Chapter 20

The words on the pages before Josie's eyes blended into a swirl of incomprehensible marks and signs as she struggled to maintain focus. She was on a study period in the library, but needless to say, there was not much studying going on.

How could she concentrate on her advanced spellcasting when she couldn't get a certain tribrid out of her mind?

Josie's cheeks burned as she thought about the intense kisses that they shared in the woods a few evenings prior. Nothing in her life had ever felt so right and so absolutely mind-blowing as when she had her lips firmly connected to Hope Mikaelson's – even Penelope and Landon became nothing but mere specks in her memory in comparison. When they had connected in the way they did in that moment, it felt as if nothing could ever drive them apart again. In fact, she felt like she would mindlessly tear apart anyone who even tried. She knew Hope was not her possession and never would be, but goddamn – she felt possessive over her in such a heated moment like that. She felt like Hope Mikaelson simply belonged to her, by order of the universe and all existence.

And then she received the cold shoulder from the tribrid all week thus far.

She felt embarrassed. She felt ashamed. She felt foolish. Could it really only have been her that felt those things? She couldn't imagine feeling such mystical passion and not having it go both ways. It simply wasn't possible – it was just too much emotion for one person to bear.

But what if it was just in her head and only in her heart? What if Hope was now avoiding her because she really didn't feel the same? The possibility was incredibly hard to swallow, but Josie knew it still existed. So, whenever she saw Hope, she'd keep her distance and allow the tribrid the opportunity to approach whenever she felt comfortable doing so.

But she didn't. In fact, whenever she saw Josie, she seemed too eager to just run in the opposite direction. This caused Josie to feel hurt, and more than that – she felt abandoned.

Josie was still terrified at what was happening to her and if she ever needed anyone at a specific time in her life, it would be right now and it would be Hope. Hope was the closest person to understanding what she might be going through and how she might be feeling. The full moon was rapidly approaching and Josie knew it was only a matter of time – if things continued on their current trajectory – before she shifted into a wolf completely. She knew she would be lost without Hope. She instinctively knew that she needed Hope by her side more than anything.

Yet she could not shake the feeling that she was making a fool of herself. Her displays towards Hope were embarrassing to say the least. How could she expect the older girl to stick by her and help her see things through when she was having emotional outbursts around every corner? First, she scolded Hope, called her a disobedient dog, then she basically attacked her with her mouth up against a tree, and then she doesn't speak to her for days! Maybe it really was her fault that Hope was not attempting to approach her. How could she blame Hope for keeping her distance when she was being such a spazz?

Not to mention the humiliation of her losing control whenever she came near Hope! When they encountered each other in the dining hall the one morning over breakfast, she thought that she might shift right then and there. The tug she felt inside her chest to be enveloped by and to engulf Hope's wolf was excruciatingly overwhelming. The wolf-presence evolving within her was completely magnetized to Hope's wolf, which there was absolutely no denying.

She had never seen her own eyes aglow, but she could feel them in that moment and knew that they were shining brightly, just like Hope's.

Which, of course, only aided in making her feel like more of a freak as this happened in front of everyone. All she could do was pray that no one had noticed other than Hope. She couldn't deal with being ostracized on top of everything else.

The other thing that was becoming increasingly hard to deal with was the fact that she and Hope, despite everything happening between them, had still not had a real conversation about recent developments. Josie was especially concerned with the fact that Hope had marked her when she was still in her subconscious, and that she had seemingly marked Hope in return when she had dreamt of being a wolf. She kept weighing back and forth between whether these events were real or not, and she was struggling to believe that they had been mere fantasy. However, she had tried to look to the back of her neck and whenever she did, there was no sign of a mark. She wanted to believe, deep down, that it was real; but reality itself was seemingly disproving the belief that the marking ever happened.

Feeling defeated, Josie slammed her book shut on the library desk and shot up, grabbing her bag and slinging it over one shoulder as she quickly marched to the door. Her feet seemed to move automatically, carrying her determinedly in a certain direction. After a few minutes she found herself in the girls' bathroom.

And what she found there made her heart skip several beats and combust into flames – or that's how it felt at least.

As soon as she locked eyes with Hope, both sets amped up their luminosity and their bodies entered their own orbit – their souls seemingly reaching toward one another.

This was the moment; the part of Josie that was still somewhat rationally functioning knew that their opportunity to clear up some things was now – or never. She dropped her bag to the side and swiftly stepped back to the bathroom door, locking it.

