That's Hot!

"Stop! You and Carter? That is so cute!" Amelia squealed after Charlotte not so casually mentioned that Carter had taken her up to the rooftop and invited her to his brother's party.

The brunette laughed at her friend's reaction.

"It's probably not going to happen. I'm sure he has a lot of girls interested in him," She replied dismissively. However, a smile still danced on the corner of her lips.

"Yeah, but you're gorgeous Charlotte! And you're smart, and kind. Any guy would be lucky to have you," Amelia insisted.

Madi nodded eagerly in agreement.

"Aw thanks, Mels," Charlotte smiled warmly. "It's just a crush though, it probably won't go anywhere. Plus, I'm leaving town as soon as I turn 18." Charlotte shrugged.

"Oh, where are you going to go?" Madison asked, intrigued.

"I'm not sure, maybe somewhere further south," the brunette replied thoughtfully.

Honestly, she hadn't given much thought to the actual planning.

Where would she go? How would she make money? Would she be able to find someone to help her with her magic? These were all things she still needed to figure out.

She would have to consider her plans for the future more thoroughly.

"Oh, cool. I really want to go to UCLA but my parents don't want me to leave." Madi frowned.

The girl seemed disappointed.

"Why not? Wouldn't your parents be proud of you if you went to UCLA?" Charlotte asked, confused.

She didn't have any actual experience with the matter because both of her parents were dead, but from what she gathered, most parents were proud when their kids went off to college.

"Well yeah, if they were normal," Madison started, but then Amelia shot her a glare and she caught herself.

Madi seemed to falter for a moment.

"Not that they're not normal—" she continued quickly, her eyes darting around nervously.

"—It's just that no one really moves away from our community. It's expected that you'll stay unless you find a... partner and move into their... community," the girl attempted to explain, looking uneasy.

"Your parents are holding onto the past. No one here finds their partner anymore," Amelia sighed, shaking her head.

"Why not?" The brunette questioned.

"I don't know. Maybe we're cursed," Madi grumbled bitterly.

Charlotte's forehead crinkled in confusion.

Immediately, Amelia reached over and pulled Madi into a hug, patting her shoulder comfortingly.

The brunette looked at them bewildered, she wasn't sure what caused such a reaction from them. It seemed a bit melodramatic but she hadn't grown up here, so who was she to say what it was like? Certainly, the community seemed odd, if her initial introduction was anything to go by...

"Enough about that, have you decided what you're going to wear to the party?" Amelia asked, changing the subject as she turned to address Charlotte.

"Oh, I don't know... I don't really have anything. Jeans and a t-shirt?" She replied shyly.

"Absolutely not," Amelia deadpanned.

The brunette winced at her friend's reaction. She didn't have anything else—what else could she do?

"Yeah, no girl," Madison agreed, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"We can either go shopping or you can come to my house after school to look for something. Either way, you are not going to be wearing a t-shirt," The dark-haired girl stated firmly, quirking her brow as if to dare Charlotte to argue with her.

"—erm," Charlotte started to protest but Amelia immediately shut her down. She would hear none of it, so reluctantly, Charlotte gave in, agreeing to meet them after school.

The brunette bit her lip nervously.

Elaine and Walter had become more relaxed since Charlotte received the council's approval. She hoped it wouldn't be a big deal. Surely it wouldn't be as long as she let them know where she was after school?

The rest of the day was rather insipid. A typical school day.

Her last class of the day was English.

They had a quiz over a short story by Edgar Allen Poe which the girl had almost forgotten about. Thankfully she had time to hurriedly review her annotations before class.

She scribbled away until the bell rang and Mrs. Nguyen, the teacher, called time. Charlotte turned the paper in before collecting her things.

Amelia had told her to meet them in the parking lot after school, but Charlotte still needed to grab a few things before she could leave.

Swinging by her locker, she exchanged her English book for Calculus.

Mr. Grant had given them a ton of math homework, it seemed the man was obsessed with derivatives.

