Chapter Eight
I swing my arm and release the ball getting another a strike. I turn back to Adrian and she laughs and rolls her eyes. "That's it Black you and I are never going bowling again" she giggles
"Oh come on you're not doing that bad" I shrug.
"Please, you're whopping my ass so bad it's not even funny" she says. I sit down on the bench next to her and shove a handful of fries in my mouth, Adrian sips her beer then gets up to take her go, I chuckle to myself again that she's using the lightest bowling ball in the whole alley, I'm pretty sure it's one of the kids size ones as for me I'm using the largest and heaviest one. She manages to get all the pins but one but her bowling technique leaves a lot to be desired.
"You know you're supposed to bend your knees when you bowl!" I call to her she turns around and sticks her tongue out at me, I glance up at the score board I've won by an obscene amount of points. "You wanna go again?" I ask
"So you can wipe the floor with me again I don't think so anyway my wrist hurts" she says, I feel myself gasp and in a second I pull her onto my lap to inspect her wrist.
"Are you ok?" I ask and she laughs
"I'm fine" she tells me then grabs her half eaten hotdog and finishes it but makes no move to get out of my lap not that I mind. I wrap my arms around her and press my nose against her neck just breathing in her scent. "I'm still hungry are you?" she asks.
"I'm always hungry" I say and she laughs.
"Yeah I noticed, let's go find somewhere to get ice cream" she suggests
"Sounds good" I tell her and she hops off of my knee.
For beating her so badly at the bowling alley she insisted I made it up to her by winning her something in the arcades. I won her a prize on the basketball hoops, there was a choice of a huge lobster, a giant Luigi toy or a big fluffy puppy, she picked the puppy. "Thank you for my wolf" she said again and I laughed.
"I told you it's not a wolf it's a dog" I insist but she giggles and shakes her head.
"No it's not look at his pointy ears and his fluffy tail" she says and I roll my eyes
"That doesn't make it a wolf it's just a husky" I tell her
"Oh don't listen to David Attenborough over here" she tells the wolf and kisses his snout. I chuckle to myself and she elbows me scowling but smirking at me, I raise my eyebrows and grab her pinning her against my car, she giggles and kisses my cheek. "You know a lot about animals don't you?" she asks I blush and shrug.
"Well I grew up in the forest my house is in the middle of nowhere" I say rubbing the back of my neck. I see her cuddling the stuffed puppy and laugh. "Would you stop snuggling up to that dam dog you're making me jealous" I joke and she laughs,
"Would you prefer it if I snuggled up to you instead?" she asks grinning slyly, I grin back and nod. She pushed off the passenger side door to hug me, she wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head on my chest. "And he's still not a dog" she whispers.
"Fine he can be wolf if he really wants to" I say and she giggles.
"Riddoc are there real wolves on the reservation?" she asks me and I stiffen, I swallow hard before answering her.
"In the forest yeah, but don't worry they don't usually come close to the town" I tell her, in reality wolves don't ever come close to the res because they can smell a pack of much bigger wolves all over it.
"I wish I could see one" she murmurs into my chest and I hug her tighter.
"Maybe you will" I shrug
I have to cut my evening with Adrian short because I have patrol so I have her home by nine and start my run of the area, as usual there's not even a trace of a vampire anywhere near La Push. Things on the supernatural front have quietened down as of late we hadn't had even so much as a nomad passing through in months. No new wolves had phased in years in fact Kai and Trey were the last ones and that was when I was eighteen and they had been fourteen.
I knew my dad was starting to think about stepping down as Alpha and having us run less patrols. With the threat lessening some of the other older wolves were starting to think about retirement I knew Auntie Leah and Embry had been thinking about it even before me and the Uley twins phased all at the age of seventeen, Leah was still desperate to have children and even thought she could never have children of their own they were starting to think about adoption I'd seen it in their minds when they'd been phased.
