“I would never think that,” she reassures me. “You literally moved my two friends and me to your pack without any hesitation. It doesn’t matter what you do in your life. I just wanted to make small talk to ease my own tension. For the record, I was working in a shady club until you showed up. I am the last person to judge anyone.” She pauses. “You didn’t judge me either.”
I swallow thickly. “I suck at studying,” I explain. “I really tried. My talents are more with sports than with studying. Dario helped me through high school, but I’ve really reached my limits there. I just can’t, Gwen. I went to all my lectures, I studied like crazy, I handed in my papers, but I have failed most of my classes.”
“College isn’t for everyone,” she says. “I know it isn’t for me either, though I didn’t necessarily hate school. I just… like to learn something more practical, if that makes sense. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Besides, I bet if you find something you are interested in, you would ace it.”
“Dario says the same,” I admit.
“See? And obviously he knows you better than anyone else!” She smiles. “So, what is it you want to do?”
“I want to quit college,” I say, pausing once I hear my own words. It’s the first time I‘ve said it out loud, and hearing it now clearly makes the fog in my own head go away. “I want to quit college, and instead learn a trade and work in the pack.”
“But that’s perfectly fine!” Gwen exclaims.
I laugh a humorless laugh. “I don’t even know why I went to college in the first place.”
“Did your family want you to?” Gwen asks.
“No, they just wanted me to finish school.” I suddenly remember how my father approached me when he gifted me this trip here. I wonder if he knew how much I hated college and justwanted me to figure it out myself. “I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”
“Honestly, I bet you could,” Gwen says. “I bet you would be able to get through college, but you would be miserable.”
“You are right, I would be fucking miserable.”
“So, what kind of trade do you want to learn?”
My heart makes a sudden leap at her question, as if it just dawned on me now that I actually have a choice. I can do something I am interested in. “I haven’t thought about it yet, but there is a lot I find interesting, particularly anything mechanical related.”
“Charlie mentioned you fixed your car on the way,” Gwen says.
“I did, but it doesn’t mean that I have talent.”
She looks at me, dumbfounded. “Really?”
“Maybe a bit,” I pause. “What about you?”
“You know what I did for work,” she says.
“You told me about the coffee shop and the club, but what would you want to do if you could choose?”
“You will probably think it’s silly,” she says.
“Now it’s you who is getting anxious over nothing,” I say.
She snorts. “Maybe. Okay, so... I want to work with animals. Apparently, I have a talent for it. I guess if I had a chance to live my dream, I would build my own little animal shelter.”
“I think we could definitely achieve that,” I muse. “We do have the space, and I bet my mother would be all into that idea, too. She loves anything connected to nature.”
“Wait,” Gwen interrupts me. “Do you mean it? You would actually support it?!”
“Sure,” I say. “And I could help out. I have a friend who is a carpenter. We’d need to start small, obviously.”
“Yes,” Gwen exclaims. “I am going to look for a part-time job, but I really want to work on this project.”
Her eyes gleam in a way I haven’t seen before. This is truly something she wants to do, and I swear, I would die to make it happen!
As I drive towards the packhouse, Mom, Dad, Aurelia and Arden are already expecting us. It’s then that it strikes me how real it is. This is really happening! I found my mate, she accepted me and came to the pack with me. To my relief, Dario is right behind me, maneuvering the second car.
Of course, he instantly knows something is off.Is that your anxiety I am feeling?
