© Amber Kalkes 2015
Song: "Shiver" By Coldplay
C h a p t e r S e v e n >
Rae can feel her sneakers sink into the mud of the forest floor making her lift her skirt up to her knees as she attempts to keep moving. It’s been about an hour since the beginning of the run and she’s been able to keep a pretty low profile but this could slow her down. Using a nearby tree as leverage she’s able to pull her mud-coated sneaker out of the mess.
Deciding to just ditch the shoes she bunches her dress around her knees and keeps the fabric in its place between her legs. Leaning down she unties both her shoes and lets her now bare feet feel the dark earth under them. Letting her dress fall the rest of the way she picks up her shoes by the laces and begins on her way again.
For a half hour she just hid up in a tree. She’s seen other girls being tracked down by their mates while moving through the woods. Veronica found her mate pretty quickly and from all the moaning she heard a few minutes later, she’s guessing Veronica accepted the bond.
Its nearing dusk and the sky above is being painted in pinks and oranges. Rae feels something approaching her and turns to look over her shoulder to see another girl in white. This one is has a purple mask with golden swirls on it. Rae can tell from her unfamiliar scent this girl is not from her pack but she’s curious to see what will happen.
Hiding behind a nearby tree Rae watches a young man, not terribly tall but well built with a golden mask on. His blonde hair is long and tied back from his face in a low ponytail at the nap of his neck. He’s shirtless, of course and dressed only in a pair of light colored jeans. As he approaches the girl Rae seems him inhale the girl’s scent deeply.
“Mine.” He growls.
Rae’s eyes move to the girl. She’s a petite girl in everyway and as she moves back against a large oak Rae can see her shaking. Seemingly seeing it to the boy stands up straight and takes a different approach. Reaching behind his head he removes the mask and smiles encouragingly at his mate.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” He says sheepishly. “Are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah.” She whimpers. “I…I….”
“Hey, its okay.” He soothes. “I’m Toby. What’s your name?”
“T-Tara.”
“Tara.” He smiles. “It’s a beautiful name.”
“Thank you.” She whispers making Rae smile.
Tara dips her head making her black straight hair fall over her mask a little and Toby drops his head too. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I don’t want to…I don’t want to be claimed yet.” She admits quietly.
“That’s fine.” He tells her, slowly moving closer to you. “We can wait as long as you want. You look cold. Do you want to go back to the Alpha house? We can get you warm and we can talk.”
Rae starts moving back from the scene with a smile on her face. Knowing that she probably stayed longer than she should have she starts moving deeper into the woods. She shivers as the cold of the evening begins seeping into her exposed arms. The dress is pretty thin and though werewolves have pretty good inner heating she’s not immune to the cold.
Deciding to warm herself a bit Rae drops her shoes near a tree, mentally noting to come back for them and takes off running. Her bare feet beat against the hard forest floor as her breath comes out in a hard pant. She feels a genuine smile on her face at the feel of the air moving through her hair and the freedom she feels as the sky begins to darken further around her.
Coming to a stop her chest is rising rapidly as her breathing continues to be labored. Looking around for a direction to head she spots a large willow in the middle of a nearby clearing. Deciding to climb in there so she can get a little breather she breaks into a sprint again in its direction.
Rae slows down a bit when she catches that same scent that’s been taunting her the past few days. It isn’t something familiar but it was something that catches her attention. The scent, the other times, is a pleasant clean signature but doesn’t carry the flowering scent from before. She frowns as she looks around but keeps walking towards her original destination instead of going to investigate. She doesn’t want to accidently stumble on a mating in progress or something.
Rae’s feet freeze in place though when a deep growl echoes in the woods. Turning towards the sound she sees nothing but trees making her frown. Where the hell did that come from? Shrugging it off as one of the other male wolves hunting their mate Rae turns back toward the tree but stops mid-step again when a second growl sounds though this time unmistakably closer.
“Hello?” She calls into the darkness before wincing at how stupid that sounds.
“Mine.”
Rae frowns deeply as she looks around. She still doesn’t see anyone. She still doubts that whoever it is has that ‘mine’ directed towards her. Wouldn’t her wolf have told her already? Still she can’t help but be intrigued by the voice.
“Mine!”
