Secret Chapter 1.

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*Corey*

I frowned glancing around. No matter where I went, there were recent traces of his scent but I never found him and it was driving me insane. Whenever I was at Inferno, Jayden was 'busy'. Yeah, right. What could he have been doing? His homework in every room in the packhouse but his own? He made Kaden, Layla and Bentley tell everyone they had no idea where he was and they were all terrible liars. Birds of a feather, I guess.

"Have you seen Jayden?" I asked Kaden while walking into the gaming room that some of our friends' voices had been coming from.

"Yeah, he left about a second ago... Hey, is it because you were coming? Is that why he keeps leaving?" He narrowed his eyes at me, "What did you do to him?" His fists clenched and I scoffed rolling my eyes.

"Please, Kade." He knew damn well who would win a fight between us. I smirked when he pouted as he unclenched his fists before I added, "Nothing! I swear! He's been avoiding me since he left the hospital."

"Mmm... it seems the roles have been reversed." I turned to glare at Hayley and watched as she shot a ball across the pool table sinking it in one of the centre holes and almost cracked a smile watching her do a terrible victory dance that Kyle just chuckled at. If only I were not so distracted by a certain somebody that could feel me coming and obviously left whenever he did.

"Yeah, this is funny. You were avoiding him and now he's avoiding you. Maybe if we take another trip the two of you will finally be on the same page." Sean laughed but it cut off when his eyes met my icy glare, "Uh... Maybe you just always want him at the wrong time?" He suggested.

"No, Jay's avoiding him," Finn said. My glare turned to the human and I watched as he scooted a little behind his older brother for protection. He had finally gotten over his fear of werewolves, mostly, after three weeks at Inferno and I wish he had not. His mouth had no shutter, it's like every thought he had just instantly flew right out without any deliberation.

"Oh, he is, huh? It's your fault then?" I stepped forward and smirked as he grabbed Sean's arm.

"Corey, back off before your mate gets mad at you." Sean looked at the hand on his arm and Finn quickly pulled away giving a sheepish smile. My shoulders sunk.

"But he's not here anyway!" I whined causing everyone to look at me surprised. I quickly cleared my throat trying to compose myself. "I mean... Finn probably has something to do with it. So..." My friends continued to give me questioning and odd stares but my narrowed eyes returned to Finn. He probably did have something to do with why Jayden was always missing, though. I heard Bentley chuckle.

"He's in his room again."

"Really?" I had checked his room earlier, it was empty. I left the gaming room before Bentley could answer knowing Jayden could hear that his best friend had just ratted him out and would probably try to hide from me again. My guess was right because as soon as I opened his room's door he stepped back from it looking guilty. "Found you." I frowned lifting my hand towards his chest to push him further away from the door so I could step inside but he jumped back before my palm could reach him. I raised my brows but stepped inside and shut the door anyway. "What did I do?" I asked fighting the urge to add 'this time?' while leaning against the wall beside the door.

"What-what are you talking about? Hey, is it time for lunch yet –?" Jayden looked at his wrist despite there being no watch there.

"Why are you avoiding me?" I cut him off.

"Whaaaat? Avoiding you –? Pfft. I-I wasn't... I wasn't avoiding you..." I gave him a flat stare after the most pathetic attempt at lying in history. He sighed and gave a shrug and I furrowed my brows seeing him look down bashfully before I let out a chuckle.

"Seriously?" I asked. "You're shy?" He didn't reply and it made me laugh more, "We go through all of that together and when I'm not an asshole anymore – kind of – you become shy?" He shook his head and frowned looking at the door beside me.

"Uh... Well, I've seen 'nice Corey' and he creeps me out. He acts like my babysitter." He said before his eyes widened while glancing to me, "I-I mean, you –"

"No, you've seen 'your sperm donor and Mike are still alive' Corey; you haven't seen me. I guess that's my fault... but I haven't really seen you either. How about we do this all over again?" I asked. He looked at me confused and I smiled, "Jayden, would you like to go on a date with me? Just as friends." He stared at me shyly for a few seconds before my smile grew when he grinned and I tried not to laugh as he tried to fake confidence, straightening up and pushing his shoulders back.

"Friends? That'll be hard. My wolf seems to think we're mated." He ran his eyes to the roof thoughtfully.

"Oh really?! What a coincidence, mine thinks the same thing." I said faking shock before grinning, "I guess we owe it to our wolves to go out then?" Jayden tilted his head, narrowing his eyes uncertainly as they ran over me.

"I'm not sure. You don't look like my type."

"Yeah. Finn's my opposite." I frowned. He really was, in terms of looks and everything.

"Finn? What? I don't – Finn?!" His persona fell and I watched him be his awkward self as he stumbled over words while trying to lie about not liking Finn the first time they met.

I laughed reaching out to grab his hand and intertwine our fingers. It was crazy how much I missed just simple contact with him. He chuckled softly while looking down at our hands and stepping closer towards me.

"Movies?" I asked. He shook his head. "Oh yeah, I forgot I'm mated to a socially anxious mole."

"Must be nice. I can never forget that I'm mated to an asshole." He muttered and I laughed.

"Are you medicated again?" When he had been recovering, he was on lots of pain medication. It was funny because he was much less timid and more brash than usual.

"No, this is Jayden." He said looking at me. "When... when he's not afraid." He added softly. It made me smile as I lifted a hand to place it on the back of his neck and pull him closer to me.

"I like Jayden," I said leaning forward to kiss him before he knew what I was doing. He gasped but he didn't move away and I was ecstatic about it having been afraid he would pull away, especially since Mike... When we broke apart I smiled at his thoughtful face as his eyes looked into mine. "Can I kiss you more?" Even when we were back from the peaks, things were so weird we never even hugged, barely held hands. I knew it wasn't just Mike. It was me. He still didn't feel like he could trust me, but that was okay. He would eventually, we had all the time in the world. I began to regret just kissing him like that when his face didn't change and he didn't reply. "You don't have to –"

"Do it again." He cut me off softly. I smiled feeling relief wash over me and gave him another long, gentle kiss, he responded immediately this time and neither of us seemed to want to break apart as his hands gripped the shirt at my waist to draw me away from the wall even closer to him so when we finally did end the kiss, we were both breathless and he gave a slight chuckle. "I like that." He mumbled pecking my lips again softly.

"Do you want to stay here and just keep kissing?" I leaned back into him again for a second hoping – okay, maybe even praying – he would say yes. He didn't. He just stepped back and shook his head looking worried before he grinned trying to hide it, but I could still see it. I wanted to hug him but didn't know whether he would want me to or not and I was afraid of scaring him or making him push me away now that we had made the tiny bit of progress we had.

"Let's go to a jazz museum."

"I should have known." I chuckled. The hopeful look on his face made me roll my eyes. "We can go wherever you want as long as you stop running from me."

He grinned sliding his hand back into mine and I let him pull me from his room. Our kisses were still awkward, for some reason hugs were worse, he seemed so timid. I didn't know when we would get over the awkwardness or when he would feel slightly more comfortable being close to me, but I was willing to wait however long it took.

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