Forever (Book 1) (Editing)

Chapter Eight

I bolted up from my bed like hell itself was on my heals and for the life of me, as I glanced around my familiar room, I couldn't remember why. Something had spooked me, increased my heart rate, and caused my wolf to act upon reflex. I could feel him lurking just below the surface of my body waiting for the danger to present itself so he could launch into an attack. I scanned my room slowly looking for anything that was out of place and scented the air trying to detect an intruder. I began to relax once I noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary and pushed my wolf back down deeper inside of myself. I tried to remember what had woke me but nothing came to me.  

I glanced over at my open window and noticed the sun just barely beginning to peak over the horizon. I could feel the early morning breeze graze against my bare chest as I stretched my arms above my head and let out a groaning sigh. It was early morning and as I listened closely my house was dead silent. Silence was a rare thing to experience here with twenty-five wolves living under the same roof. I grinned as I shook off the last feelings of unease I had as I realised I could have a quiet breakfast for once. It was a treat to be able to miss the scramble of the day and I found myself grateful at whatever it had been that threw me a wakeup call. 

Leaving my room as silently as possible, I tip toed down the hallway passed the door where some of the others slept. I really didn't want to wake anyone. I really didn't want to talk to anyone. I still wasn't in the right frame of mind to socialize with anyone. All it would take was one wrong word and my temper would go soaring through the roof again and I couldn't promise that this time I'd go charging for the tree's to burn it off.  

I was furious with Greg still and the anger hadn't wore itself quite off yet. I'd avoided everyone last night as a result. I didn't want any questions thrown at me about my mood and I knew they were bound to come. It wasn't often I lost my temper and yesterday the others had looked at me more than once with worry. Of course none of them knew yet that I'd regained my emotions, so I was almost positive they thought the anger Greg and I felt was beginning to worsen. I'd actually been shocked my father hadn't hunted me down to ask after my mate last night. Greg wouldn't have kept it to himself once it became knowledge that I was angry and my father would've gone right to him for the answer.

Reaching the stairs I began to descend on silent feet, skipping the third step from the bottom knowing it always creaked. The thing about living in a house full of wolves is they woke up to the smallest sounds. It didn't take much and that one step was like an alarm clock for the whole house. I stiffened as I reached the bottom and listened closely for any movement on the floor above. The silence prevailed and I found a grin making it onto my face.

I need this time to myself to be able to think. I had no clue on what to do about Lady. It seemed that every time I began to think she and I could become friends, I'd ruin it moment later. I didn't just want to be her friend though. It was physically impossible to keep it that way. Even with my wolf in agreement to gain her forgiveness he was still forever pushing the need to mark her. The need to make her solely mine so that she, and no one else, would ever forget it.

I made my way past the living room toward the kitchen as I thought of ways I could make it up to her. It probably didn't help that I had issued that challenge to her either/ Even though I'd learned during yesterday’s gym class that she enjoyed running. That she found a small sense of pleasure in being able to let herself go slightly and enjoy the freedom of it. I actually found it slightly sad that she wasn't a wolf herself. She probably would enjoy the freedom of running through the forest as one of its own animals.

Going to the fridge I pulled out a pitcher of milk and grinned like an idiot as I remembered her laughter after we'd run the track. My wolf had been immensely pleased that she'd found pleasure in it and had itself found pleasure in her laughter. From what we both could tell she hadn't had much to laugh about throughout her life so far.