Destiny

Chapter 17

“It’s not that I don’t want to come home, Chase. I just…” She dropped her arms from my waist and sat on the bed.

“You just what, Lillie?”

“I’m only going to be turning 17 Chase. I don’t know what I want.”

“Do you want to travel and experience the world?” I asked, hoping again she would say no. That all she wanted was to come home and be with me.

“Yes I do… I want to see the world before I settle down.”

“You mean before we mark each other and start our life together.”

“No, Chase, that is not what I meant. Why does it have to be one or the other?”

“You know what, I am really tired. Let’s talk about this tomorrow.” I knew I had to stop the conversion before I said something I would regret.

She looked up at me with her big beautiful eyes that held so much pain. Pain I knew I was causing again.

She stood and reached to kiss me and I turned my head as her lips pressed against my cheek.

She didn’t say anything. She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

I lay down and all the thought about her not coming home plagued my mind.

After a sleepless night, I followed my nose to the kitchen where Nana was busy making breakfast.

“Chase honey, it looks like you are the first one up. Did you have a hard time sleeping?” She asked before placing a plate with pancakes and bacon in front of me.

“Yeah, I guess I had a lot on my mind.”

Nana stopped and smiled at me.

“She loves you, Chase, but you need to realize she is only going to be 17 and you are turning 20. When you were 17, you were not ready to be mated.”

“I know I just can’t handle being away from her. For years all she ever talked about was us being mated. I can’t understand what changed.”

“She found herself and now she is curious as to what the rest of the world is like.”

“What do I do?”

“That I can’t help you with Chase. But I know you and you will figure it out.”

Moments later, a sleepy Lillie made her way to the kitchen.

She smiled sleepily at me and I felt my anger from last night melt away. I loved this woman with all of my heart. I would give her the world if that was what she wanted.

“Hi.” She whispered.

“Hi.” I said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to me.

She giggled as she fell on to my lap. I tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and kissed her softly on the lips.

“I’m sorry for upsetting you.” She whispered in my ear as she clung to my neck.

“No, I’m sorry for not thinking about what you need.”

“Right now all I need is you.”

“If you decide to see the world, will you allow me to mark you first?”

“Of course! And I don’t even know if that is what I want to do. I’m just not sure I am ready to..”

“I know babe, I know.”

The rest of the weekend was just me and Lillie but I couldn’t shake the feeling something was going to go wrong. Why couldn’t things just be easy?

We have known we were mates since we were little and all I ever wanted to do was be with her. I was so excited about starting a family with her, but it looks like that is just what I wanted.

Lillian’s POV

I missed Chase like crazy the moment he was gone. But I needed to step away from him to decide what I wanted to do when I graduated.

Do I want to travel? Would my Father even let me? I was still only going to be 17. The way I missed Chase when he was gone had me thinking maybe I didn’t need to travel. He filled the empty in me and when he was gone it was the only time I thought about traveling.

I slipped on my favorite sandals and made my way to class. I only had two weeks left and there wasn’t a lot of time to decide what I wanted to do.

“Hey buttercup.” Broc said, lightly kissing my cheek.

Since Chase was here, he has been giving me extra attention. Maybe I am just looking too much into his attention. I mean we are just friends and have been since I started here a year ago.

“Hey Broc.”

“You look deep in thought. Want to share?”

“It’s nothing really… I just realized I graduate in two weeks.”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about what you plan to do when you graduate.”

“I guess I will be going back home.”

“What if you could go to Paris and show off your work?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, I have been sending my work to art exhibits all over the world and I hope you don’t mind, but I also sent some photos of your work too.”

“You did?” I couldn’t hide the excitement in my voice.

“Yeah and I have received a few offers, but the offer for Paris will pay for us to travel and stay in Paris.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“Say you will think about it. We would leave the week after we graduate.”

“When do you need to know my answer?”

“By Friday.”

I headed into class with Paris on my mind. Was my work really that good? What would Chase say? Thank goodness I read the chapter over the weekend because I wasn’t able to focus at all in class.

The day seemed to drag on. Whenever I saw Broc, all he did was talk about Paris, making me want to go more and more.

When I finally got home, I found Nana in the kitchen pulling a fresh batch of cookies out of the oven and Papa reading the newspaper sitting at the table.

“Hi honey. How was your day?”

“It was long.” I said, watching her put the cookies on a rack to cool.

“I’m sorry to hear that….was it long because you couldn’t wait to talk to Chase?”

“Actually no. Broc submitted my work with his to different art exhibits and we received an offer to go to Paris for 6 months, but the contract could be extended.”

“Oh, that sounds really nice and a great opportunity. Is that what you want to do?” She asked.

“I don’t know. What do you think, Papa?”

I watched as he placed his newspaper down and looked at me with his warm smile.

“Well, I think only you can decide. But if you had your wolf, what do you think she would want to do?”

“I think she would want me to be happy.”

“Does going to Paris and working for this art exhibit really make you happy or does painting itself make you happy?”

I was a little surprised by Papa’s question. Was it me getting to sell my paintings or actually just painting that made me happy?

“Just painting makes me happy but Broc said this is such a great opportunity.”

“I think you should think about what makes you happy. Like truly happy before deciding on what you want to do.”

“I agree with Papa. For a long as I can remember, you loved painting and that was what made you happy.” Nana said, setting a plate full of cookies in front of me and Papa.

We wasted no time grabbing a warm chocolate chip cookie.

After eating too many cookies, I made my way to my art room. What really made me happy?