The Mate He Couldn’t Control (complete)

Chapter 20

I quickly made my way up to Jaylon’s room to scrub my makeup off and change my clothes. When I was done, I snuck out to the best of my ability. I don’t want to risk any of my friends seeing me because now isn’t the time.

I have two places in mind. The other day, I stumbled across some underground tunnels while on a run. Also, the abandoned packhouse everyone’s so scared of came to mind. I’ve passed it plenty of times but I figured it was empty. I guess I’ll start with the tunnels and see where that takes me. Right now was the perfect time. Everyone was so focused on the fire tonight, like always, that they didn’t have time to worry about me. I’m not exactly sure what they’d be setting up now but I could hear the pregame as they did it.

I heard the whispers as I got closer and then something creaked under my foot. I smirked and bent down to move dirt off of it before opening it and jumping down into a tunnel. When I heard someone walking on the ground above me, I backed up into the shadows to see who would come down.

“The hell are you doing? Stalker.”

“What the hell am I doing? What are you doing? Where are we?” Nick questioned, looking around for me. Even with night vision, it was very dark here. But he was standing directly under the light from the open door, so I had the advantage. I used magic to pull it shut before mumbling a spell. Red sparks went flying down a tunnel and I could see that there were unlit torches lining the walls. “Incendio.”

The torches lit our way down the tunnel and Nick smiled down at me. “You’ve been practicing?” he asked and I nodded up at him. “I thought you were going to practice with me?”

“I was, but I was worried I’d look stupid if I couldn’t do it,” I admitted and he let out a laugh as we made our way down the tunnel. “So, why are you stalking me?”

“I wasn’t. I wanted to talk to you and you were being sneaky. I figured I’d find out why first.”

“Not sneaky. I just like to be alone sometimes.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was going to bring you, but I figured you were still pissy.” Yesterday I tried to wake Nick for dinner to find him in bed with some girl. Then he wanted to give me an attitude. You know, I think I should find a pack therapist.

“Okay. . . again, I am sorry. But, that’s what I wanted to talk about.”

“Oh really? Now we talk about things?” I joked.

“I’m sorry for what I said. You didn’t deserve that.”

“I know,” I smirked up at him playfully to keep the mood light.

“I swear, people can throw daggers at you all day, but you never seem phased.”

“I’m not. People say things all of the time. We choose to add value to their words when we get mad.” The tunnel ended with a door that was locked.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked, trying to kick the door down.

“Nick, Nick! Calm down!” I replied, giving him a look. “Aberto!”

The lock on the door clicked and he calmed down with a sigh. I went to close the door but he stopped me, “Um, Alison, the lit torches?”

“Oh, yeah!” I turned and looked back down the tunnel as wind went flying down it, putting out every torch. “Lumos.” A single light bulb in the middle of the room lit up and Nick froze. “What’s wrong?”

“Ali, these are the old torture rooms, that means we are in the original pack house!” He replied, now terrified.

“I swear everyone's so scared. What’s so bad about it? You grew up here!”

“Why do you think we built a new packhouse? This one was built on an ancient witch burial ground, your grandmother and many other witches haunt this place! We shouldn’t be here, they hate us!”

“Actually they hate you. I’m one of them,” I smirked sarcastically. His worry only got worse so I got on my tiptoes and cupped his face. “We will be just fine! You are with me and my grandmother would never let them hurt us! Besides, my grandmother swore to protect the pack, she would never hurt any of you!”

“Ali, I love you, but you never met your grandmother. Just because she said that while she was alive did not mean she would honor it in death!”

“Fine, if you don’t trust her, trust me. If things get out of hand, we will leave immediately.”

“Fine!” he agreed as we left the torture room and headed up the stairs. I followed Nick until I realized where I was. “Nick! My grandmother brought me here in my dreams!” I exclaimed the second I saw the main staircase. I will say, it did look creepy in here. Especially the way they just left certain things, like old paintings. But, I wasn’t scared. I loved the vibes. I felt so at home immediately.

“Your grandmother. . . visits your dreams?” he asked worriedly

“Yes. Usually when I’m in a mood or not dreaming about Jaylon.”

“She doesn’t tell you to do things does she?”

“No of course not! The only thing she said was to come here. So, has no one been back since?”