Rae screams loudly as two arms wrap around her waist and lift her clean off the ground. The scent is surrounding her as she tries to beat the arms off her. She doesn’t know what the hell this guy thinks he’s doing but just grabbing someone is beyond rude.
“What the hell? Let me go!”
“No!” the voice snarls as the arms squeeze her tighter against them, “Mine!”
“What? Is that your one word? Put me down!”
She felt her captor freeze behind her before slowly lowering her down to the ground. Quickly turning around she feel like she was just physically slapped. Her breathing gets caught in her throat as she comes face-to-face with a beautifully crafted brown leather wolf mask. That rich indescribable scent is heavier in the air now and she can finally hear her wolf’s low growl in her mind.
Ours.
“Oh dear god.” She croaks, feeling panicked.
His visible full lips tip up into a smile, “I prefer to be called Colton but if that works for you…”
Rae feels her cheeks heat. “Uh…sorry. You just…startled me.”
“It’s fine.” He smiles.
Rae doesn’t have a response to that so she just stands there awkwardly. The guy, or Colton, continues to just stare at her. The longer they stand there in silence the bigger his smile seems to get. Rae tries to rack her brain for something to say but after almost a full minute of coming up with nothing she just blurts the first thing she can.
“So…what do we do now?”
He laughs making her gut tighten. Smiling still he steps towards her as he shoves his hands in the front of his jeans. “Well you could accept me as your mate.”
Rae is momentarily too distracted by his bare chest, abs and arms that she doesn’t register his words. When she finally does she raises her eyebrows in surprise at his boldness. Is he always going to be this cocky or is this just a byproduct of the awkwardness?
“I don’t even know you.”
“True.” He nods. “But I’m not seeing any reason not to at least accept that we feel something, right?”
“Do you even want a mate?”
His smile falters a bit and he lowers his head. Lifting it again after a few moments he looks at her under his dark lashes. “Can I be honest?”
“Please do.”
He sighs, “If I told you that I came here looking to find you, I’d be lying. I was just doing it to get my dad off my back. That being said though I am happy I found you. I didn’t know it could be this…”
“Instant.” She answers quietly.
He nods, “Exactly. So you feel it too?”
“Yes.”
“So why not accept the bond and just see where this goes. If you realize I’m a giant dick who you can’t see yourself spending a minute with let alone a whole lifetime with, you can walk away. I’m not going to make you do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
Letting out a sigh of relief she feels herself smile. “You can’t imagine how happy I am to hear you say that.”
“What? That you can leave me whenever?” He asks but she can tell he’s teasing.
“No.” She laughs, feeling herself blush. “I just…I didn’t want to not have a choice.”
“Hey.” He says softly, taking a few steps towards her, “This may be a bit quick but I promise that with me, you will always have a choice, okay?”
Biting her lower lip she nods.
After silence falls again she spots him smiling softly at her, “Are you going to do it anytime soon or…”
“Oh! Right!” She says while smacking her forehead. “Um, alright. I, Rae Applebee, accept you…”
“Colton Woodward.” He supplies, with a wider smirk.
“Right.” She mutters before beginning again. “I, Rae Applebee accept you Colton Woodward as my mate.”
Rae feels something in her chest pull at her, pushing her towards this guy she just met. She feels an overwhelming need, even stronger than before, to be in his arms, She feels her fingers tingle with the urge to touch him but most of all she wants him to take off the mask.
“And I, Colton Woodward, accept you, Rae Applebee as my mate.”
Now the pull is even greater. Her body is coiled tightly as she tries to fight the compulsive need to just jump up in his arms. A total one-eighty to how she was just a full ten minutes before. But it feels different now. He has a name, a voice and a scent that seems to make her want to know everything about him. Not to mention he just gave her the best gift one mate can give to another. He gave her a choice.
“Now what?” She asks completely at a loss.
No one really told her what was going to happen when she met her mate. Mostly she was just told vague comments and romantic ideas that didn’t really prepare her for anything as awkward as this. Rae had kind of hoped her mate would know what to do when the time came because she sure as hell doesn’t.
Colton just smiles and shrugs, “I don’t really know. I suppose you could take your mask off and I could take off mine.”
“We could.” She nods before adding, “Just to warn you now though, you already accepted so no running in fright when you see my face.”
“I doubt that’s going to happen.” He says with a laugh.
