Make sure to read the others note at the end!!!

As always, thank you so much for the support and i love you all xxx

Life is hard and I feel very alone most of the time but you guys keep me going and help me to get through things and I owe you all my life x

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Chapter 34 

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I know as soon as I wake up that it's far too early and I should go back to sleep, but for some reason, I can't.

I slowly open my eyes, blinking away the fuzziness before I turn and glare at the person beside me who is snoring so loudly in my ear that it's hard to even hear my own thoughts.

Tom.

I roll my eyes at his scrunched up face as I watch drool slip from his lips and I quickly cover my mouth with my hand, trying not to laugh at the sight before me.

A sleeping angel.

I roll over to my other side and want to groan when I see Kristie passed out too, her face scrunched up in the exact same way and the same noise echoing from her.

So much for more sleep.

I shake my head at the two of them while I carefully sit up, making sure not to wake them as I shuffle my way to the end of the bed, grateful that the bed was big enough for me to manoeuvre an escape and in a few seconds I'm standing back on the wooden floor, my legs a little shaky from the process.

After fixing the blanket over the two of them again and making sure they've both got water on either side of the bed I walk over to the door, careful not to make a sound. 

I was still in a bit of shock at how gorgeous the house was, and the room we were in too; it was a gorgeous plum colour, with dark grey bedding that had swirls of colour over it that made it look like a tropical ocean and the dark wood around us brought it all together as if it had been designed by an interior home magazine. Plus, it was big  – big enough, in fact, to have probably fit about ten more people in it but it had just been us three and I hadn't heard anything else in the house before I fell asleep.

Which worried me.

Didn't they come back?

I tiptoe out the bedroom door, slowly closing it behind me and when I'm standing in the foyer I listen for the sound of other people but there's nothing.

It's silent.

Deciding to go somewhere that I know in my attempts to not get lost, I follow the hallway back to the main part of the building. On my way, I can't help but notice all the pictures and paintings on the walls, there's not much lighting but I can make out most things and they're all so beautiful. 

The one that really catches my attention is a large painting of a wolf, but as I look closer I realise that the wolf itself is made up of other wolves like a mosaic, a very big one at that – it stands way taller than me and I'm sure that if I stretched my arms out I wouldn't be able to touch both sides.

It was a masterpiece.

The wolf itself was strange. It wasn't that it looked strange or was abnormal, but it felt strange. Like it was alive. When I look at it the eyes don't seem flat they almost seem like they're glowing.

I was most definitely still half asleep.

I rub my eyes and scoff at myself before I continue to the kitchen, rolling my eyes at m nervous laughter.

It was a painting. 

My feet hit the cold tile of the room and shivers run up my body as I look around, waiting to see someone but there's still only silence as if no one else has arisen yet.

I head to the coffee pot that's sitting on the counter and start it up, eager to wake myself up properly and look a little more presentable by the time I see someone else.

I glance at the clock on the oven and groan when I see the time:

7:18AM

I hadn't even slept for very long.

My fingers twirl around the chain hanging from my neck as I stand and stare at the coffee, my mind drifting to last night and the kiss I shared with Trent.

Make that kisses.

The smile that flickers onto my lips is one that I can't stop and my stomach rolls a little at the memory, goosebumps rising on my skin and I shake them away, knocking myself out of the daze I'd started to get trapped in.

It was strange to be in Trent's house and him not be here, better yet it was strange that no one was here, especially when it seemed like so many people stayed here.

Maybe they're just all asleep.

I pour the hot coffee into a mug that I find in one of the many cupboards and I wrap my cold hands around it, only now realising how cold it seemed to be in the house. 

Outside, I can see the sun beginning to peak through the top of the hills and I realise that it's sunrise.

It had been a long time since I got to sit and watch one of these.

Heading towards the back doors that I had watched Trent leave through a few hours before I notice his jacket hanging from one of the chairs and quickly pull it on. For a moment I'm concerned that it might belong to someone else but as soon as the material envelopes my body I relax, breathing in his aftershave that lingers.

