Second chance love

E i g h t

Holly walked into the pack house and headed straight to her room. She ran a hot bath filling it with her favourite honey scented bubble bath and lighting a couple of candles. She had never been a bath person, preferring the efficiency of a shower but today she felt that this was what she needed to help her unwind. It felt like such a long time ago that her only concern was what to wear to Finn’s birthday party to get him to notice her, but in reality it had been less than three months. In that time her world had been turned upside down, twice, and she was almost experiencing a strange sort of motion sickness because of it all. 

She sank slowly into the bath, the heat of the water being at the brink of scalding her skin, and she inhaled deeply, before breathing out slowly. She replayed the days events in her mind, from the carefree racing around the woods with Finn and Lisa, to leaving the warehouse with her life completely altered. How on earth was she going to help Caleb climb the mountain of grief that caused him to seek out the White Tide pack in the first place? 

‘We just need to be there for him’ purred Lacey at the back of her mind. Lacey was the bath lover of the two, and she was absolutely relishing the heat of the water. 

Easier said than done thought Holly, but she knew Lacey was right. She had to show Caleb that she could help him through this, and the best way to do that right now was to help with his training so that he would be accepted into the White Tide pack right away.  

At that thought, Holly sat up and pulled the plug on the bath, much to the disgust of Lacey, and switched the shower on. She washed her hair in record time, gave her armpits a quick once over with a razor, and climbed out before the bubbles had even disappeared down the plug hole. 

‘Five more minutes wouldn’t have hurt Hols’ Lacey grumbled, but Holly wasn’t paying attention, putting a dab of moisturiser on her face and towel drying her hair. She went into her room, grabbed her favourite pair of leggings from the pile and a plain black tank top, threw them on over some underwear and mind-linked Finn to ask where he was. As she had hoped, he was in the gym with Caleb, and Holly ran down the four flights of stairs to join them in the basement. 

‘Uhoh, someone means business!’ Finn muttered to her as she approached him, looking her up and down. She shot him a quizzical look, to which he simply replied, ‘It’s the Hatter leggings.’

This earned a look from Caleb, who was too busy running on the treadmill to notice her arrival before. She felt herself blush at the attention he was now giving her legs but she inwardly enjoyed every second. The leggings had images of the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’, a favourite book of Holly’s from childhood. When she had stumbled across an online shop that sold bright and colourful sportswear she was thrilled, but even more so when she spotted this particular design. She wore them any time she felt that she needed an extra boost in her training, and Finn knew her all too well. 

Shooting Finn the finger, she stepped onto the treadmill next to Caleb and smiled encouragingly at him. 

‘It’s really not that bad you know, the fitness test,’ she said with a smile on her face, hoping she could ease any possible concerns he might have, ‘hey if I can pass then I’m sure you’ll sail through it!’

Caleb looked at her, gave a small smile and mumbled a thanks before focusing fully on the treadmill in front of him. Holly felt her confidence take a knock, but with a nudge from Lacey she plugged her headphones in and started running. She kept her pace just below that of Caleb’s, and hoped that he would find comfort in just having someone next to him. 

*** 

The next morning Holly woke with a start. Something was wrong. She made her way to the courtyard that separated the main houses of the pack and looked around. Just then she felt a dull ache in her chest. She closed her eyes and took a breath to calm herself. 

‘Follow your heart’ she heard Lacey murmur. 

She took another deep breath and moved towards one of the guest house doors. She knocked, listening for an answer. When none came, she opened the door. The scene in front of her startled her. 

The guest houses were little more than a bedsit, each one had a large double bed, a generously sized bathroom, and a small kitchen area consisting of a sink, a hob, a microwave and a small fridge. Guests were always welcome, but these were short stay homes. 

Holly had opened the door to see Caleb sprawled in the middle of the bed, his hair slick with sweat and sticking up at all angles. He was wearing just a pair of black snug fitting boxers, which she could see thanks to the screwed up sheets that were covering his feet and half of the floor beside the bed. As she watched he shuddered in his sleep at the same time Holly felt the same ache in her heart she had outside. 

‘He must be having a nightmare’ Lacey sobbed, ‘we have to wake him up!’ 

Holly looked around her, there were no pillows that she could have thrown at him, and as much as she wanted to go to him and softly wake him up by running her fingers through his hair, she knew that he would not appreciate being woken up, and she wasn’t sure he wouldn’t hurt her before realising where he was. 

She stepped back to the doorway and pulled the door closed, before pounding as loudly as she could on the door. She continued to hit the door until it opened in front of her. 

Caleb had not bothered to put any clothes on, so for a minute Holly just stood and started at him, her mouth slightly open. 

‘Can I help you?’ Caleb spoke, jolting her out of her trance. 

‘Uhm. N-no, can I, ugh, help you?’ She stumbled over her words, unable to stop her eyes trailing all over his body. His chest looked like it was carved from stone, every muscle clearly defined and taut. 

‘You were the one hammering on the door’ he smiled at her as she shook her head to stop her eyes from wondering further than his stomach, wrenching her eyes away from the defined V shape that she wished she could trace with her finger. Or her tongue. She blushed. 

‘You, uhm, you never said goodbye yesterday at the gym.’ Holly blushed again, immediately feeling like an i***t, wishing she could have come up with something better. 

Caleb looked her up and down, Holly felt his eyes on her and trembled slightly. What if he didn’t like what he saw? Lacey gently chastised her while relishing in the attention Caleb was giving them. 

‘Let me grab a shower and then we can go grab a cup of something hot and caffeinated, does that sound good?’ He smiled gently at her, a smile that made her heart sing. 

‘Tea or coffee? Sugar? Milk? Are you hungry?’ She heard herself rambling but she couldn’t help herself. ‘I’ll get a mix of everything sorted and meet you on the benches?’ 

He looked over to the picnic area she pointed at, and looked back at her smiling. 

‘Sure. I’ll be out in a sec.’ he turned to walk back in the house and Holly found her eyes glued to his muscled shapely ass. She heard Lacey purr in contentment. Caleb might have done too, for he turned, smiled and winked before closing the door. 

‘Damn,’ rumbled Lacey, ‘I cannot wait to mate with this guy!’