Shock, may have been the right word.
Air was completly forced out of my lungs as I looked at Travis standing beside my car.
The wind had picked up and was whipping his dark black hair accross his sharp feautures.
My heart beat started to kick up, and all of a sudden I heard a low growl coming from beside me.
I had forgotten all about Dom standing next to me. I turned to look at him when I heard an even deeper, louder and angrier growl coming from straight accross the parking lot.
Right from where Travis was standing next to my car.
His jaw was clenched tightly and his brows woven together in anger.
But something deep inside told me not to make him angrier.
To go over and soothe his wrinkled nose and barred teeth.
Without a word or a glance back at Dom or Belle I darted off into the direction of my car and Travis.
As I neared his feautures began to soften a bit, but I could still hear a low grumble coming from deep within his body.
"Get in." Was all he said as he ripped the passenger side door open and shoved me in.
"You're going to drive?" I asked as he sat down in the drivers seat and held his palm face up prompting me to put the keys in his hand.
"No. Not until you tell me what this is all about. I mean you show up outta no where. As a human! How!? How, is this even possible? And your all angry and growly. And you left me alone the other night, without even saying goodbye." I finished my ramble softly as I remembered how sad I was when I woke up to find Travis had left I'm the middle of the night.
His feautures fell into a frown. "I'm sorry. I'll explain everything, but please give me your keys so I can drive away, and get us away from him." He seethe out him with more venom than I knew his deep beautiful voice could muster.
"Him? You mean Dom?" Travis started growling and snarling at the mention of his name.
My eyes widened in shock at the sound, but my heart beat kicked up a few notches and my body got warm tingles all over, and not from being frightened.
"I have to pick up my brother." I said as I handed him my keys.
"Fine." He replied before peeling out of the parking lot as fast as my old Jeep could manage.
We pulled up to Trenton Middle School and my brother Charlie came running to the car.
When he saw me in the passenger seat he gave me a weird look, but opened up the back door and got in.
"Who's the dude?" Charlie asked while holding onto the headrest in front of him and looking over my shoulder, eyeing back and forth between Travis and I. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Char, this is Travis. Travis, this is my little brother Charlie." I smiled back at my brother.
"Why's he driving? Did you break your foot or something? We know you're accident prone." Charlie said with a laugh.
For a 15 year old he was becoming quite the sarcastic know-it-all.
"Actually, I didn't feel good. Travis is driving so I can relax. Right?" I asked in Travis' direction.
"Huh?" He looked at me surprised when I stared at him waiting to answer.
"Oh yeah. I felt bad you driving around if you didn't feel good." He said lowly, and finished off with a smirk that made my heart stop.
"So how are you gonna get home?" My brother asked Travis.
"Oh, I'll walk. It's not far." He replied.
"Whatever floats your boat man. I'd never walk home for a girl." My brother said while making fake gagging noises in the back.
For the second time in five minutes I rolled my eyes.
"Someday my man. You will. You'll find her, and you'll do anything for her... Anything." Travis said with a stern seriousness that made my brother stop making his vomiting sounds.
"Whatever. I don't think so... Maybe..." He trailed off while looking out the window.
"Wait till Mom hears about this!! Man she's always complaining how you're never trying around boys and how sad and afraid she is for you, that maybe your mentally damaged because we don't have a Dad. But she's gonna shit her pants!! You've finally cozied up to a guy!" He says excitedly.
"Char, I'm gonna kill you if you don't shut your mouth right this instant!!" I screamed while turning around in my seat. My cheeks were staring to heat up.
"Nope... I can't... Krystal's got a boyfriend!! Krystal's got a boyfriend!!" He says whole laughing.
"Shut up!!!" I yell.
From beside me Travis let's out a loud belly laugh.
I glare over at him, but he continues with his beautiful full melodious laugh.
Butterflies start dancing around my stomach.
Finally his laughter dies down and he turns to look at me. With a heart breaking smile that I could easily get used to.
We pull into my driveway much too soon and Charlie jumps out of the Jeep running for the side door.