“No. Everyone came in groups to move their things. The hauntings got so bad. It was terrifying all of the time. You’d be cooking food and all of the sudden there would be witch carvings all over the counter. Of course, it was just in our heads. But still, it was terrifying. Jaylon was lucky though, they haven’t bothered him since he was a kid.”

“Could you take me to the library?” I asked and followed behind him. Look, if I’m gonna go room by room until I find whatever she’s talking about, I’m at least going to do some research. “Do you know why they didn’t bother him?”

“Well, I can only assume because you are your grandmother's favorite and she knew he would be your mate.”

“No. It doesn’t feel like that would be it.”

“Then what do you think it is?” he questioned.

“I’m about to find out,” I mumbled, looking at the library in front of me. I have a feeling that the only books they left behind were witch books. I was right. I made Nick sit with me for hours while I searched for something on the topic. They had some cool things. Something tells me they were purposely hiding it considering how quiet it was. According to Nick, they never stopped. They confirmed my theory when a random book fell out of nowhere, hard on the table in the spot his head used to lay. Of course, he started freaking out and I had to calm him down. “Nick, they aren’t going to hurt you! They just like hearing you scream!”

“How do you know that? You don’t even know them?”

“I can feel their energy. They aren’t evil, they're bored,” I explained before flipping through the pages. I looked up annoyedly when I heard the giggling. “Very funny. Aparecium,” I mumbled and the words they hid suddenly appeared on the page. I’m still mad they made me look for hours for no reason, but whatever. So far, all I could see were witch protection spells. Jaylon wasn’t a witch and was scared of them, so no he didn’t do this. But then I saw it. Protection stones. Moonstone (that explains mine). . . black jade. . . Black Obsidian! When I saw the last one, I froze. I gave him one of those when I was younger. He said it was ugly. Jackass. Anyways, he had to have one of them somewhere.

I slammed the book shut with the intention of eventually coming back. I couldn’t bring all of these back home with me, so I would have to find the time to sneak out. “Are we finally leaving?” Nick jumped up.

“No. Actually, can you show me Jaylon’s room?”

“Seriously?” he questioned.

“Fine. I’ll find it myself. I’ll see you at the packhouse tonight.”

“No, I’m sorry, come on.” I followed him up to the fourth floor and walked inside. I’m not the type to go through people's personal things, because what if they did that to me? But, I was just looking for a stone. Any stone. His room here was much smaller and less black. It just looked like a normal room. Less lonely. Besides the bed, it was mostly empty. I went through some old desk drawers, but they were empty. I saw a journal. Nick suggested we go through it but I told him that is very rude. I gave up after searching every inch and then fixing it the way it was. I know he didn’t come here, but still, I didn’t want to leave it messy. Nick thought that was pathetic. Says the thought intruder.

We left and Nick showed me my grandmother's office, which I adored. I loved that they kept it exactly how it was after all of these years. It was beautiful here. Very spiritual. “Oh! She said to go to a specific room!” I shot up after remembering that randomly. My brain buffers a lot. . .

“Hold on! We don’t know which room, what kind of room?”

“It was a girl's bedroom.”

“Ah, okay! The girls' rooms are the top four stories. Let’s head up to the fifth floor,” he replied.

“That’s so weird, I thought you said you pick your room based on wherever you feel you should go?”

“Yeah, it was kind of like that, but these were the days where they wanted the women to stay the safest, so they put them on the top stories. Now, the alpha and Luna are in the highest story and then it goes down by rank.”

I opened every door until I saw the room from my dreams. “Ali.”

“Hmm?”

“This is Loren’s room.” That was all he had to say before I lost my s**t. I started destroying everything in view. I tore open pillows, broke drawers, everything, looking for whatever was in here that was so special. I picked up the bed and flipped it over as Nick watched from the doorway in pure horror. I stopped when I saw it taped to the bottom of the bed. Her journal. I rushed over and grabbed it. Before I could lose it, I sent it to my house, where it would be safe until I got home tonight. Why tape it to the bottom of the bed?

“Where did it go?” he asked.

“I sent it to my room until I get home, I can’t risk accidentally dropping it.”

“Mm-hmm? What happened to ‘reading into people's thoughts and messing up their rooms is terrible’,” he mimicked.

“Look. We suspect she tried to poison me. My grandmother also said that all of the answers I need are in this room. There’s some evil s**t going on,” I explained. He nodded and I felt like there was something I was missing. I opened her closet, which had a box full of purple flowers in it. I picked it up to ask Nick what it was and he froze.

