The Last Mate on Earth

Part 1 - Chapter 8

* * * Hayden’s POV * * *

The changing room is empty. Nobody else works at this time; typically, I would not work at this time. But given the events with Jason, I have been asked to put in overtime. Right now, it is just Joven and me. This is the way I prefer things to be. I walk to my locker and pull out my student’s uniform and change into it. Prepared to work, at least that is what I told my father. I want to comfort Hope, reassure her, and tell her everything will be OK.

Everybody else will be going to bed except for my father and the parents. They will watch the screens and listen to her, hoping to dissect her innermost thoughts and feelings. It started to kill me, knowing we spied upon her this way. She had no clue what this facility really was. I only hoped that when the day came that she figured out their lies, she would forgive me for deceiving her.

If I were an honourable young man, I would resign and cast myself into a life outside the facility. But, I could not bear to be without her. So I would continue the lie just so that I could be close to her.

It isn’t unusual for me to work late; I am the one they send out of hours for unscheduled meetings, the one she will talk to. You can't always predict life; sometimes, the unexpected happens, and Hope needs us. Tonight is one of those nights. There is no hidden agenda tonight; my father just wants us to provide comfort to Hope. To be her friend and cement that trusted bond so that when they want answers, she will be more inclined to give them to me.

Tonight there is no script, no rehearsed lines and no key messages. It is all about improvisation; we would effectively be winging it. And that is the reason Joven, and I have been selected. Mainly because it was us that Hope trusted, but also because we were the only ones able to go with the flow.

I open my locker and pull out the standard ‘school uniform pyjamas’; that is what Hope would expect us to be wearing. I change into the horrid blue and white pinstripe pants and shirt and wait for Joven.

When she was younger, they had tried robotics and computer software, but she always knew they were not real people, and then she shut down from them. That is why they created a fake school with their young classmates. That is why they told her some of the truth because she had questioned where the girls were.

She was perceptive and understood more than they gave her credit for. She was intelligent and funny. She deserved better than this. I needed to calm my thoughts; tonight was about Hope.

“Are you ready for this?” Joven asks me.

“When am I ever? But she needs us, so let’s do this”, I answered him.

We step into the lift, press the top floor button, and then place our hands on the reader. Hope’s floor is for authorised personnel only.

The lift stops, and the doors slide open; this is where we open the false back of the wardrobe and navigate through the coat hangers. Once the wardrobe is sealed, I hear the lift go back down. We are now standing in the large boys' dormitory; this is where Hope thinks we sleep after school.

Leaving our fake dormitory, we first head to Hope’s room. She did not answer when I knocked on the door, so I opened it and let us in. Her room was trashed, her bed upturned, her belongings thrown across the room. She was hurting.

We left her room and searched for Hope; there were only two places she would be; by the pool looking at the ocean view or in the garden. We rush through the corridors and onto the castle walkway; if I picture it hard enough, I can almost remember what the air would feel like in my hair. I have not been outdoors since my father brought me here.

Together we search the pool areas; she is not here. That leaves the garden, “Go ahead, man, she opens up more when she is with you. I will grab some drinks and then if she doesn’t want me there, you can give me the nod”, Joven tells me. He was right; sometimes, Hope would only open up when it was the two of us.

I walk towards the garden; the trees and flowers almost glow in the gentle blue light cast by the large full moon which looms overhead. Of course, it is nothing like a full moon; it is projected by the dome. It floats effortlessly and illuminates the castle; the dome is run by a computer program that simulates seasons and the time of the day, all aiming to convince Hope that what she is seeing is the outside world. This is Hope’s moon.

I reach the centre of the garden and see her fluffy socks sticking out between two of the flower beds. She is laid looking up at the moon, wrapped in her fluffy white dressing gown with teddy bear ears.

Making my footsteps a little more heavy than they need to be, I walk toward her to alert her to the fact that someone is approaching. My focus adjusts, and I admire her natural beauty. I can see her sad eyes peeking through the flower bed, staring at me. She pulls the hood of her dressing gown down and hides her face.

“Can I join you?” I ask her, hoping that she will accept me.

“Not tonight, Hayden”, she whispers.

She has rejected me, and it hurts.

I don’t reply; I stand silently. I was waiting and hoping that she would change her mind.

She turns her head and peaks through the gap under her hood, “I just want to be alone”, she hiccups, and I can tell that she has been crying.

“Come on, Hope, talk to me”, I beg her.

“I don’t want to”, she whispers again, her body unmoving.

“So don’t talk to me. We can just sit. Not feeling alone may help”, I suggest.

She turns to look at me again, I can tell that she is thinking. She knows I could just sit near her if I wanted to, and she also knows that I will leave her be if that is what she wants.

“You can trust me”, I whisper.

She stares at me for a moment, and my heart rate increases slightly under her gaze. She nods, “OK”, she says as she shuffles across, making room for me.

I lay beside her and raised my arms to make a pillow for my head. I gaze at the moon, waiting to see if she will speak to me.

She sits up and looks at me, “I don’t think I’m the right person for this job, Hayden”, she tells me and begins to cry.

“Maybe none of us are, but we are all that the world has right now”, I say as I sit up and look at her. Even crying, she is beautiful.

I am taken aback when she does the unexpected. She leans in and wraps her arms around my neck, crying on my shoulder. Hugging is not permitted. Especially not with Hope.

