Okay, so I made a FINAL trailer with lots of sound effects and all that. This is the last time I'm asking you to watch it, I promise. ;)

P.S. So yeah, DO watch it and tell me what you think! :)

P.P.S. It's in HD! :)

~

DEDICATION: toolong_tooshort :P

~

Chapter 14 - ❝Make The Freaking Move, You Alpha-Woman!❞

Apparently, there wasn't a whole lot Tatum could do if she wasn't ready to flirt.

At least, that's what Seneca was insisting.

"Um, but—" Tatum started, only to get interrupted.

"No buts," Seneca narrowed her dark silver eyes, "And, you're sure you want to do this, right? You're not doing this because of some twisted thought that Francesca might feel uncomfortable with your friendship with Angier or some shit like that."

"Nope," Tatum popped the 'p' with enthusiasm, grinning widely as she ignored the sudden sense of loss wrapping around her insides, "I really want to start doing something about trying to meet new guys. I want to explore everything the world has to offer, YOLO and all that."

"Whoa," Seneca appraised Tatum in disbelief for a few seconds, seemingly out of words, "What brought on this sudden change?"

"Nothing really," Tatum shrugged honestly, looking around quickly before leaning in and lowering her voice to a semi-whisper, "I just realized that I must be the only twenty-year-old virgin breathing, and I'm talking about even kissing."

"Dang, Tatum." Ezra breathed just above Tatum's head, startling the crap her out of her, "Goddess, Ezra!"

The Beta ignored the fact that he just startled her after hearing in on what they were talking as he and Micajah place their trays down and take their seats, "We disappear for two minutes to get some dessert and both of you start discussing the spicy stuff."

Micajah, bless his gentle soul, ignored his brother's ranting and proceeded to start putting away his molten lava chocolate cake.

"If two people are discussing something when you're gone," Seneca's glare was hotter than the Sahara, "It means they don't want you to know about that."

"Yeah . . . I agree that those social norms exist," Ezra nodded ruefully, shrugging, "But unfortunately, as my friends, you can't expect that from me.."

Tatum rolled her eyes, glad that the focus was shifting to topics that weren't her virginity, "Now that your Mate is back, you're back to being unbearable. I should have a talk with her about disappearing more often."

Ezra ignored her comment completely except for a happy smile at the mention of his other half and continued, "Oh and by the way, Tatum?" He took a huge bite of his red-velvet cupcake, not bothering to finish chewing before continuing, "Seneca was the same as you. Only, she was an eighteen-year-old virgin."

Or not.

"She really didn't ask you, but whatever," Seneca mumbled as she quickly looked away a bit sheepishly, her cheeks turning slightly pink as she glanced at her Mate, who was already as red as a tomato with a forkful of his chocolate cake suspended mid-air.

"Aw, you guys were each other's firsts." Tatum cooed as she pinched Seneca's red cheek, foregoing doing the same with Micajah because he was all the way across from her, "That's the cutest thing ever."

Even as she said the words, a string of envy tightened her throat a little bit as she was reminded that she will never have any of that. Because even if she managed to fall in love with someone in the human way—and that's a big if—there was no way in hell the person's still a virgin.

Unless they've been locked up in a tower for all their life.

She laughed a little inside at her own lame joke.

"Actually," Micajah sat up straighter, raising a brow peculiarly at Ezra—who's ears were rapidly turning a cherry red, "I wasn't Seneca's first kiss."

"Oh . . ." Tatum was confused at the way he was glaring at his brother, "Do you mind if I ask who it was?"

"Who do you think?" Micajah raised his brows pointedly once more at Ezra, and since it was such an impossible answer, or more exactly the last person on earth Tatum would've guessed the guy would be, it took her a couple of seconds to put the staring and Ezra's blushing together.

"YOU?" Tatum was so shocked that she couldn't even try to begin formulating a coherent thought, "What—but—no way!"

"Yes way," Seneca smirked, raising her eyebrows pointedly at Ezra as well.

He was now lying face-down on the table with his forehead buried in the crook of his elbow as he muttered something incoherently; if Tatum had to guess, it'd probably be a bunch of curses aimed at his Alphas.

"How? Were you guys . . ?" Tatum couldn't even ask the question without a blush coating her cheekbones, because if they had successfully reverted back to friendship after something had happened between them, she'd regret the fact that she never tried anything with Angier before he was Mated, till the day she died.

"No!" Seneca and Ezra chorused as they shot disgusted looks at each other.

"He's like the brother I never had!"

"She's like my sister!"

