Chapter 11 - Eddie

Winter…

The name certainly fit the witch's cold side, but Eddie was almost blinded by the warmer side of her. The way it had felt to kiss her, how her body had begun to respond before he had pulled away…he was such a fool.

Trudging back through town, up the hill towards the manor, Eddie felt like the biggest idiot of all time.

Why hadn't he just gone with it? Why couldn't he have just given in to his lack of self-control and taken her right there on that desk?

For one thing, it would have made the full moon ritual a hell of a lot easier for him. He suspected it might have made it easier for the both of them.

So what had stopped him?

Was it the fact that he hadn't wanted it to be like this?

When he imagined finding his mate, he hadn't seen it like this. He hadn't imagined them being thrown together by the dangerous situation the town was in. He had imagined things happening naturally, bumping into the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in the café, or even startling upon her in the woods during one of his shifts.

He had imagined she would be a she-wolf, a pureblood werewolf just like him, but Winter wasn't that, and she most definitely wasn't what he had imagined for himself.

She was entirely the opposite of Carly, determined and dedicated to what she felt was the right thing to do, even at the cost of her own happiness.

Could she not be happy with me? Eddie thought, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets against the pre-dawn chill. He was a werewolf. He didn't ordinarily feel the chill at all, but after Winter’s hot and cold attitude, he was feeling more than a little sensitive.

Perhaps now wasn't the best time to go back to the manor. Sensitive as he was, his other packmates were bound to rile him up, especially with Will and his jokes about how he was the perfect one for this task with his sheer failure in the romance department lately.

Just as he had thought things were beginning to turn a corner, just as he had seen a light at the end of the tunnel in Winter, she went and slapped him in the face.

What did she mean by ‘she worked quicker on her own?’ And why was she still so determined to find another way, even when they had both agreed that they would be the ones to complete this damn spell?

She was infuriating. She was stubborn. She was downright annoying.

And yet, she was utterly, breath-takingly beautiful.

It's my own fault, he realized. He hadn't exactly been overly warm with her. He had been defensive, unsure of himself, unsure of her.

What was it she wanted? Was this truly only about saving the town and protecting the pack?

Of course, it had started out that way for him. Maybe all of these feelings he had towards Winter were just that. Maybe they were just his determination to remain loyal to his pack, to Jack’s wishes.

“Fuck!” he growled out through his teeth, stopping halfway up the hill.

There had to be more to it. There simply had to be. If all his life was going to come to was mating with a witch to save a town, then he wasn't entirely sure he even wanted it anymore. He had always lived for something more.

Closing his eyes, he imagined again all the successful relationships that had begun since their arrival in Nightstar.

Jack and Bonnie…Zander and Layla…Kane and Miley…even Hanson and Elena.

Though the latter wolf hadn't been a part of their original pack, he had made them stronger for his mating with Eddie's sister.

Eddie hadn't been entirely pleased about it at first, especially when he had imagined that the Nightstar wolf had been trying to steal Carly away on the side, putting Elena at risk because he had fucked everything up and gotten her abducted by the very wolves they were still battling now, but they had all worked it out in the end.

Their love stories were fraught with conflict. Anyone with eyes might have been able to see that. But with so many already having battled their way through to the other side, what if Eddie failed?

No, he couldn't fail, because this wasn't about fated mates. This was about the town. This was about his loyalty to Jack and his pack. This had nothing to do with true love or fate or anything else of the sort.

He had let himself be ruled by searching for those things for far too long. If this was where his story led, then he was sure as hell going to accomplish what he had set out to do. Whether Winter liked it or not.

Side-tracking off the beaten path, Eddie headed deeper into the woods. What he really needed in order to clear his mind right now was a shift.

His wolf was still clawing at his insides, making it near impossible to think straight. Maybe once he let him run for a while, things would be better.