Amber

Months passed, and I began to feel more comfortable in my new surroundings, although I still often woke aching for the alpha I had left behind. I worked as much as I could and otherwise did what I wanted. Sarah made friends wherever she went, and I hovered on the edge of her circle. She tried to include me, but it seemed I was destined to be a shadow in the background.

"Why don't you come out with me tonight?" she prodded me.

I had a rare weekend off, and I searched for a good reason to refuse. "I don't have the money," I said, settling on my favourite excuse. It wasn't entirely a lie. I was saving, but it was not as if I had a lot of disposable income.

She rolled her eyes. "I'll pay for you. It's my birthday, you have to come." She then fixed the most precious puppy dog eyes on me that I had ever seen.

"Oh, stop that already. I'll go, just this once. I can pay my own way though."

"I thought you didn't have the money."

"I don't. I'll have to hit my savings."

"Amber, I don't want—"

"It's fine, it's your birthday." My own birthday was a mystery to me, but at least I could help Sarah enjoy hers.

"If you say so," she said, almost sounding like she felt guilty.

Sarah got ready in a slinky blue dress, and then she dressed me like a doll in a black skirt and a red shirt that made me feel rather exposed. I wondered what her cousin would think if he could see me now. With hair down and curling and moderate heels on my feet, and I was ready for what was to come, more or less. A few of Sarah's friends came over that evening and they cracked open a couple of bottles of wine, along with the cake I had made for Sarah earlier in the day.

"You drink like a sailor," one of the girls, a brunette named Greta, chirped as she clinked glasses with Sarah.

"Your ability to hold alcohol is truly phenomenal," agreed Cindy, the black haired beauty of the group.

I smiled at their conversation and continued to listen quietly, as Sarah thrust a glass into my hand. I wondered with a sad twinge if he had indirectly paid for this as well, but I shoved the thought away and began to sip my drink.

Greta held her glass aloft, "To Sarah, the birthday girl with the craziest alcohol tolerance I've ever seen in my life."

"Aw, it's nothing. Just takes a lot of practice," Sarah lied graciously. I smiled. These girls could practice until their livers imploded and they could never achieve Sarah's werewolf tolerance.

They continued chattering and drinking and more people came over to celebrate Sarah. While I didn't have Sarah's tolerance, I had come to discover that my own was pretty good compared to the other humans, and combined with the fact that I was drinking at about half the pace of the others, I could barely feel the effects by the time we were set to leave.

The bar was overwhelming. It was all darkness cut by intrusive lights, and noise from the music and the shouted conversations. I followed the others, mostly focusing on keeping myself as unseen as possible.

I had come far in my time living on my own with Sarah. I was learning to push aside my instincts and speak up for myself, but there were still some situations that seemed too much for me and I just couldn't get past them.

But at least Sarah was fun. Even though she was a reminder of who I had left behind, I had come to genuinely care for her and I was pretty sure that she was my friend, although that niggling doubt remained.

The girls brought drinks and I obediently took mine. We sat at a table, and then they decided to dance. I stayed at the table, not really in the mood to pretend I knew what I was doing.

Sitting alone, I nursed my drink for a few minutes, when someone joined me. The man was tall and broad and for the briefest second I thought of the alpha because he had a similar way of possessing the space around him, but then I focused on the handsome man and knew that my thought had been pure foolishness.

"Can I have a seat?" he asked me.

"Sure," I said, and he sat across from me in the booth.

"So what's a beautiful woman like you doing sitting all alone?" he asked.

I withheld my uncomfortable reaction to the compliment. At first glance, he seemed nice and sincere, and I got a good feeling from him. There was no reasonable reason not to give him a chance. It wasn't his fault he wasn't someone else I found myself yearning for. "I'm just not much of a dancer," I said.

"I'll bet you're really good."

I smiled a bit as I shook my head.

"Well, I'm not much of a dancer either," he confessed with a little grin that made him look really attractive. I smiled slightly at his cute mannerisms.

"So, are you from here originally?" he asked.

"No, I've only been here for a few months, actually."

"I figured as much. You don't have that jaded city feel to you yet." He smiled softly and I couldn't help but return it.

"Is that a good thing?"

"Absolutely."

Sarah came up to me with a happy little bounce in her step, but her smile faded as she got nearer. She smiled widely at the guy who had been talking to me, but I saw it didn't quite meet her eyes. "Amber, are you going to introduce me to your new friend?" she asked, her tone friendly and fake.

"Um, well, I—"

"I'm Dan," he cut in charmingly. He turned his eyes to me. "And I'm afraid I should really be going, but I'd like to get your number." He held out his phone on a new contact invitingly.

I glanced uncertainly between this stranger named Dan and Sarah who was in the process of staring him down. Maybe she didn't approve of me starting a relationship with anyone who wasn't her cousin, but that wasn't even really what I was doing. My stomach felt kind of sick at the realization. Was I still trapped by that pack indirectly? Was Sarah my friend or just my watchdog?

I quickly tapped my number into his phone and handed it back. It was my life, and the guy seemed nice enough. I could make human friends, couldn't I?

With a final smile, he stepped away from the table. I glanced cautiously at Sarah, but she was still staring at him as he walked away and left the bar.

"Who was he?" Greta asked as she joined us with a man linked to her arm.

"Bad news," Sarah said darkly.

I glanced at her, wondering why her impression of him was so much different than my own. He didn't seem like a cruel person, and I'd had enough experience with cruel people to recognize them.

"Really? Because he was hot. I could use some bad news in my life, I think." Cindy laughed from beside her.

"Not this sort of bad news."

"Why? Do you know him?" Greta asked, concerned.

Sarah nodded. "We've crossed paths."

My curiosity grew as she refused to speak further about her reasons. We hadn't been in the city that long so I wasn't sure how she would know him—although maybe it wasn't that strange, since the amount of friends she'd managed to make in our short time was perplexing. Or maybe it simply been a lie to get the others off her back? Once we were home I would ask her what was her problem with Dan.

As the night continued, I eventually hit the perfect threshold of drunk and peer-pressured to get up and dance. I was probably terrible, but everyone seemed to be having fun and everyone was too drunk to care about my performance. A group of guys came over to us and joined our group. A dark haired man came over to me and tried to pull me up against him, but I got a flash of memory of the alpha trying to get me to dance. This guy wasn't right, so I backed away.

I fled to the washroom with a searing pain in my chest. Thinking about him hurt, so I tried to avoid doing so, but it seemed like no matter how far I ran, reminders of him were everywhere. A few tears escaped from my eyes although I tried to hold them back.

"What's wrong, doll?" asked a random human woman who had stopped to wash her hands.

I blinked my bleary eyes and looked at her. She was a brunette about my age and wearing a skin tight black dress.

"I just miss someone, I guess."

"Aw, I'm sorry to hear that."

I shrugged. "It's my own fault."

"That's even worse, isn't it?"

"I chose to leave, and now I don't know how to get him out of my head."

She patted my shoulder a couple of times. "Would he want you back? You could always try, right?"

I glanced at her, surprised. My brain felt foggy, but there was something there. What if I did go back? Would he still want me? I thought he would, after all, I was his mate, right?

With a final smile and a wish for good luck, she left the bathroom.

I splashed water on my face and followed her out.