the discussion.

A mere moment before Camila was going to jump out of her seat and make her way to the door, Adrian clapped Taine on the back for the seventy-eighth time and commented with a smile, "you're just like your father, never quit until he got his way."

The late Alpha Darian Alverio was a name thrown around a lot in this pack. Despite this, not many people liked to divulge much about their old Alpha. Digging up the history of this pack in general, proved to be quite the feat. Although she knew bits and pieces, the darker more horrific pieces...It was apparent that not many really wanted to discuss the ebbs and flows of his leadership. It seemed some loved him and others most definitely didn't.

A face flashed in her mind. Every time she saw it, it grew more animalistic and fierce. Since she had met Taine the image had grown sharper. Now it had a defined face, the face that had taken everything away from her was akin to the one she was destined to love.

Camila saw a gentle smile form on Taine's face, it calmed her heart slightly. From what little she knew it was clear that Taine loved his father very deeply.

Adrian continued in his sentimental tone, "He was a real beast back in his day...Always keeping checks on all the packs this side of the country. He was ruthless but he was fair." Adrian was pointing fingers at both of them after each syllable, to emphasise his point.

Camila assessed Taine's face for any signs of hidden knowledge. As she expected there was none she could decipher. A wave of relief washed over her. She would leave this dinner without having to open any wounds.

If only fate was that kind.

Adrian turned to her, "What pack did you say you were from?"

She tried not to let the smile on her face waver. She tried to keep a clear head.

"Pack seventeen, North border."

Camila tried to change the subject. Adrian ignored her and diverted his attention back to Taine.

"Say, Alpha. Do you know why we don't have a Pack eighteen in the North Border?"

He didn't wait for Taine to respond. "Your old man decimated that pack."

The wheezing laughter returned. Camila didn't quite catch the joke.

Taine joined in the laughter and anger and panic clouded her ability to tell if it was genuine or not.

She had never seen this side of him before. Laughing. Laughing at someone else's loss. Someone else's pain.

Adrian breathlessly spat out, "I heard the Alpha and Luna of that pack were rebels. They didn't like some of the 'rules' they had to abide by."

Taine joined in, "a bunch of pansy's, I heard my father say. They tried to rebel but they failed miserably."

Adrian banged his fist on the table like Taine had said the funniest thing in the world.

"That sure as hell taught them to stay in line!"

"Yeah, lesson learned...idiots..." Taine said amidst a triumphant laugh.

Cue the back clapping... "Hey, ...whatever happened to them? Did Darian just kill them all? Did they run somewhere else with their tails between their legs?"

Taine shrugged, "I don't know, all I heard was that he finished them off in one night and then nobody ever heard from them again. I think there may have been a few survivors but they would have become rogues or been absorbed into other packs...The Alpha and Luna of that pack might have had a son...but he would be dead."

Adrian nodded, remnants of laughter still on his face. "Luna, you must have heard of this story before. It happened right around the corner from where you were!"

"Yeah, Camila might have even seen them crawling into her pack on their knees begging for mercy."

Laughter echoed through the room once more.

Camila felt her claws extend and sink themselves into the wooden table. She stood up. Adrian and Taine stopped their mocking to look at her in surprise.

"They didn't have a son."

"Excuse me?" Adrian looked at Taine, almost trying to find something to laugh about in her statement.

Camila looked into Taine's eyes. Anger burning hot and vengeful, all over her skin.

"They had a daughter. A daughter who watched them die right in front of her eyes. A daughter that your father almost killed."

She didn't wait to see the look on their faces.

As Camila marched through the forest that night all she could think about was the fury pumping through her veins. Being angry was the best way to mask the pain, the sadness. The light of the moon illuminated her mothers' engagement ring. A ring she had to pull from her lifeless hand before she was dragged out from underneath her mothers' body. A ring that was a constant reminder of why she ran, why she couldn't love Taine.

She hated herself.

She hated herself for letting him in. Even if only a little bit. Letting herself think it would be okay. That she could tell him on her own terms. She hated herself for ignoring the voice in her head and the pain in her heart. As she ran Adrian and Taine's laughter rang in her ears and pierced her eardrums like jagged shards of glass. She had seen his true colours tonight.

"Mila stop."

She felt Taine grab her shoulder and spin her around to face him.

"I didn't know...I-"

"If you don't let go of me right now, I will end you." The unconcealed poison, the venom that dripped from her voice and the hair that was starting to appear on her body told him that she meant every word she said. Her body shook with unbridled anger.

He dropped his hand.

She looked at his face and all she could see was his father. The man who with one swipe, sliced the heart of her father and snapped the spine of her mother, before spitting on their faces. The man who almost sunk his teeth into her throat. The man who went home and was treated like victor, while she was left for dead on the forest floor, seeing wild animals come to taste the flesh of her pack. Their bodies were scattered as warning bells across the land.

The man whose son she had been fated to.

The man whose son she had begun to fall in love with.

--

Would love to hear your opinions on this chapter!

Thanks for reading

- Jasmine

Hey Guys, Hope you enjoyed this chapter - This kinda explains ALL of Camila's behaviour, hopefully, she makes a bit more sense now. I hinted that she had her secrets in the first chapter onwards, thanks for being patient enough to make it to this point!

-Jasmine