Enchanted By The Lawn Wolf

Chapter Three

Chapter Three: Happy Birthday

Warm and cuddly, you know I don't remember

Snow ever being this warm or cuddly. The last time I tried to cuddle with her, she smelled

so badly that I ended up bathing her four

times the next day, and in the end, I was the only

one that ended up smelling like dog shampoo. But

that wasn't my point. My point was that…… wait, I

think I forgot.

**** **** ***

A rumbled sound of contentment that almost

sounds like a purr, sounds in my ear, making the

bed vibrate as I snuggle closer to the warm, non-

the furry body next to mine. I sigh happily when an

arm wraps around my shoulders, tugging me closer

as another purr-like sound reaches my ears.

It's funny because Snow doesn't like

cuddling with me, and I don't remember her ever

smelling this good. Not even when I accidentally

spilt a whole bottle of perfume on her. But this

scent is woodsy, like the forest before a storm and

entirely masculine.

A loud bark sounds from some far corner of my

room as a car passes by, the loud rumbling of the

engine making it very hard for me to slip back into

my sleep. Snow barks again, and I groan when the

arm around my shoulder slips down to my waist,

letting the cold air sting my bare skin.

"Snow, shut the hell up." I shiver and scoot closer

to the warmth beside me, freezing when a sudden thought occurs to me. If Snow is across the room, then who am I cuddling with?

Hesitantly, I open my eyes and stare in shock up at

Declan's sleeping face. This is so not where I fell

asleep last night. But damn, if he doesn't look

cute. Slowly, holding my breath, I push myself

away from his body, breathing out roughly when

his grip tightens on my waist. Swallowing tightly, I

pull his arm away from me, eyes wandering when

the blankets ease down his chest. Damn it, and I need

to stop looking at him when he's asleep, at least

when he's awake. I don't have the guts to ogle him.

He shifts in his sleep, inadvertently pulling the

blankets farther down his chest, revealing smooth,

toned muscle with barely a scar from the bullet

wound that had been there last night. What the

hell?

Glancing up at his face, I lean closer to his chest,

tracing the round, barely there, little scar,

wondering where all the little scratches

last night went. There's no way

they could have healed so fast, could they? There should still be scratches, at least little scabs,

shouldn't there?

"How the hell?" He shouldn't have recovered that

fast. When I found him, he was close to bleeding to

death, and now there's not even a mark when his minor wounds were. Someone doesn't heal from the damage he'd suffered overnight, which is just impossible.

"I heal abnormally fast." He murmurs, voice still

husky from sleep, and I freeze. A little shriek

escapes my mouth as I stumble backwards from the

bed. Snow yelps when I trip on her and runs

quickly towards the door, making me fall flat on my

bottom, staring in shock as Declan suddenly crouches beside me, with no sign of any pain in

his expression. "I am so sorry, and I did not mean to

startle you. Are you alright?" Me? He's the one that

couldn't take a breath last night without wincing, and now he's suddenly healed and asking if I'm

alright.

"I-I'm fine, but how did you heal so fast? I mean,

there's no way you could have there's not even a

scar." My eyes wander all over his chest, looking for

any sign, other than the tiny scar, that he had been

hurt and find none. He was never hurt in the

first place like I imagined it all. I hadn't imagined

it all, had I?

"As I said, I heal abnormally fast……. You could say it

runs in my family." He gives a small smile, but his

expression is still worried as his eyes look me up

and down, making my heart flutter.

Damn, that is so not a good thing.

"You think? Dude, you needed to go the hospital

and now its like you were never even hurt. How is

that possible?"

When I look up at his face again, his expression is guarded, and he refuses to meet my eye.

"You

should get dressed before your father arrives. I will

leave as soon as I am fully healed and able to

contact my guard." Oh-kay, and I'm going to

pretend I know what he's talking

about.

"Wait, how did you know my dad's coming home

today?" I hadn't told him that, had I? I'm pretty

sure I never said anything about my dad but hell,

after staring into his eyes for a couple of minutes

I'd forget my name, so who knows?

His lips quirk up at the sides, drawing my gaze and

making it very hard to look away. Oh hell. "You talk

in your sleep." He grips my arm gently, pulling me

to my feet before walking back to the bed, carefully giving Snow her personal space when she

growls at him.

"Hey, uh, where did you get the pajama bottoms?"

They look like my dad's but that would mean he'd

walked downstairs and got them while I was

sleeping. And how the hell did I end up in the bed

when I'm certain that I went to sleep on

the floor?

He frowns, looking from the pants and back to me,

a light flush filling his cheeks, and I swear I almost

swooned at sight. Almost. "You do not mind, do

you? I did not think it was appropriate for us to sleep in the same bed while I was indisposed.

I blink back at him in shock. Did he seriously say that? Any guy would have taken advantage of the situation, hell any other guy

would have left me on the floor, but he thought it

was 'inappropriate'? Why couldn't I have met him

under normal circumstances? "Let me get this

straight, you went downstairs, got a pair of my

dad's pyjama bottoms and put me in the bed?" So

weird and so sweet.

He nods slowly, "Yes, you could not have been

comfortable on the floor. Is that alright?" He stares

at me worriedly, frowning when I don't answer

immediately.

"I am sorry if I upset you, I meant to

sleep on the floor, but your dog would not stop

growling at me and-"

"It's fine, really. I just-thanks." He nods, looking

away from me, and I groan internally at the tension

suddenly filling the air. "I-uh, need to shower, so,

will you be alright?"

