Hunted

Wine

We walk downstairs to see that almost the whole table is filled. All 20 people are looking at us since we are the last ones arriving. There are two spots empty, next to each other. I sit down and Jace sits next to me. On my left side sits Nick and opposite of me is Dan. Just a minute after we sat down a couple of people walks in the room carrying big plates of food and place them on the table. Everyone looks at each other for a second and then starts filling their plates. I just look at them in awe. I’m not used to eating like this. I would just always microwave the leftovers from the Slades, and sometimes join them for dinner, but it sure wasn’t anything like this. There was so much food on the table. I see whole chickens, salads, big pans of soup, and so much more. Everyone around me is busy picking the best pieces, so I just wait for everyone to calm down before I grab something. Then, after a minute somebody walks up to me.

“Would you like wine or water?” He asks politely. It’s almost like I am at a restaurant, in somebody’s home.

“Uhm. Red wine please?” He nods his head and walks over to Nick.

“Are you all right?” Jace suddenly whispers in my ear.

“Yeah, why.”

“Why aren’t you eating?”

“It’s just… Everybody was so busy, I thought I would just wait until things calmed down a little.”

“You are living with a bunch of wolves now. Each of us could eat a whole cow if we wanted to. If you don’t grab something now there will be nothing left.”

“Oh,” I say as I stare to all the food. There is so much to choose from. I carefully grab some chicken and a bit of potato salad. Just when I started eating the glass of wine arrived. Nice, alcohol might help relax me a little. Jace is talking to the guys next to him about some type of car I think. There are a lot of men here, I only see three girls.

“Are they making you uncomfortable?” A voice from beside me suddenly says. It’s Nick.

“Everything about this house makes me uncomfortable,” I answer him.

“What? Why?” He looks genuinely surprised.

“I’ve lived I a caravan for most of my life, before that I lived on the streets. I’ve never had my own shower, I’ve always eaten the simplest and cheapest meals.  Even when we were going out I always depended on the creepy guys from across the bar to buy me a drink.”

“Yeah, then this must be overwhelming,” he says. Finally, someone who gets me.

“Do you like going out?” He asks.

“Yes, whenever there was a night that I didn’t have to work we usually went somewhere. But yeah, the last year I haven’t been out much.”

“Why?”

“Because I was in a coma, you idiot.” I giggle.

“Oh, of course. I almost forgot.” He pauses for a second “We often go out in the weekends, maybe you can join us sometime?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I know only Jace, Dan, and you.”

“Jace is a lightweight, if you think you know him give him three beers and he is a completely different person.”

“Really? Only three beers? Even I can do better than that.” Probably shouldn’t have said that because now he is looking at me with some ‘tell me all about it’ eyes. I just look away from him.

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“Fine.” I let out a big sigh. “I can chug a bottle of wine in thirty seconds.” His jaw almost drops. “It’s not as impressive as Nate’s whiskey record, but it’s still something.”

“Who’s Nate?”  

“He is a very good friend of mine, from New York. We had this close group and everyone had his party trick. Mine was the wine, he had the whiskey.”

“What did he do with whiskey?” Jace suddenly asks. He had been listening to the whole time.

“He would put two straws in his nose and snort a whole glass.” I see the look on their faces change as they imagine the burning sensation of alcohol running through your nose.

After we all finished eating, and the waiters had collected our plates, we talked for a bit. Nothing serious, mostly some funny drunk stories from Nick and Jace.

“Okay Jace, but do you remember this one time at that senior girls' party? What was her name? Lucy?” Nick says.

“Oh god,” Jace replies, clearly embarrassed about the story that’s about to be told.

“Okay, so he had a few drinks and was completely hammered.”

“I mean you don’t have to tell it,” Jace interrupts him.

“Fine, then I tell her about the time you had those pot brownies.”

“And we’re leaving. Goodnight everyone.”

“Already?” I ask him. I was having fun getting to know them. They seem so close and have done so many fun things together.

“Love, it is almost midnight and you are already on your second bottle of wine.”

“And?”

“And we are leaving.”

“Is he always such a party pooper?” I ask Nick.

“Yeah, you have to get used to it.” He laughs.

He looks like he wants to go so I follow him to his room. It feels weird, to just walk into someone else’s room like that. But now, it is my room as well. I sit down on the bed while Jace walks to the bathroom. After talking the whole night about friends, it made me realize how much I miss them. How I miss that after we got home one of us would send a text and we would just go for a second round. I miss Elle. She was the person I shared everything with. I wonder how they are all doing. I hope Elle got into that school she wanted. I’m never going to see them again probably and that hurts.

I am so lost in thought I don’t even notice that Jace is sitting next to me.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine” I answer him.

“You don’t look fine.” He says as he wraps his arm around my waist.

“It’s nothing,” I say as I stand up and walk to the bathroom. I brush my teeth and braid my hair. I walk back to the bedroom to grab some pajamas from the bag, after that I return to the bathroom to change. When I come back I see that Jace is struggling with some blankets on the couch.

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“Making my bed.”

“Are you just pretending or are you just really that stupid?”

“What?”

“I decided to stay here because you would be here too. If I wanted you somewhere else I would have just stayed in one of the guest rooms.”

“I guess I am stupid,” he says as he laughs and pulls the blanket away from the couch.

As I lay in the bed I hear Jace putting some more wood on the fireplace. He then walks over to the door and turns the lights off. He lays in bed but makes sure to keep some distance.

“What’s up with you?” I ask him.

“What do you mean?”

“Well yesterday and this morning you were very cuddly and now you want to sleep in another bed, and now that you are in the same bed as me you still lay as far away from me as possible.”

“I just thought that… Maybe you don’t want me to be here. I mean I pulled you away from everyone you loved. I still have this feeling that you might hate me for that and that yesterday you just used me for the mate bond to calm you down.”

“First of all. I don’t hate you. None of this is your fault. Second of all. I didn’t use you purely for the mate bond. I acted the way I did because I needed someone I can trust, someone I feel safe with. And at this moment, that is you.”

He looks at me with a serious face for a couple of seconds, processing what I just said. Then, he starts to smile. He moves closer to me and lies down. He’s just inches away from me, but still, I feel the urge to move even closer to him. He turns to his side, facing me.

“So, what do you want to do tomorrow?” He asks.

“I don’t know.”

“Tomorrow there is a beginner's training, maybe we could do that?”

“You are not a beginner anymore.”

“If something goes wrong, and your wolf gets mad, I need to be there to make sure you don’t slaughter all the kids.”

“I’m not planning on that. But do you think I can do that? I mean I know nothing about being a wolf.” I answer him.

“You’ll be fine,” he says as he gently places his hand on my cheek. It calms me down knowing he will be there. “But you have to go to sleep now because we start at 6 am.”

“Why so early?”

“Because most have jobs and want to be there on time.” 

He comes even closer to me. I feel his calm breathing on my skin. Deep inside I feel a little uncomfortable with him being so close, but as soon as I look at him that feeling disappears. I feel the need to touch him. To just feel his skin on mine, to make sure he’s here. I place my hand on his cheek. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. It’s weird having this pull towards someone you barely know, and even weirder is the fact that he has it too, maybe even stronger, but we both don’t fully give into it because it feels unnatural. I know if I kiss him right now, he will kiss me back. But the question is, do I want to? Everything inside of me screams yes, but if I use my common sense it’s a different story. He’s a guy that I have just met, and I’ve already kissed him multiple times. I’m even sharing a bed with him right now. But I don’t know if I have to trust my common sense since this situation is everything except common.