The air hits me as soon as I step outside and I inhale the freshness of it, letting it run all over my body and I can't control the grin that overtakes my face as I step onto the patio and pull up one of the lounge chairs, easing myself into it, careful not to spill my drink.

The view is breathtaking.

The patio is like a balcony which has stairs on either side leading down to the grass below where a beautiful archway stands at the edge of the grass and I can now see that there is a drop down to the rest of the greenery which leads to the forest beyond that.

But behind the line of forestry, standing high above it, is the mountains in the background, their stature like a giant among men, towering over all of us and gracing us with their beauty. There's a slight breeze rustling the trees and far off I can hear the calls of birds waking up and bringing the earth to life but for that moment I think of nothing, I feel nothing but ease.

"It's quite a sight isn't it."

 I jump at the voice beside me and quickly stand, avoiding spilling hot liquid over my bare legs and spin around to the person standing at the doors, my heart pounding.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

The person is a boy, one that I've never seen before, and as soon as I see the grin on his face I relax, the anxious feeling disapparating slightly. I smile timidly and pull Trent's jacket around me more, feeling exposed in my shorts from the night before.

The boy glances at my movement and smirks, his grin widening.

"I'm Lou," he states and begins to make his way towards me and it's only now that I realise that his arms are strapped to two poles and he's leaning on them to walk, one of his legs dragging along as he does and I quickly look away, not wanting to look like I'm staring.

As he goes to sit beside me I pull out the chair for him and he throws me a grateful grin before sighing and dropping into the seat and I follow suit, curling my legs up underneath me as I do.

"I'm Elle," I say quietly, my fingers twisting in each other, "I'm-"

"I know who you are," he interrupts with a chuckle as he leans his supports against his chair, "I might be crippled but I'm not an idiot."

I blush at his words and swallow the lump that forms in my throat.

Had I offended him?

Lou sighs beside me and clears his throat.

"What I meant by that is that Trent talks a lot about you and we don't really have girls here bar Scarlette and everyone knows that you stayed last night, so..." he trails off and I relax a little; maybe he wasn't so mean after all. "Plus you're wearing his jacket."

Caught.

"It's nice to meet you, Lou," I say after a few seconds of silence and he scoffs which makes me look at him and I watch him run a hand through his blonde hair, his thin lips stretched into a sarcastic grin.

"That's the first time anyone has ever said that."

How are you meant to reply to that?

I look back out at the view and take a sip of my coffee, trying to figure out what kind of conversation I was meant to make with a person who seemed to have an answer for everything.

"The view from here is definitely my favourite in the entire house," he comments after a while, his voice a murmur and I smile, "It's the perfect angle to catch the light rays when they first appear and you can watch them grow for miles."

He wasn't wrong.

"I've never seen anything like it," I comment truthfully, watching as the light begins to spread over some of the green leaves hanging on the tops of trees and the peaks of the mountains, "It's almost unbelievable."

"You'll see a lot of unbelievable things around here if you stick around long enough," he teases and I can't help but glance at him as he speaks, noticing the hilt in his voice that made it sound like he wasn't completely joking, "You better start convincing yourself you're not crazy."

"What, living in a house of boys?" I ask and he looks at me in a way that lets me know that he thinks I'm an idiot.

"No," he says slowly, "I mean living in the house under his lordship." I frown at his words and look at him in confusion, which only makes his expression deepen. "Trent?" he asks with a laugh, "Your boyfriend? The giant, aggressive guy with the gloomy face and asshole personality?"

"That doesn't sound like Trent," I quip back, my mind not even processing my words until after I've defended him and then I quickly bite my tongue, not wanting to seem rude.

But he was rude about Trent.

Lou raises his eyebrows at me and lets out a whistle before settling back into his seat, his finger tapping on the table as he watches me.

