“Scar don’t you think you should tone it down a bit with the Royals.” It is amazing how conversation can move so quickly from one topic, upcoming parties, to something totally different and the sudden change catches me off guard.
“What do you mean?” I ask Amy who is lying on Mandy’s bedroom floor propped up on her elbows. Unlike my room Mandy’s room is immaculate, everything has a designated place and everything is in that place, God forbid you make a mess because you may not get out alive, it is decorated in shades of pinks and purples and there isn’t a cuddly toy in sight, she doesn’t like anything sentimental or Disney. How we became best friends is a mystery.
“Well it is one thing to talk like that to us when we are having a laugh but to actually speak to them in such a manner is totally different, you could get into trouble.” Catching on I realise she is referring to my encounter with Liam earlier today and probably my conversation with Hunter yesterday as well, I laugh slightly, this must have been playing on her mind since I told them of my encounters with the two brothers..
“I’m not worried about the Prince.” I say tucking my legs under me at one end of Mandy’s bed, the Prince being our name for the almighty Liam.
“I don’t know Scar, I bet he can get pretty angry when he wants to.” Jenny chips in from her spot next to Amy, momentarily lifting her gaze from the magazine in front of her.
“I don’t doubt it.” I reply. “I saw a glimpse of that this afternoon and that upset me enough.”
“He’s an idiot.” Nickie chips in as she reclines on the chaise longue positioned under the window.
“Can you not think of a better word then that?” Summer says in disgust nearly falling of her perch on the windowsill above where Nickie is lying. “Dick, toss pot, butt licker, anything other than idiot?” I burst out laughing at Summer’s completely serious face.
“I agree Nick.” I say backing up Summer, who stares down at Nickie like she has three heads. “Idiot doesn’t quite cut it. I call you guys idiots all the time and I love you, he is one of the Royals and as such deserve a superior insult.” There is a moment of silence in which Nick offers no other insult and I sigh giving up, despite her tough exterior she is can sometimes be extremely kind hearted. “Anyway on another topic what days for the one on ones have you been given Mand?”
“Erm Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning, you?”
“Tuesday morning and Friday evening. What about you Nick?”
“Monday afternoon and Friday Afternoon. He seems to have us all on Friday, lucky boy.” She says with a wink and click of her piercing against her teeth to punctuate it.
“More like busy guy, he doesn’t seem to get any free time.” Amy muses.
I bet you girls are so jealous right now.” I say in a faux smug voice, cutting of any reply that Nickie was working on.
“Oh gosh yes! I so wish I had some one on one time with that boy. What I would do to him.” Coming from anyone else it would sound like a provocative statement however I can hear the sarcasm hidden in her tone and by the flash in her eyes when she says the last bit it wouldn’t surprise me if she is imagining bodily harm.
“You do know that if one of you ends up with that boy I don’t think I am going to be able to get through the wedding reception without getting drunk and making a scene, which will include me saying some pretty inappropriate things.” Is Jenny’s intelligent contribution. Once upon a time, for shifters the mating ritual was enough to mean a bond between two people for the rest of their lives, and all communities would recognise that fact, however, because of the humans, over time, we have also adopted the tradition of marriages. This is only because the bonding between the couples is then recognised by all walks of life and also who doesn’t love a wedding? And for some reason it is a huge deal in this pack and some of them could rival the weddings in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. It is safe to say if or when I get married, it won’t be like that, tradition or not.
“Good job we don’t plan on winning this thing then isn’t it?” Mandy says almost grumpily.
“Too right Mand. Hey we should plan who is going to submit to who if we run across each other. Unless you would rather just stare me out?” I joke, she rolls her eyes at me.
“Rock, paper scissors?”
“You want to leave our lives in the hands of rock, paper scissors?”
“We could flip a coin.” She says shrugging. “If we’re to decide on this ourselves we’ll only argue so why not leave it to chance?” I think about it for a moment and then right myself in my seat.
“Rock, paper scissors then, best two out of three, winner submits.” Mandy sits up so that we are opposite each other crossed legged each on our own half of the bed and Nickie climbs up to join us. Jenny, Amy and Summer all get up from their spots around the room to get a good view of what is about to happen. “Ready?” I ask and Mandy nods.
By the end of the first few matches the results mean that if either of us come up against Mandy we have to let her submit, a fact that she is extremely happy about. Next is me versus Nickie.
