Forgotten

Chapter 31: Choosing Them All

Cedric:

In the last two months, Alex has come a long ways. I liked that she no longer blushed when I touched her, and in the last week, I'd even noticed that she was initiating contact. I liked that even better.

The object of my thoughts moved across the room, sitting next to me. I put my arm over the back of the couch, curious to see if she'd cuddle up with me like she had last night with Paris. Although she was no longer living with Rylan, her parents were okay with her spending a majority of her time with us. They did request that she stay home at least one evening a week, and if her grades started to slip, she'd be banned from the house until her grades went back up.

With our homework completed and dinner eaten, we were setting up for a movie. Paris was dishing up some cookie dough ice cream and Kane was picking out the movie.

Alex glanced at me from the corner of her eye, and then she was slipping her shoes off and curling up into my side. Her cool fingers slid under my shirt, making me jump. "How are you so cold?"

She shrugged a shoulder and started to move her fingers away from my skin, but I stopped her. "Ric?" Her pale blue eyes watched me and her lips parted, begging me to kiss her. My heart fluttered, but I wasn't sure if she was ready to be kissed with all of us in the same room, yet.

"Hmm?" My eyes kept dropping to her lips, making it hard to stop myself. I pulled her onto my lap, slowly lowering my head to hers. Her breathing stuttered to a halt and her eyes widened. She pulled back, glancing at the others, only to see that no one was paying attention to us. I had no doubt that they knew I intended to kiss her, they just didn't care. They knew their time would come soon.

I leaned forward and she whispered, "You shouldn't." I sighed. I got that we couldn't be overly affectionate with her at school, but every time I thought I was getting closer to her at home, she backed off. Did she decide that she couldn't handle the five of us? Somehow, we needed to make sure that she understood that we wanted and needed her. We'd shown her that we wouldn't get jealous of each other. Just yesterday I'd seen her kiss Rylan, although she didn't know that I'd see the kiss.

Sighing, I leaned back in my seat. She was going to be the death of me. Briefly, I considered backing off and letting her come to me. That thought only lasted until she shivered. Moving forward, I pulled my shirt off. Her eyes got huge, but as soon as I pulled her closer to my chest, I could tell she understand why I'd done it. As a werewolf, I let off a lot of body heat. I could warm her up faster if my shirt wasn't between us.

~*~*~*~

The movie was over and I stood up. "I'll walk Alex home," I announced. Taking her hand, I tugged her towards the door, slinging my shirt over my shoulder. I didn't care if Alex saw me shirtless, but her parents would probably be less than impressed if I dropped her off sans shirt.

My fingers slipped through hers, stopping to intertwine. She leaned against me, holding my arm in both of her hands. I tugged my arm free, slipping it over her shoulders to keep her warm on the walk. We were silent on the walk, and I could tell she was thinking.

We got to her house and she turned to me. "Thank you for walking me home."

I moved closer to her, trapping her between the house and my body. "You're welcome, Little Red." Leaning closer, I brushed my lips against her cheek. Without warning, she moved and my lips skimmed over hers. As much as I wanted to be a gentleman and stop, I couldn't force myself to. I'd been waiting months to kiss her and I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity.

Her arms slid around my neck and I nipped at her bottom lip, kissing her lightly. She kissed me back, rubbing her body up against mine. I backed up slightly to keep her from feeling my body's reaction to the kiss. Biting her lip, I licked away the sting. Her eyes slid closed and I couldn't stop the smile from tugging at my lips.

She pulled back, watching me. I watched her back, waiting to hear what she had to say. She didn't disappoint me when she finally found her voice. "Ric... I don't want to have to choose between you, and I'm worried that I'm going to have to..." Her voice trailed off and she looked at the ground.

"Red, Alex, you won't have to. I promise. As long as I know that I'll get a chance kissing and cuddling with you, I'm okay seeing you with the others. That's exactly how the others feel."

"How do you know?" she asked softly.

"I can feel it through our bond. Trust me. You aren't going to have to choose between us," I repeated.

"You're sure?"

"I'm positive. Trust us?" I knew she did, but trusting us with something this big was going to take work. We were willing to put that work into it, though. I dropped another kiss to her cheek, nearly touching her lips.

She finally nodded. "I do. But I'm scared."

"Alex, give us a chance. I know we asked for a chance to prove that we could all love you without jealousy, but you need to trust us completely. I already can't have much contact with you at school. It kills me when you pull away from me when we're around the others because you're afraid someone will get jealous."

She watched me for a few minutes before finally nodding. "Okay."

The end! I'll be posting the epilogue in a couple of hours, but it's already written an