Boom. Boom. Boom.
No, please go away, was all I could think as I pulled the covers tighter around me, letting the toasty warmth saturate my skin.
I turned my face from my fluffy cotton pillow, and with a groan, called out helplessly, "I'm not buying!"
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
I screamed around the material of my pillow as the freight train pounding on my front door became frequent. I swept my blankets off me, shivering from the sudden cold as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and slipped my feet into my gray bunny slippers, my movements jerking with irritation. "This guy better watch his junk," I mumbled under my breath as I stood up and walked to the bathroom door to grab my black robe off the hook.
When I walked past my kitchen, I rubbed my eyes furiously as the red letters on my microwave taunted me with the current time. It had to be wrong. No one was ever up at this time, at least anyone I knew. I peeked into my living room to glare at the clock on the wall as it confirmed the time.
Four-fifty in the morning required some massive testicle smashing. This guy was toast. Images of kicking him was the only thing keeping me standing and slowly moving towards the door, but when I finally managed to angrily swing the door open the sight before me almost left me speechless.
"Well?" the pint sized red-headed female standing before me asked while giving an expectant gesture.
My mouth dropped open as I attempted to talk, but instead just managed to shrug my shoulders and stare at her, completely baffled.
How could something so small make so much noise?
She rolled her eyes, leaned over the threshold to my apartment, and clamped her tiny hand in a vice-like grip around my upper arm, pulling me towards her. Her movements were fast and I barely managed to yelp at the feel of the girl's soft hand roughly pulling me outside.
Was this an assault?
The absurdity of the thought came just as I was partially out the door, but my hand shot out, punching her in the chest regardless. Killers wore many masks, even cute, fairy faced teenagers. I wrestled with the hand wrapped around my bicep and jerked free, taking a few steps back.
"Why y-you rabid little hussy," the girl said stumbling over her words with an angry fire flashing in her eyes, which were currently rounded like an anime character. Each passing moment her face splotched redder. "You were told I was coming, that we needed to meet with my Alpha." She paused, her arms lifting in a 'what-gives' gesture. "So you punch me in my boob as a greeting? What is the matter with you?"
"What?"
She clucked her tongue impatiently, ignoring the curly bouncing strand of hair that fell across her freckled forehead. "Great. I get a stupid one."
It took me a second to realize she was insulting me. I was still trying to catch up to who had told me she was coming. I'd been so surprised by the whole ordeal that my ears were ringing. My head may as well be spinning too, but I managed to shake clear of the distraction and recalled the scene that had occurred yesterday. Maggie had chosen vamp and I'd gone all animal. James, that sexy freak from the boutique who drank blood for fun, did tell me someone was coming, but not so early in the cracking morning!
"I wonder if I can return it." The she-devil continued to mumble under her breath while tapping her chin.
I scrunched my nose and scowled down at her. What a shrimp. "Hey!" I said, snapping my fingers in her face to get her to look at me before giving a wide sweeping gesture with my arm and pointing to my chest. "I'm not the one claiming to be an animal."
"There's no claiming. I am a werewolf. Now, since I can't dispose of you or return you, we're running late. You do have a car, don't you?"
"Oh go fly a kite," I said with a growl.
She blinked in surprise before responding. "I beg your pardon?"
I went to shut the door in her face, but her hand flew up. "This is where you're supposed to take a hint," I said, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. And she'd called me stupid.
Needless to say, she didn't take the hint and it took three minutes flat before I was behind the wheel of my car, turning it on. They should've warned me that I wouldn't be dealing with a werewolf, but a vicious harpy in disguise.
The opportunity for revenge came thirty minutes into the drive and Arden, who informed me that she was not named after perfume, was pinching the front of her shirt, pulling it from her chest to fan herself from the heat. "It's so hot! Don't you have air conditioning in this hunk of junk?"
I scowled at her. It would serve her right if I turned on my AC. The chortle of evil escaped before I could stop it, causing Arden to sling a curious sneer in my direction. I scrunched my lips to the side and contemplated the possible surprise revenge while I flipped the turning signal on to switch lanes. Thinking about what had just happened and it didn't take me long before I was reaching for the AC controls.