"Maybe they were telling the truth then," he comments casually, "Maybe you have changed him."

"I haven't changed anyone," I counter, not knowing why my skin seems to feel prickly and my hands uneasy, "And anyway, what do you mean 'his lordship'. I thought lots of people put money in for this place?"

Clearly, going by Lou's amused expression, this was not the case.

"Is that what he told you?" He laughs, "No, this was not bought by a couple people, this house belongs to Trent. It's been in his family for as long as it's been built, it gets passed down through generations."

I'm gobsmacked at his words - the house was so magnificent and well kept, how on earth did Trent manage to look after it and all the people inside of it.

And why did he lie?

"So... Trent just let's all of you guys stay here?" I ask, still not quite understanding why he was here if he hated Trent.

"More like demands we do," Lou jokes, "He's a bit over cautious when it comes to things like that."

What?

"Overcautious?" I ask, my mind trying to catch up with everything that's being said but Lou is making it pretty difficult by being vague.

"He's a bit of a mother hen, our Alpha."

Alpha.

That's the word that Cole had used before when he addressed Trent.

"What does that mean?" I interject, cutting off his rambling about rules or something, "You said Alpha. Is that not like a thing in movies and in animal-based stories?"

Lou assesses me for a moment, his eyes staring at me as if he's debating something until eventually his mouth quirks up a little and he turns away from me, the smile remaining on his lips.

"Maybe you're not as dumb as I assumed after all."

I don't know whether to take the comment as a compliment or an insult but to save my own feelings I choose compliment and I let it go, not wanting to cause arguments.

"But you're right," he adds when I think he's finished, "In stories, the Alpha is always the leader, the strongest member of the pack, the one who gives the orders, who controls the group."

"And that's Trent?" I ask incredulously, not believing him for a second and he just raises an eyebrow at me.

"Have you seen anyone else that would beat him?"

I go to respond but stop myself, my mind already whirring through all the memories I have of situations with Trent in them and I try to find a flaw in Lou's theory but I can't. 

What kind of house was this?

"So Trent is in charge of you guys? Like a gang?" My heart beats louder, I place a hand on my chest trying to slow it down and I start to see it; the leather jackets, the tattoos, the house. 

Were they some sort of mafia?

A snort of laughter breaks me from my thoughts and I glare at Lou who is clearly laughing at my scared expression, his eyes crinkled at the corners.

"Surprise! You should see your face," he cackles wickedly, clapping his hands together and I wait to get the joke, not knowing what's so funny.

Was he crazy?

If all these boys really were in a gang, did that mean that I was now in it too? Had I dragged my friends into it? Were they criminals? Were we criminals?

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Lou's hands grab my arms and I gasp, looking at him in shock as my breath catches in my throat and I hold it, not knowing what else he's going to tell me. "We're not a gang!" he explains and the tingles disappear from my fingers and my hands stop shaking, "It's just a name we call Trent, I promise we're not thugs and murderers."

Shakily, I let out a laugh, almost embarrassed by the reaction that I had and he shakes his head at me, his hand holding my arm not rubbing it in an act of comfort and I'm shocked at the kind gesture.

"I didn't mean to scare you like that," he confesses, wincing a little, "Maybe don't tell Trent that happened? He'd probably kill me."

I chuckle at his plea and nod in agreement, relaxing once more into the chair, my body sagging at the now relaxing atmosphere settling around us and I watch the sunlight make its way towards us, the streams of sun licking they're way across the grass, lighting up the whole garden.

If you could even call it that.

"Our secret," I tease and he grumbles something back, "Plus, no one is awake to hear you."

Lou scoffs at my comment and shakes his head.

"Everyone isn't asleep," he tells me and my head snaps to him in shock, "They're all already up and out running. It's the morning routine. The whole house has to get up and do it, Trent's orders."

"You've got to be kidding me!" I exclaim, "Is that not torturous? Why would you want to live here?"

