Evaporate

chapter thirty-three.

Thalia's POV

The café has been open for nearly a month and it's already one of the preferred cafés in town. Grayson made a good choice.

But one choice in particular, still bugs me. It's being so close to the pack. The pack is still recovering from the attack that killed Sean and Cameron, and so are we. We are all recovering mentally, emotionally, and some even have physical recovering to continue. We're careful in everything we do now. We've only had one incident since the attack, and it was someone following me in the grocery store two days ago.

I had had enough. It's time to stand up for myself and my family. For our safety. Grayson should be home from the café soon, so I wait.

In the time that I wait, I feed Gracelynn and put her back to bed. Then I change her diaper and put her back to bed again.

I check on Theo, and realize he hasn't done his homework, so I have him do it. In the middle of helping him, Grayson gets home.

Since Theo and I are at the table doing his homework, he immediately goes to us and pulls us both into a hug.

I smile and take in his smell. He smells like coffee and pastries. I almost forget that I need to talk to him.

"Hello my loves." He smiles. "Is Gracie sleeping?"

Theo nods, "She cried a lot today." Grayson frowns, clearly worried.

"Awe, I'm going to check on her real fast." He jogs up, tiny puffs of flour coming off as he does so. I can hear the soft creak of our bedroom door and soon enough Grayson's back.

"She's just fussy today, no fever or anything." He smiles.

"Theo, it's almost bed time, go wash up for bed." I quietly tell Theo. We vowed never to let Theo or Gracie see us argue, ever.

"But I'm not done with homework." He looks at me, concerned.

"We'll wake up extra early to finish it." I assure him with a smile, nudging him to go.

He nods and kisses my cheek before hugging Grayson. "Night mumma, night daddy."

He rushes upstairs after cleaning up and Grayson is clearly confused.

"He doesn't have to go to bed for another 20 minutes, what's wrong?" He asks, sitting where Theo had been.

"We need to talk." I sit back down, next to him.

He nods and leans back, "About what?"

I take a deep breath and then sigh. "I don't want you or our children to be a part of the pack." I bite my lip. His expression is shock at first, then a confused frown takes its place. And finally, it becomes an expected, angry frown.

"Why not? Everything is okay now!" His voice is beginning to fill with anger and rising.

"No it isn't! It will never be okay again! You can't get them back!" I explode, trying to keep my voice level so I don't peak Theo's interest or wake Gracie.

He completely ignores the last sentence. "We're safer now! I've been working on a peace pact." His fists begin to curl. At this point, I know the argument is only going to escalate into yelling, so I pull him into the garage.

"Those don't even work half the time! Have you ever paid attention to a history lesson in your life?!" I demand, spinning around to face him. I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow.

"You don't know how much wolf pacts mean!" He finally yells, waving his arms wildly.

"Really?!" I lowly ask. "Just because I'm human I don't understand?" I take in a sharp breath, my arms falling to my side. "Just how I wouldn't understand why you didn't come back?!" I yell, getting dangerously close to his face.

"Those are two different situations!" He glares down at me.

"Then explain both to me." I cross my arms again, almost defiantly.

"The pact is simple explanation. We honor pacts with our lives." He shrugs, looking off to the side.

"Okay, cool. What about me?" I purse my lips, trying not to give any emotions away with my face. This one will probably hurt.

"You're my mate." He sighs, "It was extremely difficult to be away from you. With every single call, letter, even a single thought about you, I wanted to drop out and come running back to you." He bites his lip. "I could catch your scent on letters and those were the worst..."

"So breaking up was a better option?" My voice falters slightly as the storm in my chest calms into gently vicious winds.

He sighs and runs a hand through his messy locks. "At the time, yes, I thought it was better. I needed to finish university... So I could get you an amazing house... So I could give you the life you deserve..." He's tracing patterns on the floor with his flour covered shoe.

I laugh sarcastically as tears fill my eyes. "Somehow, that's so selfish yet selfless." I admit.

"How the fuck is that selfish?! I did it for you!" He yells. I'm taken aback enough to step backwards and away from him.

"Because while you did that shit, I was forced to go to school year round and work at the same time for our son. You could've gone here like me, but you chose all the fucking way over there!" I yell. All sorts of emotions fill me.

I am emotional while he seems to only know anger. It all seemed so... Messy.

But it was a fucking mess. He was on fire, I was drowning. We clash, and we evaporate. But isn't that just the cycle?

He was the fire and I was the water. We boil and we evaporate.

The cycle. We turn into nothing.

Is that our fate?

Either way, the simple thought of him burns oh so deliciously. His touch melts the world away.

But his love? I willingly allow myself to evaporate.

I'd rather be nothing with him, than be something alone.

He stays silent. With every painfully silent second that passes, I am reduced to nothing.

"You know what? I'm glad you got your degree. You've got your café and it's a huge step in the right direction." I offer a small smile.

He pulls me into a hug and holds me as if I'm the most valuable thing in the world.

"I'm sorry... I just want you to understand so bad. We can't leave the pack. It's where we belong. I promise you we'll be safe, and I promise you the peace pact will work." He mutters softly. I hold him close and nod.

"I still don't like the idea." I sigh. "But we'll see how it goes."

"I love you." He kisses my hair.

"And I love you." I kiss his shoulder. "Let's go to bed, we'll talk about this like civil people tomorrow."

"Okay."

We head up to our room and notice Theo's asleep in our bed. I smile softly and bite my lip.

No matter how terrible things with Grayson get, I still wouldn't change what happened for the world.

I love my children and I love him.