"What? No big argument then?"

"No."

"No screaming match?"

"Nope."

"No angry sex?"

"I wish."

"What?"

"Nothing," I quickly recovered from my own bluntness watching Jack's face morph into one of confusion. I wasn't positive whether it was because he hadn't heard me clearly or because he had heard me too clearly, but either way, I recovered. "I've decided that it is in my best interest to accept what is. Besides, it's a lot less work for me to protect myself if I'm here. Freaking ten year olds want me dead. Can you believe it? Pups," I scoffed making up some lame excuse. I was still working on the whole accepting thing, so for now I was just making small, little excuses as to why I chose to stick around.

Jack and I were now on speaking terms. To say I was happy about it would be an understatement. It lifted a heavy weight off of my chest that I hadn't even realized was a possibility for me to have to be able to talk to the one person that I now consider a friend since I don't really have any connection to Hayden or Dallas anymore.

He was still trying to apologize about bringing up my parents. I just told him to shut up and acted like it didn't bother me anymore. Truthfully, it did, a lot, but there was absolutely no way I was going to show weakness pertaining to my parents again.

It made me cringe every time I think back to it.

Daniella has been acting like the conversation we had never even took place. I'm not really bothered by it, though. I don't really expect too much from her as it is.

Matteo and I—well—there's not exactly much to tell. We ended up just standing in the hallway for what felt like hours just wrapped in each other's arms. I'm positive that I couldn't count how many times he muffled out 'I'm sorry' and 'I'd never mean it' into my hair as he held me against his strong chest with those thick arms of his.

A part of me just felt flat out weird for not starting an argument with him or blaming him for everything that had happened. I wanted to tell him how stupid, hurtful, and insensitive he had been because I was just trying to help, but something else inside of me overpowered all of that. Something kept me anchored to Matteo and refused to say anything other than 'it's okay' and 'I know'.

After our much needed embrace, I forced Matteo to go get a shower even though he didn't want to leave me in fear that I'd run again. After telling him how much of an idiot he sounded, he eventually agreed to a shower once I'd promised to make him something to eat.

Neither of us said a word to each other as Matteo ate his dinner which consisted of a ham sandwich and some french fries for fear of starting another fight. Instead, we just sat at the island enjoying each other's company.

The silence continued until we went to bed directly after he had finished his meal. It only broke when Matteo whispered a tired 'I'm not letting you leave me, again' to my half-asleep self. The possessiveness in his tone and gestures as his arms tightened around my torso which I had willingly allowed myself to cuddle up next to him and his lips placing a soft kiss to the crown of my head brought a smile to my face.

It felt good to feel wanted, to feel cared for. It brought a warmth in my chest that I hadn't felt in a while, but it was especially peculiar due to the warm, sparking sensation that occurred between Matteo and I as we touched. It just made it seem so much better.

The mate bond works in some mysterious ways.

I woke up to be greeted by Jack and not Matteo. My exact words to the blonde-haired boy standing in my doorway were, "is there a reason you're watching me sleep, or are you just into that kind of stuff?" earning me the weirdest look of a life time and a rapid fire of sorry's from Jack. Like I had said, I shrugged them off telling him that I was over it.

I wasn't exactly pleased that Matteo had left before I woke up, though. I couldn't find a single reason why we seemed to be compatible. In my opinion, we really weren't. We could barely get along unless we weren't speaking to one another. I just wanted to wake up and have him tell me "good morning" while we were in bed for once.

"What did you do that put you on the Werewolves' Most Hunted list, anyway?" Jack asked as I slurped down my Go-gurt.

"Really? Werewolves' Most Hunted?"

"Yeah, it's funny."

"It's lame, and I didn't do anything," I defended standing up to throw away my wrapper. "I'm just a bit more outgoing than most rogues, so my face tends to be a familiar one to most."

"Uh huh. I'll take your word for it," Jack said seemingly unconvinced. I just rolled my eyes and walked out of the kitchen. "Where are you going?"

"Gonna go have some angry sex. Feel free to join," I shouted back, not caring who heard me in the process.

