Wonderful Pain

Chapter 22: Dirty Thoughts And Disobeying (And Betrayal, Too)

"Food!"

"Oh my God, I am starving!"

"You rock, Denise!"

"Totally!"

 I saw her grin widely as she handed out the Chinese containers. "What did you get?" I asked, standing up to get one.

Denise shrugged. "Hey, you guys are wolves. I figured that you wanted meat, so I got beef, pork, shrimp, duck - you name it, it's in there. All the types of meat that they had."

Claire snorted. "Talk about stereotyping," she said, but continued to use chopsticks to shove the food into her mouth.

Denise held one out to me. "Want some?" she asked.

I waved it away. "No thanks, I'm not really hungry."

"Suit yourself."

As she opened it and the delicious smells wafted towards me, my stomach growled.

"On second thought, I'll take it." Denise gave it to me, and I opened it eagerly.

"Plenty to go around!" she announced. "No need to, like, push and shove....it's all good."

Janice laughed. "Denise, you just got a bunch of meat, for hungry werewolves, who love Chinese. This isn't nearly enough."

She frowned, and Sasha did, too - but for a different reason. "Janice, quit it! Denise had no idea." Sasha then turned to Denise. "Thank you, by the way."

Denise was still frowning, troubled that she hadn't gotten enough. "Sorry about the quantity, though.....Janice is right, I really had no idea.....I can go back for more, if you want me to! It's not that far awa-"

Claire laughed. "C'mon, Denise, she's joking! We may be werewolves, but we're not pigs. This is great. Thanks."

"Oh....Well, you're welcome."

We all ate in silence for a few minutes, savoring the food. "So, did you guys make any progress?" Denise asked.

"No," Sasha answered, "but we did have some very interesting conversations."

Denise raised her eyebrows, but didn't even get a chance to speak.

"Speaking of very interesting conversations, you never answered my question," Natalie said, turning to me. "Why exactly would it be good for me, again?"

I blushed. "I'm not going to answer that question! You'll figure it out if it ever happens-"

"Which it won't," Janice cut in.

Denise looked lost.

"I.....I'm missing something here, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Claire answered, and we all laughed.

Smiling, I thought: hey, maybe this isn't as impossible as I thought. We're all together, and we'll figure this out in no time.

But I could have no idea of the danger that we faced.

That Theo faced.

The danger that we almost didn't avoid.

And we almost lost a life.

 *   *   *

James' P.O.V

I was in wolf form, leading the pack through the forest. I wasn't Alpha yet, but my dad was trying to give me pratice and experience before I was.

I just wished that the training wasn't hunting down my friend and fellow wolf.

Well, vampire/werewolf.