Secret Chapter 4.

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*Jayden*

I sat in the kitchen reading a book while waiting for Corey to arrive back. We came from one of my counselling sessions and had been planning to hang out together for the rest of the day but he immediately been called away by Izabella's father, Alpha Ian. My mate promised to be back soon though and told me not to head home yet.

Counselling had been going well and Corey and I ended up going to some pre-marital counselling sessions despite having no plans to get married yet. It was fun, mostly because we winged most of our answers to mess with the councillor; Corey started with that, I just didn't clear it up and decided to go along with it. I had seen hopelessness in her eyes countless times as she looked at the two of us, but I guess she refused to tell us the marriage we were 'planning' could not work because she still insisted on trying to help us.

We had gotten pretty close since the first time we left the doctor's office and stood out in the parking lot with me feeling like a needle had poked through some dark clouds to let in the tiniest bit of light and Corey telling me how proud he was. It was no longer necessary for him to come along, but he still insisted on driving me there and waiting outside when I was having a one-on-one with the doctor.

"So..." I looked up from my book as Corey's mom walked into the kitchen and smiled at me.

I smiled back at her. I had been reading about their type of wolf. They weren't naturally as strong as Amarelo wolves were but Galaxy somehow managed to keep up, I knew that because Corey and Sean were stronger than Kaden and they were both Novulaní wolves. Kaden still had a couple of years to catch up though.

"So...?" I repeated carefully when she didn't continue.

She moved to get some biscuits from one of the cupboards and then sat across the table from me. I tried not to react outwardly to how the moment felt differently from the vibe I usually got when I was around her. It made me curious about what was going on.

"How are you two doing?" Okay, that is a little weird. I had talked to Lydia – Corey's mom – about him tons of times but we only barely spoke about our relationship, it was awkward to discuss that with either of our parents.

"G-good." I replied suddenly feeling very nervous. Was she going to interrogate me and try to pry deeper into Corey and me? I glanced at the clock, he had been gone for over an hour and a half already. Where was he? He could end this awkwardness, or I could direct it onto him.

"Just good? Any talk about mating soon?" The question made me freeze. Not because of why I would have in the past, but because my mom had brought it up as well just a couple of days ago and I doubt I would ever be ready to talk about it to my mom, let alone his.

"N-no. We're... I'm seventeen."

"You're eighteen next week." She grinned.

"No, Corey lied. In a month." I said.

"Same thing." I chuckled.

She smiled and held out a cookie to me which I gladly devoured in one bite before taking another while realising how hungry I was. Corey and I were supposed to get lunch together...

"Jay, I'm so proud of you." She said reaching to take my hand. I stopped chewing and looked at her. "You've been through so much and somehow you've still managed to make my boy grow into a better man." I smiled, "But... When are you two going to give me grandkids?" Wait, what?!

I gasped in surprise and promptly began coughing, choking on the cookie I had yet to finish chewing properly.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Corey's voice came as he walked into the kitchen and noticed my choking. He grabbed a glass and gave me some water before taking one of the cookies and sitting next to me. Once I had calmed down, he mumbled an 'Are you okay?' while giving me a kiss on my cheek.

"Ye-yeah." I nodded continuing to drink some more water, "Thanks." He smiled beginning to eat.

"Hi, Sweetie. We were just discussing grandchildren." His mom said simply.

"Wha-what?!" I held what was left of my water out to Corey as he began coughing and he drank it.

His mom gasped.

"Are you saying I'm not getting any grandchildren?" She looked shocked and afraid of the thought.

"No –" I began to say just to put her at ease, but at the same time Corey uttered an urgent a "Yes."

She stared at us shocked and I exchanged glances with my mate. Of course, we had not discussed that. We had barely even discussed mating.

"You can't not give me grandkids!" She snapped at her son. Corey held his hands up giving a chuckle.

"Ma, kids? Have you seen us? We're doing the world – and those kids – a favour." I looked at him confused as his mother's shock worsened. "Mom, think about it. Me. A dad... Seriously?" He asked. I watched as Lydia actually thought about it for a minute before she looked at us. I tried to give her a smile but it just felt tight and apologetic.

