My Own Destiny

Caught Red Handed

I left the library, walking all nonchalantly, got almost to the corner and froze.

Jullian stood leaning with his back against the building, his arms crossed with his cold stare fixed on me.

I wasn’t often afraid of Jullian, except at moments like this when he had that look in his eyes.

His eyes had that swirling movement, like he was about to shift, but I knew he would not shift here in public, in a human town.

I briefly thought about running, but I knew it would do me no good.

Besides, even with all the hard training I had done with Lucian and Brutus, I was no match for the 6’4 muscular Jullian.

Instead, I mind linked Lucian.

‘Back of the Library.’ That was all I said and he interrupted my mind-link to him.

‘S**t, you snuck out with Julian here with us.’

His response surprised me.

‘You knew?’ I asked him, letting my surprise show in my response.

‘Yes, probably since the first time. I figured if you had a way to keep in touch with Aurora, I would not interfere. I want her safe above all else.’

At that moment it hit me, we were all growing up.

We had all been going about our daily lives and had grown older as time moved on, but we still had been behaving as children, Aurora included.

We acted like a bunch of teenagers with our drama, our outings and our sneaking around at night when we should be in bed, but with Aurora leaving, we were all forced to grow up.

I may still be a teenager, the only one of our little group, but I no longer felt like a sixteen, no, now seventeen year old.

Her running away was not her acting like a spoiled brat, it was her needing to get away from here to mature on her own to see what she needed to do with her life and her leaving made us all have to grow up and make adult decisions.

And this, this was one of my moments to be an adult.

‘I’m on my way.’ Lucian responded.

I quickly moved the book to the side, pushing it into my bag, like I was hiding something.

“What was that?” Jullian growled at me, barely sounding human.

I squared my shoulders and walked towards him.

“None of your business. You are not my father nor my Alpha.”

I heard his growl and gave a lazy glance around us.

“We are in public, so you had best behave yourself.”

I saw Lucian run around the corner but instantly slow once we were in sight. I knew Lucian must be feeling the situation out.

Jullian either saw my glance over his shoulder or sensed the other wolf coming up slowly behind him. He turned to half face Lucian.

“You’ve been letting her sneak off when you come to town.” He stated, like he was not asking a question.

“Natalia is sixteen, not a child. I was to accompany her, not track her every movement, just as I always had with Aurora.”

Jullian turned and stalked towards me, “What were you hiding?”

Jullian reached out to grab my wrist, but I pulled away in enough time to stay out of his reach and backed up.

“Don’t you dare try to man handle me as you did my sister!”

As Jullian took a step towards me, Lucian rushed between us. The two males stared each other down.

Now I was visibly shaken, “Stop!” I yelled louder than I intended.

I pulled the book out of my bag with shaky hands.

“It was only a book.” I held the book out in front of me, afraid that Jullian would hurt Lucian for trying to protect me.

“You were hiding a book?” Jullian growled out at me, sounding like he did not believe me.

I moved away from Lucian so I could see Jullian better.

“Yes. I was embarrassed about checking out a stupid romance novel.”

“What?” The dufus sounded confused.

“Yes, I have taken up reading romance novels, which takes my mind away from reality, where someone like my sister could end up with someone like you.”

He grabbed the book from my hand and looked at it.

“If your embarrassed, why not read it online?” He said in his deep angry voice.

I rolled my eyes, “Because you all took my phone and laptop and tablet away, remember?”

He reached for my wrist again but this time I was not expecting it and had not been quick enough to keep out of his grasp.

“Hey!” I yelled.

“Do not make a scene.” He said, so I let him lead me back towards the library entrance where he pulled me inside.

We stood in the entrance for a few seconds, and I saw Jullian sniffing the air, then pull me towards the section I had been in.

Once there, he glared at me, “Which computer did you use?”

I frowned and nodded towards the computer I had been on.

Jullian leaned over and, to my surprise, the big dope seemed to know what he was doing. He looked at the last searches and sites I had been on, which I cleared except when I looked the author up.

Oh, I know there are ways to look deeper to see what I had cleared but he either did not know how to find it or didn’t bother.

I put my hands on my hips, “I did nothing wrong, now someone had better go back and pay the salon before we go.”

I grabbed the book out of his hand, turned and started my way back to the car.

“Go pay.” I heard Jullian growl out to Lucian.

I could not help the smirk on my face as I walked away. I was starting to like pissing Jullian off.

‘Don’t enjoy it too much, don’t forget we are in public and in a human village, if we had been back home, I do not think he would have been able to control his temper.’ My wolf said in my mind, breaking my little bit of bliss.

Nara paused, thinking.

‘I felt his wolf, he was pissed. I don’t think he would have cared that we are a female; I think he would have gotten much rougher with us if we were back home.’

‘Darn Nara, you are probably right.’

My frown deepened, I was training with Lucian and Brutus, but I wasn’t taking it as seriously as I knew Aurora had when she had trained with Lucian. I needed to step up my game. I needed to be able to defend myself if the big bad wolf came for me.

Ugh, so if I thought the ride to town was excruciating, the ride from town back to the Midnight Moon territory was way worse.

I could feel the rage brewing inside Lucian, although I wasn’t sure if Jullian could feel it.