The math book was quite heavy, so she decided to carry it instead of overloading her backpack. She certainly didn't want to break another bag, she'd been lucky to get one replacement.

"Hey, Char! You ready to go?" Amelia greeted, catching up with her as she walked out of the school.

Charlotte smiled at the dark-haired girl who had fallen in step with her. "Yes, just let me tell my foster brother," she replied.

Suddenly anxious, she looked around for Danny.

"Ok, I'll wait here," Amelia said pulling out her phone, she started scrolling through her notifications.

Charlotte found Danny across the parking lot. A couple of his football buddies stood with him.

The boys were very obviously flirting with a few of the cheerleaders. Seraphina's icy blonde hair was easy to spot even from a distance.

Their little group was fully engaged with each other, talking and laughing animatedly. Charlotte was relieved to note that her previous tormentors weren't among them. She didn't recognize anyone other than Danny and Seraphina

Charlotte walked up to the group cautiously, trying to be discrete. She couldn't leave without telling her foster brother, because she needed him to relay the message to his parents.

Seraphina was giggling cutely at something Danny had said when the brunette came up.

Way to go Danny boy, Charlotte thought, amusedly.

"Hey, Danny," Charlotte said, trying to get his attention. He was facing away from her, but she was close enough that he should have heard.

"Danny..." She tried again.

He turned to her slowly, chewing a toothpick and looking mildly annoyed.

"What?" He growled, apparently irritated by the interruption.

"Amelia wants me to come over to her house for a bit, so I'll be home late," Charlotte explained quickly.

"Ok, whatever," the teen said, rolling his eyes before turning his attention back to Seraphina.

Charlotte didn't miss the way her foster brother's face softened when he looked at the blonde cheerleader.

Someone was clearly smitten, she thought, entertained.

The brunette grinned, making a mental note not to interrupt whatever was going on between those two. God forbid she disrupt her brother's game, she snickered to herself.

Charlotte was still grinning as she walked back over to Amelia and Madison.

"You can ride with me, Madi's going to follow us," Amelia offered.

The brunette nodded in agreement.

She really hoped her foster parents wouldn't be mad that she wasn't coming home immediately after school.

—Although they mostly seemed not to care what she did as long as she didn't bother them.

Charlotte also wondered what her wolf was doing now and if he would be confused by her absence after school.

She felt a slight twinge of regret that she didn't get to see him. For a while there he had been glued to her side, like a menacing shadow. But for the past couple of days, he had been more standoffish and she wasn't sure why.

"Here we are!" Amelia announced, pulling into a long driveway.

Charlotte's jaw dropped in surprise.

Amelia's house was massive! The outside was covered in stone, with a cool modern style.

"Wow, I would have come over sooner if I had known your house was like this," The brunette said in awe.

Amelia laughed, "Wait till you see the inside."

"Yeah, her house is pretty neat," Madison agreed, chuckling at her reaction.

They were right.

The inside was even more fabulous than the outside!

Charlotte looked around awestruck as Amelia showed her around the house. Her house seemed to have everything... there was a custom pool table downstairs, a movie room upstairs, and a tiny bowling alley in the basement.

Somehow even with all the extra luxuries, the house managed to maintain a subtle demurity. There were no ostentatious accents or furnishings intended only for splendor.

It was fitting, Charlotte realized. She could easily see Amelia living in a place such as this. Amelia herself had a taste for finer things but she was never pretentious about it.

The three of them were on their way to Amelia's room when they ran into a curvy, dark-haired woman.

Charlotte knew it must be Amelia's mother, the two looked much too alike for it not to be.

They both had the same black hair and delicate features.

"Hello, dears! Amelia, who is this?" The woman asked, grinning.

"This is my friend Charlotte. Charlotte, this is my mom." Amelia introduced her as she discretely gave her mom a look to not say anything.

"It's an honor to meet you Charlotte," Amelia's mom said, giving her a big hug. Charlotte was surprised by the warmth of her greeting but she didn't mind. The woman smelled nice and she had a sweet motherly air about her.