Tatum stared between the two of them dubiously as she felt the tiny hope building inside her be squashed, and yet a feeling of relief unfurled, "The friends doth protest too much,"

"No, really." Micajah laughed, shaking his head, "I was a bit timid in the beginning and had trouble channeling my inner anger into a decent punch. So my brother here," He threw an arm around Ezra's neck as if to give him a side-hug and then pulled him into a head-lock, laughing at the Ezra's fake-struggle, "decided that if he kisses her in front of me, then my Wolf might get pissed off enough to surface and help me do it."

"Oh," Tatum shot an amused look at everyone, "As twisted as that logic is, did it at least work?"

"Well," Micajah brought his fork to his lips to try and conceal a smirk, "I think Ezra's broken nose bones can attest that it did,"

Tatum threw her head back and laughed.

~

After a little while of randomness, Tatum's phone pinged with the custom text tone that Angier had assigned himself the first evening she'd bought it. Seneca looked at her curiously at the elaborate music, and Tatum hurried to change it to silent mode before checking the screen.

I'm sorry, can't make it to lunch. Francesca apparently HAS to eat Pepperoni Pizza and it CANNOT be from the cafeteria, AND it has to be NOW, so I couldn't ask everyone if they want to go with, either.

~ A

"Angier got held up because Francesca had a sudden pizza craving," Tatum shrugged as she informed them, and Ezra rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, "Like he even makes it to the lunch hall on time, anyway."

"True, I mean, I get that they're Mates and all, but they literally have four classes together so it's no big deal to hang with friends for a while during lunch. I don't get why it's so difficult for them to be here on time," Micajah shook his head and he slurped the last of his milkshake with a loud noise, not caring in the least bit about it.

Preach, brother. Preach.

"Yeah, whatever," Tatum said under her breath and wrapped up the containers on her tray. Just then, she felt Seneca start to bounce in her seat—all excited and happy—and Tatum looked up curiously and followed her line of vision out the window too see that Louis had just taken a seat in one of the stone benches under a tree with a book in his right hand.

Ah, perfect.

"Remember what I told you? You gotta turn the flirt on." Seneca stage-whispered with the back of her hand cupping her mouth, and Tatum turned to her with a sigh, "Alright, I agree with you. But the thing is, I don't really know if I like the guy. I mean, how does one even begin to determine that?"

Tatum dragged her eyes away from the sight outside the window to the dining room, only to find three pairs of eyes looking at her strangely, "What?"

"Don't you 'like' Angier? Isn't that basis enough to 'determine' that?" Micajah questioned, making air-quotes with both hands as he stressed on his words, and the other two nodded in agreement.

Tatum went red, "Well . . . uh, if I have to have to feel that strongly then um, I may not be in 'like' with Louis Carson," She imitated his air-quotes, playing with the straw of her empty juice-box.

"No, he wasn't referring to how strong the feelings are." Ezra shook his head in exasperation, "Liking someone is exactly what the word suggests it is. You think they're attractive and you also find their personality intriguing and perhaps a good fit for yours. And if your stomach does little somersaults at the thought of them; even better,"

Angier? Check.

Angier? Check.

Angier? Check.

Dammit!

Louis? A maybe check for it all.

"The answers aren't a definite yes, but I think I might be headed that way?" Tatum finished the sentence in a note higher, making it sound like a question.

Seneca patted her arm empathetically, "That way is good, it's better than 'no way'."

"Alrighty then."

Tatum was unconsciously fiddling with her phone now and realized that she was scanning the text Angier had just sent over and over. When she noticed the silence in the table, she looked up to realize that the three of them were staring at her with various levels of incredulity, Seneca being the highest.

"What, now?" Tatum almost whined, already feeling like she'd had enough of this and maybe a bit ready to chuck the guy-selection and postpone it for a while.

"You're supposed to go and make the freaking move, you Alpha-woman!" Micajah face-palmed as he took note of the blank expression on Tatum's face, making Seneca join in with a groan.

"Um, you mean I should go now?" The thought of walking all the way across the garden for no reason except to talk, made Tatum go slightly green. Talking to the guy during practice was another thing, but this? It would make it abundantly clear to Louis that Tatum was hitting on him.

"Yes!" Three voices chorused loudly, and Tatum shot up from her seat without a choice in the matter.

I really shouldn't have brought this up to Seneca.

"Go!" Ezra gave Tatum a shove on the elbow, and Tatum made a move to grab her empty tray and drop it into the trashcan on the way.

Tatum could hear a palm meeting a forehead again, and then Seneca's pissed as frack voice, "Goddess, leave the fuckin' trash. We'll take it. Just freaking go."

That made Tatum jump into action.

~

"Hello,"

REALLY TATUM? Hello? Are you talking on the freaking 'phone?

