I was knocked backward as Zane was pushed onto the floor, a wolf growling on top of him. He was a dark grey color, his muzzle angled and big, his paws big and pointed, and his tail high and white tipped. A low, retched growl came from his throat as he snarled in Zane’s face who was holding him back by the fur on his neck. Zane kicked forward with his feet and threw him over him toward me. I backed up in fright, stilled in shock and absolutely terrified. What was I going to do if one of them died?
“Stop!” I snapped out as Zane started to shift, his darkened fur popping out of his skin. He was changing rather rapidly, so I knew it would be more agonizing than it normally was. His growls were immensely horrid to my ears, his shrieks piercing them and forcing my heartbeat to sound in places it shouldn’t. He stood back, his tail high as Jadako got to his four feet and stood in front of the door. I rushed over as he pounced forward and shut the door, hoping no one would come to investigate the commotion and twisted around just as Zane darted and snapped into Jad’s neck. I heard as he whimpered and slashed with his fine claws at Zane’s neck. “Please guys stop!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, but it wasn’t affecting them at all.
The wolves rumbled around in the room and knocked over the table, breaking the glass and breaking into a million pieces. They were jumping this way and that, snapping here and there, scratching into each other’s flesh. There was blood oozing from Jad’s side, and out of Zane’s neck. Jad backed up, breathing in a lung full of air and letting them out just as quickly as he puffed yet was growling viciously at the same time. He was about to throw himself at him again, and the instinct to protect my friend, one of the people I loved, took over. I hurled myself at Zane, shocking him into retreat as Jadako’s razor teeth sliced my arm.
A whimper escaped his black lips as he immediately let go and I saw in his yellow eyes the sadness and guilt fill them. I heard Zane behind me, his breath quickening as he looked at my arm, the sounds coming out his mouth louder and louder with each one. I struck a look back at him. “Enough,” I said. “I am tired of the violence. Look at what you two did?” I held my arm, but looked around at the broken glass my legs were grinding against, as well as their paws. His face calmed as he looked around, avoiding anything to do with Jad. Slowly he started to change, his fur falling to the ground and disappearing before it even hit the ground.
He kneeled beside me, grabbing my arms and pulling me into him. “Let me see.” Zane whispered into my ear as he gave a harsh expression to Jad who was watching with concern. Zane had always been able to shift back and forth with ease. His father had taught him to do so many times when he was just a boy, and I think that it made him stronger as a wolf. He cradled my hand in his as his hand slid under my arm, careful to hide himself from the viewer and to avoid the wounds on the top and side of my arm.
I looked down at it and winced as his thumb brushed over one of the puncture wounds. I knew it was an accident, but it still hurt like hell and made me want to yell at him. My arm was slowly losing blood from its veins. There was a long scratch in the middle of my forearm that went from the top to the bottom, a puncture wound on one side, and a long trail of blood sliding from the small incisions in between them. Zane made an unhappy face as he observed my arm, picking up a piece of his ripped clothing from the floor and wrapping it around my arm, tying it off between his teeth.
“Are you okay?” I heard Jad ask beside me. I hadn’t even heard him change back as I turned toward him, blankness on my face as I nodded. He looked at me apologetically though I knew he hadn’t meant to do it. However, I was still very angry at both of them for attacking each other in the first place.
“Jad…I…I think you should go.” I looked down, staring at my feet and knowing by the sting in my legs that I had a few pieces in my skin.
“Let me help,”
“She said go!” Zane yelled up at him, his eyebrows furrowed and her eyes glinted yellow. I couldn’t bear to look at either of them. I heard glass shuffle around on the floor as he picked up what was left of his clothes; I looked over just in time to see him pull on pants with part of the leg missing on one side, the back of it ripped at the midsection. He was holding them up as he opened the door to the house and walked out. Our eyes met, and I felt the rush of guilt wash over me. How did this happen? He confessed his love to me…
I watched as his eyes slid over me to Zane and then his lips straightened into a thin line. He left without another word. I put my arm on my lap and then peeked over at him; he was staring at the door with eyes still concerted. I stared back down as he started to stand up, I didn’t want my first time seeing him like that on bad terms. He went into his room to get a pair of boxers and came back in with a broom. He stood beside me, his soft eyes staring down at me as he offered a hand. I took it and he pulled me up to my feet, but as I was about to collapse from the pain in my feet he dropped the broom and lifted me up in his arms. I clung to him, afraid of falling and he took me into the kitchen and stuck me on the chair.
Before asking he grabbed my legs and put one of my feet into his hands as he put one knee against the hard floor and my leg on top of it. He started to pull glass out, dripping blood onto the white floor. There was nothing spoke between us, but I knew that since he was taking care of me he couldn’t be entirely pissed. I wanted to hear his voice though, anything. He put down my leg and then started working on the other one. I watched as he looked at my bare legs, his eye low and his thick eyelashes hiding their beauty.
When he was done he put down my foot carefully and picked up the glass he had put down beside him and walked over to the trashcan before going back into the living room. I could see his backside as he started to sweep up the glass. The sound was like crunching rocks when you were trotting down the road with a horse with small chimes sounding as it went. As he cleared out the area behind him I went over to the sink and grabbed a napkin and started to wipe off my legs. Since they were such small cuts they were already starting heal and had stopped bleeding. After throwing the red cloth I watched as Zane swept back and forth, brushing it all into one deadly pile.
