Chapter 14
The room so dark as usual since I had broken the doors; I barely even registered it was morning. My eyes fluttering open, I could feel a firm pair of arms still wrapped around me; a cool breath battering against the back of my neck.
Thinking it wise not to wake Cody, I tried to slither out of his hold when just as I thought I was free, his arms stretched out, pulling me back in.
Seriously…….
Hearing Cody groan as he seemed to wake up, his lips began to press against my neck; my wolf now awake and paying attention, stupid instinct.
‘Morning sleeping beauty’
Scoffing of course Cody had to make this so much more cliché than it already was.
‘Morning Beast’
Cody snickered, his arms now letting me move away a bit as he rubbed his eyes; ‘I think I like Beast that one’s a keeper’.
Of course my insults had no effect on this guy, he was that used to me now it just wasn’t funny.
Climbing out of bed, I threw my arms up, stretching out my spine as I leant backwards; bones cracking from being dormant so long.
It wasn’t even seven in the morning and I was getting up; such an unlucky fella Cody had to get up early each and every day from now on.
‘You slept well I’m guessing’?
Shrugging I generally slept well since coming here except that freaky night I had a nightmarish type dream.
‘Yeah, fine; I’m going to go get some food’.
Walking out of the room still in my pyjamas; Cody must have been watching me as I walked past him, swinging my hips as I left the room.
‘Such a flirt…..’
Stomping down the hallway, hoping neither Charlie or Gerald was up so I’d wake them, I grabbed onto the railing, sliding down it on my butt as the stairs seemed to be the slow way of going from now on.
Never having done this before, as I reached the bottom I kind of forgot how to stop as my body went flying into the front door; a loud thump echoing through the house as I crumbed to my knees, rubbing my forehead at the door.
‘That’s one way to wake up I suppose’.
Looking into the kitchen, Charlie was washing up is plate, looking as if he’d already been up a few hours.
‘Are you a vampire or something? Every morning I come down, you like you’ve been awake for hours’!
Charlie chuckled, looking at me like I was stupid; ‘I’ll give you a hunt it starts with P and ends in L’.
Right, he did early morning patrols that would explain it then. ‘I don’t need you to act like I’m five you know’!
Throwing his plate back in the cupboard, Charlie ignored my comment; now walking over to a stool as he went to finish the remainder of his coffee.
‘You reek of Cody by the way’.
‘Thanks for the advice; I’ll make sure I shower before I see you next time’.
‘No problem, good to know you actually do shower sometimes’.
Stupid Charlie with his stupid comebacks; I could feel the burn; asshole. Walking into the kitchen; I automatically opened the cupboard, seeing a pancake shaker mix that clearly was meant for me as I threw the bottle on the counter; slamming cupboard doors to find a saucepan.
I heard Charlie scoff behind me, still sitting in his seat; ‘can you even cook’?
Could I cook? I had no idea; I guess we’d soon find out, as I pulled out the frying pan, a big smirk on my face as I sat it on the bench near Charlie.
‘I’m going to take that as a no’.
What can I say, I didn’t actually do too bad at being a messy chef as I poured the correct amount of water into the mix, shaking the bottle for dear life as I let go of it, flinging into Charlie’s head.
‘So sorry; you just can’t trust the help these days, hey Charlie’.
Charlie’s hand seemed to ball into a fist as he rubbed his head before staring at me like I was the daughter of Satan.
‘Would you like some’?
Charlie shook his head, I could tell from the look on his face, he was dreading being in the kitchen when I got up.
Turning on the frypan, I read the instructions on the back of the bottle; seeming to make the process look easy as I poured enough mix into the frypan as a large round pancake began to sizzle, cooking pleasantly for me.
‘I DID IT’!
‘Yes, that’s obvious, but now that you made it so big, how do you hope to flip it’?
Stupid Charlie; he was ruining this moment for me. Opening the draw, I ferreted through, probably making way too much noise for someone making pancakes as I looked for something giant to flip my pancake with.
‘What am I supposed to use to flip it Charlie’!
Pulling at my hair, I didn’t want to burn my perfectly rounded pancake, it looked so delicious, sitting there cooking peacefully.