“Rock, paper, scissors.” The girls chant around us. I go with paper and Nickie chooses scissors. I curse silently that I have lost the first round but it could go either way from here. We get back into the starting position and the girls start up again. “Rock, paper, scissors.” Only this time I choose paper and Nickie picks rock. It’s one all and sudden death and there is a sort of tension in the air as it comes down to these last few moments. We get back into the starting position for the last time. “Rock, paper scissors.” Like it does in the movies everything starts to slow down and I watch Nickie’s hand move up and down simultaneously to mine in the familiar movements and then we pick our object and fate decides who wins and who loses.
Under a cover of darkness I prowl through the woods silently, I adjust my body so that it is low to the ground and in the shadows of the underbrush, the dirt under my paws shifts as my weight causes it to adjust but doesn’t make a sound. There is the sound of woodland creatures scurrying along the ground and the tweeting of birds above my head all oblivious of what is going on mere meters away from them; that is until a growl tears through the peaceful woods and animals fly, scurry and burrow in all directions in surprise. I just turn to face where the sound had come from, there is no escape for me. Brown eyes shine through a dark gap in the trees and I just stare at them, not giving them the satisfaction of showing fear. Then they are gone and everything is silent, too silent. There is a sharp pain at the scruff of my neck, which causes me to howl long and loud, the warmth of breath fans across the top of my head ruffling my fur; the wolf is on top of me, teeth sink into the fleshy part on my neck and then she shakes her head, pulling the fur and skin from one side to the other my head thrashing with the movements, pain flows throughout me it travels from the top of my spine to the tip of my tail and my legs begin to buckle but she continues to shake me. “Scarlett” Someone shouts my name from deep in the woods, but I don’t know which direction it comes from. “Scarlett.” The sound is closer but the voice is distorted. “Scarlett” and with one last shake I am awake.
“Scarlett Jane Evans, do you take sleeping pills or something? It is like trying to rouse the dead.” I blink up warily at my mother whose brown hair cascades over her shoulders as she stares down at me with big brown eyes. I run a hand over the back of my neck which is admittedly calmly but surprisingly intact, not even a mark and can’t help but sigh in relief. But it had felt so real. “Are you okay sweetie?” My mum asks now with concern all annoyance vanishing from her features.
“Erm, yeah. I just… it was just a really realistic dream… I wasn’t sure where I was for a moment.” I look around my room and my accelerated heart rate starts to decline as I take in the familiar colours and disorganisation of my bedroom. “What time is it?”
“Nine o’clock.” I groan, nine? Why do I need to be up a nine, it’s not like I need to be anywhere…oh God.
“The one on one.” I bolt up in bed, it’s Tuesday morning and I am meant to have a meet up with Liam at some point.
“He’s here?” I ask in panic.
“No, but there is a car waiting for you outside. Didn’t you set an alarm for this? It is rude to keep an Alpha waiting.” Her annoyance levels are rising again as she fights her desire to lecture me on punctuality.
“He isn’t Alpha yet.” I grumble. “Besides, I would have set an alarm if he had given me a time.” I say jumping out of bed and running to the shower. “Tell them I need five minutes.”
“You’re late.” Liam stands at his front door looking down on me from his position on the top of the porch stairs whilst I remain on the gravel driveway. The lights from the ball have been taken down but the building is still impressive and in daylight I can now see the beauty of the actual architecture, the building is made out of big, grey fieldstone bricks and above the front door on the next floor up is a large balcony overlooking the long driveway that is held up by Grecian style pillars situated on either side of my grumpy host.
Liam himself has a frown on his face and his eyebrows are drawn together in the middle in a show of annoyance, he is wearing a dark blue polo shirt, of some expensive make, and beige chinos and plimsolls, he looks like a) he’s about to watch a polo match or b) like a posh boy at a private boarding school, well that is my stereotypical view of them anyway. He raises one golden eyebrow which disappears beneath his fringe and I remember that whilst I have been admiring his house and scrutinising his appearance he has been waiting for me to answer him.
“You can’t be late for something that you weren’t given a time for. I can’t read your mind Liam.” I walk up two of the four steps that separate us, it doesn’t help with my height, he still towers over me but there is less of a gap between us. He opens his mouth as if to argue with me and then shuts it again grunts and turns away from me entering the house and leaving the door open, I guess that is the only form of invitation inside he is going to offer. I thank the driver who brought me here and then follow after him.