"I'll bring you girls some snacks, I assume you'll be in Amelia's room?" The dark-haired woman asked, smiling.

"Yes! Thanks, mom!" Amelia replied before hurriedly ushering the other girls into her room.

"Ok ladies, let's see what we've got," she said. Shutting the door, she leaned back against it as if they were planning some secret tactical mission.

Although knowing Amelia, it was.

The dark-haired girl looked like a Cheshire cat as she stalked over to her closet, throwing the doors open. She lived for this kind of stuff.

"Hmm ok, I think we should pull out some dresses and some pant/top options, maybe a couple of sets, what do you think Mads?"

Madison nodded in agreement. She had been friends with Amelia for a long time, she knew the routine.

When Amelia got going, she was like a hurricane.

They worked together, pulling a bunch of different items from the closet, sometimes they paused, holding them up so Charlotte could give her opinion.

The brunette almost passed out when she saw the designer tags on half the clothes. Amelia had impeccable taste, but holy crap the clothes were expensive.

Madi quickly picked out a black skirt, and a cropped sweater outfit for herself. It looked super chic, and the sweater had a deep v that gave it a sexy edge.

"You look amazing Mads!" Charlotte said truthfully, as she watched the girl spin in the mirror.

"Thanks, have you picked anything you like yet?" Madi smiled, striding over to the vanity.

"I was thinking either this green dress or these leather pants and top," Charlotte said, holding up the items.

"I think they'd both be cute. Why don't you try them on and see which one you prefer?" Madi suggested, looking up from where she was picking through a box of earrings.

The brunette agreed, quickly slipping into the first outfit, the leather pant/top combo, and showing it off.

She didn't want to brag but she thought she looked pretty hot in it.

"Oh, I like that! It's very fierce," Amelia said, her hand on her chin as she evaluated Charlotte's outfit.

"Let's see the other one now," Madi prompted.

Charlotte nodded, taking off the leather outfit and putting on the silky green slip dress for them to see.

The dress was shorter than she realized and it had a long slit up the side, but the material hugged her body in all the right places. It made her look very mature, she was surprised to see the woman staring back at her in the mirror.

"Dang girl, you look good! What do you think?" Amelia cheered.

Charlotte opened her mouth to respond when they were interrupted, by the bedroom door opening.

"Definitely go with that one! That dress is sexy." Amelia's mom said cheekily.

The woman was holding a delicious-smelling tray of snacks. Pita bread, hummus, and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on the side.

Charlotte flushed, not sure how to respond.

"Mom!" The dark-haired girl chastised.

"What?" Amelia's mom said, feigning innocence. "I just brought you girls some snacks," she offered, placing the tray on a side table.

It was clear where Amelia got her cheeky attitude from.

"Believe it or not, your mom was young once. I use to be very popular in the party scene," the woman chuckled.

"Mom!" Amelia screeched in horror. The girl hid her face in her hands as if unable to face the embarrassment.

"What? It's true! I'll be downstairs if you need me!" The woman hollered over her shoulder, giving them a wink.

"The nerve of that woman," Amelia mumbled.

"Well, I for one agree with Mrs. Amaechi. You look sexy, I think you should go with that one!" Madi encouraged, grinning at her friend's embarrassment.

"You do look hot," Amelia sighed, agreeing.

"It's a gorgeous dress, but I'd feel bad about wearing it when you haven't had a chance to," Charlotte replied, gesturing to the Gucci tag that was still attached to it.

The dress was incredibly expensive.

"Oh, girl don't even worry about it, I have tons of clothes I've never worn," Amelia dismissed. Her family was well off and both she and her mom had what can only be described as a borderline shopping addiction.

"Alright then—"Charlotte sighed, relenting.

"Perfect! You can leave the dress here, so your foster parents don't see it and get suspicious. Then we can tell them you need to sleep over at my house tomorrow night so we can work on a group project," Amelia suggested. "Speaking of it's getting late... we should probably get you home."

