I walked back into the house, tired as ever from working at the hospital. Today I made sure to meet the other doctors and nurses there and apologized to them for my intrusion yesterday. They all were sweet about it and told me they understood.

"Oh, honey," Jayden welcomed me with open arms as I walked into the dining room. I hugged him back, needing the comfort from my brother. We used to be so close and ever since the whole beta thing, we both have been busy. "I'm fine, just hungry," I half lied to him, pulling myself out of the hug.

"Let's eat," Evander's voice entered the room, landing on me right away. As expected, William's seat was empty since he was still at the hospital with his mate. In fact, all day he has been on a run after she said she didn't want to speak to him. He seemed infuriated and scared that he lost it and shifted immediately.

We all sat down, Renee beside me and Evander on the other side. "How is Will?" Brandon asked first making me sigh. "Not good, he's trying to distract himself," I say and he frowns. "What about Everest? How is the investigation going?" Kira asked.

I bite my lip when I left his hand on my inner thigh, seeking comfort. My other hand that wasn't holding the spoon and rested on my upper thigh slid down to hold his hand with mine. "I finally realized why she wasn't healing as she should. There is gasoline in her system as well as wolfsbane which explains why she puked three times today. There is only so much I can do to get it out of her system," I frowned, remembering her face that told me she wanted to die. She looked like she didn't want to suffer anymore but she is making progress.

"The investigation is at a dead-end, She's not talking about what happened and we can't force her. Her parent's cabin is completely empty. No one has been there for weeks," Evander answered the second question. White was purring at the sound of his voice.

"On to better things, the rogues have learned to back the hell off, there are no signs of them," Brandon smirked. Evander and I looked at each other, knowing very well that Jessie listened to us when we told them to stop trying to attack. Tomorrow my father would be leaving the pack and Jessie would be taking him home. When I returned home yesterday we had dinner together at ten in the night and we got to talk alone. "Fantastic," Evander smiled.

The thought of the rogues attacking another pack with those silver bullets made me unsettled. The movements of his thumb rubbing my hand pulled me out of my thoughts and I started to pick up my eating again.

"So girls, I was thinking before you leave we should have a girls' day," Kira spoke, grabbing Rene and I's attention. "Who said anything about leaving? William's mate isn't recovered as yet," Evander objected.

I bite my lip, not knowing how to reply to that. I gave his hand a comforting squeeze. "Oh I know that but I'm going to be very busy with training," Kira explained before turning her attention back to us. "What do you say, tomorrow?" She grinned excitedly.

"I have something to do tomorrow, it's very important and I don't think I can leave Everest. Will wouldn't let anyone else near her beside me," I frowned, feeling bad for declining her but tomorrow I had to go take my father to Jessie and I can't hold back on that. "Oh yeah, crap! I totally forgot about that," she frowned in disappointment.

"Can we another time though? Very soon," I tried to assure her.

"Yes, of course!"

The dinner went on, aside from the causal brushing and squeezing of Evander's hand on my thigh everything went normal. When I returned to the guest bedroom, my father was holding a book in his hand. It's been so long since I had my nose stuck in a book.

"Hey, dad," I announced my entrance by knocking on his door. His eyes shot up to mine and he immediately put the book down. The smile on his tired face was obvious. "I don't think I'll get tired of you saying that," he says, making me smile more.

"I won't stop," I assure him," tomorrow we're meeting Jessie in the woods, I'm sure you don't want to stay here and well...Evander can't keep a vampire hidden in a pack of werewolves so you're going to the castle," I explained.

"I understand. I look forward to going but I don't want to stop seeing my beautiful young daughter," he frowned at the sound of never seeing me again. "I'm not going anywhere, dad. I'll get you a phone and whenever you want to meet up we can," I promised.

"Thank God," he grinned. "Please go to bed before I take the book away from you," I change the topic, chuckling at my humor. He rolled his eyes but sighed anyway," I'm going."

