I felt so bad about having NO author's note last time that I'm giving you another chapter! Because I love you. My sweetheart banned me from updating until I finished my novel--that I've written two chapters of :p and so I had to update the last chapter in secret. I am the Lisbeth Salandar of the fanfiction world.
Now for some lovin.
Silver Bird- Welcome to the fold. I have enjoyed following your progression through your reviews! Your flattery is part of the reason that I'm updating again so soon, I'm just a big ole sucker.
Yoli- Clay and Elena are characters in the "grown up" series that Kelley Armstrong writes, the books are amazing and totally worth checking out while you're waiting for The Reckoning, start with Bitten.
Burnin Bright and Smilin in Rain-I love Clay and Elena, I think they are just about the most awesome fictional couple in the world, second only to Chloe and Derek.
Ghost X- I'm trying to write Clayna as accurately as possible but it's really weird to write Elena in third person when her stories are usually told through first! Thanks for your ongoing fanship, it's awesome.
Greek Freak- I am so jealous about Puerto Rico! What the heck were you doing there? I'm glad you got to come back and have a few chapters to read!
Jamie, Mr., Moon Lover, Angle Girl, NY Girl, FC- I get so excited when I check my reviews and see all the positive stuff you all have written. It's what really motivates me to write, knowing that I can entertain fans of Kelley Armstrong, super flattering.
Killah Panda- I totally want to punch Simon along with you and I wrote it! If you read Dangerous then you get a pretty good idea of just how much of a flirt and ladies man Simon really is. Assuming a goodbye kiss from him is welcome is totally in line with that aspect of his personality.
Black Heart- with this chapter I will have posted almost fifty pages of the story, I've completed a hundred and ten pages and have at least forty more to go so I really need to get crackin. It's entirely possible that Derek does know but we all know how high his self-esteem is, it would be unlike him to advertise and he may be in denial, especially since he sees himself as dangerous and repulsive. Will address the one bed thing soon ~.^
Without further ado and exhausting babbling, I give you....
*drum roll*
Chapter 9
Derek was gone for hours.
I started a fire in the fireplace, tossing in some pine logs and waiting for them to catch. Then I hung my snow-damp jeans on the fire grate and took a shower, a long one. I washed my hair and shaved my legs even though as a natural blond I had like three hairs. And yes, I packed a razor okay? Nobody likes having hairy arm pits, even when they're on the run. I also scrubbed my face with soap about fifteen times. It had obviously caused some sort of fuss that the wolves could smell Simon on me and I wanted to be as little trouble as I could.
The dye was starting to come out so my hair was looking strawberry blond instead of vixen red. The strawberry blond may have suited me more but I liked feeling a little more grown up with the darker red hair.
I put my flannel shirt and jeans back on, which I had put on top of the radiator and had dried out while I was in the shower. I took as long as I could combing my hair and putting it up in a ponytail. When I finally stepped out of the steamy bathroom I saw a bowl of something on the little table next to the armchair. I approached it cautiously like it was sentient. It was a little clay pot with handles on the side and a lid on top. When I took the lid off a wave of pot-roast scented steam hit my face. I didn't have to have Derek's senses to tell me there was rosemary in the thick gravy and the meat was so tender that I could cut it with the spoon that had been left for me.
I considered waiting for Derek, just so he could tell me if it was poison or not. My words to him came back to haunt me, you gotta trust them if you want them to trust us. I sighed, after the past few months I had come to trust nobody except for Simon and Derek. They had my back and were in the same situation I was, everyone else seemed to be trying to kill or dissect us.
My stomach growled loudly and I gave the little pot my most pathetic wide-eyed doe look, hoping that it would be seduced by the overwhelming adorableness of my gaze and reveal its secrets. No such luck. I decided to go for it since I was pretty sure if the werewolves wanted me dead they'd be upfront about it.
It was possibly the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. I guess that when you're a werewolf you naturally are a good cook, with the heightened senses of smell and all. I didn't know if their sense of taste was enhanced or not, note to self: ask Derek when he finally gets his butt back here.
