Fuel to Fire

chapter eight

AS SOON AS WE left the bakery the sun disappeared and in its place were gray skies and clouds. I had checked the weather this morning and it was supposed to be pretty warm until the sunset. Weird. I snapped out of my thoughts and continued to walk through the main streets of the town. We don't even come in contact with any other paparazzi. It seems Alec's efforts were working. We all stopped in front of a small jewelry shop. There was a beautiful green necklace in the middle of the window. It was perched on a velvet necklace display stand. Alec and I stood outside while Dom and Arden went in. I stayed silent not knowing what to bring up, I didn't even want to think about our situation. Thankfully Alec asked about Dominic.

" He's gotten kind of close to Arden don't you think?"

I nod and motion for us to sit on the bench near us. We both sit down and I say,

"Yeah but you gotta admit the car ride was hilarious. I'd never seen him so nervous. It was cute". It was true, Dominic always had what you called game.

"Do you think he's cute?" A fire lit up in the trash can that was two feet away from us. Okay that was weird.

I nearly spit out the remaining coffee I was trying to run down. I set the cup down and decided how to approach this.

"Well, I guess when I was 14 I had a crush on him for a week because he'd protected me during one of our training sessions. Xavier had been releasing arrows made of wood when I wasn't paying attention. Dominic stepped in front of me and let it slice his arm. After that I thought he was the coolest guy. I got over it because he more of a brother to me".

Alec's eyes lit up at my sentence. We both turned around when the bell above the door rang letting us know Dominic and Arden were done. I saw Dominic give me a signal and I opened our mind link , Now.

He nodded and ushered Arden to another store. I asked Alec if he wanted to walk over to the park and talk.

"I don't know much about you and I think we should get to know each other. We're gonna be spending a lot of time together", and we did. He talked about his biological parents and then the Hale family. He had a pretty rough encounter with the deaths of his parents and was glad Mary and Dorin were there when they were, "I don't know what I would have done if they weren't passing through that day. I probably wouldn't be alive. I owe them everything". I related in the sense that I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have my aunt or Xavier and Dom. The conversation had gotten pretty personal but I knew I had to get to the real stuff. I stayed silent, we both did. It was comfortable, we watched the children run around the park. I finally mustered up the courage to speak again, "Hypothetically, would you be mad if someone kept a secret from you to benefit you?" I was bracing myself for his answer. He took a while to respond, shrugging he said, "Well, no. I guess it'd have to depend on the situation. If the person was just looking out for me then, of course, I'd be mad but I'd appreciate that they thought of me, you know?" He turned away from the kids and faced me instead. His eyes once again calmed me, and I dreaded the words that were about to come out of my mouth. He began to look worried, "Faye? Are you okay? You like really pale right now." I nodded and sat up straight.

"No, I'm gonna call Arden to bring Domin-", he couldn't even finish his sentence when I grabbed his hand. The sparks came back like they did the night of the ball. He was at a loss for words, his breath hitching when I grabbed his other hand.

"We.. Me and you.. We're mates. Wait-" I grimace knowing his next question.

"Did you know? Is that why you were talking about secrets?" He had now stood up and was standing in front of me. The air around us had changed. The wind was now way stronger than before. The longer I took to answer, the more resistant the air became. His eyes held anger, but when we locked eyes, the wind around us began to calm down and so did he.

I grabbed his hand and made him sit down, "When did you know?" His tone was softer and not filled with exasperation.

I spoke softly, "The night you spilled your drink on me. You dragged me to the bathroom and were going to help me clean my dress. I grabbed your wrist to stop you when I felt the sparks. Then my family and your siblings ran in. The only people who know are my aunt, Xavier and Dom. They told me that if I had announced you were my mate everyone would think I was biased when I chose you for pack warrior. You saw today how the press is, I wouldn't doubt if the headlines for the photos they took made me look antagonistic".

He stayed quiet for a while. The silence was not like before. This time I wasn't comfortable.

He hesitated to talk, his voice almost cracking "Is that why you picked me?"

I reached to grab his hand "No no, of course not. You were the only one who passed all the tests. Even if we weren't mates, I still would have picked you. I knew I shouldn't have listened to them."

He turned to face me and his eyes were glowing yellow. I expected him to be angry or something but I didn't think he would have wolfed out.

"I'm not wolfing out, I just have a hard time controlling myself when I feel too much". I instantly thought of my mom and dad. My mother used to always grab his hand and he'd instantly calm down. Without thinking, I look forward and kiss him. He kisses me back, our lips fitting perfectly with each other. I moved away for a second because I thought I had felt a water droplet. We both caught our breath but I gasped when it began to pour. Alec was laughing uncontrollably and the rain began to drop even more intensely and the more Alec laughed the more the rain came. I began to think back at all of the events that happened today. This rain wasn't a coincidence. This was all Alec.