??A Howl In The Night??
?She’s mine?
?Chapter 27?
?Why Does Everything Have to Be So Complicated??
Even as his warm, strangely familiar fingers dance over my skin, I feel no discomfort. Relaxed breaths brush against the back of my neck, somehow sweeping away all alarm. I feel an alien desire to lay here forever in this enchanting embrace.
Am I going cr@zy?
Fighting the strong urge to once again close my eyes, I jolt upright. Suddenly losing my balance, I slip off the bed, tumbling towards the ground. With a loud crash I bang my head against the cold stone floor, a slight wave of pain sweeping through my bones.
There is silence for a few seconds, then a voice. “Mona?” For some reason, the word sends shivers through my spine with its irresistibility. The light by the bed switches on as fingertips woozily grasp it, filling the room with brightness. A head appears over the side of the bed and I nearly go into a self-cataclysmic shock.
It is like I am falling under a deep spell, mesmerized by the striking beauty of his features. His hair is a golden-red, chaotic strands springing in every direction. Skin as clear as crystal holds a masterful pair of lips and a small nose, slightly tanned by the warmth of the sun. However, his beautiful, incredibly large brown eyes are what keep me spellbound. They sparkle slightly as he surveys me, confusion plainly showing in his features.
I find myself unable to move, frozen to the core. “Mona?” he repeats, a dizzy smile appearing on his face. And what an attractive smile that is.
His grin suddenly vanishes as he casts a glance at his hand, an expression of horror soon replacing it. “Oh no…” he groans as if in pain, “I ruined it now.” His head retreats from view, although his hand reaches to help me up.
“Who are you?” I try to be rough and forceful with my question, but I can’t as soon as I catch sight of those hypnotizing chocolate eyes. All my anger evaporates, leaving me completely defenseless as I stand up across from him. Those eyes remind me of my father.
Instantly I notice his bare chest, rippled with muscles. He sits up against the pillow, his head in his hands. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he sighs apologetically, glancing at me cautiously.
“For what to happen?” I take a look at the floor, suddenly embarrassed by the thoughts I am having.
“For this,” he waves his hand at both of us, “for you to see me in this way.”
I just stare at him, waiting for answers.
“I’m sorry,” his eyes crinkle adorably; “this must be a shock for you. I let myself get out of control.” Newfound alarm races through my blood, my mind racing to new conclusions. Glancing at my rumpled clothes, I suddenly realize that I never changed from last night. Surely this attractive man didn’t… do anything to me.
“Crap, I must have shifted in the middle of the night,” he mutters darkly to himself, cringing as he looks once more at his human hands. Within a flash, clothes materialize on his skin, making me blink several times.
“Why do you seem so familiar to me?” I ask him finally, and he pauses.
“You might want to sit down,” he recommends, and I slowly obey him, suspicion racing through me. Raising his gaze to mine, he reluctantly holds out his hand.
“Hello, Mona. To you, my name is Scotty.”
All consciousness escapes me as true shock overwhelms my being.
* * *
“Please, Mona, wake up. I’m sorry that I upset you.” A hand strokes my long red hair. “Please wake up,” he begs, his voice cutting through my empty thoughts. As my eyes slide open, one lone message enters my mind.
Scotty is a man. A very, very, very handsome man.
For some reason, I can’t make any sense out of that statement.
“I must be dreaming,” I woozily whisper, “you can’t be Scotty. You can’t.”
“But I am,” he whispers back, grasping my fingers and holding them tightly. “Here, my name is Griffin, but you can call me any name you want to.”
His hand travels to my side, and I jump a little bit as he touches the mark near my hip. The strange thing about all this is that it feels completely natural to me. For him to be here. For us to be like this.
“I missed you so much, Mona,” he smiles, a beautiful expression that leaves me spellbound, “it took every ounce of my strength to not shift into this form when I saw you yesterday. I thought I would never see you again. I was still trying to forget you. But then it all came back when I saw your face.”
He leans towards me, and before I can react a tingle spreads throughout my entire body as his lips brush against my mark. I scoot away as soon as I realize what he did, a blush creeping upon my cheeks. “This is too much,” I try to explain when he looks at me with questioning eyes, “this is too much for one day. I feel like my head is going to explode.”
My head is not the only thing that is about to explode. My heart is as well, nearly bursting after the kss he gave. He seems to sense this, crawling across the bed to me. “Now we can finally act like mates. I have waited so long for this… for you.” He takes my arm and gently runs ksses up and down it. Shock temporarily overwhelms me as he pins me down, kssing my neck. He stops for a second, inches away from my mouth, as if he expects me to reach up and kss him back.
“Scotty… uh, Griffin… don’t you think this is a little fast?” I ask him, a little scared by his expression and behavior. He just looks at me, clueless.
“Fast? What do you mean by that?” he asks, his brown eyes creasing in confusion. “Do you not feel the attraction as well? We are mates, Mona.”
