her sweet chains

Episode 24 continued

My sleep was light and dreamless except for sensations that seemed like dreams, as I felt kisses pressed to my cheek, hair bushed back from my face and gentle arms holding me tight. These sensations seemed so real that my brain convinced them they were more than the effects of my Thoughts lingering on Derek as I went to sleep; hence when I woke up I was in fact surprised to find myself alone in Derek’s bed. His room now coated in the pale light of deep grey dawn. I groaned loudly on response to what I slowly realised was a persistent tapping upon the door. This however seemed to be taken as a ‘come in’ as Carl slid into the room gently a cup of tea in his hand from which I could already smell the sugar wafting from.

“Morning.” I said groggily rubbing my gritty eyes roughly. Carl smiled as he placed the tea on the bedside table leaning over at the same time to press a soft kiss to my forehead.

“Where the hell is he?” I said vaguely looking over at the empty bed.

“He’s been and gone.” Carl said gently,

“Oh.” I said vaguely “he was here.”

“Yeah.” Carl said nodding slowly smiling placidly.

“Where’s he gone?” I asked tying to keep my voice indifferent and hence locked my gaze on my tea which I eagerly retrieved from the table sipping at the scolding drink. Carl shrugged vaguely,

“Just looking into something with Jamie and Pete some funny reports but were pretty sure will come to nothing.”

“He went looking for something on the day of the meet?” I wined but he could hear the insult I really felt that was behind my complaint, ‘he went out hunting when I was here’.

“He’ll be back it’ll come to nothing Darius knows that or he wouldn’t have let him go.” I could believe that as the meet was a very important time for us we all went he wouldn’t have sent Derek away if there was anything to prevent him from retuning, as our meets were about the pack all of us being together.

“Kind of makes me think he does want to talk to me.” I said with a sly smile, Carl smiled with a gentle nod.

“I think you might be right but it’s not about what he wants it’s about what he needs right now.” Carl said standing up and giving me a fond sort of smile before he strode out of the room closing the door softly behind him leaving me looking for answers in the bottom of my tea.

           When I finally woke up fully and slouched down to the living room knowing that I looked as grumpy as I felt, but actually as soon as my morning blues dissipated I actually had a really good day with my brothers. We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary we spent the morning out in the woods hunting each other. We ran around crawling through mud, huddling in bushes attempting to shoot each other with water pistols! I know not exactly mature but great fun; today Andrew and Geoff even joined us to play. Hunting was an innate part of us as was the forest so this was for us so much fun. I wasn’t very good to be honest. I was really good at stalking I had to learn to how to be stealthy as a human  being confined to that form for much longer than any of the boys, and I was a pretty good shot with a gun (something Darius also insisted on ‘just in case’) but I didn’t have as much practice with them as the boys of course  and anyway these bloody water pistols didn’t suit my shooting style, or that’s what I told the boys as we slouched back to the house caked head to toe in mud with . That afternoon we changed tack basically slouched around the living room watching crap films drinking bottles of beer and throwing popcorn at each other, though still caked in mud I had changed into just one of Derek’s big t-shirts. Roger arrived a few hours later with an immense  pile of pizzas. This day was just familiar and comfortable the only thing two things that were missing to make the day perfect were my pyjama socks and My Derek. As it was I still had Carl, Dean and Roger so that for now was enough. And anyway Derek loved Hawaiian pizza too and as it was I didn’t have to fight for it. We were dozing in front of some crappy war film I couldn’t identify when the door opened.

“Hey.” Dean called “done chasing your own shadows.” 

‘Hi.” I said looking up from the bean bag I was lying on my head was resting on Dean’s lap. Jamie smiled and leaned over pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“had a productive day I can see .” he said lightly I could see Derek hovering just behind him clearly not smiling, in fact seeing me lying like that seemed to prompt him to the point of practically growling. This didn’t seem to bother Dean though, he clearly he loved it as he merely smiled flirtatiously before gently sliding his hands across my breasts. I slapped his hands; he growled playfully but did move his hands off me. Derek just narrowed his eyes and slouched off up the stairs.

“Ooh Pizza.” Jamie said flopping down on the sofa grabbing a slice of nearby pepperoni. I slapped Dean’s hand of my thigh where he was trying to slip up under my t-shirt.

“behave.” I snapped,

“Why?” he asked casually. I growled under my breath as I pushed myself up to sitting Dean’s hands slowly clearly reluctantly let me go.

“You are such an octopus sometimes.”

“And that’s why you love me so much.” He said lightly as I rolled my eyes at him.

“I’m gonna go have a shower.” I said lightly.

“Want a hand?” dean asked flirtatiously “since I have eight.”

“No thank you.”

“Don’t you want to see who kills who?” Jamie said pointing vaguely at the screen.

“Nah if they wanted to kill each other they should put some bloody effort and then the film wouldn’t need to be nearly three hours long.” I said kissing Jamie’s forehead and ruffling Carl’s hair as I passed and walked out into the light drizzle towards the den as a strong wind gripped my sole item of clothing and tried to yank it up.

           I did go up to my room where I could clearly hear Lucas screaming he had such big lungs for such a little person! I jumped in the shower and scrubbed the mud off of my skin and out of my hair before I got out and slid myself into my new black dress and a pair of thin ballet style shoes. Before Darius baffled me by knocking gently on my door and holding out a hand to me clearly inviting to escort me to the meet I quickly pulled of my platinum chain and placed it gently on my bedside table before I took his hand with a smile and gently followed his lead towards the forest. Not seeing the boys until we reached the clearing .Dean whistled,

“f**k girl will you marry me?” Dean asked my chest. As Darius turned to talk to Pete, I smiled fondly at him.

“You know you seem to have forgotten your skirt.” Roger said leaning over my shoulder to peer at my bum. I sighed heavily flicking my hair back from my face.

“You look like a slut.” Derek said blandly walking into the clearing his face an angry mask of rock.

“Thank you.” I said lightly but I truly wanted to cry after all he was Derek he said that and I knew he meant it of course he did. Derek narrowed his eyes at my tone.

“I’m not Dean. That wasn’t a complement.” He snarled slouching off.

“See he’s pleasant isn’t he.” Carl whispered in my ear.

“This is his usual?” I asked feeling rather disillusioned about the effectiveness of my half planned sort of heart to heart.

“no.’ Dean said with a giggle “its you. So you got nearly a whole sentence we just sort of get a grunt.”

“great.” I said rubbing my forehead as Darius called the meet to order.