He smiles gratefully at me, "Yes, of course, I am a

big boy you know." Yea, I know, but I doubt that is

what he's talking about. Damn it, and I cannot be

attracted to him, I just can't. Nodding quickly, I half

run into the bathroom, leaning heavily on the door

once it's shut. I am not attracted to him, I've just got

a bug or something that's making me think crazy

things, that's all.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize that I forgot to

bring clothes into the bathroom with me until after

I've already showered, I'm shivering from the cold, and I don't want to ask Declan to leave the room so I can get my clothes. I'm still

trying to wrap my head around that he's

almost completely healed. No one should be able to

heal that fast.

Wrapping a bath towel around myself, I open the

bathroom door just a c***k and peek out. Argh,

why did the one time I forgot to bring clothes with

me into the bathroom have to be today? Couldn't it

have waited until Declan was gone?

"Lily, is everything alright?" Damn him for

sounding concerned, couldn't he ignore me like

a normal person?

"Uh no, not really. Um, I kinda forgot my clothes,

so do you think you could close your eyes?" Or I

could ask him to hand me some clothes, but

the thought of him rummaging through my

underwear drawer is…. embarrassing.

"Oh, are you sure? Would it be better if I waited in

another room?" Yes, maybe then my stomach

wouldn't feel like butterflies are living in it, but

Dad's due home any time now and I'm not so sure

how he'll react if he finds Declan in the house. Its

more than likely that he'll lock me in my room until

I leave for college next year, but hey, I'd rather not

find out.

"Er, no just don't….. look." What the hell is my

problem? I've changed in front of Max and

Charlie plenty of times, and now I'm suddenly self-conscious? It makes no sense.

"Very well, I will not look." I frown at the quiver in

his voice, and it almost sounds like he's struggling not to laugh, and something tells me he's laughing at

me. Which just plain pisses me off because it's all his

fault. With his stupid blue eyes and

hot body, a stupid boy makes my hormones act.…stupid.

I swallow and push the bathroom door open,

watching him cautiously as I walk across the room

to my closet. Sitting on my bed bare-chested, he

looks like he belongs there like he was the one

the thing my tiny room was missing, and that's a very

scary thought.

"Are you going to stand and stare at me all day or

get dressed?" His voice snaps me out of my

dirty fantasy and back to reality as his lips quirk in

a half smile. And it's a damn good thing his eyes are

closed. Otherwise, he'd know I was blushing.

I walk into the closet quickly, silently thanking him.

Tessa for insisting that I take the only room with a

walk-in closet. Of course, when she'd said it, she'd

been thinking about hiding her wedding dress here

so Shawn wouldn't decide to get nosy. While I'm

changing, the sound of a car motor gets closer and

closer to the house before it cuts off, almost

sounding like it stopped right in front of the house.

But that would mean...

The front door slams, and Dad's voice echoes

throughout the house, "Lily! Are you up yet?"

His footsteps sounded on the stairs, the loud 'thump' of his every footstep getting louder as he got closer to my room.

Damn, damn, damn, damn. "Lily

hun, it's noon. Were you planning on sleeping all

day?"

I rush out of the closet stopping at sight in front

of me. Empty, my entire bedroom is empty of life,

except for Snow. Where the hell did Declan go?

"Declan?" I hiss his name out in a whisper,

frantically searching the room and coming up with

nothing. Not even in the little drawer in my

dresser. Where could he have gone?

"Lily?" The door handle turns in slow

motion as Dad opens my door, frowning when he

sees me looking under my bed. "Lose something,

hun?"

"Uh, yea, my-uh-toothbrush." My toothbrush?

What the hell kind of answer is that? His frown

deepens, and I force a sheepish smile, laughing

nervously.

"Did you check the medicine cabinet in the

bathroom? That's where you usually keep it right?"

"Yea, right, I didn't look there, just one of those,

you know?" He nods slowly, but I doubt he agrees.

My dad and I rarely ever agree on anything, and I'd

like to keep it that way.

"So, um-how was your

trip?"

"Good, same as usual, a ton of meetings and barely

any sleep. How was your party?" 'Boring, but then I

found a naked man bleeding to death on the back porch so I brought him here to help him and now he's all healed, but I seem to have lost him. So

if you find a strange man somewhere in the house

wearing your pajamas don't worry.' Yea, he'd kill

me for sure if I told him that.

"It was alright, same as usual." He nods again, and I

resist the urge to roll my eyes. I love my dad, but the man has no social skills whatsoever. That and this is the longest conversation we've

had since the day I hit puberty.

"Right, well I've got to unpack and your present is

outside, keys in the kitchen. Happy birthday."

With that, he shuts the door and walks back down

the stairs, probably to hide in his library from me

for the rest of the day.

"At least this time, he waited until after my birthday

to give me the keys, right, Snow?" She blinked

at me, and I sighed, peeking back under my bed to

make sure Declan wasn't there. Every year for my

birthday, my dad goes on a business trip and has

made up for it since I turned 16. I got a

new car for my present, sometimes weeks in

advance.

"Your father is not a very talkative man, is he?" I

jump at the sound of his voice, squealing in shock

when I see he's sitting on the edge of my bed, a

the thoughtful expression on his face. "Was today your

birthday?"

"Dad's been quiet ever since I can remember; yesterday was my 18th birthday." I will never know why I felt the need to make sure he knew I was 18.

"Where did you go?"

"So I ruined your party then. I apologize." The

the guilty look on his face has my insides clenching,

which is weird because they only do that

when I eat too much.

"No, you didn't ruin my party, it wasn't that

much fun anyway." Parties aren't my thin, I'd so

much rather go out and TP my biology teacher's

house, but Tess and Carla insisted, and I'm a sucker

for their puppy dog looks.

"Well then, I wish you a happy birthday, Lily.

He gives me a full-blown smile, showing off pearly

white teeth, and my heart skips a beat.

Perfect, just freaking perfect! And the butthead

hasn't answered my question, either.