I silently follow Liam down a number of different hallways, passing a great number of different doors and he gives me no time to stop and look at the artwork which varies between portraits of people to pictures of animals and pictures of landscapes. Every time we turn a corner I hold my breath, I keep expecting Hunter to be just stood there or to walk into view, I don’t know how our next meeting will pan out but I know for a fact that I want things back to normal. However it never happens whether that’s a good thing or bad I’m not sure.
Not only do I not see Hunter but I don’t see anybody on our travels, it’s like me and Liam are the only people in this mansion; the thought worries me for many different reasons.
As we wind through the house Liam doesn’t say one word to me, but when I’m not checking out the paintings I am checking out him and the way his muscles move under the material of his shirt, yet I refuse to say anything to him, I won’t be the first to speak and I am not going to make a fool out of myself. But as the silence stretches between us and the long seconds turn into even longer minutes I start to get nervous. What are we meant to do in the time that we have our one on ones? I breathe slowly to calm my nerves and hopefully slow my heart down before I have a full blown panic attack, something else he’d only mock me for. We stop at a pair of double doors which he opens and proceeds to walk through, behind this set of doors is a long corridor which has four doors leading off it, there are two on the left and two on the right. Liam opens the door at the end of the hallway on the right and light floods out of the room.
The room happens to be a large lounge area, the door splits the room in half and on the right half there are sofas, armchairs, beanbags and a big TV which is surrounded by game consoles and shelves that have stacks of DVDs and games, whilst on the left half there is a large window which displays an impressive view of the back garden, better described as a field, where we ate breakfast not long ago and the woods, which stretch for a long distance ahead of us, there is also a modern kitchenette complete with double door fridge and a six burner stove.
“Wow.” Is all I can say as I take in my surroundings.
“Welcome to the west wing of the house, this is my personal section. In the east you’ll find my parents and in the south is Hunter. As you can see this is my lounge room and the room diagonal from this one is the bathroom, the other two rooms are my private rooms.” He speaks like he is reading from script and I figure that this is what he is going to say to all the girls when he brings them here over the next few days. I just nod and move to look at this collection of DVDs. “Do you want a drink?” He says from behind me.
“What do you have?” I ask slightly distracted.
“Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Wine, Beer, Cider, Fresh orange…” I laugh at the fact that all of that is in his small kitchen and that stops him from continuing on. “What?” He asks perplexed by my outburst.
“Nothing, Coke will be fine thanks. Have you watched all of these?” I ask in awe of his impressive collection.
“Most. The ones on the bottom shelves I have yet to watch.” The number of films on the bottom shelves alone would be enough to open a Blockbuster.
“Like to collect them then?” I ask whilst reading the labels that are organised in alphabetical order by genre.
“I like films, but I don’t like the cinema.” Even with my back to him I can tell he is shrugging his shoulders at me.
“I can see that, how come?” The silence stretches between us and he doesn’t answer the question. I pick up a random case and start reading the back, I don’t pay much attention to it instead all my attention is on the guy now stood directly behind me and his scent washing over me. I slide the DVD back into its proper place and turn slowly. I’m ready for him but even so his closeness puts me off a little, but he just hands me my drink before taking a seat on the sofa and indicating for me to do the same. “How long am I supposed to be here for?”
“Trying to get away already? I’m hurt.” I role my eyes at his fake pain. “An hour minimum.”
“And people would know if I left a second earlier?”
“Harry is keeping watch, trust me, he’d love nothing better than to tattle on me to my parents.” His face is devoid of emotion but his tone is harsh. I open my mouth but he continues and it is like he was reading my mind. “What’s in it for you to stick around? Leave too early and it will be seen as an insult to my family and will stain the name of your family.”
“Seems a bit extreme, does your dad really think your people skills are just that bad?”
“They could use a little work.” He reclines in his seat spreading his arms across the back of the sofa, one disappearing behind my shoulder. “You should know that first hand already. Although when it comes to women I have never really had problems.” I feel another eye roll coming on but I supress the urge “Until I met you anyway.” I find the courage to look him in the eye, he is already staring at me intently, puzzlement crossing his features like I am hard a Sudoku puzzle that he can’t figure out.
“Right.” I say extending the word. “And some of my friends.” I picture Nickie being in this situation. Her first meeting would have been yesterday.
“Actually, no one has given me any problems as of yet, conversation can be a little dry but you are my only openly hostile appointment. Must be my charm.” That stumps me for a second, I know for a fact that I am not the only one that hates this arrangement, but am I the only one to be truly showing it? Does that mean I am just rude and disrespectful or the only one with a bit of backbone? I push it behind me although it is a question I want to look into further… starting with Nickie. “So what can we do that can kill an hour then?” He smirks at me, half of his mouth tipping up towards his hairline, his deep green eyes travel the length of my body and I feel the heat of my blush spread across my face and seems to reach all the way down to my toes.