"Oh my God! I didn't need to know that!" I chose to ignore Jack's comment with a small chuckle. I was grateful that Jack had stopped apologizing and was acting like his normal self again. It's made staying here much easier for me.

I leisurely made my way down the hall to Matteo's office. As normal, pack wolves stood at attention as I walked past them. I knew it probably wasn't out of respect for me seeing as how I hadn't done anything to earn their respect. It was most likely out of respect for their Alpha, Matteo.

I came up to the familiar door that I had both good and bad experiences walking through. I was about to just twist the knob and walk in, but I stopped myself.

"Knock first," I mumbled to myself before removing my hand from the doorknob. I curled my fingers into a fist and knocked on the cool wood with my knuckles. I thought I knocked lightly, but the knock ended up sounding quite violent.

I was really trying to level with Matteo here. Trying to fit into the pack house was hard, so it wasn't really in my agenda at this point. I did feel bad, though. I had most likely caused Matteo a world of hell ever since I showed up here. The least I could do is knock for once instead of just barging in and interrupting him.

"I'm coming in," I stated, not really giving him and option. Before he had time to reply, I had the door open.

Our eyes connected immediately. I could easily spot the confusion in them, but it quickly vanished as his face morphed into a sorry expression.

"Listen, Kai, I really am sorry. I just—" he began to say, but I put my hand up, shushing his words.

"I don't want to hear it," I interrupted him. "Seriously, I just want to forget it even happened." I turned and closed the heavy door behind me. As I turned back around, Matteo had moved from his swivel chair at his desk to stand in front of me.

For once, Matteo didn't seem mad or annoyed in my presence. His jaw was slack and a small frown graced his handsome features.

"But—"

"What were you doing?" I interrupted him again. I diverted my gaze to his desk causing him to turn to look at what I was focused on. I wasn't actually looking at anything specific. I was just trying to avoid another argument.

"Uh, paperwork," he drug out, looking back at me with furrowed brows.

"I can help," I chimed which, by the look on his face, I'd say took him by surprise.

"You want to?"

"I mean if you don't want me to, I don't have to. I just figured I'd offer," I grumbled.

"No, you can help," Matteo said seeming very unsure of what he was agreeing to.

Geez, dude. It's not like you're handing over our first born child.

Matteo lead me over to his desk. I was going to grab my own chair to sit down on from the other side of his desk, but he pulled me down onto his lap instead.

"Hmm, grabby," I commented staring down at his large hands holding me down by my hips.

I could only imagine what those hands would feel like all over my body if we were naked—

"I enjoy being able to hold what's mine," Matteo stated simply.

It's not that I enjoy being seen as Matteo's possession, but the room got about ten degrees hotter for me after he said that.

Maybe it got hotter for him too?

Maybe he should take his shirt off? Maybe I should? Maybe we should just both get naked?

Hmm, possibilities.

"So, what am I doing?" I asked,
trying to push my inner-slut to the back of my mind. Matteo pulled out a stack of papers and placed them in front of me. I'm pretty sure I visibly paled.

I really didn't think this one through.

"Just separate the ones that I need to read over and sign from the ones that I don't." He said it as though it was the simplest thing in the world, but I was panicking on the inside.

"How do I know that?" I asked, staring down at all of the big words on the first document.

'Something something the something with a something.'

"It'll say that it calls for a signature. Just skim through them. I'll double check later," Matteo advised absentmindedly as he started writing some numbers on a piece of paper.

Signature. That word has a 'g' in it right?

After about an hour, I finally split up all the papers into two piles. Let me just say, I wanted to do a cross between rip my hair out and cry by the end of it. I had to do a lot of frustrating things in my life, but that by far was the worst.

"Uh, I'm done," I said much quieter than normal. If Matteo noticed it, he didn't make it apparent. He just looked over at the two piles and shot me a small smile. "These ones are the ones that you need to sign," I motioned toward the pile to my right which was closest to Matteo. Without a word, he picked up the first paper and read it over. His brows slowly knit together causing me to start gnawing on the inside of my bottom lip.