I wasn’t sure what made me want to, or what had convinced me to do so, but I walked forward as he worked and put my arms through his, wrapping them around his upper stomach. As soon as I touched him he froze, he didn’t move an inch. I rested my head between his shoulder blades and I didn’t know how long we had stood there before his own hand had lifted up and ran over mine. “Thank you…” I said as a whisper, hoping he would think twice about if I had said something.
“You know…” his head rose, “that even if you weren’t mine, I would travel to the ends of the earth for you.” I felt as he twisted around and the hand that wasn’t on the broom brushed against my face. “You also know that because he hurt you, yet again, that I wanted to kill him, and would have.” He added.
“I know…but you have to realize that people do crazy things for love.”
I saw as the shock had passed through his face and then disappeared. “I suppose I knew that...he confessed to you.” He spoke slowly as his thumb drifted over my cheek, his eyes were full of emotion and if they were bigger I could have swam forever.
I lifted up on my tip-toes, wrapped my arms around his neck and brought his lips to mine softly. As I pulled away I searched his eyes, “but he has not always been there for me as you have Zane.”
He smiled down at me and dropped the broom, sending it cracking against the glass that was left on the floor. I couldn’t say that I did not love him, and even if I was Jadako’s mate, I would still love him, and though I knew he would be back, and though I wanted to seek him out, right now I wanted to be with my boyfriend. “I love you Ava…” he said so seriously, so seductive, that it sent my heart spiraling into my throat.
“I love you too…” I said way more easily than I thought I would be able to. He leaned down and picked me up, as I started entwining my legs behind the small of his back. I felt as the fast pace of our hearts started to sync and the prickles on his rock arms. There was something about Zane that pulled me into him, made me want all of him. Was that the feeling of him truly being my mate, or was it just the lust my wolf was feeling?
He started to step back, as if heading for the couch, but swore when he stepped on the large pile. I jumped off quickly and pulled him away; scared he would have gotten into worse shape than I. He lifted up his foot and started to pull out shards of the glass, all of them soaked with blood. He turned back toward me and gave me an exasperated look. “Well, today didn’t go quite as planned.”
“Did you even have anything planned?” I asked curiously.
“Well who knows? Alice isn’t back yet; you woke up, so maybe I was going to wake up to.” He gave me a half smile, his eyes raging with delight and conclusions. I knew what he was thinking, and boy did I want to do it too, but I just wasn’t ready…there was something telling me that it wasn’t the right time. Perhaps it wasn’t that, maybe I just didn’t want to know yet, I had just turned eighteen, I still hadn’t aligned to a pack, and I didn’t want to admit it, but I did feel something for Jadako. I picked up the broom as he was picking the glass out of his foot and started to finish his sweeping. “I’ll have to buy another table to replace that one. I am sorry about that. I just don’t…share well.”
“I know.” I said simply as I swept it all into a pile and started to get it into the small pan so I could dump it into the trash. He stood up straight and took the broom from me as well as the pan full of glass and blood. He walked through the kitchen, trailing spots of blood from his feet, and as always, my instinct to take care of those I love kicked in. “Hey,” I started as I walked into the kitchen and lightly took hold of him by the shoulder. “Come here.”
He turned around as he emptied the scooper and looked at me with a tilted head. He followed me over to the table and sat down before me; I went over to the kitchen and grabbed a rag and soaked it with warm water. I kneeled down on my knees and legs and the pulled his foot onto my lap. Slowly I started to wash his feet of brown and red. I didn’t normally like feet, but I figured I owed him something for taking care of me. Besides, that was what people who love each other do isn’t it? I softly scraped the rag against his foot, getting all of the blood off trying to force them to clot up and heal so at least they wouldn’t bleed.
I looked up and noticed he was staring at me, the same way I had been ogling at him as he scrubbed my feet. I smiled kindly at his endless grin and then moved my eyes down his bare chest shyly as I finished up and released his foot. I stood up, sashayed over to the sink more accidental than on purpose and cleaned off the rag. I hadn’t heard him get up, but his arms draped over my shoulders and slid under my neck, his strong biceps pulling me back, sitting chin right above my head. I put the rag down into the sink and twisted around in his arms, looking up at him with unperturbed eyes.
His thumb slowly ran over my cheek, his other hand tangling into my matted hair as he pulled me into him and pressed his lips hard against mine. I felt as I was lifted up into the sink, his hips pressing into me, his bare muscles tightening beneath my hands, and our faces pressed against one another. I felt the same feeling as before, the blood tingling and buzzing in my ears. I leaned back as he pushed me harder backwards, using my hand to keep myself steady by putting it against the wall, except that I hit the knob to the faucet which sent water spraying in every direction; mainly on me.
“Shit!” I yelled and jumped off the counter, hearing nothing but laughter booming out of Zane’s mouth as he pushed the water back with his hands and turned off the faucet. When he turned around his hair was drenched, water droplets dripping off the ends of his hair, his entire collar soaked in water. I was trying to wipe off the water that was all over my back and side, but it was useless, and the grin on my face was bigger than space. He was endlessly laughing, holding his stomach and shaking his head.
“You should have seen your face!” he could hardly breathe.
“My face?” I laughed. “You should have seen yours!” I giggled at the shock that sparked across his eyes and lips as it flashed through my head.
He shook his head and crossed his arms as he leaned against the counter, his hair sticking to his face. The position made his pecks bigger, his arms thicker in strength, and absolutely gorgeous. I wanted nothing more than to go over to him and start all over, but I heard my phone ring over by the counter and felt a little disappointed.
I walked over to it with a pouting face and picked it up looking at the number I answered it recognizing it as Alice. My face turned down at the anxiousness of her voice. “Ava...Ava I need your help!”