He looks down at his watch on the wrist not located behind my back. “You have less time left then you think.” Once again we laps into silence. “Were you planning on going to the party Friday night?” The question is completely random and I didn’t see it coming.
“I’m not sure yet, my friends are trying to persuade me. We are supposed to have a one on one then.”
“Well we’ll have to do the one on one but I can give you a lift there after I guess.” I have to think about the offer for a few moments first. “We wouldn’t be going together.” He states. “I’d just be giving you a lift.”
“That would be fine, thanks. So you are going?” It is a bit surprising that he is going to a party where the theme is practically ‘Thank God I’m not going to be Liam’s mate.’
“I’m thinking about it, although I’m not too sure I’d be welcome.” There is a flash of vulnerability in his eyes but it’s gone so quickly I could have imagined it.
“I’m sure there would be someone there to fawn all over you, girls would queue for miles to try to get your attention.” It was a statement I had always thought and thoroughly believed but would never want to say out loud, instantly I want the floor to open and to swallow me up.
“And yet here you are living proof that your words aren’t quite correct.”
“Well there has to be an exception to every rule.” In fact I know a number of these exceptions, but that is something I don’t bring up. The silence that I am quickly getting used to stretches out between us once more only this time I can feel the awkwardness “How about a movie?” I finally blurt out no longer being able to take the seemingly deafening silence. “You have loads of them, there must be one in this huge collection that we both might want to see. Pick a genre any genre, unless you know one of the top of your head, in that case we’ll watch that.” I am completely aware that I am rambling but I can’t seem to stop myself the words just keep coming and I am powerless to stop them. It works though and Liam seems to be Liam again with his familiar scowl plastered across his face framed by his impressive jaw line… I have to shake my head to tear my eyes away.
“We are supposed to get to know each other.” He states dryly.
“But do you really care?” I retort. He stiffens in his seat. “Okay fine. I’ll ask you ten questions about yourself and I’ll have ‘gotten to know you’ a little better.”
“Isn’t it usually twenty?” He seems to want to prolong my torture. I shrug my shoulders.
“We’ll save those ten for next time. One, when’s your birthday?” He rolls his eyes at me and I think maybe he isn’t going to answer.
“Eighth of December, Sagittarius.” He adds with a grin stealing my next question.
“Favourite colour?”
“Green.” I smirk at his answer, we actually have something in common.
“What?” He asks his mouth setting in a frim line.
“Nothing, I’m asking the questions. Food?”
“Smoked salmon.” His answers come as quick as my questions and I barely pay attention to what he is saying as I try and dredge up another question to ask him.
“Movie?”
“The Avengers.”
“T.V. show?”
“Big Bang Theory. How many questions is that?”
“That makes five. Number six, middle name?”
“Scot.” Liam Scot Miller, as I do with most people I wonder about where his names came from and if he has been named after anyone.
“Band?”
“Train”
I may only need ten of them but the questions are getting harder to think of, progress gets slow, and there is a couple of minutes gap in between each one as I stop to think .“Holiday destination.”
“Venice.”
“Sport.”
“Basketball.
“Last question, hmmm. Favourite place to be?”
“On my own in the woods.” I raise a questioning eyebrow. “I’m not on my own very often but when I can get away I love to be out there, it just feels… natural.” We sit in silence for a moment. “Okay, so what about you?”
“What about me?”
“All of those questions you just asked me.”
“Well if my watch is correct I have now been here for an hour and five minutes, so maybe I’ll tell you next time.” He checks his own watch and is surprised to find that I am right. I get up and make a move for the door before something dawns on me. “But I’m going to need your help to get out of here” With the first genuine grin I have seen him give he climbs to his feet.
“Are you grinning because you can get rid of me?” I ask in a moment of confidence.
He makes a noise which I can’t translate. “I don’t grin.” He says gruffly, he doesn’t answer my question. He may not agree with me but he also doesn’t disagree.
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Not even kidding i just spent the last hour going over this and listening to Steps. I had no clue they even covered this song. Day made. I hope this was okay, i may have gotten sidetracked at times. Tragedy! By the way i am still dedicating chapters to the first person (who doesn't already have a chapter) to comment on each new update.