Lou smiles at my comment but it doesn't reach his eyes and his gaze trails down to his leg before moving off into the distance, the silence between us deafening.

Fuck.

"I didn't mean to–" he cuts me off with a wave of his hand, not even looking at me and I want to punch myself in the throat to stop any more words coming out.

"I didn't really enjoy running much either until I couldn't anymore," he mumbles, a wistfulness in his voice that I had never heard someone so young have before and my heart ached at the ghost of a smile that flits across his lips.

My hands rise slightly and I feel myself lean forward as if I'm going to reach out towards him, to comfort him or at least let him move some of the pain for a moment but he quickly coughs and I flinch back, scolding myself for the action.

That's not your place.

"The boys are back."

It takes a second for me to understand what he's saying but when he nods forward I turn and look out at the open forest and far down at the bottom, emerging from leaves, is a figure and the sound that follows is howls and cheers of men.

I place my coffee down on the table and stand up, heading to the railing to get a better look and after squinting profusely for a few seconds I finally make out the dark hair and large body of Trent who is moving at a rapid pace, weaving in and out of the trees.

At the base of a large tree which almost stands on it's own, he halts and turns around quickly, his body crouched low and I gasp as someone flies past him, almost colliding with his body.

"What are they doing?" I ask Lou as I rise on my tiptoes, trying to make out anything more than I can already see but it's pointless.

"It's a challenge. If someone can tag him as they run past then they don't have to do another lap, if they don't then..." he shrugs and winces, making it clear that the activity was not the most fun.

"Do people often manage to tag him?" I question curiously, turning back to look at the figure of him as he dodges another person running at him and I can hear the groans and cries from all the way up here.

And Trent's laughter that follows.

Lou scoffs beside me and rises to his feet, his crutches firmly in his hands as he hobbles over to me and glances at the scene, a sigh escaping his lips.

"No ones ever beat him," he states casually, as though he's talking about the weather, "And I doubt anyone ever will."

It's not that I'm shocked that Trent is active and agile, it's just that the blurs of boys that are running towards him all look to be just as much so and it's a lot to believe that the towering man that I'm watching could go untouched.

But then as I watch him duck and dive across the grass it seems to become more believable. His body seems to move so gracefully that it mesmerises, like a dancer who already knows the choreography, it's like he's inside his opponent's heads and I'm caught in a trance, watching and waiting until the last person runs past him and he lets out a howl of victory, his shouts of encouragement echoing through the forest.

Undefeated again.

"Wow."

The single word leaves my lips as barely a whisper but it's as though he hears me and his gaze snaps up to me. It's crazy to say but it's almost as though I can feel his eyes watching me, making me weak at the knees from hundreds of metres away.

Oh no, he was coming.

He starts jogging towards me and I move away from the railing, not wanting to look like I was ogling and I turn to Lou quickly, trying to think of something to say but the boy has turned his back to me and is heading indoors, grumbling under his breath.

"Lou!" I hiss, trying to get him to come back but he just pauses in moving and raises a half hand as a goodbye and heads indoors, not looking back for a second and I want to scream at his retreating figure.

Just act cool, Elle. Act cool.

All my mind can think of is that the kisses we shared last night were drunk mistakes and he's going to say something that makes me want to throw myself off of the balcony in embarrassment and unrequited attraction, and I'm so busy panicking over that, that I don't even see him climb up the stairs until he appears a foot away from me and I jump a little in surprise.

"Good morning," he grins and my stomach flips at his beautiful face that's lit by the golden sun, "Lou wasn't bothering you, was he?"

I'm listening to the words that he's saying, but my eyes are following a bead of sweat that falls from his brow bone and makes its way down his toned and tanned chest, the muscles bulging from the adrenaline pumping through them and I have to tear my eyes away when the sweat trail disappears lower than where is appropriate to stare. 

Oh Lord.

"Elle?"

I shake my head rapidly and try to get rid of the dryness in my mouth by drinking some of my coffee, my eyes drifting away from him and back to the mountains as I calm down my breathing.

