*****
*Corey*
“No! No! I won’t. Are you crazy? Of course you are! Why do I even bother asking? It shouldn’t even be surprising at this point.” I rolled my eyes watching Jayden rapidly shake his head, “No, Corey. Hell no! No.” He said.
Right, it shouldn’t be surprising given my reckless personality. Did he expect us to go walking or something? There was not much to do in the town except hang out in the forest or at the mall. He was overreacting anyway. He said no alcohol or fake IDs, and this had no alcohol and required no fake IDs. It was also something he had never done before.
“Stop being a wimp.” I frowned at him.
“Wimp? There’s a large difference between being a wimp and being sensible, Corey and right now I think you could really use some sense…” I let the rest of his words drift off so I wasn’t paying attention. Jayden could talk a lot when he was afraid, it was kind of annoying. Usually, he was quite quiet. “There is no way –” before he could finish, I shoved him.
I chuckled as he fell screaming his lungs out. “Hold onto the rope in case the knot unties around your waist! It’s a pretty bad place to fall beneath you!” I shouted, it only freaked him out more.
See, I might have tied him to a rope, tied the other end around a tree and now shoved him off the side of a cliff. It’s kind of like bungee jumping… except without the safety… Oh… Now I realise why he didn’t want to do it.
My eyes widened as I watched him fall, everyone was going to murder me when they found out I did this! And to make matters worse, just as I looked at the tree, the rope slid loose.
I curse as I grabbed it quickly while feeling it tug as Jayden bounced. Even if he got hurt he would heal, right? I would still get a load of crap from everyone though…
“Corey! It’s actually kind of fun!” I heard him shout. I smirked. Of course it was, that was the point. “It’s awesome! Like a swing… Above a river!” He shouted. I chuckled as I stood on the edge of the cliff, the rope secured around my hand. I wouldn’t let it go or let him fall becasue he very was light, but of course he didn’t know that and he didn’t trust me, so seeing the rope around my hand made him go completely ballistic.
“Oh my God! What did you do?! You’re going to kill me! Pull me up! You’re going to cause both our deaths!” He shouted in despair.
I scoffed at his worry. We were werewolves. The worst that could happen would be broken necks. But then again, we could smash our heads on rocks or fall right onto a sharp branch which could stab through our hearts, those of course would result in our deaths.
I looked down at Jayden as he struggled to climb up the side of the cliff and laughed deciding to put him out of his misery and pull him to the top.
As soon as he was safely on the surface of the cliff he tried to shove me, I didn’t move. “I fucking hate you!” He shouted. I laughed grabbing his wrist to stop him from trying to shove me again because it obviously wasn’t working the way he wanted it to. His cold skin sent weird sensations through my hands and once again I found myself wanting to do things I would normally hate myself for even thinking about, but at the moment I was having too much fun to think about what I would normally hate.
“Do you?” I smirked pulling him closer to me. “Do you hate me?” I teased. He glared at me not answering my question and I chuckled. “You had fun. You know that.” I added.
“Whatever.” He shoved me but broke a small smile. “Race you home.” He said.
I snorted. “You can’t be seri –” I stopped when he shifted and ran off. “Jayden!” I called. That idiot. I didn’t think he was serious. I looked at the rope and frowned. Jayden must be one of those people that never cleans up after himself.
I shifted grabbing the rope in my mouth and followed his scent.
—–
*Jayden*
“The peaks are on the others side of a forest, there’s no way we will be able to drive through it. We’ll have to leave the car somewhere and walk from there.” Kaden said looking up from the map.
“Walk? Haven’t you heard the rumours about the forest that surrounds the peak?” Hayley asked.
“Those are only rumours, Hay,” Sean said.
“That’s what you think, but people have died there and seen things that don’t exist,” Hayley replied.
“We’ll be fine, if anything happens, we’ll all be there to help each other,” Corey spoke.
I was seated next to him again, except this time there wasn’t a basket of food separating us, Trent held the basket. Corey did not seem to mind the absence of something between us, or he just did not notice. I definitely did not mind it.
“We won’t be able to receive any signal in the forest so we should probably call Joe or –” Sean was saying when Corey’s phone went off.
“Sorry,” He answered it quickly, “You’ve reached the master of all things awesome, what is the reason for this disturbance?” We all chuckled as he spoke but I stopped when I heard a giggle from the speaker.
“Corey, you’re so funny.” Samantha’s voice came through the speaker.
“Oh, hey, Babe.” Corey smiled.
I turned to look out of my window. I didn’t understand. He acted like we were getting somewhere and then… He was just messing with me, constantly and I kept falling for it. I kept hoping he would start liking me back. The most pathetic thing was that I would readily fall for whatever else he would do, despite everything. I just so desperately wanted him to want me.
“I miss you! Why are you taking so long?” She said.
“The car keeps breaking down,” Corey said.
“Well, maybe next time I’ll join you and I’ll be there when the car breaks down?” She said.
“Maybe,” Corey mumbled. I looked at him to see him looking out of the window before I glanced at the rearview mirror to see Sean looking back at his Beta with a smirk.
“Is something wrong? You don’t want to talk to me?” Samantha spoke.
“No, of course not, Babe. I’m just… really tired. We’ve been so busy.” Corey sighed, “Look, I have to go. We’re almost there, I have to call Alpha Ian. I’ll see you when I get back, alright?” He said.
“Uh… Yeah, sure.” She said, “I love you.”
“You too, Babe.” He hung up.
No one said anything. I turned to look down at my own phone as I opened a random game to distract myself from the sudden awkward silence and my own thoughts.