“No, it is just… I’m a little conflicted right now.” I sit up, leaning against the back of the bed. “I don’t really know anything any more. I feel the attraction too. I mean, it would be impossible not to feel it. But it almost feels like there is something missing.”
What is that missing quality? With Xavier, I don’t feel quite like this, though the same attraction exists.
“Mona… that attraction is what binds us together. It is the eternal bond released by our werewolf forms… or dog forms.”
“G-griffin,” I stutter, “is that why you have brown eyes? You are a crossbreed?”
“Yes,” he looks away, shame in his features. “I know I’m not deserving of you.”
“At least you can shift,” I complain, snorting then laughing to try and cover it up. “I don’t even know if I have a werewolf form.”
He suddenly grows stiff. “What?” he asks.
“I’m not a full werewolf,” I explain, “I was originally meant to be converted to a Spier. However, throughout the conversion something went wrong, and apparently my conversion had failed. I was going to die. But Xavier came and gave me a few drops of his blood, and somehow I survived.”
He remains motionless, thinking hard. “So you show the symptoms of both supernatural species?”
“Well, I changed in appearance, and my reflexes and strength improved. But I haven’t shown any Spier abilities, besides the fact that I can see the shifters and heal the possessed.”
“So you can’t make a Spirit Spear,” he said worriedly, “for any other person, that would be normal, but for you, that’s very bad news. And what was the other thing you said you could-”
“Am I really going to die here?” I ask, touching his hand softly. He leans closer, kssing me on the forehead. Us being like this… it feels so comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. I feel like a traitor.
“Not if I can help it,” his ksses deepen, dancing across my skin. “But you will probably be removed from Pack 101, and they will be either exiled or terminated.”
“What?! No, please, Griffin, don’t let them,” I beg, staring at him.
“There’s not much I can do about that,” he said softly, “it will be a stretch for me even to save you.”
I think of their faces; Yi, Jake, Ray, Wes, and… Xavier. They sacrificed everything to save me. I was so important to them. How could I let them down like this?
How could I let… him down?
“Please,” I say, pulling away my arm, “I can’t right now.”
“Why?” His adorable eyes search my soul. After I say nothing in response, he resumes his previous action, passion burning in his expression.
“Please!” I squeal as he continues, “Xavier wouldn’t like-”
“What?” he asks angrily, stopping entirely. “Xavier? He’s the other one who marked you, right? Who cares what he thinks? You belong to me.”
I am frozen, considering my own feelings. Why did I say that? I suppose it was because I felt like this wasn’t right. Like I was betraying Xavier. But am I really betraying him when he was the second one to mark me? Where should my allegiance lie?
“I was serious before,” I urgently beg him, “I need some time to think before I go into brain overload. Please forgive me.”
“I mean, I will always forgive you,” Griffin replied, leaning back and lying on the edge of the bed, “but I am… angry. This is a strange feeling. It is like fire is choking me alive.”
He looks at me with a inexplicable expression. “You should forget about him, Mona. He won’t last long here. None of them will.”
I bury myself under the covers, trying to escape the burning reality. I may not even see them again, and that is a hard thing to accept. This is too much to take in. Why does the fact that I might not see Xavier hurt so much?
When I finally recover, I slowly sit up. The first thing I notice is that Griffin is there, sleeping on the side of the bed in his dog form. His personality as a human is so similar to his dog personality. He is earnest and persistent, passionate and loyal. My mind flashes back to the time when we were inseparable. That time seems so far in the past, but it was a time of incredible happiness.
Griffin lifts his head, and I find that in this form I can’t call him anything but Scotty. “Scotty, could you bring me to the rest of the pack?” I ask him softly. He shakes his head. “Could.. you try to save them?” I beg him, growing desperate. Scotty looks at me, then meltingly nods in response.
We sit there for a minute, then Scotty travels over to my side. He places a paw right above my chest, staring with unblinking eyes. This moment of seriousness passes, and he pounces on me, licking my entire face. I begin to laugh.
“Stop… stop…. STOP!!!” I yell as he covers my face in sticky saliva. He backs off, running to the door. I smile as he somehow manages to paw the door open, walking outside into the hallway. The happiness in the room vanishes, however, when the door bangs to a shut. Suddenly my previously desolate state of being returns, and I feel the urge to cry.
Somehow, the thought that I may survive this whole ordeal at the cost of my pack’s deaths makes me so depressed. I might as well just die with them, with the number of times Xavier has saved me from certain death. I don’t deserve to live any more than he does.
And there is also the fact that he is convinced that I hate him. The way he apologized to me last night displayed that. I want to explain to him before it is too late that I am not mad at him. Even now, it makes me hurt so much. I really don’t understand myself anymore.
I lay on the bed, drifting into nothingness within the next few minutes.
* * *
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