(Joel's pov)

"Joel."

"Hmm?" I hummed as nipped at the spot where I would mark her.

"I, I don't want to stop," she said as I could feel her heart rate spike at her confession.

She had her face buried in my chest, but I didn't need to see her face to know it was bright red right now. Those few little words were enough to make my heart stop for a second; this woman was going to be the death of me, I swear.

"Fuck," I groaned out as I buried my face in the crook of her neck. "Amara as much as I would love to have my way with you right now, I think we should wait."

I hated myself; every being in my body hated myself; all I wanted to do right now was bend her over and fuck her senseless, but I knew I couldn't, not right now.

"Why?" She asked, finally looking up at me, her curious eyes staring a hole through me.

"For one, your father could come looking for us at any point, and I'm already on his shit list. For two he'll kill me if he walks up on us having sex, and I would like to live," I said as her eyes widened at my words.

"Shit I forgot about my dad," she mumbled under her breath as she moved away from me, as she quickly found her discarded underwear before slipping them back on.

"Amara," her father shouted from the backyard.

Amara gave me a startled look as I smirked at her flustered expression.

"Told you," I said as she glared at me before storming off in the direction of their house.

I laughed as I ran to catch up with her, wrapping my arms around her curvy waist.

"If you're still willing later, then I'll be taking you up on your offer," I growled in her ear as her body trembled.

I grabbed her hand and led her to where her father was waiting for us.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Later seemed to take forever to get here. After we returned to the house it seemed like her birthday party was never going to end. It wasn't until damn near ten at night before everyone was finally gone. It was currently midnight and I was sneaking up to Amara's room. Once I reached her door I slowly and as quietly as I could opened her bedroom door.

Amara watched me from her bed as I entered her room. She was currently sitting in the middle of her bed reading the book Leo had gifted her today. I left her door slightly open as I eased my way over to her.

"Get your shoes on," I whispered to her.

Since we haven't mated yet we can't mindlink one another yet.

"Why?" She asked, closing her book and setting it on her bedside table.

"I have a surprise for you."

Amara gave me a questioning look before she put her shoes on. She stood from her bed as I took her hand. We eased our way down the hall past where the rest of her family was currently sleeping. With every step we took, I prayed that they couldn't hear us. Her father might not have a wolf anymore but I have no doubt he could still kill me if he wanted to.

I didn't breathe easy until we were standing on the front porch of their house. We both let out a sigh of relief as we walked off the porch and started in the direction of my car.

"When did you have a car here?" Amara asked quietly.

"Your dad took me to get my car yesterday morning before your party," I said, unlocking the car before opening the passenger side door, holding it open for Amara as she got into the car.

Gently closing her door, I rounded the front of the car, getting into the driver's side. It was times like this that I was thankful my car had a quiet engine, I put the car in drive as we quickly left the driveway.

"Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," I said.

The rest of the ride was quiet, it took all of maybe twenty minutes to get to our destination.

"Wow," Amara said as I parked the car in front of a cabin that was surrounded by nothing but words, it even had a pond in the backyard. "Is this your place?" She asked.

"It is. At least one of them."

"One of them? How many houses do you own?"

"Four," I said getting out of the car.

"What do you mean four?" she asked as she hurriedly got out of the car before I could open her door for her.

"Well, I tend to travel a lot for work. So I have this place here and then I have three other places in three other states," I said.

"Makes sense," she said.

I grabbed her hand, leading her to the house. I unlocked the door before opening it, we walked into the dark house as I clumsily felt the wall for the light switch.

"I hate this damn thing," I grumbled out as I finally found it, flicking it upwards as the living room filled with light.

"Jeez Joel, I know you said you read, but I wasn't expecting this," Amara said as she stared at the pile of books that cluttered the living room.

"It's basically all I do when I'm alone," I said.

"So no TV or anything like that?" She asked as she examined the room, trying to find a TV that could be hidden somewhere in the room.

"One of my houses has a TV but this one and the other one does not. When I'm here I just like the quietness, it's a nice place to decompress and relax from all of the bullshit I have to deal with."

"I guess I get that. From what my dad has told me about some of the stuff Elders have to go through it sounds like a very stressful job," she said as she picked up a book to read the description on the back.

I couldn't help but smile as I watched the corner of her lips turn up as she opened the book to read a few lines of chapter one. Who would have thought that I'd get lucky enough to get a bookworm for a mate, I guess the Moon Goodness knew what she was doing from time to time. I left her alone with the book as I made my way to my room. I opened the door, turning on the light as I made my way over to the bed. I quickly fixed the comforter before sitting down on the bed and flopping back onto the bed.

