As Hope and Promise Fade

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Ariana had once been told all the answers she was looking for lay hidden within the books. She tried to ignore the fact it was Marc who told her that and it was Marc who had her stuck in the library for the last several hours. The shelves didn't contain all the detailed books he had but she did manage to find some of what she was looking for and remember the rest for what she had read for hours locked in her room years ago.

She knew all about chosen mates because that's what she and Jax were. He had marked her as his mate and that created a bond between the both of them making the love their shared more intense, more consuming, and simply undeniable. They had both tried to push each other away for the better and in the end they both found it wasn't possible. They needed each other; they were better together than they ever were apart.

She hadn't focused too much on true mates because she didn't want to read herself into a frenzy. She always feared Jax could find his true mate and need her more than he'd need Ariana.

She never thought it was her who'd find her true mate. She was human for heaven's sake, why would the world mark her for someone? For Marc of all people?

As she read well into the night she knew there wasn't a doubt.

"You know what this is. You're a smart girl."

"You know the answer."

"You won't understand this and I don't want to explain it because well....I just don't but humor me, yes?"

"Trust me you don't want to know. You're right, you and Jax should be happy together and if you want to keep it that way stop pushing me."

That was the one that sealed the answers for her. Marc had kept going out of his way not to tell her something but also hint she'd know the answers or at least knew how to find them.

She sat back against the floor of the shelves she had been searching through.

Marc Reed was her true mate. What the hell? Why would the world be cruel enough to let her fall in love with Jax only to throw such a huge obstacle their way? Marc was his uncle, someone he loved with his whole heart and admired. It would kill him to find out the truth.

She silently cried there alone on the floor with several different books open at her feet. Books that told her in black little letters that yes her biggest fear was true.

How could she and Jax make it work together with Marc always there on the sidelines?

There were so many questions and no answers. Those books told her nothing about what she had to do next or how to erase Marc from her system. It'd much easier if she didn't actually feel something toward him, if her damn body wouldn't react to his presence and electric touch.

She jumped to her feet and ran to the bathroom before the staff needed a clean up in the history aisle. It was to the point all this stress was making her physically sick.

For a moment she entertained the idea that she could be pregnant after her mother mentioned it but there was no way. Curiosity still won and she had taken a pregnancy test and while it did come back positive it was a false one with false hope. A human and a werewolf couldn't have children. It had never happened and never could.

She threw up the lunch she had consisting of a corn dog and a handful of chips from the vending machine. She had never been the healthiest eater and now away at college and no home cooking her tendencies were much worse.

After washing her hands and rinsing her mouth Ariana went back to put the books away and call it a night. It was already seven o'clock and she still had a report to type but for her microbiology class.

She vowed from that moment on to keep with her original routine and focus on what she was there for in the first place; school. It had been her crutch since she first stepped into a classroom at age five and all these years later it still worked.

Life in the cabin was getting back to the usual everyday business. Nathan was back to staying in his bedroom on the second floor after deciding living with his girlfriend wasn't the best of ideas. She was a clean freak and he was the complete opposite of that.

Calvin was back too after having a blow up with his father after deciding months ago to join the Reed pack instead of being a lone animal like this father and his father before him.

A house full of young men and a seven year old little girl. Marc wondered why he hadn't gone mad years ago.

Calvin and Shelby were arguing over a hidden stash of cookies of all things.

"You can't argue with a little girl nine years younger than you, it's not polite." Marc commented as he sat at the kitchen table and watched them going back and forth with whose fault was what.

Shelby crossed her little chubby arms over her chest. "I'm gonna tell Andy on you and he's gonna kick your butt for stealing my cookies."

"They were mine!"

Her little stance and the beet red color across Calvin's face caused Marc to laugh harder than he had in awhile. "You should see yourself." He said between laughs as Calvin turned murderous brown eyes his way.

"You can't take her side because she's a girl." Calvin complained.

"What's going on?" Nathan strolled into the kitchen and took a seat next to Marc at the table. "Another cookie fight?"

"He stole them." Shelby explained.

Calvin gasped and looked down at her angry stance. "You took them from my room with those grubby little hands."

"Make sure they don't kill each other." Marc advised Nathan before he made a quick exit out the room. From past experiences he knew the argument could go on for hours to come or at least until Andrew got back and paid Calvin the missing cookie money even if the cookies were Shelby's or not. Andrew's best trait was finding a solution rather than standing there to argue.

He went outside to find Jax still working on the brake pads of his car. "We're going to have to line the whole basement with cookies before they bite each others head off." Jax commented, having heard the whole thing from all the way outside. "You missed a call earlier."

Marc stepped frown the porch and closer to the car. "From whom?" if it had been anything of important the person could've called his cellphone.

"Said her name was Bethany, she sounded sexy."

Marc couldn't believe he was thirty and blushing. "I don't need the jokes." He had gone from the womanizer flirt to now the fact he had a date was the biggest talk of the house. Man how the mighty have fallen, he thought.

"I wasn't going to make any."

"So why are you about to laugh?"

"I was thinking about a joke Andrew had told me yesterday. So tell me about her."

"I met her last week when you forced me to get out a live a little. We've been staying in touch." Marc shrugged as if to say to Jax not to read too much into it. He liked Bethany's company but it wasn't anything serious or close to it. They were simply two adults having fun.

"That's a step in the right direction." Jax wanted to be encouraging and supportive.

The nicer Jax got the lower Marc felt for the way he had been lying to him and for the fact even though he was trying like hell he couldn't get Ariana off his mind. He'd call Bethany back and arrange a date in hopes it'd work eventually. "That's what I'm hoping. Need any help here?"