Mates with Triplets | book I | 18+ (complete - editing)

Chapter 5 | Leila

Shane parked his truck, his pride and joy, outside of the pack's Tudor-style mansion. To be fair, he had saved up since he was fourteen for it, so I could understand to a degree.

He came around to my side of the car before I had a chance to move and opened the door for me before closing it once more. If I didn't know him better, I would have thought that he was being sweet.

I did though. I knew he was only protecting his car. Cue eye roll. What was it with boys and their toys?

We mad our way to the mansion, then inside. If my uncle's great-great grandfather hadn't made some wise investments in a slew of tech firms like Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Twitter when he was younger we never could have afforded to live here.

I always felt bad for the servants even if they were paid well. I would hate to have to clean this place - just as soon as you finished cleaning you would have to start all over. It was weird living here sometime, like living in a museum.

Even when most of the pack wasn't here the palace was still teeming with servants.

We made our way inside and I ignored the lavish cloak room, more than used to it by now. I quickly took off my cranberry, high heeled boots with blunt, steel spikes embedded in them. My matching leather jacket soon followed. I probably should have dressed warmer but they were just so cute together, I couldn't resist!

"Do you think I'll be in there a while Shane," I asked as I eyed my backpack.

"Probably," he grunted. "Hurry up, will you?"

Sighing yet again, I placed my backpack by my shoes while Zhongshan quickly slid off his shoes, kicking them off into a nearby corner. I rolled my eyes; he was so messy.

One of his dirty boots flew into my backpack, causing it to fall over as the button keeping it closed popped off.

"Great, now look what you did!"

"Leave it, you can fix that later."

"Fine. Can I at least grab my phone? I was supposed to call Leto back after."

"I suppose."

I had just managed to grab my phone when he grabbed my wrist. Considering how angry he had been since we broke up, I was surprised at how gentle he was being now. I looked up to meet his gaze which was already on me.

He looked away, though I could have sworn that his face had gone a few shades darker. "Shane," I whispered. "What happened to us? We were supposed to go back to being friends, not become enemies."

"I know Bella. Goddess, I know, alright," he cried as he dropped my hand to clutch at his hair. "Do you know how hard this is?!"

I took a step back at his tone and the pained expression he now wore.

"But it was your idea Shane. Yours, not mine."

"I know but---"

"You said that what we were doing was wrong, that we should be waiting for our mates. You said you had to concentrate on being Beta. You said that you should be looking for your mate. You said---"

"I know what I said," he roared. He cleared his throat. "I-I mean, I think I was wrong. Don't you Bella? "

"Yeah you're right," I agreed. His face lit up at that. "That's why you were kissing the head cheerleader the week before we broke up, right," I asked as I examined my nails.

"Bella, it's not what it looked like..."

"No? It seems like you were cheating on me before you decided to end our relationship."