"Lou was pleasant."

Lou was pleasant? Who the hell says 'pleasant'.

"Good. Did you sleep okay?" Again, I nod, not trusting my vocabulary at this point. "Good." He peers at me as he combs his fingers through his damp hair, taking a step closer and I feel my heart skip a beat. "Are you sure you're okay?"

I'm sure the noise that my throat makes at his biceps is audible but I'm grateful that he doesn't point it out and instead just chooses to acknowledge another nod from me, although the smirk on his lips might say otherwise.

"That's impressive," I comment, my voice ragged and I quickly cough, attempting to cover it up, "There was a lot of boys trying to tag you, Lou said you've never lost."

A soft smile lights up his features as he looks out at the forest, where no doubt the rest of the house is still running, and he rests on the railing, his shoulders bunching up at the movement and I have to look away.

"He's right. I haven't been beaten. Not since..." his words fade out.

"Since you became Alpha?" I offer, a teasing tone accompanying the words.

I expect him to laugh or roll his eyes at my comment, maybe be a little shocked that I know the nickname, but instead, the smile drops from his lips so quickly that I almost miss it and in an instant I know I've said something I shouldn't have.

"What did you say?" he hisses but doesn't look at me, his head tilted in my direction but his eyes are pointed downwards, his jaw clenched.

"A-Alpha?" I answer shakily, watching how his hands tighten around the metal railing, "I heard Cole calling you it and then Lou-"

"What did he tell you?"

"He just said it's a nickname because you're in charge."

I'm not scared of him, not really. It's just that I don't think any human could not be a little unnerved by the harsh expression on his face and the stone like features that accompany it. 

For a second he's silent, taking in my answer like he's mulling it over and I watch as his muscles flex; tightening and untightening like the heartbeat drumming through me.

After a few painfully long seconds he stands up, letting go of the metal and lets out a breath through his nose, his eyes closed as he does.

God Elle, don't use nicknames that you don't understand.

My fingers reach out of their own accord, moving towards him like a magnet but in almost the same instant he turns away from me and heads for the door.

"I need to take a shower."

I don't say a thing as I watch him leave, his thunderous footsteps echoing across the tiles inside and it's not until I can't hear them anymore that I let the breath rush out of me and I collapse on the chair in a heap, by heart like a hummingbird as I sit and try to stop the rushing tide of panicking thoughts in my head.

Well, he certainly had a sensitive spot. 

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HELLO ANGEEEEEEEELS.

Sorry this was a few days late, had total writers block the last couple days and also a bit of an emotional weekend/beginning of the week. Just having a midlife (20) crisis about my life and what I want to do so yknow that kind of took priority. 

BUT HERE IT IS!!!

I'm liking these chapters that have a little more information and story and such, I feel like it's really getting into the meat of things and I'm sooooooo excited!!! What's your opinion? What's been your favourite moments in the book so far?

I also just wanted to say a massive shout out to @pinknekool  for creating the first EVER ...

GOLDEN TRAILER!!!!!!

I was absolutely gobsmacked when you sent it to me and I still am, I love it so much and I'm so grateful for the time and effort you spent on it and your dedication to this book! If you guys want to check it out - which I really think you should - then head over to my instagram @nobodygirlinsta and you can find the link to it there or just head straight to her instagram page under the same name as her wattpad account and it's there!!!! Honestly, unbelievable.

PLEASEEEEE If any of you want to make any covers/trailers/graphics ANYTHING then please, please, please, please do because i cannot wait to see and share them!!! 

ALL CONTENT NO MATTER HOW ADVANCED OR BEGINNER IT IS WILL BE SHARED ON MY INSTA AND WILL BE SHOUTED OUT ON HERE TOO! 

If there's lots I might even make a competition of sorts!

Honestly though you guys are my backbone in life and I love you all so much. 

Till the next chapter xxxx