“Ali, put that down now! That’s wolfsbane!” he warned and I dropped it back into the box. I knew it. “Are you okay? Do you feel dizzy again?” he rushed up to me, checking my hands for burns or anything.

“I’m fine, Nicky,” I responded, making him calm. I kept looking for a moment more and found pictures. I looked sadly at the pictures of my friends happy with the rest of their group. That was when they were all happy. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly, making him turn his attention back to me.

“For what?”

“Ever since I got here, all of your lives have been problematic,” I replied, turning to him with sad eyes.

“No! It’s not your fault! Most of us didn’t like each other anyway, we kinda just have always been a group. I promise the only thing you have done is make things better!” He reassured me by cupping my face and then hugging me when he was done. At that moment, I felt my body heat up and I started sweating.

“Oh wow! It is hot in here!”

Nick jumped up from the hug and looked into my eyes. “Damn! It’s starting to affect you again! Alison, we need to get you out of here!” he demanded.

At that moment, I heard it. I heard voices calling my name down the hallway. “No Nick! Let’s play hide and seek, you’re it!” I blurted out and was gone in a gust of wind. I could hear the voices grow louder the farther down the stairs I got. Now and then, I would see people walking. I stopped and hid in the library.

I was beginning to sweat, so I took off my shirt and looked around. I saw someone walking out, toward the stairwell. I rushed after her and was tackled to the ground. “Ha! I got you! Now can we please leave? You're already here stripping, Jaylon is going to kill me!” he pleaded.

I put one of my fingers to his lips. “Shh, it’s okay,” I whispered jokingly.

“You make it very hard to do the right thing sometimes,” he admitted quietly, running a hand through my hair. He grabbed my backpack and shirt off of the ground and held my hand.

“Why do you always help me?” I asked, stumbling my way to the front door.

“Because I love you, that will always be my weakness.”

“Oww!” I complained, pulling my sunglasses over my eyes. “There is no reason for it to be this bright out here!”

“Alison, calm down! Everything will be okay.”

“Everything is eternally complicated!”

“It’s just the sun.”

“But it burns my eyes. Why can’t it be cloudy or something? Wait. . .”

“No! No no no! Don’t you dare!”

“Whatever,” I mumbled, pushing him off me and walking ahead.

“Alison, will you please put your shirt on before we go inside?” Nick begged as the new packhouse came into view.

“How about you take your shirt off and we’ll call it even? Then there's a 50% chance they’ll look at you instead.”

“No! Put your shirt on!”

“For the last time, they will be fine! As much as these people get down over here, they won’t see anything new,” I smirked.

“Oh come on!” I opened the door casually and he tried to rush me to the stairs. “Alison, come on, people are staring!”

“They do that even when I’m wearing clothes,” I mumbled, leaning side to side as I walked up the stairs. Bridget and Angelina were walking towards us, coming down.

“Hi!”

“I swear I did not!” I heard Nick say behind me as they both started lecturing him. I see Angelina’s worry, but Bridget’s?

“Nicky, I’m gonna go see my Benny Boo, I’ll be back in a minute!” I interrupted and he rushed up behind me, picking me up and taking me to what was apparently my room.

“Oh my. . . ! Nicky! Look how pretty it is!” I jumped up and down excitedly.

“Ali, look at me!” he demanded gently, grabbing my face so that I had nowhere else to look. “Calm down, I’m gonna run you a cold bath, and then I’ll be right back.”

Nick tried to turn on a movie to keep me entertained, but he ended up falling asleep. I took advantage of it and left. He’s so overdramatic, I’m just fine. I locked elbows in between two boys that I occasionally talk to in the pack house. I was explaining to them who I think their mates will be and why when I saw Jacob. Immediately he headed over to me and took me to our group. “I was talking to them,” I complained.

“If Jaylon saw that, he’d lose it. Remember the last party you attended?”

“But I was talking to them about who their mates will be! I wasn’t flirting!”

“It’s not them he’s gotta worry about. I heard you and Nick had a party today,” Seth smirked before he took a sip of his drink.

“What?” Julia questioned.

“Alison!” Penelope added in.

“She came in without a shirt acting up and he carried her upstairs. Wait till Jaylon hears,” Ethan warned.

“Eww,” I complained before walking off to get a drink. The group erupted in laughter behind me as I rolled my eyes. Weird.

