Page 9 of Escaping Wildfire
Cristian laughed humorlessly and shook his head but didn’t say anything. He kept driving until we came up to a rest area and pulled over. He got out of the car without saying a word but looked at me through the window and motioned for me to get out, too.
“Shit, now you’ve done it.” Jordan patted my shoulder, “It was nice knowing you.” He got out of the car and walked over to sit at a picnic table watching us. All he was missing was the popcorn.
I walked over to Cristian and put my hands in my pockets so he’d see I didn’t want to fight. He was seething, though. “Did you fuck my little sister?” I shrugged and took a deep breath. I didn’t like how he was talking about me and Gem, but I could understand his anger. “Look, man, I’m in love with Gema, and she loves me back. I know I should have said something before. We didn’t mean for things to happen the way they did, but I don’t regret it. Gema’s it for me, and hopefully, we’ll turn out to be mates, but if not, we’ll figure things out.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” Cristian’s eyes flashed silver as Ax came to the surface.
“I didn’t, but that’s because your sister deserves more respect than for you to talk about her like that. What we do together is our own business, and all you need to know is that she’s my girl now, and I’m going to treat her right.”
Before I could register what was going on, I felt a hard blow land on my jaw. He hit me so hard that I stumbled back and landed on the ground. That’s when Jordan finally decided to intervene.
“Alright, guys, let’s not take this any further. We’re all friends here, best friends as I recall, and we are going to be running a pack together soon, so it’d be nice if we could all just get along.”
I lay on the ground a little longer as I regained my equilibrium. I could feel blood at the corner of my mouth, so I wiped it off with my thumb. Jordan came over and held out his hand to help me up. He stood in between me and Cristian, making sure he wasn’t going to try and hit me again. However, Cristian seemed to be fine now.
“I’m fine, I’m not gonna punch him again. I just hate it when you’re right.” He looked over at me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that about Gema. It caught me off guard that you guys didn’t tell me what was going on, even though we pretty much all knew you two were in love. I just need some time to get used to this, but as long as you treat her right, we’re good.”
“You won’t have to worry about that, she’ll always be my number one priority.”
“I know…you’re a good guy. I actually trust you with my sister.”
“Alright.” Jordan slow clapped. “Now kiss and make up.” We both narrowed our eyes at Jordan, but he just laughed. I held out a hand for Cristian to shake and then we were good.
‘See, I told you he just needed to punch you. I should have bet money on this working… well, if I had any money, I am just a wolf after all.’
‘Not in the mood right now, Cosmo. Get back to me once my jaw heals.’
With that, we all got back in the car and had a more enjoyable ride for our last hour on the road. Cristian finally relaxed, and we were able to joke around and talk about everything we wanted to learn at Harvest Moon.
4 Trouble
NOAH
We pulled up to the border of the Harvest Moon territory, and their Beta, Gabriel, came over to meet us. It was another 30-minute drive to the pack house. The Beta told us we’d be staying there with Alpha Kedrick and his family.
As we turned into the pack house driveway, Jordan started to appear agitated. “You okay back there?” Cristian looked at him through the rearview mirror.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “Yeah…just feeling a little agitated is all. Neo is itching to go for a run all of a sudden.”
Jordan’s wolf was usually the calm level-headed one of the three of us, so his feeling agitated was not normal.
“Maybe your mate’s in this pack? My dad always said he felt restless the day he met my mom. His wolf kept going crazy until he met her later on that same day.” I turn to look back at Jordan.
“Seriously?” His eyes go wide. “As awesome as meeting my mate sounds, I’m not sure I’m quite ready to meet her. I always pictured myself as Alpha already when I met her.”
“Better you than me.” Cristian cut in. “I am so not ready to meet my mate. Relationships are hard, and I’d rather play the field a bit longer.”
Out of the three of us, Cristian was a bit of a player. He was also the oldest at 20, so he’d had more time than us to explore without a mate. Jordan has messed around with a girl or two but not like Cristian. He has always wanted what his parents have and, truthfully, is too scared of disappointing his mom who’s big on the mate bond. Then there’s me who’s always just loved Gema. I’m also the youngest of us at 18. The guys waited until I graduated for this training so we could all come together.
“Whatever, man, you’ll eventually get tired of just playing around. It’s nice having that one girl you can look forward to spending your life with.”
Cristian patted my shoulder, “And that’s why I’m glad you’re with my sister, no way in hell would I want her with a guy like me.” He shook his head to emphasize his point.
Meanwhile, Jordan started fidgeting in the back seat.
“Just take a breath and try to relax. What is Neo telling you?”
He listened to me and took a deep breath. “Nothing, not a word, he just wants to get out and run.”