H U N G E R

Chapter 2: GRACE

It was Saturday. I drifted into consciousness with my head on Sam's chest, my fingers spread across his warm skin. I didn't open my eyes. I listened to his steady breathing and willed myself to fall back asleep, here in his arms. After all, it was only yesterday that I had gotten him back.

"I know you're awake."

I silently cursed myself for not being more stealthy about going back to sleep.

"You can't prove anything." I grumbled, shutting my eyes tighter. He chuckled softly, a breath of sam-smelling air waving over my face. I inhaled deeply, relishing in the scent...

"I can prove—this." He said teasingly, flipping us so that I was on my back and he was over me, placing his hands on bed on either side of my head. He bent his head down and kissed the side of my mouth gently. "And this," he trailed the kiss down across my jaw line. "And this…" he started kissing the side of my neck.

Shoot. I had about thirty seconds before he went wolf on my ass.

Quick as a striking snake, I darted out from under her and across the room, causing him to fall off of the side of the bed. He stuck his head up over the side of the bed, his hair disheveled, and blinked at me in shock. Then, a sly look cross his face and he grinned at me evilly. I flinched, as if making a run for the door, before I stopped and grabbed Sam's pants off the floor and holding them up as a hostage.

"Grace..." he mused, taking a slow step towards me. "Give me the pants."

I stood like a deer in the wolf's line of prey, still and ready to jet at any minute. Sam was the wolf.

Suddenly, I ran out the door, clutching the pants in my hand.

"Grace!" Sam whisper-yelled after me as I ran through the house, giggling quietly as to not wake my Mom and Dad. I ran down the stairs quickly, taking two-at-a-time, and skipped the last step, landing loudly at the bottom. I stumbled to regain my balance before taking off again through the living room. "Grace! Give me back my pants!"

I giggled at the sight of Sam running after me. "No way, this is gold!" I yelled a little too loudly as I ran into the kitchen and froze.

"What's gold?" Mom asked nonchalantly as she was running around the kitchen, making coffee. I quickly hid the pants behind my back and looked back behind me where Sam was frozen, not really knowing what to do. She hadn't seen him yet."Who were you talking to?"

"Rachel." I said quickly. Mom glanced at me suspiciously. "Just...planning for our trip!" I said cheerfully and glanced at Same out of the corner of my eye, silently telling him to back away. She continued moving around the kitchen hurriedly, not really paying any attention. That was when I heard my Dad's footsteps coming down the stairs from behind Sam. Sam and I looked at each other.

We were trapped.

"Here!" I threw the pants at Sam and ran past him to my Dad.

"Hey, Dad, how've you been?" I asked as I spun him around back towards the stairs.

"Just fine." He answered, turning back around and walking towards the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Sam ran into the kitchen to escape my Dad. While Mom was reaching for something on the top shelf of a cupboard, she didn't see him. Sam was looking around frantically for a sanctuary.

"Really? That's good. There was something I wanted to show you over here..." I said, attempting to detour him anywhere but to the kitchen. Inside the kitchen, my Mom had stopped searching for something and turned back around, just in time for Sam to duck behind the kitchen counter.

"I had to get to work, Grace." Dad said, heading towards where Sam was. "I have a big deal today.

Everything was all going wrong. It was one of those moments that, with another step, Sam would be spotted, and everything would happen in slow motion as it all came crashing down. I didn't know what to do. I searched for anything, something to grasp...

"I smashed the guitar!"

All three heads snapped towards me.

"You what?" my Dad stuttered. Sam stared at me in utter shock, his mouth open, his eyes widened, like I had just spilled the news about killing his puppy.

"It—made me mad." I said, crossing my arms defensively. "It broke my nail."

Sam grabbed his head dramatically like it might explode.

"So, let me get this straight—you smashed a seven hundred dollar guitar….because it broke your nail?" Dad said incredulously.

"Yup," I answered stubbornly. I glared at Sam quickly, telling him "Get the hell out of there!" through my eyes. He silently obeyed, sliping past my parents and disappearing down the hallway. Dad sighed before getting some coffee and leaving for work. My Mom hurried up to her studio without a second glance my way. Figures.

Suddenly, hands entwined themselves around my hips.

"You're trouble." A breathless voice mumbled in my ear. "Destroying Delilah?"

I scoffed. "Delilah? You named my parent's guitar Delilah?"

I turned around to look at him. He looked wounded, his flop of black hair a mess around his beautiful face. "I thought it was a nice name..."

"That's a Grandma's name." I smirked.

"Whatever. She's gone. My Leading Lady is gone!" he said dramatically, looking up at the ceiling sadly. I smacked him in the chest. He looked back at me and smiled.

"What's with you and guitars?" I asked him, rolling my eyes. He held me tighter in his arms, the scent of him dusting off onto me, surrounding me in earthy wilderness, his faint wolf smell...

"Well, when I first was changed, you already know about the schooling and poetry....I started thinking of poetry and lyrics for everything I did," he said huskily, his eyes looking up as if he were searching for a memory inside of his mind. "Ulrik and Beck had a guitar laying around....one day I picked it up and began to play."

"Hmmm," I mused to myself, thinking of a store I had walked by once downtown…

Before I knew what I was doing and he knew what was happening, I was pulling Same by his hand down the hallway, towards the front door.

"Grace," he called. But I was too excited. "Grace." He laughed. "Grace!"

I stopped. "I want to take you somewhere!" I declared.

Slowly, the corners of his lips tugged up into a small smile. "Clothes would be nice to wear."

I looked down at what we were wearing. I; pajama bottoms and a silk camisole, and him; his jeans and nothing else. My eyes trailed across him a little longer than needed. "Nah, I like what you're wearing."

He poked me in the side. Sighing, I followed him upstairs to get dressed. After we were properly clothed, we travelled back down the stairs and to the front door.

"Where are we going?" he asked as he opened the door for me.

"It's a surprise." I answered, as a blast of freezing air hit me like a train. I shuddered, and staggered a few steps backwards. It had gotten colder over the night, a new frozen layer of snow pelted the yard and the surrounding forest. Sam steadied me with a quizzical look. I brushed it off and walked outside and towards my mother's car, cringing inside my coat from the cold.

Other than that, it was still. There was no wind, there were no birds fluttering among the trees. Every now and then some snow fell from the tree tops, drifting down in snowflakes or, sometimes, chunks of frozen ice.

"Please tell me?" Sam pleaded before he stepped into the car. I smiled. He really was bad with surprises. Usually, he was the one delivering them, but this time it was my turn.

"Nope," I said stubbornly, before he slid into the passenger seat. I sat in the driver's seat and started the car, glaring at the frozen pieces of ice on the windshield.

"Maybe we should—"

Suddenly, the hood of the car screamed out as something heavy collided with it, and I screamed. The ice on the windshield cracked, falling away. Peering in from the outside of the windshield were two ice-blue eyes set in the snow-white face of a wolf as snarls erupted from its chest, its lips pulled back, exposing its teeth.

Stealthily, the wolf jumped off from the hood of the truck and padded back into the forest silently.

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