The brunette glanced out the window to see that the sun was indeed going down. She'd opened up to her friends a little bit about how strict her foster parents were.

"Thank you, Amelia. You are the best!" The girl replied in relief, she was truly grateful to have found such good friends, even if only for a short time.

The girls tucked away their outfits for tomorrow and headed back downstairs.

This time, Charlotte tried to hide her awe at how nice the house was. She had no idea how Amelia's parents had this much money. Certainly, she'd never had a friend this rich.

As the three of them were leaving, they ran into a tall brunette man who was leaning against the marble-topped island, munching on one of the cookies Mrs. Amaechi had made earlier.

"Hey, Dad!" Amelia greeted him cheerfully. She was surprised to see him, he hadn't been home when they'd come in.

The man grinned lovingly at his daughter, as he brushed cookie crumbs off his shirt.

"Hello princess, how are you? Who is your friend?" He asked curiously.

"I'm good, Dad! This is Charlotte." Amelia replied. "Charlotte, this is my dad."

The brunette smiled at him, nodding in greeting. The man's voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Charlotte," Amelia's dad repeated as if testing her name. His lips turned down slightly into a frown.

The girl looked around in confusion. Had she done something to upset him?

"Is something wrong Dad?" Amelia asked, frowning. Apparently, she'd picked up on the shift in his demeanor as well.

The man shook his head, "No, no. Sorry, I was just surprised is all."

Turning his attention to Charlotte, he smiled warmly.

"Hello Charlotte, I have heard a lot about you. My name is Jacob. If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to reach out. Amelia knows how to reach me," he said, staring down at her with a strange air of intensity.

This was the man who came to visit her foster parents, Charlotte realized putting the pieces together.

Hadn't Jacob wanted them to get rid of her? And now he was telling her to reach out to him if she needed anything? Charlotte was confused.

"Ok, thanks Dad," Amelia said rolling her eyes as she pulled Charlotte away again.

*** GIO ***

Jacob had asked to meet him at the old bonfire pile outside the Alpha House.

Gio knew he wanted to discuss what to do about his future mate—although he wasn't sure there was much that could be done. Obviously, the council agreed that they couldn't make her leave. She was their future Luna after all. Or at least she was meant to be...

The Beta was already waiting when Gio got there.

He wasted no time getting to the point.

"Gio, thanks for coming. I know this isn't easy, but there are things we need to discuss," Jacob began.

"—First off, let me say, I'm sorry for what you're going through. On the one hand, it's an exciting achievement to find your mate, but on the other, not being able to truly be with them is contrary to our nature."

Gio looked at the other male wearily.

While he appreciated his uncle's sentiments, understanding it and going through it were two different things.

"—Your mate being human further complicates matters—as you know," Jacob continued. "We can try to explain things to her, tell her what we are, what you are, but there is a chance she will panic and run. Or we can keep going on as things are until, hopefully, the curse is lifted and you can tell her yourself. Right now, only the council knows, so there's no risk of it slipping out. Gio... you know I'll support you no matter what you decide to do. This is your mate. It's your decision," Jacob sighed.

Gio nodded, he agreed with everything Jacob was saying.

There was always a higher risk of rejection with human mates even though they could feel the mating call. The call was much, much milder than what a werewolf felt, and the shock of learning supernatural beings existed was often too much for them. Still, it was better they learn it from their mate's own lips. In theory, it was more comforting that way.

"Do you want me to tell her Gio?" Jacob asked.

There was a sadness in the man's eyes that somehow made Gio feel worse. Jacob was like a second father to him. No doubt it hurt to see him hurt.

Gio gulped, staring at the ground, focusing on a half-burnt fragment of wood as he tried to bury his emotions away. Of course he wanted Charlotte to know, and he wanted to be with her.

He couldn't do that to her though.

Even if she accepted their relationship, there were too many things keeping them apart. Why put her through that pain unnecessarily?

Slowly, Gio shook his head no.