Rae shrugs but feels her lips pull up at the sound of his laugh. “If you say so.”
“Rae?” He asks lowly, taking a step closer to her.
“Hmm?”
“Take off the mask.”
“Right.” She breathes. Swallowing thickly she reaches behind her head to unclasp the tie in the back. Fumbling a bit she swears lowly when she can’t get it off. His scent fills her lungs as he comes to stand mere inches away from her. Lifting her eyes she watches him reach around her to take over the task. Rae inhales shakily at the tingles she feels in her fingers when his brush them. Letting her hands fall to her sides she closes her eyes, just enjoying the feel of him so close.
Colton easily releases the tie and places his hands on the sides of her mask before slowly pulling it off her face. Rae keeps her eyes closed until it’s fully off. When it is she slowly opens them to find him just staring at her with his intense dark blue eyes. He scans her face, almost like he’s commiting it to memory before a lopsided smile comes across his face.
“So this is Rae Applebee.”
Rae can’t hide her blush this time as she shrugs, “This is she. I guess the whole running for the hills things doesn’t seem so silly now does it?”
Colton chuckles before shaking his still mask covered head. Lowering himself a little she feels his lips brush her ear as he speaks lowly. “If anything it only makes me want to stay more.”
Rae shivers at the sound of his voice. Clearing her throat she lifts her gaze to see him looking back at her with a dazed look in his eyes. “Well that’s encouraging but don’t you think you should return the favor?”
“Already making demands?”
“Maybe.” She whispers with a teasing smile of her own.
Reaching behind his head he unties the knot on the back of his head. Rae doesn’t move her eye from his face, afraid to even blink. When the brown leather wolf mask is lowered she can feel her heart ready to beat straight out of her chest. His cheekbones are low set but sharp. His chocolate colored hair is a fairly short with floppy fringe hanging over one of his intense blue eyes. Rae notices a small black plug in his left ear lobe before her attention falls to his full pink lower lip. She clenches her teeth as the image of herself biting it comes into her mind.
Damn horny wolf, she grumbles to herself.
“So…” She trails before clearing her throat. “You’re Colton Woodward.”
He smiles a bit shyly at her recycled words, “Yeah, this is me.”
She nods appreciatively. “Not bad.”
He lets out a surprised laugh, “You’re going to be trouble, I can tell that already.”
“Already complaining?”
“Not in a million years.”
A shiver wracks her body, this time from the sudden chill in the air. Wrapping her arms around her arms she looks up at Colton already looking concerned. Putting his hands on each of her arms he starts moving them up and down, trying to warm her up. All it does though is make her shiver more at the pleasant little shocks that ignite over her already goosebump riddled arms.
“Cold?”
“A little.” She admits.
“Do you want to head back to the Alpha house? I hear that where the celebrations are going to be.”
She nods, “Yeah, I know. This is my pack.”
Colton’s brows rise in surprise before he nods, “Okay then can you lead the way? I have no idea how to get back. This forest is like a maze.”
She tilts her head while her eyes turn assessing, “Couldn’t just follow your scent trail back?”
“I guess I could.” He shrugs. “But what’s the fun in that when I have such a beautiful tour guide to show me the way?”
Rolling her eyes Rae grabs one of his hands on hers. “Are you ever not charming?”
“Only when I’m asleep.” He winks at her.
The two begin walking back towards the Alpha house with Rae leading the way. She doesn’t doubt her palms are sweating as she continues to clasp his hand. Still, she can’t stop the giddy smile on her face. She found her mate and he wasn’t anything like she feared he’d be! The relief makes her almost want to giggle stupidly or smile like the cat that caught the canary.
Her smile drops a little though when she realizes that Jace will be at the celebrations along with Cleo. Gnawing on her lower lip she lets out a low sigh as the tension slowly starts to come back. Well, she thinks wearily, he was bound to meet the family some time.
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On grounds of not wanting to be a mass murderer of fans who said the cliffhanger was 'killing them' I decided to post this pretty quickly. That being said I hope this will be as greatly recieved as it was anticipated but you never know. I wanted it to seem organic and yes, a bit awkward. I always hate that in werewolf fiction when girls see thier mate and immediatly fall into their arms and hump their brains out. Rae is a bit more practical than that.
What do you guys think of Colton?
VOTE, COMMENT AND FOLLOW :}