Once my patrol was over I make run past Adrian's house just to check on her and I'm surprised to see she's still up, I know the bottom floor apartment is unoccupied and the middle floor is in darkness, her neighbor there is a sweet little old lady who I had to shout into her hearing aid to say hello to when I met her in the hallway with Adrian this afternoon. I trot up to the grassed yard at the rear of the building. I feel like my heart is going to fly out of my chest with joy when I hear her singing softly and the strumming of a guitar. I step closer so I can listen. "lost and insecure you found me, you found me, lying on the floor surrounded, surrounded, why'd you have to wait, where were you, where were you, just a little late, you found me, you found me" she sings.
God I love her voice there's something so sexy about her singing, I often fantasise about her doing so in the shower while I watch. I wish I could see her and then I think maybe I could, she wanted to see a wolf, I'm a wolf. When I'd said to her earlier that maybe she would see a wolf in La Push I had meant me but I meant in the future when I'd told her my secret not now, not the wrong way round. But who would know and I know she wouldn't be afraid of me in this form she'd be drawn to me because of the imprint she just wouldn't understand why. There's not much chance of me waking Adrian's neighbour so I not so accidentally knock a trash can over to get her attention, the guitar playing stops and I move into the middle of the yard so she can see me.
She comes up to the window and peers out I sit down with my tongue lolling out trying to look as unthreatening as possible.
"Holy Fuck" I hear her gasp, she backs away from the window and not long after I hear what sounds like rubber shoes squeaking towards me, I see Adrian come towards me down the side of the house in a pair of tiny shorts a tight spaghetti strap stretchy top and a pair of polka dot rain boots. My wolf jaw falls open at how much thigh I'm seeing, holy fuck is right.
She stay's against the building and I realise she's holding something behind her back, I get down on my belly and whine lowering my snout to the ground and she takes a step closer I pull my self forward I can hear her heart racing and I can see her desperately trying to slow it down and not show any fear towards me but like I suspected she's drawn to my wolf as much as she is to me. "So you were the one rooting around in the trash huh?" she asks and slowly takes another step closer to me. I bark playfully at her then roll onto my back like a dog would, she giggles and this time she comes right up to me I don't know if my goofing around convinced her I wouldn't hurt her of if she just forgot herself. I don't know and I don't particularly care. I roll back onto all fours and lick her hand when she reaches it out to me she giggles again and pulls it away. "How'd you get so big?" she whispers then very slowly and carefully strokes the top of my fur it feels so good I let out a low growl that sounds kind of like a purr. Her other hand joins it scratching my ears and out of the corner of my eye I see a steel baseball bat laid on the floor behind her. I guess that was what was behind her back I chuckle to myself, my girls not stupid.
When I finally get home that night there's three missed calls from Adrian one just five minuets ago so I decided to call her back. She answers after a couple of rings "Hey I hope I didn't wake you I just got a few missed calls from you" I say.
"Riddoc I saw one, he was so beautiful I wish you could have seen him" she gushes and I silently laugh to myself.
"What are talking about?" I ask already knowing the answer
"There was a wolf in my backyard" she tells me and I grin "he was huge and so gorgeous I went out to him and..."
"What!" I gasp in mock horror still grinning widely
"It's ok he was so gentle and placid, you were right about the wolves, I mean you're people are right they are spiritual and intelligent and just..." she sighs and trails off "I don't know it was just the most amazing experience"
"Are you ok?" I ask still feigning fear
"Yeah I told you he was gentle it was like he was used to humans, but I swear I've never seen a wolf that big"
"Well they must be thriving here because of the laws against hunting them" I suggest hoping she'll buy it and she does. We chat for a couple more minuets then I hear her yawn and I try to get her to go to bed. "You're tired go to sleep" I tell her
"No I am in bed just talk to me? Where are you?" she asks me
"In bed" I answer truthfully and she giggles
"I see" she says and we talk into the morning until she falls quiet and I just listen to her breathing for a while. Shit my phone bills gonna be huge, but I don't care.