Annie:
To say I was pissed was a bit of an understatement. I stared up at my dad, who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, a furious expression on his face. I looked at Cal, who looked just as horrified as I did. My stomach felt like it was on fire and, when I ran my fingers over it, I could feel heat coming from it.
"What?" I managed to say. Everyone suddenly looked shifty.
"Mates?" Cal breathed. I would've hit him there and then if I hadn't been in so much pain. Instead, I just scowled and put my hand to my forehead. Of all the things to happen, it just had to be this.
"Of all the fucking werewolves in the world," I grimaced, "and it had to be you who mated with me?" If I had a religion, I would have renounced it because there was no way I had done anything to deserve something like this. After all of my vows never to let myself fall into the same trap as my mother, it had happened, just like that.
"You know what this means," Jase said, his face dark. I whipped around to look at him. No; what did this mean? Why the hell did they have to be so secretive about everything?
"Yes," Cal whispered. I turned back to him and saw that he had closed his eyes.
"What does it mean?" I demanded, putting my hands on my hips. Cal's eyes snapped open and I saw pure pain.
"It means," he sighed, "that you're my responsibility now."
Yeah, I knew that. Cal shot Jase a helpless look.
How am I meant to tell her? he asked pitifully. Jase shrugged. Sierra backed away from me and found her place in his arms. I watched them both; there was no way that me and Cal were ever going to end up like that.
"Those...visions," I said, suddenly remembering. "What were they?" Cal shook his head and looked away. Instead, my dad came down the stairs.
"They were your future," he told me, reaching the floor. "Whatever you saw, were future events that will happen."
I felt like collapsing to the floor and bursting into tears. That was my future? This was fucking terrible. All of my plans seemed to be unravelling before my very eyes. So much for being spontaneous; it was pretty damn hard when you knew what was going to happen.
I had seen a baby in my future.
It wasn't necessarily mine; it could have been Sierra's. Or Macca and Georgie could have had one. There was nothing to suggest that the child had been mine. I was doing my best to try an convince myself that the evidence I had seen was very circumstantial but I was doing really bad job of it.
I ran my fingers through my now very messy hair. It was like a rubbish end to an even crappier night. Mate? He had practically stamped on my heart and squished all of the juice out of it.
"I can't do this," I murmured. I looked over at Cal, who was leaning against the wall. "I can't be your mate, not now."
"You don't really have a choice, Annie," Radleigh said. "Once you two are together, that's it; there's no-one else."
"And why don't I have a choice?" I demanded, sounding like a little kid. "I never wanted this, I didn't ask for you to mate with me."
"Funnily enough, it wasn't exactly what I was aiming for," Cal snapped. "Being your mate? You're the most ungrateful little cow I've ever met."
Ungrateful? Had he taken a look in the mirror? I'd have given him everything and he just took it for granted. I wasn't just going to fall to my feet and announce my undying love for him; it just wasn't going to happen.
"I'm ungrateful?" I exclaimed, shaking my head. "I lo-I cared...cared deeply about you and you threw it back in my face!" I had nearly used the L word. Cared deeply? I wanted to smack my palm to my head and curse at myself for being such an idiot. Cared deeply. Even thinking it made me want to cringe.
"Cared deeply?" Cal repeated with raised eyebrows. I narrowed my eyes at him; if he even thought about laughing at me, I would kick him so hard he'd be feeling it for the next month.
"If you two would like to stop bickering," dad said, "I'd like to say a few things." Here came the speech about how much of a disappointment I was and that it was probably all of my fault that Cal had mated with me. He would most likely compare me to my mother in the worst way possible and make me feel as uncomfortable as he could.
But I looked at him, despite wanting to rip lumps out of Cal.
"I just need you both to realise how important the mating ritual is," he said solemnly. "You both need to understand that you're tied together in every way possible. Cal, your sanity relies on Annie. If she leaves you for any great length of time, your wolf will fight to find her. As time goes on, you'll lose more of your humanity.
"Unless Annie stays with you," he added hastily, seeing the look on Cal's face. He looked at me, his face becoming graver. Here came the conversation stopper.
"Annie, Cal's going to protect you from everything. Do not try and get him jealous to get a reaction; it's cruel and unfair."
I was glad to see that he thought so little of me. As if I would purposely try and get Cal jealous...