When I had all but licked the bowl clean I rinsed it out in the bathroom sink and sat on the armchair. It was times like these that I wished my life were more like a movie. Not more adventure though, I had enough of that to last a lifetime. But the part where you see the heroine sitting anxiously, waiting for her fate to be decided or her lover to return to her. Lover?? I asked myself. Where the heck did THAT come from? Ninety percent of the time Derek barely tolerates me and the other ten percent he's flat out annoyed with me! Definitely not any love or even like involved there.
Still… I had guiltily caught myself thinking about him every now and then, but even Tori had looked at him differently after she ran into him coming out of the shower in just a towel. While I was sure that Tori would never flirt with Derek—she saw herself as way too good for either of the boys now—something still bothered me about the way she looked at him every now and then.
You mean exactly like how you look at him? I thought accusingly. I couldn't even use the desperate excuse since Simon was the first boy to kiss me I didn't have anything really to miss. I touched my mouth absently. We'd been so busy that I had never had time to absorb the fact that Simon had kissed me. I found myself blushing at the memory but also being a little annoyed with him, because of that little impulse I'd nearly gotten us in trouble with the pack and I didn't even know why.
I gave up trying to be a patient little heroine and asked the werewolf who just happened to be hanging out outside my cabin (like I was going to be able to escape a pack of bionic wolf-people) if I could get my shoulder bag from the bike. He walked me around the house and we talked a little. His name was Nick, and he was so handsome it was just stupid (even though he wasn't even my type)—must be a werewolf thing. He was actually pretty nice and felt sorry for me and Derek, especially Derek as he was caught in between his change. While we were at the bike I moved the camp food from my big bag to my smaller shoulder bag in case I got hungry and Derek could always eat. I also was surprised when I found my knife—the souvenir I'd gotten from the street urchin girl way back when—stuffed in a corner of the bag and discreetly put it in my pocket while Nick was looking away.
When we got back to my cabin I offered to let him come in where it was warm but he'd just smiled at me.
"That's pretty sweet little miss. But if your boy smelled me in there with you he'd probably see red, which is something neither of you needs right now." He gave me a lop-sided grin that was more friendly dog than wolf.
I frowned. "Why does everyone keep saying that? Derek has had some problems with his temper in the past but only when Simon… or me was in real danger. Not something stupid and frivolous."
He gave me another smile, one that was caught between keeping a really happy secret and being a little sad and sat down on the porch—neither accepting nor rejecting my invitation. I left the door cracked open so the heat from the fire would get out to the porch and curled up in the loveseat with the werewolf manuscript. I wanted to read up on pack mentality and learn how to have the best manners, being a different supernatural benefiting from their hospitality.
The first thing that I looked up was living arrangements, where I found that werewolf packs had several behavioral quirks that mirrored a wolf pack. They couldn't refuse a direct order from their Alpha--the absent Jeremy person who I thought would probably be about eight feet tall and built like Schwarzenegger for real--and they slept in puppy piles. Which explained the one bed thing. It was normal for pack members to be extremely affectionate with one another and sleep with several people in one bed... sans clothing. Oh boy, this could get awkward.
I took a moment to be really impressed that Derek had been functioning this long outside of a real pack with other werewolves. No wonder his human and wolf halves had so much trouble reconciling, he'd been completely conditioned to live like a human. Humans didn't see it as acceptable to sleep naked with more than one other person. It also explained why he usually slept in boxers instead of real pajamas. Another note to self: get Derek a teddy bear to cuddle.
I tried to read again but was distracted by the fire, all the moving and dancing flames, I'm not Rae or anything but fire was really pretty...
I must have drifted off because I was woken up by a huge wrenching feeling, like my body was being turned inside out. I shot up, trembling and ran to the cabin door. The werewolf guard wasn't there anymore but I suspected someone was watching from somewhere nearby. I didn't care as I ran down the cabin steps and into the snow in my bare feet.
"Derek!" The name slipped out of my mouth, tinged with a desperate worry. Something felt… not exactly wrong, but definitely different.
