Chapter Twenty Four
I was in the bathroom and I stared at my reflection. The mark had started to heal already. It kind of bothered me how he wouldn't even tell me that he was about to mark me. And call me selfish, but I really wanted him to mark me in a more romantic scene-- not in the middle of the road.
I rubbed the mark with my fingers. The slight ache was there when I pushed down and it looked a bit funny.
It stopped bleeding a while ago and I just finished wiping the blood away. It didn't look like mom's claim nor did it look like Lily's. Their bite marks were more... Deeper. Mine was a bit shallow.
I shook my head and decided to leave the bathroom. I didn't want to think about it.
On the bright side, Lily will be happy. Just Lily though, which I thought was pretty sad because I didn't have many friends. I didn't feel like calling and telling Dean because I feel like I'd be gloating in his face, since he likes me and all. I do need to make a call to him though.
Not only him, but I have to make a call to my parents. I wonder how they reacted. I mean, in a way, I did run away from home.
I collapsed on Ryder's bed. I was wearing some pajama shorts and his t shirt. I managed to steal one while he wasn't looking. Call me creepy and weird, but I like wearing his shirts when I go to bed.
I was startled by the small meow that came from somewhere. Then, I realize it was just Cole.
He jumped on the bed and purrs, snuggling against me.
"How did you even get in here?" I laugh as he rubs his face on my cheek. Then I blinked, suddenly realizing that Ryder had told me there were were-cats in this town.
Was Cole a were-cat?
No, that's preposterous. Ryder would have noticed by now. And the vampires would too, since they have a strong nose.
Perhaps Cole was a normal cat and not a shifter? He certainly was acting like a normal cat.
He was currently snuggling on my shoulder, his tail whipping back and forth on my face. Shifter or not, he's pretty damn cute even though his tail was literally going in my mouth.
I watch him yawn and close his eyes, licking his nose with his tongue.
The black cat then opened his eyes and snapped them to me. He meows and continues to sway his tail back and forth on my face.
Then I thought earlier about what happened. I had slapped Ryder really hard. I felt really bad, now that I thought about it. But he still didn't ask for permission. Marking a wolf without consent is just like rape.
I wouldn't dare try to get Ryder arrested though. I wanted him to mark me. Just on different circumstances.
"Maybe I'm just being irrational," I said to Cole. For some reason, I found it easier to talk to a cat than people. "Maybe I'm just being a scaredy-cat." I then looked at him. I just compared myself to his own kind. "No offense to you."
He meows in reply.
I shook my head. "Fine, fine, I'll use the word coward then."
I looked at the ceiling then. His tail had stopped hitting my face and he kept staring at me, almost as if he were waiting for me to continue.
I let out a deep sigh. "I'm a coward. The worst part is that I don't even know why. It's like I have an anxiety disorder or something."
He meows again and continued to stare at me intently.
"A phobia is an intense, irrational fear of something. It's a type of anxiety disorder," I explained to him. "If I do have that, then what am I so scared of?"
I sighed again and threw my arms around Cole, feeling his fluffy fur. He raised his arm and put it over my neck almost as if he were hugging me back.
"I probably don't have a phobia. But sometimes I wish I was somebody else," I muttered. "Then, I wouldn't have to be thinking so much over every little thing. And maybe the stuff that's happened in the past week wouldn't have happened."
Cole meows and abruptly stands, almost as if he was startled by something. He looks around before he jumps off the bed and dashes to the window.
"Cole?" I say and got up, trying to figure out where he ran off to.
He was pacing back and forth near the window. He was also meowing constantly.
"You wanna go outside?" I suggested. I really didn't want him to go out. What if he got hurt by the pack patrollers? They don't even know I have a cat.
He let out a mew and waited patiently for me to get out and open the window. I pulled the blinds up. A sudden movement had caught my eye. Startled, I backed up, not realizing that I accidentally stepped on Cole's tail.
He hissed and jumped away from me.
Being my compassionate self, I felt really bad that I had stepped on his tail. It must've hurt!
"Crap, crap," I say. "I'm sorry Cole. I was just scared."
I picked him up in my arms and cradled him into my chest as if he were a baby. I pet him gently and soon, he started to purr.
I then looked back out the window. Nothing was moving anymore. I cautiously walked closer and put Cole down. Slowly, I opened it and peeked my head out.
Looking around, I still found nothing.
Shaking my head, I closed the window. It was probably just a pack member on night shift. I closed the blinds soon and noticed that Cole was sitting in his tiny bed I got for him.