I watched her freckled face carefully out of the corner of my eye. Honestly, I hadn't expected her to pick up on the scent so soon, but the moment her tiny nose twitched, like a little rabbit, I knew she had. Her head tilted backwards as she sniffed the air curiously and then very quickly she slammed a hand over her nose, turning swiftly to glare at me with her eyes.
"You have the nose of a dog," I said, mumbling under my breath, not as happy as I would've been had the attempted revenge taken longer.
"I am a werewolf after all. What part of that don't you understand?" Her muffled response spilled around the gaps of her fingers and with her free hand she switched the AC back off.
I rolled my eyes. This little red-head seemed to know every button of mine to push. The superiority in her voice as she spoke to me set me on edge. My fingers clenched around the steering wheel before I spoke, "Right, I forgot we're still sticking to that story. Listen, I didn't pay to be a babysitter to a disillusioned teenager."
Not that I actually paid for it, but it technically applied.
Arden folded her arms high on her chest and lifted her chin snootily. "What are you, like two years older than me? Anyhow, it'll happen. Just you wait and when I'm snacking on your internal organs because you didn't believe me, therefore did not take the proper precautions, then you'll know!"
"Whatever," I said, suddenly feeling tired of the whole charade. I felt deflated – as if the remnants of an energy drink were finished with me – and I was sugar crashing hard.
How did I let Maggie talk me into this crap? And what did she mean only two years older... "How old are you again?"
"Seventeen."
I bit my tongue. I wasn't nineteen yet, so not even two years, but seventeen? Arden had to be younger. She acted more like a rich two-year-old with a bad attitude. I suppose it would've been strange had it been thirteen instead of a seventeen-year-old pounding on my door at the crack of dawn and waking the dead i.e. me.
Arden looked like a porcelain doll with a light spattering of freckles spread across her cheeks and nose, and thick, curly red hair that trailed down her back. How was I supposed to know she'd be the devil incarnate? She'd looked so innocent at first. In fact, had she been a little smaller, perhaps I'd have received the rude awakening better. There may have even been an 'ooh how cute,' or an 'aw, I want one' in there somewhere, but as it turns out Arden was tall enough to get my wrath, and unfortunately it hadn't sat too well with her either.
She'd practically hog tied me into the drivers' seat of my car to go speak with her 'Alpha,' which I've been assuming is her father. And for such a tiny person, it sure felt like I'd been jostled around like a rag doll. And when I said three minutes I meant it. That's really all it had taken her to get me into this car. She had the strength of man... and the attitude of one.
The little brat!
"Turn right!" Arden pointed swiftly towards the right, banging her finger on the passenger window as if that alone would make me do it faster. I snarled. Boy, did I want to smack her in the face. "Phew, lucky you didn't miss it. It would've taken us ten minutes in the wrong direction... we would've been late meeting my Alpha."
Why she said it like that was beyond me. Didn't I already know we were meeting her father? Like it would've been the worst thing in the world to be late? Although, maybe she was an army brat and has one of those fathers that views punctuality as the utmost importance.
"You mean your father?" I asked.
"No, I mean my Alpha, Simon. He is not my father," she said, emphasizing every word unnecessarily to me like I was a three-year-old that didn't understand the situation. "My father dropped me off."
"You're seventeen, why don't you have your own car?"
"I'd have to pay for it myself."
I waited to hear the problem, but apparently that was it. "And?"
"My Alpha doesn't allow females in our pack to get jobs until they're eighteen. Luckily, he didn't consider this a job so much as an opportunity."
I wanted to knock my head against the steering wheel. In what century were we in? "Annabelle, it's just pretend," I said under my breath.
Arden swiveled around towards me and openly stared with disgust as she carefully shifted her feet. "You're crazy aren't you? I mean how many in your face moments can you have before you start to believe? James said you'd been pretty freaked yesterday. Not once did you think it was real? Well, whatever, Simon's going to have you sign a liability contract that basically says if I eat you it's your own fault." Arden paused, cocked her head to the side, and pursed her lips as she stared at me with contemplation. "I wonder if crazy tastes good." Her mumble did not go unnoticed.
I gritted my teeth, the juncture of my pointer finger and thumb started aching with how tight I was gripping the steering wheel. Bitch was about to get cut.