(Chapter 5: Rose)
"Yeah, well, you don't seem to change your appearance at all." I glanced at him, noticing how he had unbuttoned his shirt, leaving his toned stomach exposed. He even had a tattoo that scrawled down his left side. That one specifically was of a Chinese dragon flying downwards, claws outstretched and reaching for a sphere.
"Like what you see?" he asked cockily, a smirk tugged at his lips. I met his eyes briefly before looking back at the tattoo.
"What's with the dragon tattoo?" He glanced down at it before pulling his shirt over to cover it.
"It represents power, strength, and good luck... Something I've needed and still do," he muttered vaguely, but you could tell it was something big to him based off his tone.
"What did you get the tattoo for then?" I asked curiously. He buttoned a few buttons, making sure the shirt wouldn't fall open again.
"What did you get the sweatpants for?" He countered defensively. I sent him an odd look, but let it slide for now. He got up and went to back out of my room when something caught his eye. Inviting himself in, he grabbed my sketchbook.
"Hey-!" I protested, only to stop when he gave me a harsh glare. He flipped through my pages. His eyes stayed narrowed as he scrutinized each doodle. Then he stopped. He held up the page to me and pointed at it. I felt my breath catch.
"What's with this drawing?" I strode towards him quickly and snatched my book away.
"It's nothing," I said harshly. Leander's eyes lit up in pleasure as a grin spread over his face. There was a part of our history that lead to the Purebloods being protective of people questioning our pendants.
In the beginning, there were once 100 Pureblood families. The first ruling family, at the time, had two sons. They were complete opposites with one brother being logical, Alistair, and the other being reckless, Bandi. Once they had grown up, the Bandi had stolen a witch's grimoire on a dare from his friends. He asked his brother to hide him from the witch's wrath. Alistair, although knew he shouldn't, could not turn down his brother.
Days passed before the witch had finally found Bandi. She burst into the house Alistair had outside the castle and faced Bandi. At some point, she had spied his necklace and questioned him about it. Proud and arrogant about his power, he boasted about the abilities his necklace held. The witch had smiled, before teleporting her grimoire to her side and snatching the necklace. She cursed the brother, saying that he would never be able to return to his human form, nor ever have his powers again.
With that, the brother turned into an ordinary wolf and took off out of the village and into the woods. The witch turned to the remaining brother. He stood there, staring at her without moving. He waited for her to bestow him with the same fate. "You are a smart boy," the witch commented. "You make no moves to attack me and readily accept punishment for housing your brother when you knew he had something precious to us witches. But, you also refused to turn down family even though you knew you should not have allowed him in.
"With this, your better deeds outweigh your bad deeds. I'll spare you of any punishment, but I will leave you with this. You will spread word of what has happened here. You will warn your brethren that they shall not boast about the powers they hold. If they do, my curse shall be laid upon them, and they shall suffer the same fate as your brother." Even though the witch had died long ago, us Purebloods still held the superstition close to heart.
"It's a picture of your pendant, isn't it? Now that I think about it, I don't see a chain on you. Where's your's?" my wolf growled out, using my throat.
"You lost it, didn't you?"
"Of course I didn't lose it!" I yelled angrily. He just smirked at me with a knowing look. "Get out," I seethed, gripping my sketchbook tightly to my chest. His attitude was driving my wolf and me up the wall, not to mention he was delving on a topic that was sensitive to me.
"No." He crossed his arms over his chest, making himself comfortable on a nearby wall. "Not until I hear about your pendant and how you managed to lose the single most important thing in your life."
"I didn't lose it," I grit out, putting my sketchbook down and stomping over to him. I glared up at him and saw in the reflection of his eyes, my own irises glowing golden.
"Your resolve says otherwise. No Pureblood loses their cool this easily without a problem. You lost your pendant. Don't worry about me spilling. I got my own secrets I keep to myself." I pressed myself closer. The heat of his body quickly soaked through my shirt's thin material and heated my upper torso.
"I didn't lose my necklace. It is none of your damn business to get up in my personal life," I said lowly. A dark look past over his face as he lowered his face towards mine.
"Our parents have us in an arranged bonding. Your personal life is going to be my 'damn business' soon enough." His eyes flashed as he said this. I realized then that he didn't want to be a part of this as much as me. I deflated quickly, feeling my eyes well with tears. I turned around, not wanting my tears to give his ego a boost.
"Just please leave," I said quietly, hating how my voice wavered. There was silence behind me for a few minutes, and I almost thought he had left without me knowing.
"I'll get the story out of you eventually," He finally said before slipping out of the room, closing the door behind him. My legs gave out from under me quickly as I rested my back against the bed. Sobs of relief and frustration let themselves ring out. I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment at my show of weakness, but I couldn't help it.