“What does that mean?” I jumped up slightly when I heard Nick behind me. He’s awake? That fast? I ignored him as I walked to the table. He took the cup from my hands and gave me a look. “No! You're already f****d up.”

“Not enough for that conversation,” I replied with wide eyes.

“Oh, so now you don’t like me. Come on, you need to go to bed!”

“No! I’m not hurting anyone. I’m staying here!”

Nick stepped forward, glaring down at me with dark eyes. “Your room. Now.”

“You don’t let me bother you when you're having fun. One hour and then we can play hostage again,” I smirked up at him before the twins caught my attention. “I’ll be right back.” Nick grabbed my arm but I shook it off and he surprisingly let me go.

“There you are! We were hoping to see you tonight,” Mason admitted.

“Oh really?”

“Yes actually. We don’t know anyone else,” Jesse cut in.

“Oh! I didn’t even think about it. Come with me!” I instructed, walking them around. I pointed to every person I knew or had heard of as we passed them. “. . .That’s Daniel, Broady, Mia, and Alisha. The dude about to fall on Kaylin is named Jonathon, he’s hilarious. Okay okay, now I’m just as lost as you. I don’t know her, but she’s pretty. You should get her number later. Anyways, that dude is f*****g weird. I’m sorry babe, but you are,” I commented once he gave me a weird look. I took some random girl's drink as we came to a stop in front of Bridget, Angelina, and Loren. “So, those two are my cousins Angelina and Bridget. They are off-limits. The other is Loren, she’s fair game,” I smirked at the group as Loren started freaking out.

I finished the tour as we merged into the crowd, but I was too occupied to talk to them anymore. Julia and Penelope found us as I stared at the projected movie across the fire. “This movie sucks,” I mumbled, squinting my eyes in confusion.

“Then why are you watching it?” Penelope asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you feeling alright? You aren’t acting yourself.” Julia placed her hand on my shoulder out of concern.

I was going to respond but someone spun me around and I was met with beautiful eyes that reflected the fire behind me. “Baby!” I beamed, jumping up and clinging to Jaylon’s neck.

“No, Alison,” he argued, removing my arms and looking down in my eyes coldly. Dalton came up beside him and gave me a worried look before Jaylon threw me over his shoulder.

“Put me down!” I demanded as he and Dalton questioned Julia and Penelope. I don’t know what for, I was too busy knocking on his back in protest. I rolled my eyes and gave up, dangling over his shoulder boredly until we left and he took me to his room. He put me down on my feet in front of the door. I went to walk inside but he pinned me to the wall by my neck.

“Is it true?”

“Is what true?”

“You slept with Nick?”

“Eww, no.”

“Then what happened?”

“I got into some wolfsbane and Nick brought me to my room. Then I left when he fell asleep.” Jaylon paled as he let go of my neck and cupped my face.

“Wolfsbane? Are you alright? Should I call your aunt?”

“It’s okay. Nick said the same thing happened last time.”

“Last time?”

“On the island.”

Jaylon leaned back with questioning eyes before realization hit him and a sudden sadness filled them. “I wanted you to remember tonight,” he whispered, then grabbed my hand and pulled me into his room. The fireplace was lit and there were two bouquets of roses. “I would offer you champagne, but you’re already out of it. So wolfsbane doesn’t hurt you, but you're high? At this point, I’m not sure which is worse.” From the tone of his voice, I knew he was talking to himself.

Either way, I smiled at my beautiful flowers and dropped onto the bed. “I knew you were lying. You weren’t setting up the party,” I smirk. “You always do the sweetest things for me.”

“It’s not like you’ll remember it,” Jaylon complained.

“Please don’t be mad at me. I didn’t know what it was.” He walked up to the other side of the bed and I smiled up at him. “Wow, you’re still handsome upside down.”

“I’m not mad at you.” Jaylon looked up at the ceiling to hide his blush as he played with my hair.

“Then tell me what’s wrong.”

He stepped away for a moment and came back, shaking a bag over my face before leaning down and pressing a kiss on my lips. “It’s the 31st. You’ve been mine for two months.”

“Wait what?”

“May 31st, I gave you this,” he explained, pointing down at the locket on my neck.

“But you didn’t like me until two weeks ago.”

“I’ve always liked you, Alison. The second I gave you this, you were mine. I didn’t need your birthday to know that.”