"Fine," I agreed. "But just don't expect me to be some fat little house frau, okay? I'm not going to cook for you or clean your dirty pants and as for sharing a bed, you even try it and I'll chop your balls off. Understood?"
Cal nodded.
"And," I said as an after thought. "I'm not going to have your puppies, alright? I'm adding anymore salt to this wound."
"You finished?" Cal asked. I glowered at him. Right now, I detested him. I wanted him to drop dead right there. But then, if he dropped dead, I would probably be right behind him. There was that tie thing coming back to haunt me. I wasn't going to age either; I was going to look seventeen for the rest of my life. And I wasn't even sure how long that was going to be; I wasn't very willing to try out the immortality theory.
"I'm going to bed," I snarled at them all. "Or do I have to ask my mate?" I said the word like it was something disgusting. It was. I didn't want to have a mate. I was seventeen; I wanted to be carefree and single. Now I was important to someone.
Cal just shrugged and walked into the kitchen, sidestepping past Jase and Sierra, who were standing holding hands. Their lovey dovey stuff made me want to retch. If that was having a mate, the spirits could keep it to themselves, thank you very much.
My stomach burned painfully and I automatically put my hand to it.
"Are you okay?" Cal asked. I could hear the concern in his voice and it made me waver my defences a little bit.
"I'm fine," I sighed. I slipped my shoes off and walked towards the stairs.
"Annie, wait," Sierra called, rushing up behind me. "I've got some burn cream in my cupboard for your stomach." I don't know why I was even surprised. Of course she did. She seemed to be like the first aider for the whole house. I grudgingly followed her up the stairs and into the room she shared with Jase. She sat me down on the bed and I tried really, really hard not to think about the fact that her baby had been conceived in it, because it actually made me feel sick.
Sierra went into her en suite and re-emerged, brandishing a small tube of cream.
"Dress up, please," she asked. Sighing, I took the hem of my dress and pulled it up to reveal my stomach.
I swore. Loudly.
There, across my belly button, about four inches wide, was a paw print. It was exactly the same colour as Cal's and it was sore. I tried to poke at it but Sierra slapped my fingers away. She squirted the cream onto it. It was cold but every soothing on the burning skin.
"I'll get better," Sierra promised. "Mine was just as bad as yours was." I really didn't want to hear about her experiences as a mate because I knew that it would probably make me resent Cal even more. What I wanted, more than anything in the world, was to curl up in my bed, wake up in the morning, and find out that tonight had just been a incredibly bad dream.
"There," she said triumphantly, snapping the cap back on. I looked down at my cream covered tummy. It wasn't one of my more attractive looks. I pulled my dress down, not caring that it would probably get saturated in the minty smelling gunk. It was probably herbal knowing Sierra.
I walked out of her room and ran headlong into Cal, who looked like he was in a bit of a dream. We just stood, unable to think of what to say to each other. What could you say to someone who you'd just found out you have to spend eternity with them? Congratulations?
"Excuse me," I said. He moved the same way as I did, creating that dodge thing that people do when they're in a rush. He put his hands on my shoulders and moved me the opposite direction from him. I gave a nervous laugh. I still hadn't forgiven him for hitting Rick but all else had been pushed to the back of my head in the last twenty minutes or so.
"Are you alright now?" he asked, pointing a shaky finger to my stomach. I nodded.
"It'll be fine," I dismissed. "Take more than a lovely burn to slow me down." I remembered about the cut on my hand and I glanced at it self-consciously. It was already nearly healed, the skin having almost sewed back together. I was about to walk back to my own room when Cal took hold of my hand. I had to try and concentrate really hard on hating him because he was making it pretty damn hard. I reluctantly turned around. He waswearing a sad smile.
"I am sorry for hitting Rick," he murmured. "I just...I suppose you wouldn't believe me when I say that it wasn't me but my wolf?"
I so wanted him there and then. I knew that I was contradicting everything that I had said or thought downstairs but seeing him there...It was like breathing for the first timeand the fresh air was hitting lungs like a bullet to the heart.
"Look," I sighed. "At the end of the day, I'm stuck with you and you're stuck with me; let's just make it work the best we can." The niceness in my voice shocked us both and I was really surpised that it actually came out as good as it did.
"Right," Cal said. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Yup," I replied. We waited for a couple of seconds. "Erm, Cal?"
"Yeah?"
