Dusk

Chapter 7- Distance

It's been four days, twenty-three hours, and twelve minutes since I left my heart in Greece. The sound of the waves that lured me to sleep, the feel of the wind, and the happy people all stole my heart. But the holder of my heart is none other than my King. Della reminded me nearly every minute how wrong it is to be away from our mate

The only advantage to being away from Alec is us slowing to mating process. There's no doubt in my mind that if I would have stayed there then I would be marked in less than a week of knowing him. That would have been at longest... Della was the horny little mutt I'd never seen before that last night before we left. Alec and I both almost lost control of our wolves and I was almost mated.

I woke up early this morning and got dressed in a pair of burgundy jeans with a cream colored short sleeve shirt. I teased the roots of my hair and rolled the ends into a headband. I went with a very neutral makeup look and looked in the mirror. I missed Alec. Sitting on my bed, I pull on some leather booties completing my outfit.

I grab a muffin from the counter and drank some orange juice. "Morning," Gia chirps. I reply and smile softly at her. I pass her a muffin and slide a bottle of juice in front of her. "Only two weeks left at work. Are you excited?"

"I'm sad to leave my kids but I'm ready to go back to Alec. My wolf has cried a lot. She keeps telling me to just leave but I haven't really even told my parents yet. "

"You'll be alright. It's just another two and a half weeks and then you can go back. At least you'll get to tell everyone goodbye in time. Besides I'm tired of looking at your ass moping around like you did the first time Della lost control and killed a rabbit for dinner." The smile on my lips grows bigger as I shove her shoulder back causing her to laugh. "You'll be alright, sis."

I nod and hug her goodbye. I drive to the school where I work with the special needs children. I take a deep breath as I walk inside. My heart leaps as one of my favorite students runs to me. Peyton is fifteen years old and has down syndrome but she is one of the sharpest people I have ever met. "Phia!" She hollers. I open my arms and hug her as she gets closer.

"Are you ready for your reading test today, Peyton?" I ask. She just wrinkles her nose at me and pulls me along. I laugh softly as we walk into my classroom. A few other students greet me and some just continue doing whatever they do.

My work friend Brittany comes up to me. "So you're working on reading today with Peyton, Chance, Zane, Trina, Rose, and Ethan right?"

"Yes that has been the plan. I'm going to work on patterns in sounds. You have the others in math right?" She just nods and we high five. I gather my kids and take them to a smaller room with a bigger table.

I write down a few words on the board and I have the kids take turn saying each word. Some of them struggle with the different ending but having similar beginnings. "Okay, Ethan, can you make an "a" sound that kind of sounds like apple. That's how we say words like quack or if you say adverb. Remember we learned what an adverb was a few weeks ago."

As if it were nothing the kids started to throw out different adverbs and I smiled. The kids were very smart but sometimes they had trouble pronouncing things after only seeing the word. They like to use context clues to try to remember things.

Not all of the children have downs syndrome but still struggle with learning at a pace that is normal for kids their own age. I fell in love with a downs syndrome boy I use to babysit. When a lady in my pack suggested I look into working with other special needs student I just fell in love with all of them. I learned speech pathology in college along with a minor in english so that I could not only teach them how to pronounce things but also new words and things that will be beneficial.

At lunch time I sit and eat my pasta bake, thinking how I'm going to pack everything and take it to the airport in a few weeks. What will become of my furniture? A soft ring shoots through the room and I pick up my phone. "Hello?"

"Agápi mou." My heart flutters in my chest.

"Alec," I breathe out. A husky chuckle comes through the line and I swear I become a puddle.

"I missed you, agápi. I think it's time you best come home." HOME. Home is wherever he is and I never would've thought that I would think anywhere else as home. I knew him for two days and he became my home.

"I miss you, too. I still have a few weeks here though and then I'll be back. Della is mad at me." I say chuckling. His deep rumble agrees.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm on my lunch break right now but I have to go back in a couple of minutes. Can I talk to you later?"

"Whatever is best for you my Zinny." I smile softly at the nickname.

"Goodbye, Alec."

"Goodbye, agápi." The line goes dead as I drag my way back into work.

The rest of the day was nearly uneventful. I spent the rest of my day with the kids continuing on the different sounds to help with their speech when they read. The best thing about constantly working while I'm away from Alec is being unable to get distracted by missing him.

After four all of the kids were picked up and taken home. Brittany walked up to me at the end of the day. "So I haven't actually gotten to talk to you since your trip. How'd it go?"

"It was great actually. I'm going to be moving back soon." Her eyes grew large as she stuck her head out at me.

"What?!"

"Yeah... I kinda met someone and we just clicked perfectly. I'm going to be moving to Greece."

"You're shitting me."

"I shit you not my friend." I laughed at her awestruck face.

"Well I'm happy for you but also mad at you for leaving me here! Girl, what am I supposed to do without you?"

"I'm sure you'll be fine Britt."

We grabbed our belongings and walked out to our cars, waving goodbye to each other. Starting my car, the radio blares a popular song and I absentmindedly hum along as I try not to get lost in my thoughts. After being away from Alec I realize that my wolf senses have become dull. As cliche as it sounds, the sun rays are duller, the flowers don't smell as beautiful, and the sound of the birds chirping sounds sad no.

I was slowly becoming miserable.