I felt overwhelmed for some reason and barely registered my cold feet. It felt like an eternity later but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes that a big dark shape started resolving out of the dark and the closer it got the better and safer I felt.
"D-Derek?" I squinted and gasped when I saw not a huge guy but a huge wolf stepping hesitantly closer to me.
The black shape with glowing reflective green eyes should have freaked me out, but I would know those eyes anywhere and I ran forward, forgetting that he was afraid of not being himself when he was in wolf form.
"You did it!" I exclaimed, dropping to my knees and throwing my arms around his neck, which was a lot further above my head than I thought. I ran my hands over his glossy black fur and looked into his eyes. "You look amazing!"
Wolf-Derek made a kind of growling rumbly noise that sounded a lot like his laugh when he was human and I smiled at him.
Part of me was a little sad that I couldn't be there for him in his last change but I was also glad that it was over with so we at least didn't have to worry about that anymore.
His dark head butted against me gently and I laughed, putting my arms around his neck again.
A chorus of howls made me look at the forest and Wolf-Derek licked my cheek then pulled away. It took me a minute to process but my hand slowly raised to my face, touching the wet kiss and I blushed so hard that I thought I would pass out. Derek looked at the forest before looking pointedly at my now soaked jeans and bare feet, then at the cabin door with a low growl that wasn't laughter.
I sighed and stood. "Go run around, catch a rabbit." I shooed him and backed towards the door, watching as he disappeared into the night.
I waited until he was gone before I went inside, the chill finally catching up to me. I hoped that he would be gone for a few hours as I stripped off my jeans and hung them up on the grate again. I stood there in my flannel and underwear, feeling uncomfortably exposed, then remembered Derek's shirt in my bag.
I debated for about fifteen seconds then stripped off the rest of my clothes and pulled on the black shirt that fell to my knees, and Derek was wearing clothes that fit him now. After our run in with Liam and Ramon Derek figured out that while baggy clothes might make him look chubby and possibly an iota less intimidating, it was a huge drawback in a fight. Liam had nearly killed Derek because his sweatshirt had been big enough for him to jerk him back like a leash.
Since then he had ditched the baggy clothes in favor of fitting clothes, which weren't like spandex or anything, but didn't give him as big of a disadvantage in fights either. Regardless, this meant that a shirt that fit Derek was like a mini dress on me. But it was a comfy cotton dress so I dragged the love seat around so it was facing the front door but next to the fire before brushing my teeth. I thought about washing my face but figured the shower would suffice, besides, I didn't want to wash off the wolf-kiss on my cheek. I wasn't sure why but for some reason a lick from Derek on my cheek in his wolf form made me tingle just as much as a kiss from Simon on the mouth.
I spent a few hours reading more on werewolves. I found some interesting things out about werewolf mates. Not that I was interested in that sort of thing, just curious… seriously. Anyway, I read that werewolf mates were more about souls, or spirits or whatever you want to call them—the book said "wild spirits" which was a little too hippy for me. So if they found someone with a spirit they were drawn too, they would bond with that person for life, whether they were a werewolf or not.
I was just beginning to read up on the signs that differentiated between a mated and unmated werewolf when I felt my eyelids fluttering and the words blurring together. I yawned and after reading the same sentence four times without absorbing it I put the manuscript on the floor in front of me and rested my head on the arm of my chair. I was determined to wait for Derek to get back so I could ask him about his first run but it was so hard to keep my eyes open and I closed them just for a minute.
I dreamed. I dreamed that I was running along a forest floor, my paws disappearing in the deep snow. Everything smelled amazing and interesting, there were no bad smells. The moonlit night was in grayscale but my vision didn't mean anything anyway, it was the smells, and the sounds, that gave everything layers and layers of texture and life.
There were other bodies running beside me, just as excited by the night and the smells. We all turned as one when we caught the scent of prey, I knew that I was strong enough and dominant enough to be alpha, but I had no desire to take over this pack. If I had then they wouldn't have let me run with them. I had my own pack which I tried to be the alpha of but kept letting a slip of a girl be dominant. A special girl who smelled like a field of strawberries…
Next chapter in a few days!
XOXO
Az.