After a few moments of moping on the floor, I crawled myself up onto the bed. Not even bothering to go under the sheets, I grabbed the pillow next to me and clutched it tightly to my chest. I used the other one to support my head. My staring off into space slowly morphed into slumber as I fell into a dreamless sleep.
•••••
"Oh my god. I'm going to be so late," I muttered for the tenth time. I buzzed around the bathroom. I found out very quickly that brushing your teeth and brushing your hair at the same time was an extremely difficult task. I really didn't feel like wearing a dress today (not to mention I had only packed one); so, I settled for a nice pair of white skinny jeans and a loose, but dressy looking, blue long sleeved shirt. Spitting out my toothpaste, I hurriedly ran my toothbrush through again with just water and called it a day. Brushing my left side of my hair, I finished. I set the hairbrush down fluffing my hair out a bit. Rushing into the bedroom, I narrowly missed running into the door. Snatching up my ankle boots, I put them on as I zoomed out the door.
"I'm so late. So late," I grumbled under my breath again. It was already 10:30 and I had been woken up at 8 to be told breakfast would be served at nine. Reaching the bottom of the stairwell, I realized soon that no one was there to greet me. I had no idea where the kitchen, much less the dining room, was. I wandered the halls, trying to magically come across either of the rooms. I was having no such luck until I came across Susanne.
"Good morning, young mistress. Was your breakfast good?" she asked me politely. I gave her a shy smile and scratched the back of my head.
"Well, you see, about that... I had fallen back asleep after being told when breakfast would be, and I completely missed the whole thing. I was wondering if you could point my in the direction of the kitchen?" Susanne's eyes widened.
"Oh, yes! Yes, of course. Right this way, I'll escort you to the kitchen. I must apologize, if we would had known you'd fall asleep, we would had sent another person to wake you up. You see, we are used to the young master getting up on the first time someone goes to tell him breakfast will be served soon." She paused for a moment, her cheeks growing red. "I did not mean to compare you like that to the young master. I-" I cut her off with a worry-free smile.
"Don't sweat it. It's cool," I responded. The rest of the way was quiet. Eventually, Susanne stopped at a swinging door.
"This is the kitchen. I apologize once again for not sending someone to wake you up. I will make sure it happens tomorrow." She curtsied before rushing off to her duties. I sighed, rubbing my forehead and pushed the door open.
"Morning, Geheimnis." I begrudgingly looked up to see Leander staring at me while biting into a muffin. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"And what gibberish are you calling me?" He rolled his eyes and took another bite of the muffin. I walked further into the room, opening and inspecting all the cabinets. "Don't you guys have any cereal? What is up with this?" I spotted some Fruit Loops on the top shelf, and decided it was better than nothing.
At first I tried reaching it, then jumping and grabbing, but I was still too short. Curse you height! I was about to climb onto the counter when a decorated arm passed over my head and grabbed it for me. I turned and scowled at him, just noticing that he was a giant. Then again, I was also short. He handed the box to me, the muffin in one hand, and his eyebrows arched up in amusement.
I once again started looking, this time for a bowl to pour my cereal into. I walked around the counter towards the other wall lined with cupboards. After searching a couple and no success, I turned around to find Leander done with his muffin and a bowl sitting on the prep table. I glared at him.
"I don't suppose you have a spoon for me too, do you?" I growled out. He winked before pulling a spoon out from behind his back. Huffing, I stomped over to him and snatched the spoon out of his hands. Milk was the one thing I could find as I opened the fridge and dragged out a carton. Creating my bowl, I put the milk back into the fridge and eyeballed the cabinet I had gotten the cereal from. Deciding against embarrassing myself by trying to put it back, I just let it sit out. I dragged a bar stool out from the corner and use that to sit at the prep table.
"No 'Thank you, Leander, for helping me get things!', Geheimnis?" he asked, mocking a hurt tone. I shoveled a spoon full in my mouth. I pointed at him with my spoon as I chewed.
"What is with the gibberish name calling?" I asked once I swallowed my cereal.
"It's not gibberish. It's German."
"Well, it sounds a lot like highness, so I'll take it as that." I smirked at him, enjoying the look of irritation that crossed his features.
"It definitely does not mean highness."
"Then what does it mean?" I quirked in eyebrow. He laughed before going to the door. Right before he left, he looked back.
"It's a secret," I grumbled in complaint at his reply. How could I possibly make it through another day with him lurking around?
~~~~~~~
The media is a picture of the rose drawing that Ari did that rose(pun not intended) so much ruckus. I drew it myself (with the help of a picture I looked off of) and it's the first shaded flower picture I've done in over a year lol. I'm sorry about the lined paper I drew it on, I honestly wasn't expecting it to come out like that.
So what do we think of Leander?