Not Meant To Be

Chapter 17

This chapter is dedicated to @4avidre

Liam's POV

I took a deep breath of air before I plunged my head into the water again. The cold water felt incredible against my skin and I continued to swim laps in the pool.

It was dark and quiet, just like I wanted it to be. It was almost 2 in the morning and everyone had long gone to bed.

These days I enjoyed the peace, quiet and the solitude the night brought. During the day it was noisy and crowdy. As I promised both Luna and myself I wanted to make a difference so I chose to push myself and make a change in all our lives.

As expected, James and Rosa came up emtpy handed and were quite disturbed and upset at having not been able to come up with a solution to my "problem". I explained everything that happened to them and asked them to please keep it under wraps until Caleb and I make our way forward as mates.

During the time I had completely abandoned my pack, it had grown in numbers. Many found mates, had children and some even asked to be apart of our pack because they felt at home here. I made it a point to meet and see every single pack member. It was a long and tiring three days.

So far I've been making changes to the way our pack would be run. Instead of the Alpha doing all the duties I declared that the Alpha, Beta and Gamma would each take part in the duties set out for the Alpha. My Beta was my brother Hunter who was more than capable of being second in command and of course Maddy was my Gamma, third in command. We each shared the duties, paperwork and day to day running of the pack.

Hunter still worked as a accountant and mostly took on books from larger firms while handling his duties as a Beta. Maddy also kept her job as a social media model and seemed to be doing well for herself. She was beautiful, strong and bold. Qualities that had quite a few men intrested in her.

I decided to start writing poetry again. When I was younger I loved poetry because with so few words one could express so much. I used to write for school and competitions here and there, winning some and losing some. Afterwards I published them online on various free websites and surprisingly I received positive feedback. I started writing again and I completely forgot how much I loved it. Inspiration has just been flowing through me and I feel I may also publish a small collection and maybe make some money out of it.

The Head Warrior was expected to keep up training. Instead of two hours, which honestly I think is nuts, it would be one hour. Fifteen minutes if vigarous training to fight in battle in human form which included weapons , fifteen minutes training to fight in wolf form, fifteen minutes of yoga and fifteen minutes of an intense obstacle course which included rock climbing and occasionally paintball shooting and shooting arrows. The children and teenagers loved this part of the hour and even one kid Thomas begged to make it the whole hour.

We would grow our own crops and vegetables and we would hunt now and then, even if we had to bring our own animals to hunt. I felt that we had become so modernised that we forgot what it was like to actually feel the thrill of catching a kill. Yes there were some, male and female, who could not stomach raw and bloody food but they enjoyed the thrill, excitement and the hunger the pack feels on a hunt.

I stopped swimming after awhile and came to rest on the side of the pool. I crossed my hands and laid my head on them while I thought of all that I've done so far.

It has been quite an eventful two months but the only thing I seemed to be missing was Caleb. After asking me to give him some time he hasn't come back to me. Yet.

We speak every few days and it thrills me to see him smiling again and laughing. Caleb and I seemed to just hit it off again and it was as if we were never apart.

I haven't broached the topic of us as mates and asked him when is he coming back because I figured he needed time. He needed to accept it on his own and then he'll come to me.

It wasn't easy knowing the one you thought was your mate is actually the man who committed the utmost of heinous attacks and done the unthinkable. He needed to accept that Daniaal didn't even regret what he did and from the look of hatred on his face whenever he saw me didn't leave a doubt that he would do it again if he could.

I haven't done anything to Daniaal either. Oh how I wish I could strangle that fucker until his face turns purple while I claw that cold unbeating heart from his chest, I couldn't do that to Caleb. I promised him that we would make the decision together and he needed to tell me what he wanted done.

I wasn't a murderer at all but when someone takes what's mine and tries to make it theirs I'll damn murder him.

My family and I all had a long conversation about what happened that night. I explained everything that Luna revealed to me and what I remember from that night and Papa was shocked. He was completely seething and was already storming out of the house to kill Daniaal himself with all of Dad's support. Dad always hated him and he had good reason to. Pops only stopped when I said that it was mine and Caleb's decision to decide what to do with him.

I also had a long conversation with Caleb about what happened that night. He was shocked, hurt and upset. We spoke in detail of what we felt about it but again he needed space to take it all in.

It seems like Caleb and I can never get a rest and just be together. First it was my depression and anxiety, which he helped me through, then it was learning we were not mates, then Caleb meeting his mate and my complete breakdown at him not even being there for me to call let alone love, then learning we were mates all along and that somebody's jealousy and hatred tore us apart.

Our love was sure as hell not easy.

"Hey." I heard a male voice say softly and I glanced up. I was so consumed in my thoughts I didn't even hear him walk into the summing pool building.

We had a building which just had an Olympic size swimming pool to cater for all of us. The shallow end was large for the kiddies and the deep end went to about 5 feet. There were some detachable slides that ran into the pool as well as a few diving boards.

"Hi." I replied softly.

He was so beautiful. Glowing dark skin and stunning eyes that never failed to make me lose my breath. His hair cut short and he had those silver studs in his eyes that made me hot. I was always a sucker for his earrings. He wore loose fitting grey sweatpants and a t - shirt. He was barefeet and even in comfortable clothes he looked hot. He always made me starstruck and all doe eyed.

Caleb.