"You need to let go of my hand,"I said, trying to hide my smile. Cal blushed and dropped my hand like he had been scalded. He smiled at me and I turned to walk away. As my feet padded on the soft carpet, I took my chances and had a dig in his head.
Fall in a river and come out with a salmon, he thought. I giggled to myself and opened my bedroom door.
***
When I woke up in the morning, it was freezing. My feet felt like blocks of ice. But I had a plan of action that I needed to fulfil. I got up, pulling on layer after layer of clothing. I pulled on my bootsanddawned my parka.The painfrom my stomach hadsubsided into a dull ache, which was bearable.
I crept down the stairs and slipped out the front door. More snow had fallen overnight and it crunched under my feet. I walked towards, where I knew he was waiting for me in the trees.
To be honest, I hadn't given him much thought over the past week; I had been too busy trying to be normal. But the reality of the situation had hit me last night whileI was sitting in my bed. I was Cal's mate and from now on, I wasn't just responsible for my own well being, not that I did a very good job at present.
Almost as soon as I stepped into the shadow of the vast trees, the birds seemed to stop chirping and the wind stop blowing. It was as if someone had adjusted the volume of the world.
"I thought you'd forgotten about me."
I focused on the treethe voice had come from. From behind the wide trunk, a man with dark hair and pale skin appeared, his golden earring glinting in the dull light.
"Forget? You're practically living in my back garden," I said. Dante laughed and walked towards me. I backed away; the last time he had gotten close, he had ripped open my stomach.
"You're not scared of me, are you Annie?" he sneered. His dark eyes were cold and full of hate. He circled me, like a predator closing in on its prey.
"Not scared," I reasoned, watching him like a hawk. "Perhaps a bit...wary." Dante let out a short bark.
I really hated him. All he had done for the past year was make my life more difficult than it already was. Dante was the epitome of the bad guy; he was sleazy, he as rude and he packed a punch like no-one else. I hadn't meant to get on the wrong side of him last Friday but I had been doing a great job of avoiding him since. But I had seen him watching. It would only be a glimpse; from my bedroom, the kitchen, seeing him running when I was going down the track in the car. He was everywhere, watching everything I did like some pervert.
How did I know a charmer like Dante I hear you ask? My mother. Not content with getting involved with one werewolf, she only went and shacked up with Dante when I was fifteen. They hadn't lasted long but when he found out that my mum had thrown me out, he took me in. It might not have been the best set up; Dante had his own pack but I had stayed away from them.
But then I did a runner. Dante wasn't... the nicest of people. Actually, he treated me like shit and I got fed up of it eventually. That was how I ended up in this place. But he had found me and after a pretty violent confrontation, I was in the state that Cal found me in.
"How do they not know you're here?" I demanded. I doubted very much that Dante was here on his own because he never went anywhere without his sidekicks. He shot me a smug smile and leaned against a tree trunk. He pulled at the string around his neck and produced an ugly looking amulet.
"These," he said, holding the pendant in my face, "stop your friends sensing us. We're practically invisible unless we make ourselves known."
"So how come I can see you?" I asked, determined to find a loop-hole in his reasoning.
"You wanted to see me, darling," he drawled. His voice made my skin crawl. I hated him with every fibre of my being. He was like a horrible snake wrapping himself around me so tight that I could hardly breathe. It didn't matter that he had taken me in when nobody else would; I had paid my debt.
"Why're you here, Dante?" I hissed. He lunged at me, his hands wrapping around my throat. He pinned me up against a tree, his sharp fingernails digging into my skin.
"Because, darling, you've got something I want and I'm not leaving until I get it," he snarled in my ear. "And don't bother telling daddy dearest because it'll be the chopping block for him if he gets wind of this, understand?"
"Yes," I gasped. He dropped me to the ground in a crumpled heap, where I lay, coughing and spluttering. When I looked up, Dante had vanished into the darkness. I picked myself up, casting a suspicious eye over the surrounding trunks. I had learned the hard way that trees talked. They carried scents their leaves and were perfect hiding places for people who were spying.
I walked back towards the house, pulling my coat up to my neck; the last thing I needed was for everyone to notice the bruises that would form and then go within the next few hours. Until then, I would just have to wear a scarf.
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This is just a short chapter because I really wanted to introduce the Dante threat. It might not be the best and it's only in Annie''s view but I really wanted to get it up.
Votes, comments and fanning are very well received.
Thank you
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