Running From The Alpha

Chapter Eight

Revelations

It was a lot harder to leave the Blue Thorn pack than I had anticipated. I found myself hovering on the outskirts of Holbrook. I just stood there staring at the Welcome to Holbrook sign. Going forward meant that I may never see Cole or the others again. The thought was truly saddening.

You're being sentimental, Violet. You have to go.

But what if I didn't have to go? Peter would have reached Blue Thorn by now. Cole would have given him my letter and he'd have read it. Maybe he'd actually listen to me. Maybe he would go home. I know it's unlikely and bordering on impossible but I can hope.

Just like a small part of me hopes he doesn't. I don't understand it. It's what's best for him, what's best for the both of us. Yet, despite knowing this, I don't want him to give up. I closed my eyes and force a huff of air out through my nose. I'm an idiot. That's the only explanation.

I'm an idiot to have that hope. I'm an idiot to let the questions continue to plague my thoughts. Would he hate me? they asked. Would he forgive me? Would he listen to the letter and go home? He ignore it and come after me with double the force now that he's finally caught my trail after so long? Would he choose a new mate?

That was the question that troubled me the most. Far more than it should have. Why was the thought of Peter with someone else so upsetting for me? I've never, ever, not in a million years imagined I would be his mate. So why is it, when this was so unwanted and out of the blue, that the thought of things being different, of someone else being Peter's mate... why did every part of me reject it?

It was the questions booming throughout my head that allowed it to happen. I was so lost in thought that I didn't even hear the car pull up and the door shut as he got out. Maybe if I hadn't been so lost, so sentimental, then things might've been different. But you can't change the past, no matter how much you may want to.

"Violet?"

I was so used to hearing his voice in my head that I didn't realize that he was actually there at first. I turned around and there he was. "Peter," I whispered. My eyes drunk him like they'd been looking for water in a desert. "You look awful," I commented sadly. He was paler than when I'd left him, a feature that emphasized the bags beneath his bloodshot eyes. For the first time since Peter hit puberty I saw him unshaven.

"Thanks, Violet," he replied softly, like he thought if he spoke to loud it would spook me. "You look..." His eyes searched my face as if memorizing it. "You still look beautiful." He closed the gap between us.

"You have my hoodie," I remarked awkwardly.

There, slung over his shoulder, was my old hoodie that he'd given me years ago. I'd missed the hoodie almost as much as I'd missed Peter. Peter who smiled in response before looking down at my chest.

I was about to smack him when he said, "You still have it."

I looked down in confusion. He reached towards me and lifted the silver eye he'd gifted me for my birthday.

"Yeah," I nodded. "I couldn't leave it behind and I couldn't just throw it away."

"I'm glad," he replied, dropping the pendant in favor of cupping my face. "I want you to know that no matter what, I still see you." He smiled to himself and brushed his thumb over my heated cheeks. "I love when you blush."

I forced my eyes to look away from his. "Peter, we... I...I can't. I'm sorry. I don't deserve someone like you."

"Don't say that," Peter rumbled. "Violet, I love you."