Transparent by Soccerluv4 (: (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📖

a dark blue muscle tank and gym shorts, his impressive muscles out on display. I almost drooled as badly as I did when I saw my breakfast.

His eyes landed on me and I felt my body thrum with nerves. Damn my hormones!

“Good morning Reece, would you like some breakfast?” My mother spoke up, unaware of the obvious sexual tension between us.

“Sure, Luna Knight. Thank you.”

I looked down at my plate, shuffling my food around as I heard the creak of the barstool in front of me being slid out.

My face heated all shades of red, and I quickly gulped down my coffee in an attempt to mask it. Despite that, I could feel my skin grow hotter as I felt his stare on me. I adjusted my ponytail nervously and continued looking down at my food like it had to be the most interesting thing on the planet right now.

I stole a glance at him and saw him staring at my neck, his mouth formed into a hard line.

Just as I was about to try and figure out what he was staring at, a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon were placed in front of him.

“Hope you like it,” my mom smiled.

Just as he thanked her, the phone rang.

“Excuse me for just a second,” she said quickly, walking out of the kitchen.

I almost wanted to run out of there too, now that we were all alone.

Glancing down at my food, I realized that my appetite was gone for good.

“You need to cover that up,” his voice called out gruffly.

I looked up at him, confusion flittering across my face. His gaze was deeply set on my neck, and the thoughts of last night came back once again.

“What are you talking about?” I inquired, pulling a hand up to my neck to feel around for something. My eyebrows furrowed as I felt around my neck, until I hit a tender spot, causing me to bite my lip at the dull pain it emitted when I touched it. Suddenly, my eyes widened as I realized exactly what it was. A hickey.

How could I be so stupid?! I literally stared at my reflection in the mirror this morning, and I didn’t catch a red bruise on my neck!?

I got up abruptly and raced out of the kitchen to the bathroom adjacent to it.

I glanced at the mirror, and there it was, glowing brightly against my skin. My ponytail was basically displaying the mark, and I felt an uneasy feeling in my stomach. There was no way my mom missed this.

I saw Reece appear behind me through the reflection, entering the bathroom and closing the door behind us.

“Let me see it,” he ordered, turning me around and lifting my chin to the right. He squinted his eyes at it, before placing his thumb on the mark. I hissed slightly, despite the fact that this wasn’t a fresh wound. Damn how hard did he do it?

We were werewolves, which meant we healed way faster than humans. For him to leave a hickey like that which didn’t heal overnight meant that he had to have been really into what he was doing to leave such a hard mark like that. It was no surprise that the hickey hurt to touch.

“Crap, what am I gonna do? There’s no way my mom didn’t see this!” I bit my lip in frustration, turning around abruptly to examine the mark again in the mirror.

“Damn it!” I swore, as I stared at the reddish purple demon sitting on the left side of my neck.

I glanced at Reece behind me through the reflection, to see a bit of a territorial look in his eyes. He was looking at the mark almost proudly.

“Why the hell did you do this?!” I hissed at him, turning around.

“What do you mean, why? I’m not the only guilty one here!” He retorted back, stepping closer to me.

“It’s you who left this damn mark on me! If anyone sees this, I’m dead! I told everyone I’m saving myself for my mate. I can’t let people think I’m some slut, getting hickeys from random guys! The only other option would to give us up!” I whispered harshly, my eyes blazing.

He was about to say something when he closed his mouth, staring at me. His hand reached out and touched the hickey softly, his breath fanning my face from how close he was now. The sink was pressing into my back at this point, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I was trapped in the bathroom with my mate, who looked extremely turned on right now.

I pushed his hand away from my mark and crossed my arms.

“What the hell are you doing?” I glared at him.

“The mark looks so – normal on you. It belongs there. You’re mine after all,” he replied, his voice heavy.

I gulped nervously, and averted my eyes, crossing my arms tighter. I felt the sink dig into my back deeper, as I tried desperately to place some space between us.

“We need to get out of here before anyone sees,” I muttered, glancing at him.

His face was soft at first, before he clenched his chin, his jaw jutting out. He moved closer to me, causing my breath to hitch in my throat. His eyes never left me, as his body came close to mine, before I heard the distinct sound of a door opening.

He swung the door open using his hand behind him, and stepped out, giving me one last searing stare that said it all: I was pathetic.

I averted my eyes, blinking back frustrating tears that blurred my vision. Gulping, I checked left and right before leaving the bathroom too, and walked back into the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty, and all that was left was my plate of food. Reece was nowhere in sight, and his plate had been cleared.

A sinking feeling settled into my stomach as I stared at the empty space across from the chair I was sitting in previously. I was going to burn in hell for years for what I’m doing to him. And I wasn’t giving him a damn reason for my bipolar behavior.