"Hey, you," Louis looked up in surprise from the book in his hand—a quick scan told her it was Dan Brown's latest release—something Angier wouldn't be caught dead reading; he despised all things Dan Brown for some weird reason.

Tatum didn't mind, though. She was just glad that Louis was a reader. It added up lots of cool points in her books.

"So, Origin, huh?" Tatum gestured to the title of the book with a nervous wave of her hand, shifting her weight between her toes and heels awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah. I know it's been a year since it came out and all, but for some reason, I just never picked this one up," Louis raised his shoulders slightly with a smile, and Tatum relaxed slightly. "Oh, take a seat. You standing makes me all twitchy and nervous,"

Tatum nodded slightly as she sat gingerly beside Louis on the grey stone bench, and under the thick green of the tree on top of them, his eyes had an almost jade tint to them, "You have beautiful eyes," She blurted accidentally out loud, and just before she could slap a hand over her mouth reflexively, she restrained herself, trying to act all cool that she'd said it.

Plan backfired.

"You just stole my line," Louis chuckled as he turned his body more in her direction, gazing directly into her cyan eyes, "Thanks a lot, anyway. You're just too cute when you're nervous."

Fuck, he noticed.

"Heh? Me?" Tatum pulled an Angier at that moment and rolled her eyes so far that she worried for a second that they might accidentally get stuck, "I'm not nervous. No way, nuh-uh. Nervous is when someone is volatile to emotions like agitation, stress et cetera. From what I read somewhere, when you're under stress, your brain releases stress hormones like adrenaline, noradrenaline and co—" Tatum's voice got stuck in her throat when she realized that Louis was looking at her with an amused smile, and then she realized that what she'd been just doing was definitely classified as rambling.

Great first time at flirting, Tate. Awesome job.

Note the sarcasm.

"See?" Louis chuckled when it was clear that Tatum wasn't gonna open her mouth anymore, "That's what I meant. You're too cute."

Tatum felt herself smile at that despite the embarrassment she was drowning in, "You do realize that you're calling a future Alpha, cute?"

Louis froze in shock at that, his mouth partly opened and eyes wide as he stared at her in dawning realization at her last name, "Ah, I—um, Alpha Karas, I didn't mean to—forgive me—"

Tatum couldn't hold it in anymore, and let loose a peal of uncontrollable giggles, "Goddess, I was j-just k-kidding!"

Louis pursed his lips and assessed her laughing face with eyes squinted in mock-outrage, "Not funny, Alpha Karas."

"Oh, b-but it i-is!" Tatum choked in-between her chortles as she recalled his expression, "The l-look on your f-face! Priceless!"

"Yeah, I'm sure it was," Louis deadpanned, joining in on her tittering a little, "So would be the fact that I'm rogue."

Tatum's laughter came to an abrupt halt at that, "You're what?"

"Rogue," Louis shrugged as if the ticking time-bomb he'd just dropped in Tatum's lap was no big deal, "Chill, I left my pack only a year ago, I have lots of time before my Wolf can chip away at my sanity."

"Oh," Tatum didn't know how to feel about that. She'd never met a rogue wolf in human form before in her life, and she'd never actually considered them as more than monsters that led to the destruction of huge packs and their Alphas.

The uncertainty must've been visible on her face, because Louis chuckled, "Goddess, you look like you just saw a ghost. Chill, I was just kidding. I belong to the Pineda pack."

"Oh," Relief was almost palpable in her voice, "Not funny, either."

"Yeah . . . I kinda realized that after I said it," Louis smiled a bit sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck, standing up to grab his book when the bell rang just then.

"So . . . see you, tomorrow?" Tatum extended her hand for a shake and realized only after a second how business-like it looked, but obviously, she couldn't withdraw it after that either.

Louis looked down at her hand and grinned, and then he pulled it up, turning it to place a light kiss on the inside of her palm that made her heart instantly melt at the sweetness of the gesture.

Aw.

"Yeah, see you." With that, Louis Carson turned around and walked away, leaving Tatum grinning widely like a fool.

Only after he was out of sight did Tatum realize that the kiss he'd given her hadn't made her skin burn, or raise goosebumps all over like it had happened the other day on the hammock with Angier.

And that made her grin fade.

Damn you, Angier.

Question: Hm, I see a budding spark there on Louis' side, do you?

I'm back home after lots of calories and shoe shopping, (Clarks shall now be named my favorite brand ever) So yeah, EARLY UPDATE!

I'm cool, aren't I? So go watch the new trailer for me then ;) Okay, I'll shut up, now.

LOL. Also, leave a comment if you think it's good.

and this time I'm shutting up for real!

THANKS for reading! xx

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