Chapter 6 - Diana
I avoided looking in Jackson’s direction the entire drive. He’d almost blown it just now, and if he had, he would have found some way to blame it on me.
You’ll always be Diana to me.
Kaleem’s words echoed in my mind like a song set on repeat, and I looked down at my hands resting on my lap. I wasn’t visibly shaking, but I was on the inside. How was I going to live in a town with him?
I wanted to return to Wolfcreek more than anything, but after seeing Kaleem and realizing I couldn’t look at him without being assaulted by mixed emotions, I wasn’t sure how I’d stomach living so close to him again.
Eleven years had passed, and even after all that time, I hadn’t healed the way I thought I had.
“Hey,” Jackson said while snapping his fingers at me, and I continued to stare at my hands. “Remember who you are, and it’s not Kaleem’s mate. Do you understand? Our pack won’t rejoin with theirs and certainly not by you being the alpha’s mate.”
“Who am I, Jackson? Remind me since I’ve forgotten.” I asked while still staring at my hands.
I turned to look at him slowly, and still, he didn’t answer.
He looked my way with his lips pulled into a thin line, and I turned away to stare out the window. Jackson was the last person I wanted to hear speak aboutwho I was. For the longest time now,Ihad no idea who I was.
With his speeding, we left Wolfcreek and made it to the neighboring and larger town in less than an hour. I wasn’t mad about it. The less time spent alone with this jackass, the better.
I watched the buildings go by while we crawled through traffic. There were skyscrapers and clubs, a noisy place with pollution just like everywhere else I’d been since banished from Wolfcreek. But now that I’d returned to Wolfcreek and was reminded of what it was like being in the forest, surrounded by clean air and peace, I couldn’t imagine going back to living in places like this.
After a few minutes, Jackson parked outside a commercial building with people rushing in and out. It was over twenty floors high with tinted glass from the first floor to the highest.
“Why are we here? We should be heading back to the pack,” I grumbled when we got out of the car, and Jackson buried his hands into his pockets.
He walked away without responding like he owned the place, and I gritted my teeth and followed him inside.
While others had key cards that had to be checked to enter the building, Jackson was allowed to walk in freely, and I was eyed by the security. But no one stopped us.
Something smelled fishy here, and I wasn’t a fan of fish.
I absorbed our surroundings, the large sitting areas with people typing away at their laptops, talking or having coffee, and the grand reception area with two women and two men standing behind a matte black, rectangular desk.
What stood out to me was that everyone was human except for one of the female receptionists, a witch, and a security guard that was a vampire. His pale skin, compared to everyone else, made him stand out.
The silence between Jackson and I continued while we rode the elevator to floor nineteen and until we approached brown wood doors.
He knocked once and then entered, and inside, Colin was standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows. His back was turned to us with his hands in the pockets of his pants, and my suspicions worsened.
What the hell’s going on here?
“How’s Wolfcreek, Diana?” Colin asked without turning, and his perfectly ironed shirt creased a little when he pulled his hands from his pockets.
He looked like a wealthy businessman and not the alpha of a struggling pack.
“Good,” I answered while looking around the decorated office, and Jackson plopped down on one of the chairs before the oak wood desk. “Kaleem has agreed to meet with you.”
I looked at Jackson, staring at me before returning my attention to Colin. “What is this place?” I questioned. “Is this your office?”
The real question wasn’t why Colin had an office in this town, but how could he afford one like this? This was pure luxury while the pack was surviving on the bare minimum.
I laughed drily and shook my head when he finally turned to face us. “So this is where all the money belonging to the pack has gone?”
“Don’t speak about things you don’t know,” Colin said while smiling. “Kaleem has agreed to see me, which means he’ll agree to us returning to Wolfcreek. He wouldn’t meet with me otherwise, and since we won’t be readily welcomed in the town, I’ve chosen an office here.”
That was Colin’s overconfidence getting the better of him as usual. He had no idea what Jackson just did and how it might affect his meeting with Kaleem. A meeting was a meeting, nothing else, and with his shining shit for a personality, Kaleem was going to see that he hadn’t changed.