‘You need a spatula but that pancake is way too big so I don’t know; be innovative’.
Innovative hey, tapping my finger on my chin, I thought for a minute. All I needed to do was flip the pancake, what if I flipped the whole frypan?
‘I’ve got it’!
Charlie watching as my hands took either handle; my fingers gripping the plastic as I took a few deep breaths; I think Charlie caught on to what I was doing, his snickering turning to laughter as he watched me.
‘You are so cleaning this mess up, Vera’!
Pocking my tongue out, in a flash; I had flipped the frypan, my eyes registering the pancake now falling as I quickly flipped the pan over; holding it up high, shoving it under the falling pancake as it landed back where it should and my body collapsed onto the ground as the legs tapped against the tiles.
As I got to my feet, placing the frypan back on the counter; I threw my finger up, pointing at Charlie, probably waking half the pack as I yelled.
‘SUCK ON THAT CHARLIE’!
Charlie was in tears, clapping softly as he almost fell off his stool, definitely not expecting me to do what I just did.
‘What an earth is going on down here’?
Looking at the doorway, Cody walked in, seeing the Charlie laughing hard, holding his chest, with me standing in the kitchen; a massive pancake sitting in the frypan, smirking.
‘You have to see this Cody, the way Vera cooks pancakes is hilarious’!
‘Hey! I cook them just fine thank you but how do you know when it’s ready’?
Cody walked over, looking in the pan as he thought he would be sneaky with me seeing him anyways as he took the bottle off the counter; obviously wanting to finish the cooking.
‘I think it’s ready now Vera’.
My first pancake and it looked so beautiful, but now how do you get them out?
Scratching my head, Cody opened a cupboard, sifting out three plates as he soon looked at the pancake looking almost as puzzled as me.
‘How did you flip it’?
Chuckling, I grabbed the frypan; holding it over the plate then suddenly tipping, only to see the pancake fall onto the plate, hanging over the sides.
‘That is how I flipped it’.
Cody shook his head; now pouring more batter into the frypan, with me now noticing he would put two reasonably sized ones in, making my pancake look huge.
‘So that’s how you do it’.
Cody gestured for me to take my giant pancake and start eating.
‘Wouldn’t want you to miss out on tasting your cooking, Vera’
Inhaling the smell of my pancake, I went to sit down next to Charlie who took it upon himself to move into the lounge room, obviously not wanting to be part of our breakfast ritual.
‘You know we do have other things besides pancakes here’.
Shrugging if Cody hadn’t figured out my favourite breakfast was pancakes yet, he wasn’t paying very much attention.
‘I know, I’m just a sucker for pastry’.
‘Vera, it isn’t even pastry; it’s more of a mix’.
‘Whatever Cody, same difference’
Cody gave up pretty quick and after breakfast, he pretty much locked himself in his room, claiming to be fixing the doors I’d broken but for all I knew he could have just been sleeping.
Meanwhile, I was sitting in the lounge room with Charlie, him only telling me now, that they had four controllers and that we could do multiplayer.
Zooming around in my warthog, my Spartan was so much cooler than Charlie’s; mine had customised armour and all that jazz.
Charlie’s character jumped out in front of me, rocket launcher hunched over his shoulder as he fired a rocket coming straight for my warthog.
Managing to swerve around the rocket, it hit the ground next to me, making my warthog fly through the air and slam against a tree as I fell out.
‘You suck at this game Vera; I wasn’t even aiming for you’.
Snorting, I ducked behind some random rocks; pulling out my shotgun as Charlie’s character crept up on my right, now duel-wielding two assault pistols.
‘Any last words, Vera’?
‘Yeah, eat my lead jackass; you’re getting owned’!
Seeing Charlie’s character pop out around the rock; I unleashed the power of my shotgun, shells flying through various parts of his body as the Spartan lay on the ground already dead, with me not letting up.
‘You really have anger management problems; you just brutally slaughtered my character’!
‘Hey! Give a girl a break; you try acting domesticated when you’ve lived by your own rules so long’.
‘Domesticated, you’re far from anything close to that’!