"Oh... Right... I guess... I'm going to... check on the garden..." She mumbled before she walked out looking devastated.

"Look what you did." I hissed punching Corey's arm lightly. He caught my hand before I could retract it.

"What? It's the truth. It's better being honest with her now than dragging it out." He said before grinning and kissing the back of my hand, "I missed you."

"You saw me less than two hours ago."

"I know." I smiled leaning to meet him halfway as he moved to kiss me.

His kisses were always gentle and careful, like he was afraid of hurting or scaring me. I loved it, of course, I loved all contact with him, but sometimes I missed how he kissed me when we went to the peaks. It was so heated and hungry, so passionate... Not that these were not passionate. They were sweet and slow, it just felt different, like he was completely holding back. I did not want to give him the wrong idea by mentioning it, though, because we were still moving slowly and maybe he didn't want that type of kiss.

"Come." I frowned at how quickly the kiss ended as he grabbed my hand and got off his chair tugging me along.

"Wait, where? You didn't say we were going ou –"

"Jayden, when did you start speaking so much? Shh. Just come!" He cut me off. I glared at him feeling offended because I was not talking a lot, but he wasn't looking at me as he dragged me out of his house.

I gave up on questioning where we were going and climbed into his car while he got into the driver's seat. There was a slight feeling of annoyance as I still glared at him while we began to drive but that soon faded into fascination as I watched an adorable little beetle walk its way across his dashboard.

When the bug finally made it to Corey's window, it flew out and I moved my eyes to the road.

"What are we doing here?" I asked as we reached a park. We passed plenty of parks on the way, which made me more curious about why he wanted to go to this specific one.

"Want to clear my head."

"Then why did you drag me along?" I narrowed my eyes at him. It was normal for people to want to be by themselves when clearing their heads.

"Well, because I can and because you don't mind since you love being around me." He grinned.

I rolled my eyes but didn't argue. He would know I was lying if I tried to say I didn't like being around him so I didn't reply and just followed him out of the car.

We spent the next few hours walking around the park eating snacks and occasionally getting into playful little fights which would have one of us, me, end up on the grass or in flowers because someone, him, decided that shoving was an appropriate way to win an argument about what colour the bug that landed on my shirt was.

I realised why we came to that specific park when the sun had set and something suddenly jumped out from behind one of the trees causing me to almost have a heart attack as I yelled out in shock and stumbled back against Corey while the figure went running off to look for its next victim. Corey found my terror hilarious as he threw his arm around my shoulder and just as I was ready to walk again, something screamed right behind us causing me to half die again while Corey burst out laughing.

It went on for about fifteen more minutes before we were out of the dark and walking back towards the car. I was beyond relieved to be out but Corey groaned and suggested we go back in because there was a couple of scares that we missed.

"You know, you're the worst at picking dates." I frowned.

"But I loved it, it was so cool and I got to hold you the entire time." He laughed.

"You loved it." I rolled my eyes. Of course, he did, "I hate you."

"I love you too." What? I immediately stopped walking and looked at him just in time to see his eyes widen. "I-I mean – not love. I don't love you – Not, not that I hate you or don't love you, of course I kind of – Um. Well, you know it's like... Um – You wanted a slushy, right, Babe? I'll get that." He was gone before I could say anything and I stared at the spot he had been shocked before feeling myself smile. He was adorable, especially stumbling over his words like that.

I began to feel giddy playing over what he said in my mind but forced myself to calm down. We had just been messing around, that's an automatic answer when trying to annoy someone who says they hate you. I sighed.

Still... It sounded nice...

I bit my lip shutting my eyes as I tried to control the sudden, seemingly automatic negative thoughts in my mind telling me not to be stupid and that even though we were mated he could never really fall in love with someone so damaged, no one could or would.