“You’re just the definition of ‘Player’, aren’t you?” Trent smirked looking at Corey who just flipped him off before the pair chuckled.
“Good afternoon, Beta,” Corey spoke into his phone.
The car screeched sending us all crying out as we swung with it as Sean swerved the car off the road before he stepped on the breaks and turned to full-on glare at Corey for calling his father and not Isabella’s father who was the Alpha of their pack. Corey just smirked back.
“Corey, I’m not even going to bother trying to convince you to abandon your ‘quest’. All I’m going to ask is who the hell is driving and are they trying to kill all of you?” Cole said.
“You said I was an awesome driver!” Sean called, outraged.
“And I appear to have been mistaken. Someone switch places before my son kills you.” Cole said. We laughed as Sean frowned.
“I’m doing great though, father. Thank you for asking. No one is hurt.” Sean said.
“I didn’t ask, Sean.” I laughed as Sean rolled his eyes at his father’s answer. Cole chuckled. “You know I’m joking. All of you are alright? No one has died or anything? Joe’s afraid Corey murdered Jayden. Is Jay okay?” Cole chuckled.
“I made him jump off the side of a cliff but he proved to be a die-hard,” Corey replied nonchalantly.
“You did what?!” That was Joe. I decided to add fuel to the fire Corey was making for himself.
“Technically, you tied me to a rope and shoved me off the cliff,” I said.
“What?” That was everyone.
“It was actually quite fun until the rope came loose.” I went on. Corey gave me a side glance with raised eyebrows realising what I was doing and I turned to avoid his eyes by looking out of the window.
“Corey, I swear to God if you hurt –” Joe’s voice came from the phone.
“Relax, Joe,” Corey laughed, “I wouldn’t hurt him, he’s my mate.” I glanced at him when the words left his mouth, and Sean and Trent looked surprised from the front seat but Corey didn’t seem to realise what he had said, “And I won’t push him off cliffs anymore if it makes you feel better.” He added. I chuckled as Joe scowled the same time Cole did.
“Where’s my Alpha?” Joe spoke.
“Asleep. We can’t get him to wake up.” Hayley said. I watched in amusement as she smacked Kaden’s cheek lightly and he still didn’t move.
“Believe me, there’s nothing you can do that is going to wake that kid up. He is exactly like Jay.” Joe said. I frowned as everyone chuckled but I didn’t say anything because it was true. Sometimes it was hard to fall asleep, but it was harder to wake up after I had.
“We’re almost at the last town now, so we’ll have to go. We won’t be able to call you from the forest.” Corey said.
“That forest isn’t normal, Corey. You guys will lose all your werewolf abilities once you’re in it. I suggest you get some kind of weapon.” We heard Marcus.
“You didn’t mention this at home,” Corey said.
“You left without telling anyone. I didn’t think you were seriously going to go.” Marcus said.
“Fine. We’ll figure something out. We’ll call on our way back.” Corey said.
“Back?” Joe spoke.
“Yeah.” After saying goodbye, Corey hung up. “Let’s get to the town.” He said.
“Right.” Sean nodded.
—–
“We leave tomorrow morning at four,” Trent said. Surprisingly, he had been to the town just outside the forest before and he knew someone that lived there. We were sleeping at their house for the night and leaving the car with them until we got back.
“Four?” Kaden groaned. He usually woke up early to train, but Joe gave him some leeway during the holidays and Kaden usually took full advantage of that and slept in as long as he could. The trip we were on seemed to be ruining his holiday sleeping schedule.
“Yes, so set a bomb or something to wake yourself up,” Trent smirked at Kaden who glared back while muttering curse words under his breath before he dropped his head onto the pillow. I chuckled laying down onto my own mattress on the floor.
The house was kind of small and cosy so we were all in their living room sleeping on blankets or mattresses on the floor.
“Hey, thanks for making my bed warm now get out.” I looked up to see Corey staring down at me and frowned.
“It’s my bed,” I said.
“No, it isn’t. You get the blankets over there, move.” He said pointing at the blankets he was talking about and I scoffed.
“I was here first.”
“He was,” Hayley said.
“I carried this here which automatically makes it my bed unless I state otherwise, have I stated otherwise? No. It’s mine.” Corey said.
“That’s true,” Sean commented.
“Yeah? Well you dropped it in the middle of the hallway and I had to drag it here, so technically I brought it in here. By your own logic, it’s mine.” I said giving a smile when Corey clenched his jaw slightly.
“Or you could just share –” Izabella began to suggest.
“No.” Both Corey and I cut her off. “It’s mine. He gets the floor.” I said.
Corey snorted before he fell onto the mattress beside me, I was too surprised by his just flopping onto it to fight back as he shoved me off it and I landed on the wooden floor lightly.
“Mine.” He smirked at me before turning around, his back to me while he shifted slightly to get comfortable.
I frowned sitting up to grab hold of the sheets and pulled them so that he rolled off the bed before I got back into it. I tried to ignore the slightly scary, annoyed growl that came from him while wrapping myself in a blanket. With a sigh, he laid back down beside me crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at the ceiling. There was not much space so his arm was pressed against mine despite both of us being on either edge of the bed.
“It’s a single-person bed,” Sean stated the obvious.
“Tell him to get off then,” Corey said.
I scoffed while rolling onto my side, “You get off.” I shut my eyes.
“Not until tomorrow morning.” He yawned and shifted around a little but didn’t leave.
“There is no hope for you two.” Izabella smiled as she laid down.
I sighed shutting my eyes. There wasn’t, was there? He was too insane to even get off of my mattress. Jerk.
*****
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