8
Where the hell am I?
Juliette bolts upright, groans at the oncoming headache, and bolts right back down again.
“Oh good, you’re up.” She hears a voice, but can’t quite make it out.
“Dustin?”
“No,” The voice answers immediately, sounding angry. “Romeo. The one who let you crash here when I specifically told you not to get drunk.”
Her eyes find him, and she see’s he’s freshly showered. A black t shirt clings to his slender body, and jeans hang loosely on him. His blonde hair curves to a point at his forehead.
Her eyes widen as she starts sputtering out words, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry…”
He sits down next to her on his bed, watching as she sits up slowly. Her blonde curls are all messy, but it looks…nice. A baggy blue shirt hangs down to her thighs, his shirt, because she couldn’t sleep in a bikini.
“Here, drink this. My mom made it. It’s suppose to help nurse a hangover.” He hands her a concoction of some sort. She takes it, murmuring a thank you. She gulps it down, ignoring the taste, and hopes she feels better.
He studies her as she puts the cup down on his side table gently, looking back up at him. Her eyes start to travel around his room though, looking up at some posters of the Hot Chili Peppers and Maroon 5.
I never knew he liked these bands, she thinks as her eyes find his again. “I…um…you were right. I’m sorry for getting drunk,” She winces at the word, “and I’ll probably never do it again.”
He nods curtly at her, still putting on the angry mode.
“So…um…this is your room?”
“Yes.”
She nods, letting her eyes look down to see what she’s wearing. He watches as her eyes get big, then snap back to his. “Did we…?”
Holy shit. Maybe that’s why he’s staring at me like that. Oh my god, I’m so dead. My brother is going to chop him up into pieces and sell them off to people on eBay. I’m so fricking dead.
He breaks out into a smirk then, “No, we didn’t do anything Julie. Naughty girl.” He ruffles her hair, as her cheeks turn beet red.
“Did you put this on me?”
“No, in you’re drunken state, you somehow managed to put that on and slip out of you’re bikini in my bathroom.”
“Oh…” She states dumbly, then jumps violently. “Holy shit! My dad is going to kill me! I need to call him!” She looks at Romeo with wide eyes, reminding him of a puppy.
“Already done. I told Astrid to call him and say that you crashed at her place.”
She sinks back into the bed, sighing in relief. “I can’t go back there right now. I reek of alcohol and I look hung-over. Can you call Astrid for me so I can hang out there for a while?”
“Why can’t you just stay here?”
She sits up, surprised, “I won’t be a burden?”
He chortles, shaking his head. “Not at all.”
“Oh, okay. Then I’ll stay here for the day,” She says with a genuine smile.
Maybe today I can tell her the truth. “Here’s a towel,” He hands her one, “Take a shower in my bathroom. When you’re done, take a right outside my room and meet me downstairs in the kitchen, you can’t miss it.” With that, he says his goodbyes, and jogs downstairs.
The kitchen is noisy today, he notices as he sees all three brothers trying-and failing-to make pancakes. His mother stands around them, yelling curse words in Italian, throwing her hands up in the air wildly. His dad just sits at the counter though, drinking coffee and reading his newspaper. Only he keeps glancing over at them slyly, smiling.
“What the hell is going on down here?” Romeo shouts over the noise, taking a seat next to his father.
But his mother and brothers don’t hear, because they’re getting scolded by their mother. His dad hears though, and replies, “They found out your mate is here. They wanted to cook her breakfast,” he lets out a laugh, “but as you can see they can’t cook.”
“Ahh, fuck mom! I just burned my hand!” One of his brothers curse, holding his hand and looking at his mother with a scowl.
Only his mother hits him upside the head, also scowling. “No cursing in the kitchen!”
“But you do it!”
“I don’t care! If I jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?”
“Hell yes!”
“No cursing in the kitchen!”
A loud thwack is heard, and the brother half laughs, half lets out a painful yell. “Ma! That hurt!”
