CHAPTER THREE

ROSE POV

Vasilisa came into the living room with a large bowl of popcorn and a couple bottles of water, her mate Christian sat on the recliner with a beer in his hand waiting patiently to start the movie, Penelope Lords sat on the couch talking to her mate over phone. "Don't be a baby, you've change plenty of nappies in the past..." she rolled her eyes at us, I chuckled and reached into the bowl for a couple pieces of popcorn. "No I'm not coming over, god Quint she's your daughter for Christ sake." After a few more moments of lecturing her mate on how to change a poopy diaper she hung up the phone and tossed it on the coffee table. "Men."

"Could you picture Dimitri trying to change a dirty diaper?" Lissa teased.

We all laughed, Christian just snorted, "diapers is women work, we just help make them." Lissa and Penelope growled at him.

"Keep that up and we'll make sure your unable to have children!" I snapped my fingers at him.

"Then Lissa wont have kids," he said smugly.

"I'm sure we can find her a new suitor," Penelope teased.

He frowned. "You ask Dimitri, I'll bet he'll tell you same thing, men are for making the babies and woman are for raising them."

Penelope reached over and wacked him across the back of the head, he scold at her and rubbed the spot she'd thwacked him. She turned to me, "yeah sorry Rose, but Dimitri doesn't look like the diaper changing type of man."

"Why are saying sorry to me?"

"Because everyone knows that you're the one he chooses, werewolf or not you have that man wrapped around you pinky finger and tightly I might add." Penelope said, "I've known him my entire life and I've never seen him so smitten over a woman, even Tasha and she's been pinning over him since they were in diapers." Pine

"Yeah, Aunt Tasha's going to be super pissed if he chooses you over her," Christian chuckled.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "shut up," the thought of Dimitri with Tasha hurt.

Lissa growled at him, "there's no if about it, he will choose her."

I rolled my eyes at them, "oh please, nothing is ever that simple when it comes to that man, he wants to talk about us tonight." I sighed, "I have a bad feeling."

"Because you don't want to get rejected, Rose it's all a natural part of being in love, I was so torn up about my feelings for Quentin when I met him that I was absolutely miserable because I was scared he would turn me down. but then we got drunk and slept together and bam… I'm pregnant and he's proposing." she grinned, "win, win for me."

I chuckled. "Are you saying I should sleep with Dimitri and hope to get pregnant and then he'll want me?"

"Honey you don't need to get knocked up for him to want you, it's a given." Lisa draped her arms over my shoulders. "Trust me, you'll be fine."

I didn't feel fine, Christian got annoyed with our girly talk and started the movie, Lissa went and snuggled up to him and I sat beside Penelope stared blankly at the TV screen, my mind to busy thinking about dinner with Dimitri then the movie.

When the movie finished I said my goodbyes and wandered aimlessly back to Dimitri's home. It was dark now and the clearing plunged into pitch black. There were twenty-eight werewolves in Dimitri's pack and they all lived together in a giant clearing in the middle of Yosemite National Park forest, housed in what were once wooden cabins used for tourists before it was abandoned and taken over by the pack decades and decades ago. The homes had been renovated to suit everyone's needs. Dimitri lived in the largest of the houses that sat at the head of the clearing. Every house back up to the forest edge and stone paths led from home to home and through a beautiful garden that had been carefully groomed, children's play equipment set up in a sand pit and even a few old barbeque pits. This place was perfection. Paradise.

It was home to me and I told myself that no matter what Dimitri said tonight it would always be my home.

Deep down I wanted desperately to be turned, to really be a part of the pack but then I wondered if I became a werewolf, would I loose my abilities? "Angel," I was surprised when I heard Adrian call my name, looking around my shoulder I saw him jogging to catch up. He was shirtless and only wearing a pair of black and white silk shorts. He looked like he'd just woken up.

"Hey, I thought you were on night duty?" I asked.

"In a few hours, listen I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable this morning, you know getting a little to close," he shrugged, "I don't want to make you feel awkward, I couldn't help but stir up Belikov."

I chuckled and crossed my arms over my chest, "don't worry, it's fine," I continued walking towards the house and motioned for him to follow. "You shouldn't tease him you know, his a very sensitive person."

"More like short tempered," he snorted.

I bit my bottom lip, "hey, can I tell you something and you promise not to tell anyone, especially Dimitri?"

He grinned and slung his arms over my shoulders as we walked, "of course, little Angel, anything. If there's one think I love better then hanging around with you is keeping secrets from the Bossman."

I rolled my eyes, "I want to go back to the campgrounds, where Dimitri found me."

Adrian stopped walked and I turned to face him, his eyes were narrowed and he was suddenly tense. "You can't go back there."

"Why not? I have a right to know who I am and there might be something left there that could tell me, ID's or photo's, anything…"

"Everything was burnt to the ground," he said abruptly.

I frowned, "but… Lissa goes all the time when she's upset, she says that she talks to her mum and dad to vent… she never said anything about it being burnt to the ground."

He shook his head, "we put up memorials for all the lives lost there, her family included…"

"Then my parents should be there as well, or my husband or sisters or whoever I went there with, seeing their names or something that belonged to them might spark a memory," I argued.

Adrian backed away, "I'm not talking about this anymore." And he walked away.

I narrowed my eyes at his retreating form. What was he hiding? Deciding to confront him tomorrow after he slept off his strange mood.

I entered Dimitri's home, the house was dark when I walked in but a wonderful aroma washed over me and I couldn't help but moan. "Dimitri?" I called, wondering down the hall towards the dining room. Following my nose.

He appeared in the doorway and I froze.

He was breathtaking, wearing a black pinstriped dress shirt and a pair of grey jeans, his hair pulled back into a ponytail behind his head, he held a single red rose in his hand. I grinned at him. All my worries about our conversation disappeared as he walked towards me, "I didn't expect this," I mumbled. He came to stand directly in front of me, reaching out and grasping my arms carefully in his hand. I was stunned when he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. "My Roza." He whispered against my mouth.