AMELIA’S P.O.V

I planned to stay indoors for the rest of the day when I heard a knock. I went to check only to see Clara standing there with a small picnic basket in her hands and a smile on her face. When I looked down and saw her barefooted, I shook my head at her. I leaned against the doorframe with a small smile as I watched her.


“To what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked and she stretched out the basket to me as if it was an answer.

“I thought maybe we could spend some time together in the woods. What do you think? Caleb says that the rogues have basically disappeared so we have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not sure,” I began but she shook her head.


“I’m not taking no for an answer,” she cut me off as she began pulling me towards the back of the house. “We haven’t spent any time together since all of this happened and I think we need it right now more than ever. What do you think?”

“I think that even if I say no, you will drag me anyway.”


She winked. “You’re a fast learner. I like you.”

She led me towards the woods where she had already set a picnic blanket. She sat down and I hesitated for a second before deciding to fuck it. I took my shoes off and plopped down next to her. She clapped in glee and took out the contents of the basket. There were pies and cakes with scones and tarts. My nose was overwhelmed by the scents and I felt my stomach grumble. I reached out for a scone before I could stop myself.

Clara whistled and birds came flying out of the trees. They settled all around us and I reached out to stroke the beak of the one closest to me. I looked up to find her smiling down at me with a swallow perched on her index finger.

“I had completely forgotten that you could do this,” I whispered. It didn’t matter that I had seen it before, I was still amazed that she had such power. “You don’t use it often.”

“I do, actually, more times than you would think. The birds are connected to me and sometimes they show me things without me asking. I get various messages from them daily and sometimes if I am not paying enough attention, my mind can slip and I go into a bird’s mind.”

“Is that scary?” I asked but she shook her head.

“It was at first but now I am used to it. They are basically an extension of myself. I wouldn’t fear myself so I wouldn’t fear them,” she exclaimed and I watched as she broke off a piece of cake and scattered it around for them. “They told me something very interesting yesterday.”

I stilled because there was a lot they could have told her. Instead of possibly incriminating myself, I shoved an entire tea cake into my mouth. She shook her head with a small smile on her face almost as if she had expected that response from me.

”Why were you with Aiden, Amelia?” she asked but I stayed silent. “He is bad news. I am sure you know that. The birds tell me tried to follow him after he left abruptly but they couldn’t get much from him. He was careful to avoid them.”

“It was just a talk, relax. You don’t have anything to worry about. We should be more concerned about Kaden and Nadine.”

Clara sighed. “I don’t want to talk about them today. You have spent the past few days worried about it. Can we talk about something else?”

“What could possibly be as important as that? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but that is the only thing happening right npw.”

“What about the mate bond? You wanted to break it but you suddenly forgot about it. Did you find anything on it?” she asked but I shook my head. The truth was that I had never gotten around to looking through the books and scrolls due to how quickly everything changed. “You should really look into it. By the time everything settles, you might want to break the bond immediately so it doesn’t present problems for you and Kaden.”

“We have to make sure that there is still a mating ceremony to plan,” I muttered and she shot me a look. I raised my hands in surrender. “I was just joking. You need to relax, Clara.”

“It wasn’t a very funny joke, Amelia. This is real.”

“I’m sorry, okay? I cope using humor. I think we should forget about everything for now and do something fun.”

“I agree,” she mumbled as she wracked her brain for what we could do. At the last minute, she snapped her fingers. “There is a stream not far from here. We could go for a swim. What do you think?”

“Lead the way.”

It really was fun to just unwind and swim laps with Clara. She was surprisingly a good swimmer and she even managed to convince some of the birds to stay by the edge of the water where we could pet them. We swam until our skin pruned and we were shivering from the oncoming cold. By the time we dragged ourselves out, the sun was setting and we had to run back towards our clothes to prevent from freezing.

We rushed into the house to take a shower and Clara took the guest room. After I was done, I went down to pack up what was left of the picnic and was returning to the house when I saw a car pull up. I recognized it immediately as Ian’s and my brows furrowed because I had no idea what he was doing here.

