My Heart's Desire

Chapter 21- Last day

My Heart’s Desire © (Werewolf Romance)

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Chapter 21

The next day there were people trying to get everything collected.  All of them were leaving that day, so it was hard walking down the hall without bumping into someone. Worst of all, it was only six in the morning. A lot of them had early flights or a long road ahead so they wanted to leave as soon as possible. So Marie decided to play it safe and sit on the couch to watch bustling of people.  It’s not like she could fall back asleep with the noise being produced.

Ralph was on the couch next to her with his back against the arm rest and his legs extended across the couch and onto Marie’s lap.

“This is highly amusing,” he commented as he watched a woman snap at her mate for dropping her bag of makeup.

Marie giggled and nodded in agreement. Noah happened to walk by the living room holding their luggage and raised a brow at her.  She saw the stirring of jealousy as his face examined her and Ralph’s position, so she sent him a kiss.

That had him smiling and continuing oh his way.

“Are you almost done packing?”  Ralph asked lazily.

“Yeah, I did it yesterday. I was waiting for the crowd to lessen to bring down our stuff and place it in the car. I assume Noah wanted to get it over with though.”  A couple minutes later, Noah came back in through the door and plopped down on a recliner that was perpendicular to her couch.

Noah blew out a loud puff of air and pulled the lever to bring up the foot rest.  Ralph swung his head slowly in his direction. “Tired?”

Noah nodded, “Yeah, if you think it’s bad in here, you have a whole other thing coming once you step foot out there.  Everyone haphazardly parked their cars on the lawn and I had to dodge so many people from knocking me over, it’s not even funny.”

Marie laughed at Noah’s words and continued people watching with her boyfriend and her best friend.  She was sad the time to leave arrived so quickly. At the beginning she was scared, nervous but excited to finally see all her friends. Now that she had spent time catching up with everyone and feeling how it felt to have more than person caring for you and surrounding you with their love and friendship; she was going to miss it. Miss it so much that her heart ached at having to part ways with them.  The bright side of this was that she was going to keep in contact with them. It felt like a breath of fresh air and a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders when she reconciled with her friends.

Even though nothing significant had happened besides finding out her best friend Marissa was pregnant and having Tristan show up and shake her relationship. Everything else was as normal as the sun coming up every morning.  Marie had decided that Noah didn’t deserve to be hurt over her indecision. He had loved her unconditionally and treated her the way a man was supposed to treat his woman.

No, she could never leave Noah for another man. Marie wanted Noah to be happy with her whole heart because of everything he did for her and his happiness was her. How long his love for her would last was a mystery but she was sure it was a forever type of love.

 So she wasn’t going to leave him and it wasn’t a sacrifice to Marie, because she truly loved him too.  If he ever decided that his happiness was else where she would let him go. If his love for her diminished she would let him go. If Noah ever decided she wasn’t worth it anymore then she would deal with it. Not because she hoped for it to happen, or given the freedom she would return to Tristan. No, she wanted Tristan to find his own happiness.

She wasn’t selfish enough to ask him to wait for her, for something that might never happen. He had his mate by marking and family back home.  Tristan had a pack to run and she wasn’t going to subject all his people with having only an Alpha to rule them. She couldn’t ask him to end his bond with that other lady and wait for her.

She loved Tristan, she still does, but Marie isn’t in love with him. Tristan was her mate and will always be a huge part of her life. She doesn’t know if her relationship with Noah would last, and if it didn’t, it didnt mean Tristan would seek her out. If he did than she didn’t know what was going to happen, whether she would fall in love with him again or not. The night she spent with Tristan was what her heart ached for. It gave her a form of closure she was sure Noah and everyone else would argue.

But Marie wasn’t thinking about that. How could she when she was with Noah? Though the what-if’s sometimes came up she pushed them back.

“Marie?” Ralph dragged out the last syllable and finally caught her attention.

“Sorry, I was day-dreaming.” Marie blushed and shook her head clear.

“We,” Ralph motioned to all her friends that had gathered in the room without her knowing. “Were asking, if you wanted one last dip in the lake. For reals this time, this is the last one!”

The girls laughed and Amy draped her arms around his shoulders. “You’re just trying to keep them here forever, aren’t ya?”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Marie excitedly stood not letting Ralph answer. The men started cheering and they all ran out the back door. Once they reached the lake the girls hit their foreheads.

 “We forgot our swimsuits!” Marissa exclaimed already tearing up.

“Who cares, let’s go in our underwear. It’s practically the same thing!” Marie proceeded to take off her clothes and her girlfriends followed.  Laughing at the catcalls their respective partners were throwing out as they also stripped to their boxers.

They all lined up along the edge of the lake and held hands.

“Ready, one…two…three!” The crowd rushed forward and jumped into the lake. The hot sun blazed down on them as they enjoyed being all together, one last time.

When they got out of the lake around one in the afternoon and lay on the grass. The sun was quickly drying them up and they pulled on their clothes.

Jonathon and Ralph were monkeying around throwing branches at each other and having mini wrestling matches and running away from each other. Marissa, Amy and Marie were chatting away and Noah was silently smiling.

Noah had an arm wrapped around Marie’s shoulders and kissed her head. When they approached the pack house the noise level was significantly lower but still existed. There were people who were staying an extra night or didn’t live to far away. Also, the residents of the pack were still about the premises.

They piled into the kitchen and sat around different counter tops chugging water and laughing loudly. Tristan had walked in and was speaking to Ralph while everyone kept talking like his presence didn’t incommoded Noah immensely.

The front door had remained open as the pack was coming and going constantly. They heard the clicking of heels heading towards them and they all stopped speaking as new scents reached their noses. These scents were different but somehow held a hint of familiarity. There was a scent similar to someone’s she had smelt before, but who?

She looked around at the people in the room and stopped on a face and guessed immediately who these people might be.  

It had to be Noah’s family. She had never met them since they never traveled back here. But Noah’s was frowning, deeply. He sniffed the air and his eyes were glued to the kitchen entrance.  Marie turned to observe her friends and stopped on Tristan’s.

Tristan’s eyes were wide and nervousness was painted on his face. Why were Tristan and Noah acting odd?

The ladies finally stepped through wearing classy designer dresses and carrying expensive purses.  What unsettled Marie was Noah’s reaction.  What the hell was going on?