“Then stop cursing! Learn from your mistakes!” She then starts mumbling in Italian, shaking her head in disappointment as her son laughs at her.
Julie starts coming down the stairs softly, her hair still wet from the shower. She put back on the blue shirt from her high school, only it’s Romeo’s shirt. He must’ve gotten it from football. It covers a decent amount of skin, going down to her thighs, looking like a dress.
When she hit’s the floor, she turns right into the kitchen, ignoring the small headache in the back of her head. Romeo sees she has entered, and with a big grin, yells, “Ah! She’s awake!”
This quiets the whole kitchen, and all heads turn to her. Her cheeks turn red, and she switches her weight onto one foot. Talk about awkward…thanks Romeo… “Uh…hi…”
The mom is the first one to come out of the trance, sensing her awkwardness. She scurries over to her, bringing her towards the kitchen island. “Come, come! Sit and eat, we just finished making pancakes!” Juliette slips into the seat next to Romeo, giving him a small, gentle smile.
The three younger brothers standing near the oven just gawk at her, trying not to let the drool spill out of their mouths. Romeo sees this, and he leans back, and behind Jules’s head, sends them the finger.
The then all glare at him, coming over to sit down. “Jules, this is my mom, my dad, my brother Josh,” He points to the one with black hair, “my brother Sam,” He points to the one with blonde hair, “and my brother Mike,” He points to the one with dark brown hair.
Juliette gives them a big grin and a wave, “Hello.”
“Hi!” They all chorus, sending back bigger smiles.
Romeo knows what each and every brother is thinking about right now, so he sends them all a glare that says, she’s mine. Touch her and you die.
All the brothers ignore his glare though, fixing their eyes on the girl in front of them. “Here,” Josh says, smirking, “take some pancakes.” He plops some chocolate chip pancakes onto her plate.
She smiles caringly at him, “Thank you.”
“No problem at all, little lady.”
“So,” Romeo’s mom starts up a conversation, “when did you two start dating?”
Romeo starts choking on his drink, and Juliette almost drops her fork.
“I have a boyfriend-”
“Mom, I never said-”
They both start at the same time, so Romeo starts again. “Mom, I never said we were dating. She crashed here because she needed a place to stay.”
His mom slumps into her chair. “Oh.”
His dad, on the other hand, gives him a look with eyebrows raised, as if to say, she has a boyfriend, and it’s not you.
Sam looks at Juliette with sadness, “You’re not single?”
Jules lets out a shaky laugh, “No, sorry.”
Now all three brothers slump in their chair, muttering, “Of course a girl like that would be taken.”
Okay…going to pretend I didn’t hear that…Juliette takes a sip of her orange juice, letting the sourly taste devour her tongue.
Romeo swings an arm over Juliette’s chair, sending another glare to his brothers. You would think that they would take a hint.
After breakfast, Mrs. Ross starts pulling Jules to her room. “Come on, I think I have some clothes that might fit you. Surely you can’t stay in that outfit all day.” She motions to the shirt Romeo gave her.
Many complains are heard from the brothers, including Romeo, but the mother just scowls and takes her upstairs.
“Thank you Mrs. Ross for the clothes. When I get home I’ll wash them and-”
“No, no,” She laughs, “Keep them. They don’t fit me anymore. And call me Rose.”
Julie glances in the mirror at her outfit. Mrs. Ro--er, Rose, gave her a grey striped v-neck and some dark blue jeans with a belt. “Thank you, Rose.”
Rose grins and tosses her curly brown hair behind her back. “Let’s go back downstairs and see what everybody’s doing.”
Rose guides her to the living room, where the boys are standing, looking like they are in an argument.
“No, I’ll go with Juliette-”
“That would be me-”
“She doesn’t even like you-”
“I’m going with-”
“GUYS!” The dad yells, quieting them all. “I’ll pair you up. Josh with Sam, Juliette with Romeo, and Mike, you’re flying solo.”
Mike crosses his arms and snorts, “Fine. I’m so going to win this thing.”