I let out a deep sigh as I closed my eyes, it felt nice to be home, Casey was always nice to me, but I've been around people more than I'd like to be this week. Foot steps coming closer to where I was at interrupted my current thoughts as I listened closely to where she was going to go.

"So that's where you went," she said as I felt the bed dip beside me.

I opened my eyes to see her staring down at me.

"You found me," I said, giving her a small smile.

"I did," she said smiling back.

The more I stare at her, the more I noticed that something was off with her. Her smiled didn't reach her eyes, and inside those beautiful blue eyes of hers I could see a storm welling in them.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Her eyes widened at my words, before she looked away from me, biting her lip.

"I," she started before going quiet again.

"You?" I asked quietly.

"Can I tell you something that I've never told anyone before?" She asked.

"Of course, anything."

"I don't want to be the new Alpha over the pack," she said, turning to look at me as she waited for my response.

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's just too much. That and I hate it, it's so boring. The thought of spending the rest of my life until I'm forced to have a kid and pray that, the kid is an Alpha so that I can eventually step down if I'm not killed by that point is just so depressing and exhausting. You know what I truly want to do with my life?"

"What?"

"I want to travel, and see the world. And," she stopped mid sentence as her face went red before she looked away.

"And what?" I asked, intrigued as to what had her so embarrassed.

"Nothing," she said.

"No what. You got me curious now," I said smiling as she turned to glare at me.

"Oh God I can't believe I'm about to say this," she groaned out.

"Can't be no worse than what you said to me in the woods earlier today," I said smirking at her as her face grew even more red before she smacked my chest causing me to laugh.

"Shut up Joel."

"What it was sexy," I said as she smacked me again, this time laughing.

"So what is it you want to do?' I asked after she got done laughing, my curiosity really wanted to know.

"I would like to maybe be a writer one day,' she said causing my eyes to widen.

"You write?" I asked, feeling stunned by her confession.

"I do. I've never told anyone that before either," she said.

"I want to read one," I said as her eyes widened.

"No."

"Why not? If anyone gets first dibs on reading it, then it should be me," I said.

"Oh and why is that? Because you're my mate?"

"Hell yeah. That and I'm the biggest book worm, I get first dibs and that's final," I said as she smiled at me.

"Fine I'll show you one of my books then."

"Good."

The room fell silent before I asked her another question.

"Amara if you don't want to be the Alpha over the pack then you know you don't have to, right?" I said.

"I keep telling myself that and I know my dad and Alpha Trenton would understand if I said that I don't want to, but I'm just scared to tell them. I'm scared of letting everyone down or them being disappointed in me."

"Your dad wouldn't allow them to be mean to you. Shit he'd kick everyone's ass for even looking at you wrong," I said causing her to laugh.

"True."

"Your dad is scary for a human. I would have hated to have seen him when he had Micah in him," I admitted.

"My dad seems to have a soft spot for you. Why is that?" She asked, causing my body to stiffen.

"He helped me get out of a rough situation," I said, hoping she would take that answer without asking anymore questions, but when I looked up to see her face I knew she wasn't letting this go.

"Nope not good enough, I just spilled my guts to you, try again this time with no half ass answers."

Sighing I sat up, turning to face her.

"I found out that I was an elder at a very young age. Normally you find out when your around eighteen or so but I found out when I was fifteen. I was very powerful from day one and got stronger the older I got. The institute where Micah is, the old staff that used to be there were just relentless with their testing. I was like their little science experiment, every day it was just one thing after another. Then your father comes a long and it all stopped, no more testing unless it was routine check up, no more of anything. Casey helped me a lot and so did Calum, I'm very thankful to them. Casey probably doesn't have as big of a soft spot for me now that I'm stealing his daughter away from him though," I said chuckling at the last part.

Amara grabbed my hand, squeezing it as she smiled back at me.

"I'm sorry they did that too you. I'm glad my dad and Calum were able to help you. You didint deserve any of that," she said as I intertwined our fingers together.

"So when I can I read one of your books?" I asked changing the subject as she gave me an irritated look.

"I shouldn't have told you."

"Yeah well you did and now my nerdy ass wants to read one," I said as I drug her back onto the bed with me. She huffed out in annoyance as she snuggled into my side, turning so that her head rested on my chest.

"Maybe soon," she mumbled out. I decided not to respond because maybe soon was better than never.

We stayed that way until her breathing evened out. I pulled her closer to me, breathing in her scent before closing my eyes. Hoping that I could finally get some decent sleep for once.