"Are you okay?" Asher asked in a gentle voice as they went into the mansion.
Caspian’s smile didn’t fade. "More than okay." He said, stopping in the foyer because Asher needed to leave.
"I’m not that surprised, really; only Noah would be clueless enough to do this."
"I didn’t want him to see you," Asher admitted, a hint of bitterness to his tone.
Caspian just shrugged his worry off, "Noah can’t hurt me anymore. Why don’t you go back to work so you and Jael can be back earlier for dinner?"
Shooing his mate off was easy, and in a short time filled with several kisses, Caspian was waving at Asher and Jael, who were getting back in their car.
He turned around and made his way across from the foyer, thinking about the crazy scene that had just happened.
He didn’t know what happened in Moonstone after he left with Asher, and frankly, he didn’t care.
However, Noah’s parents’ absence perfectly explained why he did this.
It was a staple behavior of him to be so self-absorbed he didn’t stop to think about how coming down to Haines to make demands of him would come off as.
Caspian would never be fully accepted into the pack, and Noah would continue to despise him for something he had no control over.
Why would he ever want to return to Moonstone?
Even if he had never met Asher, returning to Moonstone would never be the better choice.
Caspian didn’t stop to think about what would have happened to Claire and Warren after what they did.
But after finding out in not so many words from Noah, he realized that he really didn’t care.
His parents had been dead for years, and he never once thought that their death was premeditated, so he held no grudge in that direction.
Caspian returned to his shared bedroom with his mate, promptly forgetting about Noah and Moonstone as he went back to his drawers.
Lake sighed as he folded one of his few pairs of jeans he rarely ever got to wear, packing up.
After lunch, the realization that he was moving his entire life to a different part of the city sank in.
It meant that regardless of how meager his possessions were, he did need to pack up.
He also needed to make arrangements for where he would live when he moved.
Lake still had no idea of what he planned to do with his life, and honestly, there was no rush.
He had enough money to last him for a good long while as long as he wasn’t being careless with it.
And in that time, he could take his time to figure out what he planned to do.
After getting over his shocking confrontation with Matilda and spending most of the afternoon lazing around, the excitement was starting to set in for him.
He was twenty-three and living for the first time.
He had started working for the Black Mafia House at fifteen and had been there ever since.
Prior to that, his life hadn’t exactly been the best to begin with. He had to camp out at shoddy motels often because his father’s debtors were always on the lookout for him.
The sun was setting outside the window of his studio apartment as he packed up the sparse contents of his life.
His shoddy backpack that he couldn’t get rid of from his teen years, the new alarm clock he got recently and rarely got to use.
The empty hangers in his closet, his new set of silk hair ties.
By early evening, Lake was already done with most of the packing.
The furniture came with the apartment, so he would be spared the trouble of moving them.
All he had to do was take his bags of luggage, get a cab and then make his way to Central Area.
Lake’s first instinct was to stay in a cheap motel, but he didn’t want to return to his thirteen-year-old self.
He could afford to stay somewhere more comfortable and less temporary - like a short let.
He really didn’t need much space, and short lets came furnished so he wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of renting and furnishing a new apartment.
It was difficult not to think of his future plans, and it constantly filled him with dread.
The topic of going back to school was an elephant that took up all of the room in his head.
Lake decided to push it to the side and take it one day at a time.
He no longer needed to meticulously plan long-term; he was no longer running out of time.
He could make as many mistakes as he needed, and he could try as many things as he wanted.
So, with that thought, he got on his bed to do some research and make some calls.
Getting things was really easy as long as one could afford it.
Because, in less than an hour, he had already gotten a pretty good-looking apartment for the span of a month.
After a month, he was sure that he would have come to a decision about what he planned to do.
And if he hadn’t, he would just stay another month - he could afford it.
Lake initially planned to leave the next day but his new place was already paid for and he could literally move in right then.
Plus, if he left in the cover of the night, he would be spared from Avery’s nosiness and the potential risk of the male Omega telling the wrong people his whereabouts.
Avery was enough to push him to call a cab, struggling to move all of his bags by himself.
The cab driver was pleasant enough to drive closer and then come down to help him move his things into the trunk of the car.
"You going on a trip?" The driver asked conversationally, shutting the trunk firmly.
Lake was breathless, damp tendrils of his hair sticking to his forehead. "You could say that."