I quickly follow him inside with Travis behind me.
"...Yeah and some bug dude was driving her car...Yeah he seemed nice. Really big. Like maybe he does steroids... She said his name was Travis. I think she has a crush on him..." I could hear my brother ramble to my mother, but I couldn't hear her responses.
I walked into the kitchen to find Charlie and my mom talking about Travis and I.
At the sight of me he darts out of the kitchen and runs to his bedroom.
Boys...
"Hi Mom. This is Travis. Yes he drove my car home. I wasn't feeling well, and he lives nearby, so he offered."
"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Burke, I'm sorry to intrude." He says to my mother with a sincere tone and flash white smile.
"No sorry's. Any friend of Krystal's is welcome here. Are you two hungry? I was making soup, Krys you're not feeling well? I thibk soup would help." My mom says with concern as she comes closer and uses her wrist to take my temperature.
"Mom, I think I'm okay, it's just a belly ache. I'll just have some yea for now. Travis do you want a cup? Are you hungry? We can heat up the soup also." I asked in his direction.
He was standing off to the side like he was afraid to fully enter the kitchen so he was standing near the threshold of the front hallway and kitchen.
"I'll just have whatever your having, Krystal."
The way he said my name made me shiver all the way down to my toes.
"Tea it is then." I replied shakily.
"Alright it looks like you've got everything under control Krystal, I'm going to go do some gardening." My mom said as she started walking out of the kitchen. "It was nice meeting you Travis, stay as long as you like." She finished with a big smile.
She'd do anything for me to be normal and have a social life. Especially one that shows I'm interstellar in more than just nature and wolves.
Well maybe with Travis around she can see that I am interested.
Wait... No.
No Boys!!!
Shit, I almost forgot!!
"Sooo... Mr. Angry Pants, what's the deal with you showing up at the side of my car, growling and all? And as a man. I didn't think you could be out in the cold that long!?" I asked him while passing him a steaming mug of tea.
What is with us and tea?
"I am not Mr. Angry Pants... And I didn't think I could either. Until I had a meeting with my Dad and Grandfather. They told me about fighting the wolf and staying human. They said they used to do the same so they could get work done or deal with human things. Anyways, I didn't thibk I'd have the ability but I was able to do it. So the first thing I did was come to see you." He was still standing near the back of the kitchen, not sure about if he was welcome or where to stand.
"Why?" I asked.
Travis looked around the kitchen and peeked out into the hallway.
"Is there somewhere private we can go? To talk?" He asked.
"The sun room." I led him through the main hallway and to towards the back of the house to where out sun room's glass walls overlooked the back woods.
My mom kept tons of indoor plants and trees in here. She had a bit of a green thumb.
There was also about 5 bookshelves lining the back wall against the main part of the house.
This was one of my favorite rooms. There were some old couches scattered around and old wood stove we used in the winter to stay warm.
I sat in one of the old comfy leather couches and curled up while putting a blanket around my legs.
"You cold?" Travis asked as he sat down next to me.
"A little. But I'm not the one on the verge of turning into a wolf. Do you want me to start a fire?" I asked.
"No. I'm doing okay." He said as he sat down extremely close to me.
My heart beat started to kick up at his close presence.
How could one guy be so damn handsome.
His warmth radiated towards me, as if I were sitting out in the bright summer sunshine.
I wanted to lean closer, but I restrained myself.
"So, what is it? What was so pertinent that you had to change into a man and angrily wait by my car growling?" I asked him with slight exasperation creeping into my voice.
I was starting to get pissed at all this boy drama.
"Well for one, he was too close to you." Travis seethed.
I gave him a 'are you serious' look, but he continued almost without stopping.
"Second, there's a lot going on that you don't know about yet..." He paused with a sigh and looked down at his hands. "Do you remeber that night? The night he tried to... the night...he...tried... to..." He seemed to be having trouble speaking without emitting a low growl at the base of his throat.
"You mean the night he tried to force himself on me? Sure I remeber vividly. Which time? My birthday, or Callum's party?" I asked.