Sighing, I dumped the rest of the food in the trash and put my plates in the dishwasher, along with all the others in the sink, and cleaned up the counters.

After dumping the trash out and wiping the place clean, I headed to the living room, hoping to find my mom.

A bright yellow post it note stuck at the end of the side table in the foyer caught my attention.

Cassie,

You’re dad just called and needs me to run some errands. I’ll be back later tonight, so make whatever you want for lunch. If you need anything, call me okay?

Mom

A breath of relief exhaled from me. At least I knew she wasn’t around to notice the whole hickey ordeal that happened a few minutes ago.

Sighing, I turned around, and saw a chest in front of me.

“Woah,” a voice rang out.

Looking up, I saw it was Alex, who seemed a bit surprised to see me.

“Hey Alex, what are you still doing here?” I questioned, a bit surprised myself. He was training to be Alpha for our pack, and should’ve been following my dad around, learning the ropes. Instead, he was here, looking a bit nervous.

“Oh uh, I’m just, uh – “

“Cassie?” Someone cut him off, stepping from behind Alex.

Ellie soon appeared beside Alex, slinging a purse over her shoulder.

“Hey Cass, your brother and I are going to town. Apparently he has a day off alpha duties and he wanted to hang out. We would’ve invited you, but we know you’re training today, so…” She answered, smiling.

I looked back and forth between the two and cocked my eyebrow up in interest.

“Hmm, I see,” I murmured, looking pointedly at my brother. He ducked away from my eyes and shuffled his feet, digging his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

Ellie seemed to be completely oblivious as to what was going on, and nodded enthusiastically.

“You and Reece should join us after your session!”

I gulped, and gave her a halfhearted grin.

“Sure, maybe if we finish early. Anyway, you two have fun. I gotta get back to training,” I smiled at both of them, more so Alex than Ellie. I was going to grill his butt the minute they came back.

We parted ways after saying goodbye, and I drudgingly headed to the backyard, where I assume Reece had run off too after our little incident.

I sighed deeply. This situation wasn’t going to be a fun one.

Through the glass doors to the backyard, a sexy looking Reece seemed to be stretching out on the grass. Not gonna lie, I did take a few minutes to admire him before sliding the door open and stepping outside.

I walked hesitantly over to him, straightening my shoulders as best as I could.

His eyes slid over to my direction, and I saw them deflate. His face was flat, a stoic look taking over his handsome face.

Ignoring the pain that jabbed at my heart, I let that little greeting slide. He had every right to be mad at me, I couldn’t be selfish about that.

“Stretch,” he ordered, after getting out of his last pose. He walked over to his gym bag a few feet away and began unloading things out.

I began stretching my legs, bending down to touch my toes. I felt a prickling sensation at the back of my neck, and I shivered inwardly. His gaze was definitely on me, and a thrill of excitement coursed through my body.

Stretching back up, I caught his eyes, a small smile appearing on my face as he looked away embarrassed.

“So, where do we start?” I said casually, trying to ease the awkward tension between us.

“Laps. We’ll be running around the border 10 times. Then we’ll move to strength training and some one-on-one fighting,” he answered, looking anywhere but at me.

10 laps around the border didn’t seem too bad. But the one-on-one session made me feel a bit uneasy. If we couldn’t as much as stand to look at one another, how the hell were we going to fight?

Ridding my head of those thoughts, I stretched my legs into a long stride, warming up to a full on sprint, leaving Reece behind.

Unfortunately, a pair of footsteps echoed close behind me, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Clenching my fists, I sprinted faster, trying to put as much distance between Reece and me as possible.

I coursed through the first few laps with ease, Reece still hot on my toes. The next few laps had me breathing a bit harder, but nothing I couldn’t handle. All the while, Reece stayed close behind, not even breaking a sweat.

We were rounding our last lap and my lungs felt on fire. I may have been a strong she wolf when I was younger, but four years of undergrad filled with nothing but studying or going out with friends left me a bit out of shape clearly. I did workout regularly, but only the human type. When it came to that, I was more active than most humans, but werewolf workouts were a whole different story.

I braced myself and pushed through it, heaving out a sigh when I finished the lap. I staggered to a stop, putting my hands on my hips and breathing deeply.

It barely registered in my mind that Reece was calling me.

I turned around, now hearing the sound of my name being called, and gasped slightly.

Reece stood a few feet away, his shirt casually strewn over his right shoulder, leaving his chest bare. The rise and fall of his chest enhanced his abs so that they stood out like beautiful, chiseled red flags. The sweat that poured off of him rolled down each crevice, and I wanted to moan right there and then.

His eyes were watching me check him out and I could smell his arousal growing. I knew he could smell mine, and for some insane reason, I just wanted to rip