"You don't want to go out anymore?" I asked him.
He just meows.
Ok, these one word replies were really getting to my nerves. But what should I expect, really? I was having a conversation with a cat. I was going crazy for sure.
I collapsed on the bed again.
What took Ryder so long anyway? Where was he?
After a few minutes, I heard footsteps coming from somewhere. Ryder's door knob made a "click" sound, signaling that it was unlocked. Then, the door swung open and Ryder came inside. He was wearing sweatpants that hung low on his hips and no shirt at all.
His hair was wet, and I assumed he just took a shower.
He shut the door and then looked at me, blinking twice.
"I was looking for that shirt everywhere," He tells me.
I looked down at the shirt I was wearing. When I came in, it was laying on the bed and it looked clean so I just took it.
I sheepishly grin, though I felt my cheeks grow hot. "Is that why you're shirtless?" I asked, looking at his chest again.
I was turning into a slight pervert, but most girls would have too if Ryder was standing in front of them.
"No, I'm shirtless because I wanted to turn you on," He says sarcastically and dries his hair with a towel.
"Well, you certainly are now," I say quietly to myself.
"What was that?" He asked.
"Nothing, nothing," I brushed off. "I just said that you certainly are not."
"Weird, I heard the opposite of that," He smirks at me. Damn his werewolf hearing!
My cheeks were burning even hotter now out of embarrassment. I scoffed, "Don't flatter yourself."
He winks at me. "Oh don't worry. I'm not."
I didn't reply and rolled my eyes.
I watched as he tosses the towel to the side.
"You tired?" He asks.
I shook my head. I was usually tired at this time, which was weird.
"Me neither," He says. "How about we watch a movie?"
"Sure," I shrugged.
"What movie do you wanna watch?" He turns the light off and grabs the remote, jumping into bed and turning on the tv. The Netflix title pops up.
"It doesn't matter," I say. I didn't watch movies so often. I like reading books better.
I watched as he picked a random movie and I sat up from the bed to watch it. The main title pops up and seeing as I didn't have my glasses, I couldn't really read it.
A lot of wolves in their human forms have eye impairments and hearing impairments. However, when our eyes start glowing or change color, we can see or hear perfectly fine. We can hear and see perfectly in our wolf forms too. My short-sightedness was just a tiny flaw of my human form. Of course, I have a lot more flaws that weren't normal as a shifter.
I inched closer the Ryder on the bed. Noticing my movements, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I ended up snuggling into him, wrapping my arm on his stomach. As I got comfier, I slung my legs over his.
I couldn't help but notice how small I was compared to him. Well, I was short compared to everybody, seeing I was only 5'3". Lily was about 5'5".
My mind then drifted to what happened tonight. It wasn't about the mark this time though. It was about Ryder's brother, Tyler.
"Ryder?" I called out.
"Hm?" He replied. It seemed like he wasn't paying attention to the movie but he was lost in his own thoughts as well.
"What did your brother mean about you not getting your red eyes?" I asked, recalling him having amber eyes on the first day we met. How did his eyes turn crimson?
He didn't respond as quick and I was afraid that I asked him the wrong question.
After thirty seconds, he said, "Crimson eyes are a trait passed down from generation to generation. It's a sign that you have the strong, royal blood."
"So how do you get them?" I asked.
"When you finally get your red eyes, it's a sign for something. I don't know. It's hard to explain. My older brother got it when he was 15 and I was 13 at the time," He continues. "I remember him getting into a big argument with my dad about not wanting the throne and the alpha title. He told dad that I could have it and that I'd be willing to take it--
which I was."
"For some reason, dad said that I would never be ready for the alpha title. And by the way, I was actually a good kid at the time. I did all my homework, did great in sports, and actually listened to what my parents said."
He paused here and breathed in. I could tell he still felt hurt on the inside.
The only sound we could hear now was the soft murmur of the tv.
I squeezed him reassuringly with my arm, signaling that it was okay to go on.
"As they were fighting, Colton, my big brother, got angrier and angrier by the second. And you wanna know what happened? His amber eyes turned red as he growled at my dad. It was weird because I didn't know how that was possible. Finally, dad looked like he had realized something. And for some reason, he let Colton go. Meaning, the alpha responsibility was now passed onto me."