This caused an even louder
sound to come from him.
"The party. When I ripped him off of you. I jumped on him, and bit his arm..." He sighed, "You can either be born a werewolf, or made. It either runs in your bloodline, or someone, another wolf, bites you. I bit Dom. Not hard, but enough to turn him. He's probably been going crazy, and completly confused. He's been all alone, but he's taking out his heightened senses on innocent people and killing them." He looked at me with remorseful eyes.
"Is that why Miss. Harte has been missing for almost a week? No one knows where she is. She's a history teacher, and no one has seen or heard from her." I asked him.
"I don't know. Krystal, the bodies, their torn to pieces. Ripped to shreds. My pack hasn't been able to identify any of them. Mainly because they are humans." He replied.
"What about the police? Have they been notified?" I asked starting to get worried.
This is crazy! Dom needs to be stopped! I knew that there was something dark inside him, that I felt the other day.
This was it. He had turned into a monster.
Could he be stopped?
"The police know. They have the bodies now. I'm not sure where their investigation will lead them, but they are going to start scouring the woods looking for the animal that is responsible for this, which is going to be dangerous for the pack." He ran his fingers through his hair, making I look even messier, making him even sexier.
CONCENTRATE KRYSTAL. Get your mind outta the gutter.
"I'm sorry I had to tell you this, I wish I could have resolved this issue without getting you involved, but Dom keeps hanging around you and he's trying to get close to you, and I have no idea what his motives are, but he's already killed 6 people. He's going to kill more. He needs to be stopped. And I needed to tell you, so that you are aware of what he's capable of." He sighed and finally looked up into my eyes, searching for something. What? He looked scared. Why? Was he searching for what I was feeling right now? Because I was honestly not sure. I felt like my world was crumbling and crashing down.
This guy who has been following me around for the past 2 weeks, trying to make me fall for him, is behind 6 murders.
I felt sick to my stomach.
"Are you okay? You look pale, Krystal. Look at me, breathe, it's going to be okay. I'm going to stop him." He reassured me as he rubbed my arm up and down. Even with my sweater in between his hand and my arm I could feel his warmth radiating through my body and soothing me, even if it was just a little.
"Why? Why, did you save me? He could have had his way with me and that would be that. He wouldn't have become a monster going on a killing spree." I said as tears started to well up in my eyes.
I tried to will them away, but it was no good, my body betrayed me as the first tear fell.
"He was already a monster Krystal. Don't you see?" He asked as he leaned down to look at my face and into my eyes. He was so close I could feel his breath blow against my cheek and lips.
He smelt like winter.
Cold and Woodsy.
He used his thumb to brush away a few tears that had been continuously falling down my face.
His fingers were gentle and soft, leaving trails of fire, which ignited my soul and brought my body involuntarily closer to his.
"But maybe, maybe he wouldn't have done anything bad to me. Maybe I, I don't know. It would have been better than him killing 6 people!" I cried.
He let his bright eyes linger with mine as he continued on, "How could I have left you!? Are you serious? No I could never do that," his voice got louder and more aggressiven "I could never leave my mate to be raped, and violated and hurt like that. NO. NO. NO. I don't know anyone would could leave their mate like that. That's crazy. I'd risk the while world for my mate." He finished off his rush of rambling with wide eyes, and a look of shock and embarrassment visibly shown on his handsome feature.
I was confused. Mate?
Like, a friend?
Huh?
"What? Mate? You mean a friend? I mean we barley know each other Travis, and before that night I didn't even know you were a human... You could have left me, instead of risking your saftey and the saftey of your pack and people." I asked, still confused by his use of the word mate, twice.
"I want you to tell me that you would have left me, if I were in a situation like that." He said with a questioning look in his eyes.
"You know I.. I couldn't. No." I replied shakily.
No. I'd never leave my wolf, Travis, in harms way, I'd do everything I could to save him.
"And I could never, would never, and will never leave you!" Travis exclaimed, emphasizing never three times.
He began to take both of my shoulders in his, and rub his hands up and down my arms.
Electricity was running wild through my veins at his touch.
