I LIVE HERE
1399 Words
Isla
I dialed the number of the Sheriff then hung up before the call connected.
I should report him. What Ryder had done was a crime. It was breaking and entering, simple.
But…
My mother was getting married to his dad soon.
It was the truth even though I hated thinking about it, because it suggested that such a man and I could be lumped together as family.
I dialed the number again and let it ring twice before I hung up.
He was an alpha and hierarchy was a big part of our lives as shifters.
But if alphas were allowed to do as they wanted then there was no reason for laws to be created, I reasoned to myself.
But this time I didn’t try to call the Sheriff. There was no use lying to myself and pretending that I could actually go through with reporting on my future step brother. And it was not for any of the excuses I’d brought up in my head too.
The truth was I, Isla Adam, was a pushover. Or more plainly, a coward.
***
It was past mid day when I finally thought it wise enough to venture back home.
It was ridiculous that I’d waited in my car, outside my house to give a criminal who had broken and entered, privacy.
But just this once I was going to look away.
Surely he hadn’t expected to be caught. He must’ve been embarrassed being discovered with his pants down—literally and figuratively.
But since he was going to be family soon, I’d go back home, change the locks and forget that this ever happened.
Decision made, I felt settled as I walked back home.
My phone rang the moment I stepped on the front porch and I took the call.
It was Sheriff Goodman.
He was a beta who stayed away from pack politics to avoid conflict of interest but was well liked and respected in the pack.
I’d picked up to tell him that I’d called mistakenly when I heard movements.
My home wasn’t empty like I’d expected.
I hung up after a quick excuse then tentatively followed the sound to the kitchen.
Before I’d left for school mom had been planning to add a few modern fixtures to the space and judging from the sleek kitchen island and polished new cabinetry, she’d managed to do so before she had been swept off her feet by her future husband.
But that wasn’t what had stolen words from my lips.
It was the man in the kitchen who, now standing, was taller than I’d expected.
Easily over 6’5. At five-three, he towered over me.
He was intimidating.
It also didn’t help that he was half naked.
Gray joggers hung low on his hips, clearly dragged on as an afterthought since the drawstring still hung untied.
His naked upper body looked sculpted from stone.
Broad shoulders. Defined abs. Veins running along powerful forearms.
I suddenly understood why some girls sacrificed their sleep just to spy on half naked boys during track practice at the academy.
And then there was the ink I’d glimpsed earlier.
This close, I could finally make out the tattoo. It began along the side of his torso, stretching across his ribs before sweeping down his arm. It was a bird frozen mid-flight, wings spread wide across his tanned skin.
It was beautiful.
And I was staring…
And now he was staring back, one of his eyebrows a dark s***h.
I whirled around so quickly, I felt dizzy. My face flamed with mortification.
“What are you doing here?” I managed to choke out, my head still turned away. “And where are your clothes?”
“Pick one question,” he said with a lazy drawl. “I’m obviously hungry and making cereal. Hope you can cook?”
“Huh,” I risked a glance over my shoulders. His shirt were still absent, so I covered my face with my hands immediately.
“Why are you not going back home?” I asked, intentionally widening two of my fingers so I could risk another peek.
“What do you mean going back home?” He asked as he brought out a milk carton from the fridge. Organic. That definitely didn’t look like what my mother would purchase.
That means…
“I live here.” He added confirming my fears.
“How could you…” I spluttered. “This is illegal. You cannot live here, I live here!”
He shrugged. “We could live together.”
“Live together…” I stammered, then lowered my hands at the absurdity of his words, embarrassment forgotten.
I couldn’t live together with a male I wasn’t mated to. It was unheard of. Unmated males and females stayed separate until they find their mates.
And he dared to shrug while suggesting that I, an unmated female, live with him?
“You have to learn how to share, Pip. Your mom didn’t tell you, we are going to be siblings?” He yawned. “Your days of monopolizing things as an only child are over.”
“Pip?” I squeaked, deliberately ignoring the rest of his sentence.
I was not going to regard this…this brute as my sibling!
“Peeping tom. You look nothing like a tom so I decided to make it cute, you’re welcome.”
He had taken a seat on the stool by the counter and was now eating his food, while speaking conversationally to me like we were friends.
“Peeping tom?” I cried out. “You were in my mother’s room, with that woman and you were behind her and…”
“You were intrigued.” He interrupted.
That damn shrug again. I clenched my fists at my side.
He added airily, “Some people like to watch.”
“You’re going to leave now…” I said, not sure I could stand any more word from his mouth. My voice trembled, even as I tried to infuse all the courage I didn’t have into my next words. “Else…”
“Else?” he repeated, looking bored.
“I’d tell the alpha. And I recognized that woman. I’d seen her before… smelt her rather. She is the wife of one of the council elders. I… I’d meet her husband…”
His movement was so fast that even as a wolf shifter, I barely saw it happen. That should be impossible yet one second he was across the kitchen eating his cereal.
The next, his hand was around my throat, pinning me against the countertop.
An embarrassing squeal left my lips.
“I think you don’t understand what is going on here, little Pip.” His voice was terrifyingly calm, roughened by what sounded like a growl. “I’m only staying in this dump because your mother turned my house into some suffocating little love nest.”
His grip tightened. My eyes widened as I choked on nothing.
“Not only do I find your house a terrible substitute, I also didn’t sign up for a little blabber mouth.” he snarled, a vein popping on his forehead.
“Now you can either shut the f**k up and just share like I advised or you can go stay with your mother and enjoy the upgraded lifestyle she worked so hard to provide you with.” He paused. “But if I hear about who was on my bed from anybody,” His eyes deliberately dragged slowly over my body making me grab the edge of the counter behind me as my knees threatened to give out.
His gaze felt like ice slithering down my spine. “I’d put an end to your mother’s little fairytale. And I just might enjoy doing it,” He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully as his eyes remained on my chest. “Don’t put ideas in my head, Pip.”
When I was sure that I might die out of shortness of breath, he released me and casually slid a hundred-dollar note on the counter.
“Now go and buy something you could cook for us to eat, housemate. I’m starving.”
Then he walked away.
I waited till I could no longer hear him before I allowed my buckling knees to give out completely. I slid to the floor.
This summer was going to be a nightmare.
- Writer