When he flipped the paper over just to be greeted by a blank, white sheet of paper that's when I started to die a little bit inside.

I was embarrassed, so embarrassed.

"Can you tell me where it says to sign this?" Matteo asked as his eyes scanned over the paper once again.

"Um, yeah. Right there," I said pointing to a word that I thought said 'signature'. Matteo just became even more confused as his eyes moved from the word on the paper to my face which was no doubt either ghostly white or as red as the blood of the various people that I've killed.

"Kai, that says significantly." I was closer than I thought!

"Oh, my bad. I must have read it wrong," I laughed it off. Matteo just shook his head at me, but I caught the little smile blossoming on his face as he took another paper from the pile. Again, he became confused. He didn't say anything, though. Instead, he placed the paper down and picked up another one just to have the same expression.

"Are you sure this is the right pile?" His beautifully dark eyes looked up to greet mine.

"Um, yeah," I stuttered as I looked down at the desk.

I hate myself. I hate myself. I hate myself.

I was too embarrassed to even look at him.

"Kaia, can you read this sentence right here?" Matteo asked. My heart raced rapidly, and I cursed Matteo's entire existence in that moment.

What was I thinking helping him with paperwork?

I raised my eyes from the desk to look at the sentence that Matteo was pointing to. I refused to look at Matteo. He was probably going to laugh at me or yell at me like my dad used to.

"Well," I started, taking in a deep breath preparing for my impending doom, "the..." I froze. I literally got one word in, and I froze.

Lots of letters.

I tried sounding it out in my head, but there were just too many letters. The more I stared at it, the more confused I got. Do two r's make one 'r' sound or do they make two separate sounds? Am I supposed to pronounce the 'e' or is it silent? Wait, no. Isn't that just when it's at the end?

"Apparent?" I asked slowly, already knowing I wasn't right. There wasn't even a 'p' in the word I was looking at.

"Arrangement. It says arrangement." I cringed immediately.

This was embarrassing. I just stayed silent staring down at the paper. I wanted to get up and leave, but something inside of me held me in my place. It kept me from leaving this very awful situation.

At least Matteo and I weren't fighting, though. That was definitely a plus.

"Kaia, do you not know how to read?" Again, cringe. Slowly, I shook my head.

"Or write," I mumbled.

"Didn't you go to school?" Again, I shook my head.

"My dad said I'd never do anything in my life that would make it necessary." Harsh but true. My dad had drilled into the minds of my brother and I that we didn't have any other future than being rogues. He said that's all that we were good for, but he only did it to make us better. He just wanted us to be the toughest wolves possible.

"Sounds like a prick," Matteo commented harshly. He obviously didn't like my dad now.

"He wasn't a prick," I argued. "He just didn't expect a lot from us with stuff like that."

"Look at me," Matteo ordered. I could tell he was trying to say it softly which was something I'd never really experienced him do before. It wasn't the softest thing in the world. It still came out pretty stern, but I let it go. I wasn't starting a fight. Matteo's hand came under my chin forcing me to look up at him. I expected him to look just a little disappointed, but he just looked kind of stoic. I couldn't really read him. "Don't beat yourself up over this. It's not worth it."

"It's embarrassing," I pouted like a five year old. Embarrassing was an understatement at this point. My pride was being pulverized. "I'm a nineteen year old who can't recognize the word agreement."

"Arrangement," Matteo corrected, making my frown deepen.

"Yea, thanks," I grunted. 

I knew Matteo was at a loss of words at this point. I didn't blame him. I wouldn't know what to say to him if our places were switched. I'm sure he's trying not to start an argument just as much as I was.

I was about to get up and just leave while I still had a little teeny tiny bit of my pride left when Matteo leaned in and brought his lips to mine. It took me by surprise at first, but I melted into him after a second. His left hand gripped my side and pulled me closer to him as his right hand held my chin keeping my face exactly where he wanted it.

I was undoubtedly falling deeper and deeper into this whole mate mess, and, right now, I couldn't possibly care less.

If only we could stay like this forever.
_______

This chapter has been done for like four days hahahahahahahahaha sorry

Hasta la pasta 6/2/17