Rose pipes up, “What’s going on here?”
“”Hi Juliette!” The boys chorus, and Jules sends them a wave. Never though I was the popular one…
“We’re going on a little scavenger hunt. Whoever brings back the most items wins,” The dad explains, handing everybody a bag. “Alright, stand next to your partner.” Everybody does has he says, standing next to the person they were paired up with. “Now, here’s your list of items. Bring back as much as possible in an hour, and we’ll see who wins. Ready…set…go!”
Romeo grabs Jules’s hand, racing out of the house and into the broad daylight. Julie laughs, “Don’t you think this is just a little childish?”
“Everybody has an inner child, Jules.”
She smiles and reads the first item on the list. “Pinecone. We need to find some pinecones.”
“I know a good place to get some, come on.” He grabs her hand and heads off to the woods.
“Are you sure we should go in here…?” She asks hesitantly, thinking of the wolfs.
“Trust me, I know the woods like the back of my hand.” Sharp prickles of pleasure shoot up and down his arm, right back to the hand that’s holding Juliette’s. “Here.”
They arrive at a tall, narrow pine tree that’s filled with pinecones on the branches. Many surround the tree already, so Julie picks them up and puts them in the bag. “Is this enough?” She shows him the bag, arms open.
He scans the bag, shaking his head. “No, my brothers will find more than that. Here,” He puts his bag down, “Let me climb up and grab some.”
As he starts climbing, Jules bites her lip. What if he falls and can’t walk? I don’t know where I am, I won’t be able to get help. “Romeo, maybe you should come back down. That’s not a good idea.”
“Why are you so worried about me?” He decides to push her buttons a little bit. “Do you like me or something?”
Cheeks turning beet red, she starts stuttering. “Wha…n-no, I don’t…I don’t like y-you!”
Yes you do.
You stupid little voice, shut up.
Romeo pauses in mid climb, even his breath stops. Did I just hear what I think she thought? Hell yes. She likes me. Holy crap, she likes me!
“Romeo? Are you okay?”
Snapping out of his trance, he proceeds to climb. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thought I saw one of my brothers.” He starts picking some pinecones off slowly, the same thought racing through his head: she likes me.
After collect a decent amount of these pinecones, he climbs back down. But when they start walking, he grabs Jules by the arm, so she comes to a stop. “What, Ross?” She asks with aggravation lacing her tone.
He puts a finger to his lips, shaking his head. Then, he mouths, “Run.”
She obviously doesn’t get it, because she sends him a confused look.
A big grey wolf comes out from nowhere, leaping gracefully in the air, then slamming into the dirt, a vicious snarl escaping his mouth. Immediately, Romeo pushes Jules out of the way, a growl escaping his own mouth.
Before he can process what he’s doing, Romeo transforms into his own Pepperjack werewolf. He’s large, most of them are, but he’s suppose to be an alpha. All muscle, no fat. He’s a pepper grey wolf, with black mixed in, hence the name Pepperjack.
Juliette’s mouth opens, but she makes no sound. Her eyes are as wide as saucers, confusion and fright mixed in her eyes. Trying to run, she accidentally trips over a tree root, so she goes sailing into the ground. The grey wolf jumps Romeo, and he goes down into the soil, snapping his trap.
So Jules sits there, mostly in shock, not knowing what else to do. What…what happened to Romeo? D-did…did he turn into…a wolf? There’s no possible way that can happen. Not a chance. Maybe you’re dreaming. Yeah, that’s it. A dream…who am I kidding? Romeo just turned into a freaking wolf…he’s so going to eat you. I should run. Yeah, sounds like a good plan.
She hoists herself up, going in the opposite direction, once in a while tripping over some rocks. The wolves and growls get smaller and smaller, until she can’t hear or see it no more. But she keeps running like her life depends on it, not trusting on how fast these wolves can actually go.
After a couple of minutes of running, she slumps next to a river, catching her breath. Her mind feels dizzy, as if she were going to faint right now. Cupping her hands together, she lets the cool water flow into her hands, taking a couple of sips.
