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CHAPTER 13
ELODIE
Even though Crew has been staying in the apartment I share with Tilly, and been close by, he’s given me space to think about what I want to do going forward. The last two days haven’t just been spent with me sitting in a dark room while considering my options. No, there’s no way my mate would allow something like that.
He’s given me the space to go to class and hasn’t brought up me going back to Golden Summit. Still, when I haven’t been working or studying, we’ve been getting to know each other. He’s also answered all my questions about what being a werewolf is about and how their world operates.
The idea of being a Luna for such an important pack makes me nervous. How can they respect me when so much of their world is built upon strength and violence? It’s not like I would win in a challenge if anyone were to lodge one with me. At least, I wouldn’t win it in the fighting ring.
When I asked Crew about that, he gave me an indulgent smile and assured me, “No one will challenge you because they know that I would be used as an extension of you and would fight in your stead.”
Putting it like that made me feel a little better while also making me feel powerful as hell. How could I not when a man with as much strength as Crew has, along with raw power, tells you that he’s your weapon to use?
We haven’t just talked about pack life thought. I’ve learned about Crew’s likes, dislikes, dreams, and hopes. I’ve shared all of that with him as well and never felt like he was just listening to me to placate me. He truly wanted to learn as much as he could about me.
I feel closer to him and it’s more than just the threads of the bond pulling us together anymore. I want him, the person he is and the man he’ll continue to grow into. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that I would be attracted to him and have fallen in love with him even without the mate bond.
Yes, I’ve fallen in love with my mate. I don’t think I could have stopped it from happening even if I wanted to. Not only is there something magnetic about Crew, but he’s a good man with a good heart. He’s spent years hiding behind a façade of charming smiles and flirtation, but there is something much deeper underneath all that.
The love and loyalty that he has for his pack lights up his face. It’s clear that he takes being their leader seriously.
Whenever he talks about the pack, he always calls it our pack. The way he’s included me makes me feel like I’m part of a family. It’s something I’ve never had, while everything in me yearns for it.
The possibility of having people at my back who support me is tantalizing. Accepting Crew isn’t just about having a family though. If it were, then I would be using him and accepting our mating for all the wrong reasons.
The love that has grown between us is why I should accept Crew as my mate.
While we didn’t start out in the best of ways, he’s shown me the kind of man, and mate, he is. That’s the man I want at my side. That’s the man I want to support and love. That’s the man I want to share all my dreams with. That’s the man I want to start a family with.
I won’t lie and say that the knowledge that he’ll never cheat on me and will always be as devoted to me as I am to him isn’t a bonus. It definitely is.
The space he’s given me to think while being there for me as we’ve gotten to know each other, has led me to the meeting that I have with my advisor today. I’ve already reached out to all my professors, and it didn’t take much for them to sign off on allowing me to finish the last of the semester virtually.
Since the door is open to my advisor’s office, I knock on the frame and then poke my head inside. Mrs. Devereaux looks up at me with a smile on her face. We’ve had a good working relationship over the last four years. I haven’t needed to seek out her help very often and I’ve had clear goals from the moment I stepped foot on campus.
“Elodie,” she greets me, her voice cheerful as she waves a hand toward one of the chairs in front of her desk, “come in. How can I help you? You must be excited about graduation.”
I can’t help but smile at the thought of conquering this step in my life. I’ve worked hard for the last four years, longer than that really, and graduating is almost upon me. I hope to use my degree to help the people within the pack and the surrounding community. Even though I’ll be the Luna, I don’t want to lose sight of why I started studying psychology.
The way I grew up helped me to find my path and that’s still important to me. I was fascinated when Crew told me about how the pack comes together whenever a pup is orphaned and the support within the pack means that no pups are abandoned. Their parents always have the resources and help they need.
No one is left behind.
That’s gotten me thinking about how such a mindset and closeness could be applied to society at large. I don’t have an answer yet, but I’m fascinated to learn more and see if I can help more kids because of how a pack functions and supports each other.
It might not work, but I won’t give up hope.
“I am, but I’m not here about graduation,” I tell her gently. That has her sitting up and taking notice. I clear my throat, suddenly nervous about my plan. I know we’re so close to the end that it won’t really matter, but this is still a big change. “Let me start by letting you know I’ve already gotten my professors to sign off on this.”
She tilts her head to the side slightly as she studies me, her voice cautious, “Sign off on what?”
“I’d like to finish out the semester virtually,” I drop the bomb.
The look of shock on Mrs. Deveraux’s face is a little funny, but it also has butterflies taking flight in my stomach. Is this really the right path?
I push that niggle of doubt away because Crew is my mate and I know I belong at his side. I’m going to be given the opportunity to do a lot of good while also having the love and family that I’ve always wanted but never imagined I could have.
“An opportunity has come up which would allow me to start working with a fascinating tight-knit community, but they need me now,” I explain without lying, and her face softens slightly. “I don’t want to pass it up. It just feels like that is where I’m meant to be.”
