An Unlikely Mate

He set me down; only because he knew I wouldn’t let him carry me to the car. He took my book bag, and put it in his backseat. I sat in his passenger seat, freezing.

          Being a vampire, my body temperature was already below normal. I feel cold most of the time, and the only thing that helps warm my veins is warm blood. I usually covered up with tons of blankets and lots of layers…that helped a bit.

          Kale’s unnatural warmness also helped some. Him being a werewolf made his body temperature a lot higher than normal. He was like a space heater.

          “Thanks,” I said, my teeth chattering. He nodded, and handed me a thermos. I took a sip and sighed. This is exactly what I needed after the long day. He’d filled my thermos with microwaved donor blood.

          “Oh my god, I love you,” I breathed. I felt my eyes turn red and my fangs come out.

          “You’re welcome,” he chuckled.

          “This is exactly what I needed,” I smiled.

          “How was school?” he asked in a mocking tone.

          “Screw you,” I laughed.

          “Hey now, I picked you up from school so you didn’t have to walk all the way home in the snow. I heated up some blood and put it in a thermos for you, and you’re being mean?” he chuckled.

          “Thanks, by the way,” I said.

          “You’re welcome,” he winks.

          “And since I was so kind, you have to pay me back,” he says.

          “How?” I sigh.

          “Accompanying me to get groceries,” he winked.

          “Alright, but only if you buy chocolate ice cream,” I begged. It was my favorite human food.

          “Whatever you want,” he says. I turn up the car stereo, singing along to a Foster the People song. Kale had his iPod plugged into his stereo, which contained all of my favorite songs.

          We drive to the store, belting out the lyrics to all of my favorite songs. He parks his car, and we run inside, the large snowflakes falling from the sky. We make it inside, and I grab a cart.

          “You better push that, cause I’m not going to,” Kale says.

          “Why, does it crush your manly macho-ness?” I laughed.

          We went up and down the aisles, buying tons of food. The full moon was tonight, and Kale was always starving after a full moon. We always stocked up on human food in the house for this reason.

          We filled the cart in no time, and checked out in the checkout lane. An old lady behind us smiled.

          “It’s so great to see such a happy couple so in love,” she mused, then walked away before we could set her straight.

          “Well, that was awkward,” Kale sighed.

          “Hey, at least it made her happy,” I shrugged.

          Once we were home, Kale started packing to leave. I went upstairs to my room to do my homework. I heard Kale’s footsteps coming up the stairs, and opened my door for him to come in.

          “I’m leaving,” he says, and kisses my forehead, “I’ll see you tomorrow after school when you come home.”

          “Bye,” I whisper, and kiss his cheek. He started to leave.

          “Wait, I need your help with my homework real fast,” I say.

          “What do you need?”

          “I have to research an extra credit essay on mythical creatures,” I say, putting finger quotes around ‘mythical creatures’, “And I picked werewolves.”

          “Why not vampires?” he asked.

          “Because that’d be too easy,” I sighed, “Will you tell me the story about imprinting again?”

          “Well, imprinting is finding your soul mate. When you imprint, it’s for life. You see her and you know she’s the one, and you’ll do anything to stay in her life. If she needs a best friend, or a brother, then that’s what you’ll be, whatever it takes to keep her in your life. You’d go to the ends of the universe just to protect her. And you have hope that maybe, one day she’ll see you as more than a friend or a brother, but if not, then you do what it takes to keep her in your life. You need her like you need air, hell, you need her more than air.”

          “Can I go with you tonight?” I ask.

          “No. Absolutely not,” he says.

          “But it could help me with my essay and--.”

          “When I shift, I have no control over my wolf. I could hurt you, or kill you, and I don’t want to do that. You’ll stay here.”

          “Fine, thanks anyway,” I say. He nods, and I hug him goodbye. The way described what an imprint was like made me think that he’d already imprinted. But if he has, then why doesn’t he stay with her? Why does he travel with us?