Trying to shake the thought, I opened my eyes again and took a breath. No. He liked me a lot. I knew he did. He showed it constantly. Taking me to get the crap scared out of me was his way of showing it. That made me laugh before it fell again as my mind fought with itself.

How do I even know what like looks like? Let alone love. It was stupid to think he really did like me. I just wanted him to, needed him to but apart from being mated, it did not make sense that he would be attracted to me. What was there to like?

Damn it, Jayden, I thought you were doing better.

"Just stop it." I hissed at myself trying to get my mind to shut up.

"Stop what?" Corey's voice was surprising and caused me to look up.

"Nothing. Um – I thought-I thought you were getting slushies?" I asked trying to avoid answering. He held nothing.

"I was. I thought you would follow me but you didn't so I came back. Why would I leave you alone out here? You're already half dead." He teased, I would have glared at him or said something snarky back had I not suddenly felt so downcast, "Stop what?" He repeated, his face straightening.

"I'm a werewolf," I said. It was perfectly fine to leave me alone. Corey didn't think so; I guess I couldn't blame him. He was a protective beta and I was me who still jumped after being scared the same way five times. It was still annoying though.

"I'm still stunned by that fact, also kinda think it's not true." I shoved him but the movement only got laughter from him so I rolled my eyes grabbing his hand to begin to lead us towards the food stalls.

"Come on."

"Jay?" He called.

"Yeah?" I didn't turn around until he stopped walking and tugged my hand causing me to stumble back a few paces. I turned around to face him and raised my brows as he suddenly hugged me tightly. After a few seconds of savouring the hug in surprise, I lifted my arms to hug him back. Once I got used to it, his hugs were the best things ever and I hated letting him go.

"I meant it." He mumbled into my ear.

"Meant what?" I asked pulling back slightly to look at him.

"I love you." He didn't move his eyes from mine as he said it. I opened my mouth but he spoke, "You don't have to say anything. I understand. I just wanted you to know that you drive me crazy."

"I drive you crazy?" I asked laughing a little. Wasn't that a bad thing?

"Yeah. With your zoning out and your social awkwardness, your voice and your stupid friendliness. You're so naive sometimes, but you're fricking adorable and so lovable, seriously it's so surprising how everyone just loves you. And when you get carried away and say something you shouldn't have before you freak out about it. Then there's your strength, your smile, your laugh..." I stared at him shocked as he smiled. He was looking at me but I had never seen him look that way before. Not even when looking at his car. It was like I was the only thing he saw, like he was mesmerised and deliriously happy just looking at me. I felt... like I was incredibly important to him... "I love you, Jayden. Everything about you." As his whispering finished, I felt my eyes sting as his face somewhat blurred from my vision.

I was shocked that I actually believed him... I really felt like he did. Love me. A lot.

There was a pause for some time before he let out a choked chuckle suddenly and I blinked away my tears to see him glancing away from me as his arms loosened from the hug. "I-I know I said you don't have to say anything, but you're scaring me." He let me go completely to cover his face.

My face broke into a grin as I lifted my hands to push his hands away before cupping his face and pulling it to mine. I kissed him quickly before breaking apart to lock him into another tight hug. I grinned feeling his arms slide around me again.

"I love you," I mumbled.

"Wait a minute, what was that?" Corey pushed me back and I saw him smiling.

"What was what?" I asked feigning confusion.

"What did you just say?"

"I didn't say anything. Are you okay?" I tilted my head as if he was being weird.

"Oh..." His face dropped, "Yeah, yeah, I'm good." I chuckled planting a peck on his lips.

"Can we get the slushies now?"

"Yeah, sure." He said clearing his throat slightly, it made my chest ache as he avoided my eyes by glancing towards the trees. "You go ahead. I'll uh, be right there – just have to tell my mom we're still out."

"Okay. Don't take too long." I began backing away as he agreed before I grinned, "I love you, Corey." It immediately made his head snap back to me.

"I knew I heard it! You're so evil!" I laughed turning to sprint towards the stand while he ran after me.

I thought I could never be happier than at that moment.

I was wrong.

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