Red Wolf

Chapter XII

Chapter XII

I woke up alone and feeling embarassed beyond belief at how much I cried the previous night. I had more than enough reason to cry, sure, but that didn't help with my mortification. I really was not a person to cry and I am normally a carefree kind of person, but I guess I was changed a lot by everything that had happened. I lost my parents, all of my close friends...even a boyfriend.

But I couldn't think of that now. I had to be optimistic!

I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to shower. After running the water so hot it felt scalding, I scrubbed my body from head to toe with soap and massaged my shampoo into my head. I did all of the other shower necessities and then just stood and stared ahead of me, thinking as the water hit my head and back and rushed down my body. 

After being in the shower for what felt like hours, I shut off the water and rubbed myself dry with a towel. I picked out what to wear from the clothes I had borrowed from May a few days before. I slipped on leggings, a cute blouse and threw a flannel shirt on over it. I could feel my stomach starting to growl so I rushed downstairs to the kitchen, bumping into Anthony.

"Hey Anthony!" I told him, giving him a hug. I hadn't seen him in forever. 

"Hi Lily," he told me, squeezing me tight. I pulled away, grinning at him. 

"Are you feeling better?" He asked me.

"Yeah," I told him. "I feel great actually. I recover pretty quickly," I told him, shrugging. 

"I was considering going on a run today, I haven't been out in forever; do you want to come?" I asked him.

"I'll ask Cayden." I watched his eyes glaze over and I waited for a minute before he looked at me. "He said yes. But you do know that means we have to go far from the pack house before we shift, right?"

I agreed. If I shifted close to the pack house, someone could easily see my red wolf. We couldn't let people know yet until they were more familiar and trusting with me. 

I told Anthony I was going to get changed and I went upstairs to put on a loose t-shirt and shorts, which would be much easier to change with when I shifted. I went downstairs and met up with Anthony. We went outside and into the woods, walking for around a mile before I went behind a tree to strip out of my clothes and shift. I walked out and Anthony met me with his sandy-colored wolf.

I knew our run would be difficult because I was not yet a part of his pack so we couldn't mind-link, but I never really had any runs I could compare this to. We used physical movements to attempt to communicate with each other and it worked most times. The run was great and so freeing, but a part of me couldn't help but wish that I was running with Cayden instead of Anthony. 

***

I was walking around the house looking for Cayden. Where could he be? After what felt like hours, I finally found him when he was walking from down the hall.

"Cayden!" I called out, and his head whipped to face me. He gave me a show-stopping grin and walked up to me. "Hey, I was looking for you," I told him.

"I was looking for you too. We need to talk about..." He paused. "Wait, why were you looking for me?" He asked.

I blushed. "Uh, no reason, I just haven't seen you in a while," I told him, embarassed. He smirked at me and I started talking again to change the conversation. "So what do we need to talk about?" I asked him.

"I want you to join the pack," he told me, biting his lip. "I mean it's fine if you don't want to, but I mean it would just be easier because you could mind link with everyone and we're mates so it would-"

"Cayden," I told him, cutting him off. I'd be fine with that," I told him, smiling. He grinned back at me.

"The ceremony will be at 7:00 in the clearing," he told me, smiling. "Wear a dress." With that, my mate was gone.

***

I had read books until 4:30 where I had an insanely early dinner. After, I went up to May's room in hopes I could borrow a dress. She agreed excitedly and pulled out a beautiful grey dress. It was flowy, knee-length and beautiful. I put it on and allowed for May to put on my makeup. I was never too concerned with my looks but I just sat and closed my eyes as I allowed for her to make me as Barbie-looking as she pleased. 

When she was done, I stood up and looked into her full-body mirror. May smiled and said to me, "You look hot!" 

I couldn't help but feel like she was right. I didn't even look like myself but instead some sort of supermodel. I looked even better than I did the night of my date with Cayden!

Thirty minutes later, we both had our makeup, hair and dresses ready and on. We grinned at each other and then we walked downstairs together, wondering what tonight would bring.