The omegas mate

Chapter 9: Do I look pretty?

Mom took us out for lunch first. It was a cute little cafe that we went to and while she ordered some boring salad meal, I got myself a burger, some chips and a milkshake, ok and maybe a dessert too.

When I was younger, I used to be a chubby kid. I used to get bullied so bad in school that halfway through 6th grade, mom pulled me from school altogether and homeschooled me.

When the change set in, I was around sixteen, and it had been a godsend for me and my sweet tooth.

I carried on eating as I always had but had started to lose weight until I was slim and lean, the wolf gene ate all those damn carbs, my metabolism working faster, and so I sat here wondering why mom bothered to order boring food when we didn’t have to worry about gaining weight.

I still got super self-conscious about eating in front of people, but it was just mom, so I ordered what I wanted without fear of judgement.

When we went clothes shopping I thought we would be two hours tops, but no, oh no, mom had us shopping until the shops were almost closing, so I knew it had been around five hours and my feet were killing me.

Mom had me try on so many clothes, I swear my body was going to be aching from all the exercise of just constantly changing clothes.

I didn’t have a clue what looked good on me, so I let her be the judge. When we were done clothes shopping I thought we’d be going home but nope, mom bought loads of makeup too, a lot of it I didn’t even know what it was for.

When we finally got back home, it was dark, and I collapsed onto the big corner sofa next to Mason and Rachel. Clearly they had made up because she was holding his hand.

I flopped my head dramatically onto Rachel’s lap and tried to keep my eyes open.

“I see your mom took you shopping.” When I nodded, Rachel laughed and added, “she did the same with me once, I have no clue how she has the energy.”

“I do,” I managed to mutter and then finished, “her salads.”

Everyone laughed at that, but I was too tired to even smile right now.

I don’t know when I fell asleep, but when I woke up it was morning and I had a blanket over me. I got up off the sofa and went into the kitchen to get some cereal.

I was finishing off the last of my lucky charms when I glanced up to see Joe, another pack member who was built like a gladiator with a dark tan and black tousled hair, look at me and smiled sweetly, the kind of smile you give kids.

I scraped my chair back loud enough that the five other wolves in the room turned to look. I got up and stormed from the kitchen, with Joe giving me a confused look.

I ran upstairs, realized what I was doing, and then stopped and walked up instead to find mom. “Hey mom!” I slammed open her bedroom door and stopped mid-walk.

Markus was on top of her on the bed, and they were making out like there was no tomorrow. I thanked my lucky stars they were still fully clothed at this point and tried not to gag and failed.

Markus was the first to hear me and jumped off mom like she was on fire. “What the hell, Hazel, how many times have we told you to knock before walking in.”

He was breathless and flustered, so it was hard to take him seriously and I tried really hard to keep in the laughter that was bubbling up.

“Trust me, I’m scarred for life, this is a lesson well learned for me, I will never barge in again.” I made a barfing noise and pretended to throw up.

Mom was already up and standing at this point. Markus came over to me and threw me in to a headlock, while I failed miserably to try and break free from it.

When he finally let me go, my hair was a crazy mess, and he kissed me on the forehead before walking out the door.

“Eww, do not kiss me after you’ve just been kissing mom like that, wait at least an hour or two,” I yelled at his back. His only response was laughter.

“What did you want?”

I turned back to mom, who didn’t look impressed at all, and luckily for me that look only lasted all of five seconds before she remembered our shopping spree and her face turned to excitement. “Oh, you want me to dress you all up, right? Please tell me we went shopping because you want to actually use the things we bought?”

When I nodded nervously, she did a little excited screech and pulled me over to sit down in her makeup chair.

She looked me over, frowned and made me go have a shower and wash my hair and then come back to her.

When I was done with the shower she sat me back in the chair and used some creams and oils or something for my hair, I honestly couldn’t tell you what they were as I had never really bothered with hair products besides shampoo and conditioner.

Whatever she did really made my hair look incredible, it was soft and shiny and bouncy looking, the ringlets of my curls had no hint of the usual frizz and dryness, and they fell beautifully down to my waist.

Mom gently clipped the hair away from my face and got to work with the makeup. I tried to keep still, but it was hard sitting for so long while she smeared what felt like slime on my face, apparently it was foundation, and she told me off more than once whenever I moved and jogged her work.

When it came to my eyes and using an eye pencil for my lower line, I jerked and flinched until she slapped the back of my head and sighed, “for the love of the moon goddess will you keep still!”

I grumbled something unintelligible but stopped flinching and let her get on with it.

When she was finally done, I got up and almost fell back down, my legs like jello from sitting for two hours straight.

If it took this long every time, I’d be damned if I was going to keep it up. I looked in the mirror and was glad I hadn’t sipped the drink on the dressing table because it would have been spat all over the place from shock.

I almost didn’t recognize myself. I walked closer to the mirror and just stared in awe. I looked good! More than good without sounding vain. Like a freaking model. Like a freaking goddess!