He sighed. "I knew dad resented to do it but he did it anyway. After we left in silence, Colton told me the reason why his eyes turned red. He said that he didn't want to live as an alpha. He wanted to go to college and have a job and have a normal life in the city like a human. Him standing up to dad was showing his independence. So maybe that's what getting red eyes meant."
"Independence," I repeated.
"Yeah," He says. "I didn't realize what independence was until now. It certainly did not have anything to do with drugs and going against dad's orders."
"Well what is it then?"
"Doing things in which I believe is right. I shouldn't care what my father thinks anymore."
I looked up and smiled at him. "That's great that you think that."
He gives me a small smile and kissed the top of my head.
Hearing Ryder tell me things from his past made me feel like he trusted me now. Being trusted by somebody was one of the greatest feelings ever.
We lapsed into a comfortable silence soon. My head was rested against his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. My whole body was practically touching him or on him right now. It didn't look like he minded though.
My mark was tingling right now at our proximity. I softly touch the shallow bite mark.
"You know that the mark is temporary right?" Ryder says.
I snapped my head up. "Temporary?"
He nodded at me. "In order for you to get a permanent mark, we need to mate."
"Oh," I said, not realizing that. Now this changes everything. "How long is it going to last?"
"About a week or two," He replies.
I felt my cheeks burn up in embarrassment. I looked away so he doesn't see.
My family never really taught me anything about this. I didn't even know you could temporarily mark somebody as theirs.
We had to talk about mating soon. I just can't keep running away from this forever. I had to be confident like a true luna and face my problems like a man. Or a woman in this case.
With a deep breath and every inch of confidence I had in me, I asked, "So when do you want to mate?"
I felt him shrugged. "When you're comfortable, I guess. I don't mind waiting."
"Well what about you? What do you want?" Because this relationship isn't going to just be about what I want. I have to know what he wants too.
He looked taken aback with my question, almost as if he didn't expect me to ask for his view.
"Hmm," He hums out and thinks for a while. "Honestly, I really wanna do it right now." I nearly choked on my own spit. Then he lets out a chuckle. "Just kidding. I just want to mate as soon as possible but I wouldn't mind waiting."
If I look at it a certain way, I probably don't want to mate for a while. I'm not scared about being bound to him forever. I'm just scared about the whole sex part.
If I don't mate with him for a while, he's probably going to want some, knowing his player status from before. He could easily cheat on me and that just makes me want to mate with him sooner. But I can't just mate with him right now. I had just met him.
Also, there was one thing that was stopping me to mate with him this week.
"I think I'm going to get my period soon," I muttered out loud.
"You know, I don't mind doing it while you're bleeding," Ryder says in a joking tone.
"That's gross," I say dryly. "It's going to be all over the place."
"We'll do it in the shower," He smirks.
"No thank you. I don't want my first time to be in a bathroom," I retort.
"Whoa, whoa, wait," He says. I get off his chest and look at him. "You're still innocent?"
What do you mean 'still'?! Had he thought I already had sex?!
He was looking at me with wide eyes.
"Is there a problem with that?" I asked defensively.
"No," He says and grins. "It just makes everything much sexier."
I scoffed and blushed. "Yeah, whatever."
"I was just surprised somebody as beautiful as you hasn't been taken yet."
Wow, smooth.
Rolling my eyes, I thought about the lack of boys I've had in my life due to Jason's protectiveness.
"You were actually my first kiss," I told him.
"Seriously?" He says in surprise.
I nodded.
He gives me a small smile and his eyes filled with possessiveness. "Well I'm honored to be the first person to kiss those dainty, exquisite lips of yours."
Well, I wish I could say the same for you.
He pulls me in for a kiss. I kissed back instantaneously. I felt him sigh against my lips and I felt happy that I could make him feel so content.
He pulls back soon with one last kiss to the corner of my mouth.
"Oh yeah," He says. "Tomorrow I'm going to show you around the city and give you a tour of your new school."
"I didn't know you could go into school on Sunday's."
"Well I have special connections," He grins.
"I can tell," I smirked back. Getting a tour of the school will also give me an idea of how we could get back at Allie too.
"Lily will be coming along too."
"Great," I say.
I went back to lay down on his chest and watched the movie on the tv. I had no idea what was going on but I didn't care. I sighed in content as I snuggled into Ryder.
Soon, I felt my eyes get heavier and I fell asleep.
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(A/N:)
The lovely cover I put to the side is made by the user @rachelmonroe. Thank you for that!
Song to the side is also called "Stop The World I Wanna Get Off With You" by Arctic Monkeys. >>>