“Hi,” he called out when he parked and I waved. “Were you on a date? I hope I didn’t really bother you.”

“Not at all, it was Clara and I. She just went in to clean up. What brings you here today? We are supposed to meet tomorrow right?”

“Yeah, tomorrow is still on. I just saw your water bottle in my car and I thought I should bring it for you,” he held out my grey sports bottle and I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn’t sure how I managed to lose it and not realize but I felt immense relief because I would have been freaking out tomorrow.

“Thank you so much, you have no idea how grateful I am for this,” I reached out to grab it and held it close to my chest. “I am really sorry that you had to drive out of your way in order to return it to me. You could have just waited until tomorrow.”

“it’s no problem, besides, it gave me a chance to see you and find out how you were doing.”

“I’m great, thank you, once again.”

He waved me off and opened his mouth to speak when the door behind us opened. Clara walked out in clean clothes and she took in the scene in front of her with a frown. She walked over to us and hooked her arm into mine almost possessively which I found extremely weird because that was not her nature.

“Ian, right?” Clara asked and he nodded. “I recognize you. You train the teenagers and you work directly under my brother. What are you doing here?”

“Yes ma’am, the Beta is in charge of my squad and I just came to drop something off for Amelia.”

“Thank you, we are very grateful,” her tone was almost dismissive and I turned to her with wide eyes. There was no reason for her to be so rude when he was just trying to help. She ignored me and continued speaking. “It was good of you to stop by. We are going back in now.”

“Of course, I’ll see you tomorrow, Amelia.”

He started the car and drove off without another word. I waved goodbye hoping that he wouldn’t cancel because of Clara’s rudeness. Training with him was one of the few times I managed to calm down and I didn’t want her to ruin that. I waited until the car had disappeared before I turned on her.

“What was that?” I asked and she shrugged. She made to leave but I grabbed her arm. “Clara, you were rude to someone who went out of their way to help me. That was not cool at all.”

“He was in your house very late in the evening while you were home alone. It is natural for me to worry about his intentions.”

“He is my trainer and he would never dare do that to Kaden. He wouldn’t put his job at risk like that.”

“Are you sure?” she asked and I nodded. “Then what did he mean by he would see you tomorrow? That sounded very personal.”

“We have training tomorrow!” I all but yelled.

I wasn’t sure why I lied but in that moment, it felt like the right thing. If I told Clara the full truth that he had offered to help me train my wolf out of hours then she was going to lose her mind and I knew it wouldn’t go over well. Even with what I said, I could still see some doubts in her eyes. I realized it was about more than Ian so I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Why don’t you tell me what this truly is, hm? Is it me that you don’t trust? Is this because I went out with Aiden?”

“I am just trying to look out for you.”

Her lack of an answer was answer enough and I ran my hands through my hair before grabbing both of her shoulders.

“I will not cheat on Kaden for whatsoever reason and I need you to believe that. I need you to trust me.”

“I do trust you,” she admitted after a long beat of silence. “Perhaps I just got a little overprotective. I should get going. Maybe a nap will change things.”

I pulled her into a hug. “Thank you for coming here in the first place. I had so much fun. We should do it again sometimes.”

“We will and you can have all the snacks that we didn’t eat. The goddess knows that there are tons more at home that grandma made.”

I laughed and thanked her again. I watched as she drove off into the night leaving me in the silent house. I let out a heavy exhale and went back in. I had just finished arranging the pastries and getting ready for bed when my phone buzzed. It was an incoming call from an unknown number. I hesitated for a second before picking up.

“Hello,” I began hesitantly.

“Amelia, hi, I got your number from the signup sheet for my class that the Alpha filled out for you,” it was Ian and I let out a sigh of relief once I realized.

“Oh, that’s fine. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, but I won’t be able to make it tomorrow. I have some last minute work to attend to.”

I tried to hide my disappointment. “It’s okay, what about the day after?”

“That’s the issue, I won’t be free for the next week.”