I started breathing heavily, his touched had the power to cause me and my body to go into a sex crazed frenzy.
He pushed up the sleeves of my blue sweater, only to intensify the feeling of a charged wire's flames licking at my skin, burrowing it's warmth deep down into my body.
"Tell me you don't feel this, that this is nothing, that this is," he paused taking his hands off me, leaving my arms cold. "Just Friends." He used his fingers to air quote the last words.
His hand returned to gently touch my arms again, reignighting the feeling his close contact brought me.
"Do you feel what I feel every time I'm near you? Do you feel the electrical sparks that start up every time we touch? Do you feel an invisible chord gradually tugging you closer and closer to me, whether I'm a wolf or man? THAT, is what mates are." He growled put the word mates, as he continously stroked my arms. "THIS is what mates are."
I stared at him in shock. Is couldn't wrap my head arundel what he was saying.
He felt it too? He felt this connection? This spark? This fire, that burned Everytime we touched?
The gravity that pulled me nearer to him and his wolf for the past 3000 nights.
The intensity of longing I've felt for over 10 years
I couldn't believe it.
Almost all my life I had gone on believing I was some freak, a weirdo of sorts, who felt this connection with a wild animal, but now I'm finding out that the feeling is mutual?
"THIS, is meant to be. Written in the stars you could say. The moon Goddess gave me you, and she gave you me. It is fate. That's what mates are." He paused and pulled me in closer.
My head lined up perfectly to his chest, right under his chin. I turned my face up, so I could meet his eyes.
He leaned his head down a bit and rested his jawline against my cheek. His dark black stubble was a foreign feeling against my face, but it sent tingles all the way down to my toes.
I didn't want this feeling to ever go away. I wanted to become familiar with each and every curve of his face and body next to mine.
He pulled me closer still, and I could feel his heart beating against my ear.
It was beating almost as rapidly as I thought mine was.
"You are mine, and I am yours." He said as he buried his nose in my hair while inhaling deeply.
"I can't believe it, all this time, I thought I was crazy. But I'm not? This feeling, this crazy connection that I've felt with you since I was 8, is a real thing? It even has a name?" I asked as I looked to him again.
He chuckled a deep hearty laugh. "Yes, it's real. And yes, there's even a name for it. I'm just glad you can feel it too." He said with a smile in his voice.
"Why wouldn't I? Is it because I'm human? Did you think I wouldn't feel the same?" I asked.
"Honestly, I wasn't sure. When I saw you for the first time 10 years ago, I knew. I knew right from the moment we locked eyes. It's this feeling you get deep in your bones, it warms you to the core. But I wasn't sure if the feeling was mutual yet. I was only 10, I was still a kid at heart. Most wolves don't find their mate until about 16, or 17. But since I have Alpha blood, I developed quicker than most, so that meant I also found my mate before the rest of the pack members my age." Travis explained.
I took a deep breath and almost got lost in his eyes. "Well, I felt it. I didn't know what I felt, but I felt something. The moment I looked out my window that snowy day, and the first night we spent watching each other until dawn, changed my life forever. There hasn't been a moment, or time, or day where I haven't thought of you, or wanted to be close to you. Even though I thought you were only a wolf... I've always wanted you."
At that exact moment my phone started ringing.
I wanted to ignore it but it lit up the table in front of us and we both leaned in to peek at the called ID.
Dom.
Shit.
Oh my God.
What was I going to do?
"Answer it." Travis said, as of reading my thoughts.
"WHAT!?!?" I exclaimed.
"Answer it." He urged. "See what he wants. But tell him you're busy."
I picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey! Krys!" I cringed at his him using that nickname.
Only certain people called me that, my Mom, Charlie, Mia, Belle.
I didn't want him to be on that list.
"Hey." I replied stoically.
"So are we still meeting at Java Jones? I reeeaaalllyyy wanted to see you tonight." He said, putting emphasis on the really.
"I'm sorry Dom, I can't. I got caught up with my family, and we're just about to sit down for dinner, and then I need to get a start on my homework and Violin practice." I replied.