"Josie… I…" Hope started, feeling lost for words. She didn't think that a simple 'sorry I've been avoiding you like a coward' was going to cut it.

"Are you scared?" Josie cut her off, bluntly, coming to stand before the tribrid – not too close, but not too far either.

"I don't want to be…" Hope admitted, swallowing down a lump that was forming in her throat. How was it possible that Josie just knew? "Are you?" She asked in turn.

Josie took a deep breath as she seemed to contemplate the question, drawing closer to Hope ever so slightly. "Of the wolf growing inside me? Yes…" She took another step closer, now close enough for Hope to feel the heat radiating off of her. "Of you? Of us? Never…"

Hope took a sharp intake of air as the words fell upon her eager ears. It was what she wanted to hear – that Josie was not afraid of what was happening between them. Unfortunately, her own desires and fears just were not aligning. She frowned at Josie's admittance of being scared and let the guilt weigh in on her again. "I'm so sorry. It's my fault."

"We don't know that. You can't blame yourself." Josie shook her head and placed one hand in the side of Hope's neck, looking down at her with a distinctly tender quality to her glowing eyes. It was amazing how they intuitively understood each other without articulating every detail. It was simply profound how they were able to communicate so much even though they were saying so little.

"Something happened… inside your subconscious, that I can't remember." Hope uttered in confusion, though it was a statement more than it was a question.

Josie nodded slowly. "You marked me. You marked me first…"

"Before you marked me, in the dream…" Hope smiled softly.

"I don't think it was a dream…" Josie returned her smile warmly. "But the marks…" She frowned and moved her hand from Hope's neck to her hair, sweeping it to the side as she observed the back of Hope's neck in the mirror behind her.

Clear as daylight, the faintly illuminated blue bite mark sat imbedded in Hope's skin.

Josie's heart jumped. Hope could hear it. She could feel it.

She moved around Josie to face her back and swept her hair to the side as well to search for the mark.

It was there, and unwittingly it caused Hope to grin widely with happiness.

Seeing Hope's reaction in the mirror she was facing, Josie sighed, knowing what Hope saw on her skin. "They must only appear when we are near each other."

Josie turned around, now nearly flush up against Hope, and locked their blazing eyes back onto one another. They swore they could almost hear a slight humming sound emitted from their marks.

Their arms reached for each other with a lingering desire that needed to be quenched. Their lips drew close, but stopped just barely short of touching. When they breathed, they breathed each other, and the one could feel the very life force of the other entering them. They both suspected that the running from each other was far from over, but in that moment the universe wanted them in unison, and so they were…

When their lips finally embraced it was with the hunger that drove them from the wolves inside. This time it was Hope who had the upper hand in terms of positioning as she pushed Josie back against the counter that held three basins, her mouth never leaving the heat that it found within the brunette's. With Josie's back against the counter, Hope took hold of her hips and lifted her onto the cool surface with ease, then pushed her own body even further until she was nestled tightly between Josie's thighs.

Josie wasted no time in wrapping her legs around Hope's hips to hold her close, the burning in her chest and the agitation of her wolf driving her to tug Hope closer and hold her there by her fingers curling into the front of Hope's jersey. She repeatedly enveloped the tribrid's lips with her own, and wrestled with them ravenously.

Hope dug her fingertips into Josie's back and forcibly held her close, wishing she could somehow pull Josie within herself a she continued to make love to Josie's mouth, sliding her tongue through Josie's lips when she was offered the gap. She thought she might lose her mind when she discovered Josie's teeth tugging at her own lower lip.

The moan escaping from both of them in some melodic tune was suddenly interrupted and drowned out by a banging on the door of the bathroom.

"Hey! Whatever crisis you're experiencing in there, there's about the be a bigger crisis out here if I don't get to pee NOW!" A voice came both pleading and irritably from the other side of the door, causing both girls to jump apart and immediately start tugging at their clothes and straightening out their hair as if they had been caught.

Hope grabbed Josie by the collar and pulled her in for one more chaste kiss before silently slipping into one of the bathroom stalls, allowing Josie to splash some water on her cheeks and grab her bag before unlocking the door.

She was thoroughly flushed, and with the wet streaks now on her face, it seemed like she had been crying. "I'm so sorry." She muttered and tried to move past the other girl.

"Josie?" Oh snap.

Jade.