_♤_

I found myself in the library after showering. I still wasn't tired. I had so many things on my mind and I needed a distraction to let the sleep in.

His scent hit my nose first and then I heard his heartbeat but I didn't take my eyes away from the book. "You really like reading, don't you," Evander realized even though he already knew it. He walked further into the library and shut the door behind him. I don't even look up from the book since I was so captivated in finding out how Laura, the girl in the book I was reading, would react to Ethan, her crush since middle school, finally kissing her.

"Yeah, it's like going into another dimension and sometimes you're turned into someone else, reading their lives as it happens," I replied, not taking my eyes out of the book. I stand up, ready to put the book away since it was getting very late in the night. "What's it about?" He continued to ask.

"It's a romance novel, it's their first kiss," I mumbled, my eyes reading every single word printed into the pages. Just as I read the last word, Evander took the book out of my hands and placed it onto the table behind me.

His eyes were the first thing I saw but his eyes were on my lips. Nervousness rushed to me, causing me to bite my lip. "So how does it happen?" He asked, looking up to my eyes and I feel his hands brush my hips as I'm pressed to the table.

"She is compelled by his look, as something changed in them and they couldn't look away from each other. He wanted nothing more than to touch her so he pushed away the hair blocking her eyes that he loved so much," I answered confidently. Evander gave me a short nod, not taking his eyes off me as he brought his hand up to my face, tucking the hair blocking part of my eyes behind my ear.

"Like this?" He asked and I nod. "What next?" He asked softly. "She placed her hands on his chest, like this," my hands rise to press flatly on his chest," she didn't want him to leave but was too shy to say so," I spoke. "What next?" He asked, looking around my face, taking in every single detail I had to offer. Evander licked his lips, tracing his bottom lip with his tongue as he looked deeply at me.

God, his lips.

"He placed her up on the table, wanting to feel her as close as possible with her each of her legs at the side of him," I continued. His hands slid down my body slowly, feeling my curves with his eyes never leaving mine. His large hands gripped my waist as he lifted me up onto the table. A squeal left my lips as it happened, I laughed along with Evander, throwing my arms on his shoulders.

"What next?" He asked after his smile faltered with intensity in her eyes. "He leaned in slowly, giving her every opportunity for her to stop them but she wanted him to so neither of them stops the collision," I answered. At this point, I was desperately trying to remember that amazing scene from the book. I just wanted him to kiss me already. His grip on my waist tightened as he leaned in and like magnets, my head inched closer. My eyes finally felt his darken brown ones and onto his pink lips that were just begging to be kissed. The thought of kissing Evander sped up my heart and did bad things to my stomach.

As our lips collided, I felt it all.

The rush of emotions like a tsunami running down the sensitive areas in my body starting from my chest. I moaned into his lips at the sensitive contact, shutting my eyes and kissing him back like it was even an option. He kissed me slow and tender, with so much lust and passion. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly as our lips produced that foreign feeling and I wondered how I went all along without this. My hands wrap around his neck, bringing him closer as his hand that remained on my waist slid around my back to press us closer together.

I don't know how long it was before his tongue glides across my bottom lip. It was a common way of asking for an entrance but when he does it, it feels so foreign and magical. As he does so, the bubble of fireworks kept exploding. He makes my body feel things that I've never felt before. He adds flame to the fire below my skin as his tongue claimed my mouth. His tongue relaxes as it slid on my own and I felt the need to melt into a puddle right there.

I pull away, panting like an idiot for oxygen with our foreheads pressed against each other until he slid down, resting his head on my shoulder. I felt his hands sliding up my back as he leaned into me more. "Goddess, you keep surprising me every time, you know that?" He asked, the breath of his words hitting my neck. I tightened my grip around his torso which is where they ended up, as he says that, taking my breath away.

"That was..." I tried collecting my words, replaying the kiss over and over but no word could explain how much that kiss ruined me.

It ruined me because now I never wanted to stop kissing him.

"I know," I hear him say, kissing my shoulder at the same time.