My Surprise Mate

Chapter Four

I wake up after a restless sleep, I was riddled with dreams about the wolf I heard last night. We were running through the woods together, and I was a wolf as well. I brush it off as just odd, and cuddle closer to my boyfriend. His warmth is comforting.

“Good morning sweetheart” he says to me and I can hear the smile in his voice. “Finally you’re awake.” I check the clock. It’s already noon.

“Why didn’t you wake me!” I jump up and shove him lightheartedly. “Did everyone eat yet?” Normally I’m in charge of meals. I enjoy cooking, and enjoy taking care of my friends. But I guess being out so late last night took me out.

“Yeah Trev made bacon. Only thing that man knows how to cook is meat.” Theo kisses my cheek and stands up. He must have been awake already because he was already in his swimsuit. “Now come on sleeyhead, everyone has been wanting to go swimming. We’re just waiting on you.”

I stretch and reply “what else is new,” before getting out of bed to brush my teeth. I change into my bathingsuit, picking the emerald green high waisted bikini, since I know green looks amazing on me, and head out to meet my friends. My hair is still tight to my head in braids, so I don’t need to brush it. I throw on a black chiffon cardigan as a coverup and meet my friends outside.

Gabi runs up to me and hugs me. “I was so worried about you last night! You weren’t back by the time we all went to bed. I tried to stay up to wait for you but Mickey made me sleep.” She shoots a pointed look at her girlfriend, who shrugs. “I’m glad you’re okay. I thought that wolf got you.”

“Yeah the wolf scared me! I had trouble sleeping after that howl last night. It woke me up!” Madeline says. Trevor looks at her sympathetically for a moment, before changing his expression to his typical goofy grin.

“You should’ve woken me up darling, I would’ve protected you.” He winks at her and she blushes.

Theo looks at me and I can see questions running through his mind. I squeeze his arm to let him know that I’m okay, and I’ll explain later and that satisfies him for now. Trevor then runs up to Mickey and Madeline and throws one of them over each shoulder.

“Alright ladies, enough talk let’s swim!” He exclaims and runs towards the beach. Gabi, Theo and I walk more slowly. When we get outside we find our “private” beach is full of men. One of which is Hudson.

Oh boy Avalon, you’re going to have some explaining to do.

Luckily, Hudson doesn’t seem to notice me, but everyone notices him. And his friends. I thought Hudson was some kind of anomaly last night, that him being so strong and attractive was a fluke. There was no way there were more people who just exist and are that attractive. But I stand corrected. Standing around Hudson are three men. One is ice blonde, almost unnaturally blonde, and relatively pale. He still has sunkissed skin, but is certainly paler than both Hudson and the other man. He’s wearing a tank top, and his muscles are eye-catching. They’re almost as big as Hudson’s. He has tattoos up his arms, and they don’t seem to end when they reach his back. He also has a couple on his legs, but less.

The other man beside him has a crew cut. He’s a lot more sharp than the others. Chiseled jaw that could cut diamonds. His muscles are very defined and I felt that if I touched them they would sting. He didn’t smile the way Hudson and the blonde boy did, he was constantly on alert. I could tell he noticed me as soon as I left the house by the way his body stiffened.

Trevor puts the girls down, and as Madeline brushes herself off she starts to ask why he stopped, but her question is answered before she even finishes when she turns around to see the three men.

“Theo, should we like, do something here?” Trevor asked, clearly nervous but trying not to let on.

Theo’s nerves on the other hand are coming off of him in waves. He’s frozen. There’s no way he’s going to go up to these insanely buff and tall men. So it’s up to me, I guess.

“Hey! What are you doing here, this is our property.” I shout to the men on the beach.

“Actually, that’s your property. This,” he gestures to the beach, “is for anyone.” I roll my eyes and march up to him.

“Anyone who wants to get their ass kicked maybe.” I’m maybe half a foot away from him, and have to crane my neck to make eye contact. Okay Avalon, maybe this was a bad idea. Don’t let your anger get the best of you when clearly this man could throw you like a football. Luckily, Hudson doesn’t seem intimidated or offended. Is that lucky? He just laughs.

“Alright settle down.” He puts his arm out and ever so gently sweeps me to the side, making it clear how easily he could move me if he wanted to. He looks at Theo now, “I’m Hudson, this is Miles,” he gestures to crew cut, “and Finn. We rent the house up the beach a ways, but we’re leaving tomorrow morning. We wondered if you guys wanted to kick it for a while.”

I’m fuming at his apparent lack of interest in me, and his ease at brushing me aside. I’m sure Theo can tell, but he’s too nice to say no. He’ll let them join us and I’m sure we’ll have fun. But that doesn’t make me happy about it. Theo just nods, still kind of speechless, but Trevor, Gabi, and Mickey take his nodding as an excuse to run up to them and start chatting. Madeline just wades into the water on her own, still tense about the strange men infiltrating our last week together as a group. I start to join her but Hudson calls out to me.

“Avalon, go long!” he says and throws a football past me. I ignore it completely and continue to make my way over to my friend. I can feel Hudson’s stare on my back as he walks to pick up the football.

As expected, the day ended up being quite fun. Hudson mostly ignored me after my failure to play football with him in favour of my friend, but everyone else was entranced by these men. I can’t understand why. Yeah sure, they’re pretty charismatic (okay, very charismatic), and rival the beauty of any God in any pantheon. And sure they’re kind and strong. But they’re not anything special!

I found myself getting rather competitive about my relationship. Wanting to prove to Hudson that it was real and he would have no chance. I hung off Theo all night, and absolutely did not care that Hudson was getting visibly angrier by the minute. I never once thought about Hudson coming up to me and throwing me over his shoulder. Not once did I silently wish to myself that we would find a moment alone to talk.

He was funnier today. Not hard to be funnier than last night, but nevertheless he made us all crack up several times. At sunset he offered to build a fire.

“Actually, we all had a pretty late night last night, I think we’re going to be turning in early. And we wouldn’t want to keep you guys up either if you have an early morning.” Theo says, pulling me closer to him. I notice Hudson’s jaw tighten for a moment before he smiles again. He looks directly at me as he says,

“It’s no bother. I’m having fun.” Miles (crew cut) looks away and sighs. It’s slight, barely noticeable, but I notice it. I notice it just like I notice the clear tension between Theo and Hudson right now. A polite request for them to leave, and Theo declining without being outwardly rude. I echo Theo, more for appearances than out of actual desire for him to leave,

“I’m exhausted, honestly. Don’t think there’s much more fun to be had”

“Late night?” Hudson asks with a smirk and I feel Theo tense up. f**k. Well, I knew I couldn’t get away with that secret for long. I glare at Hudson for a moment, and he eventually takes the hint, “You know what, you’re right. We do have an early day tomorrow. We should head back.” He turns away and Miles follows closely behind. Finn on the other hand is less enthusiastic to leave. He’s been flirting with Madeline all night, much to the displeasure of Trevor, but Madeline ultimately didn’t seem interested. After he left she walked right up to Trevor and whispered in his ear, saying something that lit Trevor up like a lightbulb and made him completely forget his frustration from just moments earlier.

We all head back into the beachhouse, with many unspoken questions between us.

Oh boy, it’s gonna be a long night.