Throwing my controller at Charlie as he snuck on me while I was ranting, I must have been getting pissed, seeing as Charlie seemed to let up a bit.
‘I’ll give you domesticated; where the hell did you get off sneaking up on a girl’!
Charlie put his hand to his heart, his character bolting across the map as I spawned.
‘Such harsh words; you cut me Vera’.
Yeah right, Charlie had an ego bigger than mine and Dingo’s combined; if my pack was taken over, Dingo would have been gone too.
‘Hello….you’re wandering again, your warthog is spinning against the cliff, turn around already’.
Right, focus on the game; jumping out of my car, Charlie noticed my change of tactics, holding back to see what I’d do.
Walking up the steep grade to the top where a road was; the end being blown to pieces and disconnecting from the highway, I snuck through the gaps coming into another room as I ran over a cloaking device; my Spartan now invisible to the naked eye.
‘What are you up to Vera; this isn’t your normal strategy’?
A little snicker escaping my mouth, my Spartan soon jumped out the two story window as I landed right behind Charlie, whose character couldn’t turn fast enough to stop the threat.
A round of shells hit the back of Charlie’s Spartan’s head as he fell to the ground, soon to spawn in five seconds.
‘That was evil Vera’.
‘I’m glad you enjoyed the show; if you like to see a replay just let me know’.
‘Smartass’
And so our onslaught continued, with me bouncing up and down on the couch when I was victorious, screaming words in Charlie’s face as I caught Gerald’s eyes at the bottom of the stairs.
His smirk said it all, he had been watching; ‘didn’t know you were a Halo fan Vera; I can see you beat our gamer Charlie here’.
Damn right I beat Charlie, I would whoop Gerald’s ass too if he dared challenge me. Now turning away, Gerald walked out the front door, shutting it gently behind him; I don’t think I’d shut that door that softly since living here.
‘Let’s play another game’.
My eyes darting to Charlie, they had more games here?
‘What else is there’?
Charlie smirked, now jumping over to the cabinet under the television and sliding the two doors open to reveal what I would call a library of games.
‘Holy cow! You guys have so many games, which one can we play’?
His eyes scanning through the shelves, Charlie soon pulled out a game that read Need for Speed as he passed it to me along with the main controller, obviously gesturing this was a one player game.
‘Knock your heart out Vera; I think you’ll like this one’.
Who would have thought red lining some random sports car would be so fun as I smashed into cop cars, racking up bounty as my heart began to pound to the beat of the music this game had.
‘This is sooooo cool’!
Charlie was now sitting just watching, seeming content enough even though I clearly wasn’t very good in the beginning.
‘This is what the human would call a police chase and boy is it fun; I think you agree’.
Charlie was right there, slamming on my accelerator as my car flew into the corner, I immediately bashed the car into a lower gear as the back wheels spun out sideways, the car drifting around the bends as I took no effort to stay on my side of the road.
Hitting the nitrous as I left each bend, the police tried road blocks, helicopters, spike strips and even hitting me with some EMP signal I didn’t understand to run me off the road and arrest me, which they come out successful doing on a few occasions.
So caught up in the game, I didn’t even realise when Cody came back downstairs, placing his hand on my shoulder as his eyes watched the screen curiously.
‘Charlie, you’re getting my mate addicted to video games, being grounded is supposed to be punishment’.
Immediately wanting to argue with Cody, I didn’t take my eyes off the screen.
‘If I wanted to go outside I’d already be there, you’ll little punishment isn’t going to last big bad Alpha’!
Cody sighed behind me, his arm now resting on the back of the lounge as he hopped over, sliding down next to me; ‘what I say goes Vera, and you know it’.
Yeah right, that was far from the truth.
‘Your pack may take your orders like blind mice but I will not, I am Luna and therefore I can go outside if I want to’.
‘You say you’re Luna, yet you won’t come near me, please explain how that works’.
Cody was just trying to rile me up, he knew I would help his pack if he asked when I was in the right mood anyways.
‘Luna or no Luna, I might go for a stroll later, see if I can find some white wolves and there’s nothing you can do to stop me’.
‘Vera, I’m your mate; you’re not going anywhere’.