Trying to comprehend what happened back there, she shuts her eyes tightly, blocking out her thoughts. That was Romeo. In wolf form. But that’s not possible! Her mind screams at her.
“I’m so confused,” She groans, holding her hurting head.
“JULIETTE! COME ON, ANSWER ME!”
Quickly, she makes out Romeo scanning the horizon for her. He spots her, and sighs in relief. Julie jumps up and starts climbing the closest tree to her, up as high as she can go. But before she started climbing, she grabbed a handful of small rocks and stuffed them in her pocket.
By the time Romeo reaches her, she’s halfway up the tree, sitting on a sturdy branch. “Y-you stay away from me!” She yells, fright covering her tone.
“Jules, please, come down. If you don’t I’m coming up for you. I need to explain some things.” When he sees she doesn’t move a muscle, he kicks the tree next to him. “Jules!”
“Go away!”
Sighing, he puts one hand on a branch. “I’m coming up there-DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL, JULES!” He holds his wounded hand, the one she just threw a rock at.
“Don’t come up here!”
He winces from the fright he hears as clear as day in her voice. But she stays strong, head held high and rocks in her hands. Why does she have to be so stubborn and independent?
“Jules, you’re killing me here.”
“Stop calling me that,” She hisses, “go away! I don’t want you here!”
“But I want you here.” Now his voice changes to a tone of an alpha. “Jules, I order you to get down here right now.”
“Likewise.”
Yeah, she’s not in my pack. She’s not affected by my voice. Freaking great. Now desperate, he tries climbing up there one more time. Ignoring the sharp throws of rocks, he keeps climbing until he sees her scared eyes.
He sits on the opposite branch from hers, swinging his legs up on the trunk. Neither of them speak a word, but their eyes show many emotions. Finally, he says, “Jules-”
“Shut up,” She whispers, eyes not leaving his. “I want to go home. Can you take me home please?”
Gulping down his spit, he shakes his head. “Not until I tell you all of this.”
She shuts her eyes in a pause. “…Okay.”
So he lets it all out. “You should be familiar with wolves. I’m not the only one out there, Jules, I have a whole pack. We’re a lot like wolves, only we’re larger. We’re werewolves. Not the type that only come out on a full moon, but we are one. It started a long, long, time ago. Ever hear of the story of Romulus and Remus?”
Eyes still closed, she nods. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s we’re it began. When the two were raised by wolves, somehow, they gained the ability to turn into wolves. When a certain type of wolf bites you, and you do not give it treatment for over a month, you gain the ability to turn into a wolf. The story of Romulus and Remus is only half true, that is the truth. We’re not born wolves, it’s impossible. When you turn 13, and if you belong to parents that are wolves, they take you to this secret center to become a wolf. They train you and all that so you have control and this and that. Understand so far?”
A nod.
“Good. So after you get the hang of being a wolf, when you turn 15, you are eligible for a pack. You know about the alpha and the beta and all that good stuff, right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Well we have that too. I joined my dad’s pack, so did my brothers. We’re all the Ross pack, we go by the last name, because we are the ones to create the pack. Astrid and Noah are apart of this pack also-”
“You’re telling me my best friend is a dog?” Eyes are now wide open, unshed tears swimming around.
He gives her a flat look. “Wolves. Not dogs. Anyways, yeah. She’s been a part of my pack for a couple of years now. But back to the story. My dad is the alpha right now, and my mom is the beta. I’m in line to become the next alpha, because I’m the oldest of the family. The beta can only be a girl, and the alpha can only be a boy. It’s how it works. We haven’t decided on a beta yet, because we don’t have a sister or mate yet…now, that’s were you come in.”
“W-what? I’m a part in this?”
“Yeah.”