I glance at the camera helplessly and give my best-bewildered expression. Then I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight while patting her back. All I can think is, please do not kick me out for this.

We are not supposed to physically touch her, not like this. It is against the rules. She is only for the chosen prospect. My stomach is swamped with butterflies, and my breath catches; holding her is something nobody other than the parents has ever done, and the parents only hugged her when she was a small child. Tonight she needed this. But for me, it was more than a hug.

“Can we walk?” She asks me.

“Of course”, I tell her.

She takes my hand and leads me through the garden; I know where she is taking me. I walk alongside her, my hand tingling with small fireworks from her touch. She is ours, my mind screams. My mind has been doing this a lot lately. It is like a presence talking to me.

We silently move through the manufactured internal garden towards the ocean view by the pool. I imagine what her hair would look like blowing in the sea breeze. Would it tangle?

“Well …” she begins to talk but pauses.

“Interesting day, then?” I mutter sarcastically. Trying my best to get my tone right, I need to break this contact and revert back to our usual way.

“It was amazing”, she smirks as she lets go of my hands and puts hers in front of her. “I can hear the wedding bells and the doves as they are released”, she mimics, walking down the aisle.

I snort as I chuckle, an unflattering sound. As we approach the castle wall to peer at the ocean view, it eases her tension. “It won’t happen again”, I tell her, internally promising to protect her from pain.

“Are you sure?” She asks me. “You should have been there, he lost control, and his wolf rejected the very notion of being with me, even for the sake of our kind. It was like I was … “ she stops talking and shakes her head as a single tear falls down her cheek.

“Like what, Hope? His response has nothing to do with you. It wasn’t anything you did. It wasn’t your fault. His wolf has a match; a perfect match sent to him from the moon goddess”, I tell her fiercely, hoping to erase her self-doubt.

She looks at me bewildered, confused and hurt. I knew her pride had taken a beating. She had been primped and preened, and the first man she meets has a volatile reaction to her.

“This was their mistake”, I tell her as I nod to the cameras. “Trust me, they know it. These prospects, they can only predict so much. We have been without wolves for so long that it could not have been anticipated; they forgot how primal they are as animals. The human is going to be dumbstruck and gobsmacked when they meet you - you are the only young she-wolf on the planet. But the wolf, the wolf knows its destiny. I think that they should have taken that into consideration before practically frog-marching you into the room and putting you in front of a prospect”, I ramble. I know I have said too much; I will be brought in and asked why I have said these things.

Hope gives a little laugh and smiles up at me.

I have broken a handful of rules already: I have hugged her, I have pointed to the cameras, and I have insulted the institution. But right now, given her state of mind, I have the authority to say and do whatever it takes to maintain her mental and emotional well-being and encourage her to open up to me.

“I think you’ll be grounded and punished for saying those things about them”, she laughed as she teased me.

“Well, sometimes the rules are made to be broken, and a little rebellion soothes the soul” I laugh and flip the ‘v’ at the cameras that are pointing at us.

“You can’t do that, and you are not taking me down with you”, she giggles as she covers my hand and pulls it away from the camera. Her touch setting my skin on fire again.

“It’s true, and you know it.” I retorted.

She laughs again and sticks her middle fingers up at the cameras.

“She’s back”, I holler and hoot to the sky.

We sit on the castle wall for hours as Hope’s computerised moon creeps overhead, preparing for its descent. We talk about life, about the world, the future, men, she-wolves, love, everything. She’s interested, curious, and intelligent as hell.

“Are you going to tell me who’s next?” she asks.

“I’m sorry? Next for what?” I reply, wondering what she’s talking about.

“Prospect Number Two; the mind behind the second closed-door, who is he?” She asks me, elaborating her question.

“Well. Erm, he’s nice, I think,” I tell her, raising my eyebrows knowingly.

“Hmmm. Sure”, she scoffs at me.

“No, really. You will like this one, I think”, I try to lie convincingly. I’ve read prospect number two’s file, and he is as dull as drying paint.

“Why can’t the facility find someone like you?” She asks me.

My heart rate intensifies; does this mean she wants me?

“Do you know how long it would take them to find somebody so perfect?” I tease, trying to hide my initial response.

“But why not?” She asks me seriously.

I think my heart actually stops for a moment, my skin is covered in goose pimples, and the little hairs on my arms stand on end as though electrocuted. Does she actually want me? The way I want her?

I can’t breathe. She has never been this way with me before.

“I have our drinks” Joven conveniently chooses this moment to interrupt, carrying a tray of drinks.

“Heavens, is It morning already?”Hope asks me as she shields her eyes from the sunrise's blinding amber light creeping over the horizon. The glow is setting the sea aflame, or at least the computer program is.

The honest answer is no; it is probably only 2 am. This is the facility ending our meeting.

“I think we had better get some sleep. How about you take your drink to your room, keep your blinds shut and forget about prospect number one. It won’t happen again”, I tell her. I was in the s**t.

“OK, Hayden. Thank you for being here for me,” she says as she heads to the castle walkway, waving to me.

I turn and stare at the sunrise, which hasn’t moved since it first appeared. It’s been stopped. The program paused. I laugh to myself at the lengths they would go to.

I’m sweating and beginning to panic. “That girl’s going to get us into trouble,” I say, as Joven puts down our drinks and walks over to where I’m slumped against the wall.

“No, she’s not,’ he laughs. “She is going to get you into trouble.”