"Come on, just and hour. You promised!" Dom whined.
"I really can't... Listen, I'll see you tomorrow."
I was about to hang up when he started to reply, "Will you sit with me again?"
Why was he so desperate for me?
"Uhmm.... yeah sure we'll sit with you again!" I answered with fake enthusiasm, and simultaneously ending the call.
"What am I gonna do? I can't be anywhere near him! He already creeped me out as it was."
"You're going to act like nothing is wrong. Don't let him think you're on to him. I don't want him to hurt you."
"He's going to try to make a move on me Travis, just like he has been for the past few weeks."
Travis' grip around my arms started to tighten as he wrapped himself around my stomach.
A low growl was emanating from deep within his chest. "If he lays a hand on you I will kill him then and there." He snarled.
The rage and fury rolling off of him was something to not only be seen but also felt.
His power seemed to consume the entire room. Wrapping itself around me and sticking to every surface, object and wall until the room felt pregnant with anger.
The sun room seemed to be bursting at the seams at Travis' ever expanding and dominating power.
It made me tremble.
Travis must have noticed that I was shaking, because all of a sudden I heard him taking deep breaths, and felt his power start to disperse and lessen throughout the room.
"Just keep doing what you have been, try to avoid him, but don't be obvious. The pack and myself are coming up with a plan to follow through with on the full moon this weekend. Out strength as individuals and as a pack are at its highest and strongest during a full moon." He said.
"He's planning a party this Saturday. He invited me." I told him.
"No." He said sternly.
"I already said yes. If I didn't go, he'd get suspicious. And Mia will never agree to not go. I have to go, especially to make sure nothing happens to my friends."
He sighed. "It's too dangerous. I can't risk you getting in the middle of this and getting hurt."
"I won't get hurt. He won't hurt me." I said with no confidence.
Who was I kidding he probably would hurt me, he's tried twice before.
"Krystal, he's already tried to hurt you more than once. I won't be able to protect you if I'm not with you. In school he won't do anything stupid because there's so many people around. But at his house? He's got all the privacy he needs."
"I can't leave Belle and Mia alone. I'll be okay, and you and your pack will do what you have to, to stop him." I urged to him.
I could see he seemed defeated, knowing I wouldn't stop arguing to get my way. "Fine, but I'm following you there and the moment something fishy starts to happen all you need to do it think of me, and I'll be able to know you're in danger."
"Really? How?" I asked.
"I can perceive thoughts and emotions. Yours are especially heightened for me since you're my mate. I can't hear exactly what your thinking, but I know if you're angry or happy or distressed. That how I found you all those times you've gotten hurt." He replied simply.
WOW.
"Krystal, honey, dinner is ready. Travis, would you like to join?" My mom came through the door of thw sun room to ask.
She eyed our close quarters with a slight smirk on her face.
I mentally faced palmed myself.
Mom would do anything to know I was actually putting an effort into finding "love."
She was an old school romantic.
She and my father met during the Gulf war, in the Middle East. My dad was a Lieutenant general in the Army, and my mother was a Nurse.
They fell in love and once his tour was over they came home and started a family.
But my dad had pride in our country and couldn't say no to re-enlisting after 9/11.
He was killed by a suicide bomber in the middle of the of his first tour back overseas. I was 7, Charlie was 4.
He doesn't really remember Dad.
I only have vague and hzy memories of him.
But Mom hasn't found anyone since. She says he was her one and only, and they'll be together again one day.
Only a few months later was wen I first met Travis, my wolf.
I think it was because I needed someone, someone to protect me the way my Dad used to.
I looked at Travis expectantly, hoping he'd stay.
He smiled one o the brightest smiles I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.
My heart skidded to a halt.
"Sure, thank you Mrs. Burke." He said as he turned his heartbreakingly beautiful smile towards my mother.
I almost jumped for joy, but I forced my body not to make a fool out of myself.
I slowly got up, forcing myself to restrain the giddiness, and followed my Mom into the kitchen with Travis following behind me.
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