Automatically, she starts to climb down the tree. Laughing at her terrified face, Romeo pulls her to a stop. “Let me finish.” She sits back down, taking deep breaths. “Mates. They are the one you are suppose to be with forever. You’re true love. Now, I thought I found mine, which was why I was dating Kass. Noah and Astrid are mates, so that’s why you always see them making out or whatever. They have a connection, or a bond. They can feel each other’s emotions. And they can read each others thoughts.
“To have this bond, you need to know that this is your mate. To figure out if someone is your mate, you need to kiss them. You can just tell from one kiss. This one could be on the cheek, lips, wherever. It doesn’t matter. After you figure out if you have found your mate or not, the boy will gain a part of the connection, meaning he feels the emotions and thoughts of the girl.
“If the girl is human, and the boy is a werewolf, or the other way around, the one that is werewolf will gain the bond first. If you are both werewolf, you just need to seal it with another kiss, this time it has to be on the lips for the girl to gain the bond. For humans, it’s a bit harder. That person needs to be turned into a werewolf in less than one month, or they die.
“Werewolves also can’t communicate with they’re packs. Mates can only communicate telepathically. To communicate with other wolves, you can hear it in howls, growls, barks, or whatever. I thought Kass was my mate for over two years. But the thing is, we couldn’t feel the bond. She’s not my mate though.”
“So who is?” She asks slowly, as she lets her mind process this.
“You are.”
The kiss. Being nice. Taking me in when I was drunk. The jealousy of Dustin. The complete makeover. It all makes sense now.
“Oh, one more thing. I can totally hear your thoughts.”
“Oh my god.”
He laughs as she covers her red face, the memories of all the times she was with Romeo. And all the thoughts she had. “What am I thinking of now?”
“Cheese. Cheddar, to be specific.”
“Holy shit!”
Another chuckle escapes his lips, but after the laughter dies down, his face grows nervous. “So…um…you probably want me to leave now, right?”
“No.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
Scratching the back of his head, he looks up to see Jules staring at him. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Because I knew you would do exactly this. Freak out.”
She gives him a sheepish smile. “I’m not freaking out right now, just…taking this all in.”
“And how’s that working out for you?”
“Wonderful.”
He laughs at her sarcastic tone. “Any questions?”
She gives him a flat look, but does ask some. “Ever seen Twilight?”
“No, we don’t shed our clothes when we change into werewolf form.”
“How did you know I was going to ask that?” She asks in exasperation, eyes growing wide.
“Because I can hear all the thoughts going on in your head.”
Immediately, her thoughts decrease, causing him to chuckle. “Who was that back there?”
“He’s apart of my pack. He was challenging me to a fight. I won, of course. He did that because he’s new to the pack, and wants to learn a bit. So, I’m sort of like his trainer. Or something.”
“Uh-huh. And what about that wolf when you were walking me home?”
“That was a Tranquil Terrier. They only come out at night, and you can never detect them, because they don’t make any sounds. When you’re a werewolf, you have a really good sense of smell and hearing. But when it comes to them, you don’t sense anything. They’re like cops, but only for werewolves. Do something wrong, they pay a visit. To be honest, I have no freaking clue why he was there.”
Sighing, he scratches his arm. “Let’s put it this way: Werewolves are friendly. But if you pull their tail, they’re going to go all ape shit on your ass.”
A small laugh leaves Juliette’s lips, but only for two seconds. Then she puts her mask back on, trying to make out all this.
She bangs her head on the tree, shutting her eyes. “I can’t do this.”
Heart thumping wildly, he shakes his head. “What?”
“Can you…can you just take me home, Romeo?”
His heart sinks into his gut. “Sure thing.”
They both climb down slowly, and when they start walking back to his house, she makes sure to keep some distance between them. She keeps her mind clear of any thoughts, just singing along to a random song.
The ride home is awkwardly quiet, and as soon as the truck stops, she’s out the door, practically running into her house.
“Jules!”
She stops, but doesn’t turn around.
“You can’t…you can’t tell anybody.”
“I figured that.”
“Okay…um, see you in school?”
“Yeah.”
She runs into her house.
Driving away, Romeo can’t help but think, I fucked up big time.