My hair looked amazing, the thick soft curls trailing perfectly down to my waist, the hints, and tones of blonde and honey blonde running through what should have been just black hair.

Humans always thought I’d dyed my hair, but it was natural, I always wondered if my biological mother had been a blonde or the other way around and perhaps my father had been?

I looked at the makeup, the foundation made my skin look flawless and airbrushed, mom had given me a cat eye look to really dramatize the natural almond cat shape I already had.

The eyeshadow was a shimmering emerald, and the eye pencil, for all its jabbing had somehow created this gorgeous Smokey effect on my lower line.

I knew what mom meant by contour now as well, as I could see she had contoured my face, and it really showed of my naturally high cheekbones.

She had given me a bold lip too, a dark sultry red lipstick. I couldn’t get over how good it looked. I turned to mom and grinned, “thanks, it looks so good, mom!” She looked like the cat that got the cream, all proud and happy.

I still wasn’t dressed yet, and she made me change into a beige tight dress that stopped at my mid-thighs.

I felt super self-conscious wearing the dress and reluctantly slipped on the black wedge heels she gave me.

Looking in the mirror, I did look stunning, but I didn’t have the confidence to walk out to everyone like it.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit much mom, especially if I’m not even going out anywhere fancy today?”

She came over to me and placed her hands on my shoulders reassuringly. “You look beautiful, Hazel, and we absolutely are going to celebrate this new look by going out for dinner today. You, me and dad ok.”

I grinned excitedly and nodded my head. It wasn’t often we went out together as a family.

When I left the bedroom, I went and relaxed in my own room for a while before coming out and heading downstairs.

By this point, I had actually forgotten about the makeup and everything until everyone turned to stare at me as I entered the living room.

Lydia looked shocked, her eyebrows were raised so high, I’m surprised those fluffies didn’t fly off into the air. Rachel didn’t look much different, and in fact all the females looked surprised.

The men looked shocked too, but I could also see the confusion on their faces as they struggled between knowing me as the innocent girl whose hair they ruffled and the woman standing before them.

I didn’t know where Mason was, but he wasn’t here. The females complimented me and chatted with me for a while, and the men went back to doing whatever men do. Thank god, that was awkward as hell.

I got up after a while and headed to the kitchen for a drink and bumped into Markus. Great. He did a double take when he saw me and for once, was speechless. Eventually, he managed to ask, “did mom do you up?”

“Yes, I’m fed up being treated like a kid, so I asked mom to help me start dressing my age. Do I look ok?” I still felt self-conscious, wondering if the females had only complimented me out of politeness.

He came over to me and gently moved my hair from my face and said, “you look absolutely gorgeous, don’t doubt yourself, and don’t doubt your mother’s mad skills either.” He winked at the last bit and I grinned happily.

“Mom said we are going out for dinner today, just us three.”

He rolled his eyes at that and sarcastically answered, “well, looks like she’s already decided for me. When?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I’ll ask her, is she still in the bedroom?”

I nodded, and he went to kiss the top of my head but stopped himself and gently patted my shoulder instead as he walked by.

I preferred it when we weren’t arguing or mad at one another and sighed in relief.

I was making myself some orange juice when someone else came into the kitchen and waited for me to move aside, so they could get a glass of their own. “Oh, sorry,” I mumbled and grabbed my glass and turned around to see Mason standing there.

“Woah, Hazel, I thought you were someone else.”

He looked me up and down, and I wisely only smiled in my head when I caught that very male look guys get when they’re looking at a woman they find attractive. Then I shook my thoughts away and scolded myself.

Of course he wasn’t attracted to me, he was like everyone else and just saw me as the pup of the pack. As happy and positive as I was for a wolf, I struggled to be that way when it came to myself.

I didn’t know whether that was because of the years of bullying when I was overweight, the fact I still viewed myself as that overweight girl even though the wolf had helped turn me lean, or that I just really struggled to see myself as beautiful.

I mean, I was twenty-five and had never been told I was beautiful or pretty or even asked out by a boy or a man. It sucked.

I wasn’t brave enough to actually think someone as hot as Mason could think I was attractive, so I instead thought that maybe, just maybe he liked how I looked a little because he seemed a little flustered and struggled to make eye contact.

He had never struggled to make eye contact before. He got his glass and I watched him take a sip of his drink.

“What?” He asked, when I was still watching him.

“Just wondering if we are still allowed to be friends, or if you’ve decided to completely drop me now.”

He put his glass down and came towards me. “Of course we can still be friends, as long as it stays that way.” He spoke in a more softer tone and gave me a knowing look.

It took me a moment, but I realized he was basically telling me we could be friends as long as I don’t come on to him or try to turn the friendship into something more. Pfft, arrogant or what. I gave him the look that deserved and replied, “bit arrogant, you should be so lucky.”

I started walking out of the kitchen and looked back to see him watching me with that male look again. “You better quit looking at me like that too, Mr, I might think you’re trying to turn our friendship into something more than it is.” I rolled my eyes as I said it and walked off to the sound of him calling out, “I wasn’t looking at you like anything.”