CHAPTER 6 - Sister Shopping

SKYLER’S POV

After falling asleep thinking about my mother, I wake up the next morning from a restless sleep. I didn’t get more than an hour’s sleep at a time due to my nightmares. I haven’t had the nightmare about the rogue that killed my mum for nearly four years, but last night he kept coming back. The difference with last night’s nightmares was that each time I woke and then went back to sleep, the rogue kept changing, first one was of the original stinky brown rogue, in the next one the rogue was my dad attacking me, then it was James. In each nightmare, the rogue changed and I would wake up just before they killed me, as in my dreams there is no one there to save me. The next one was Elijah and then the final one was of Cole. This terrifies me, to see Elijah and especially Cole as the rogue attacking me, since he was the one to actually save me from my living nightmare. I shake with fear as I don’t know how things will go with my mates and with facing them both this morning after what I did... I climb out of the bed and head into the bathroom; I use the toilet and wash my hands, I then splash my face, dry it and head back to the bed. Then finally, after all that, I managed to slowly calm down enough to fall into just the plain darkness of sleep. I am then woken up after what only seems like minutes by a very loud female’s voice barging into the room.

“Come on wakey, wakey, I’m taking you shopping.” the voice chirped, as she went straight over to the window and threw open the blinds, letting in the bright morning light.

I groan and stretch. “What’s going on and who are you?” I say, still tired.

“Hahaha!! I said I’m taking you shopping silly, cos you definitely can’t keep wearing the same clothes or keep wearing Cole’s. They are way too big and not very ladylike.”

“Okay, give me a few minutes to freshen up.” I smile. “But you still didn’t tell me who you are?”

“Oh sorry silly me, I’m just so excited that my brothers have finally found a mate. Maybe then they will back off on my protection and just focus on you... It will be interesting to watch them have to share; You! They were not very good at sharing when they were just boys.”

“Brothers!!!” I gasped and moved back against the wall with my head down. Just what I need, another Mason. Is she going to hurt me? Kill me? Run me out into the woods? Am I good enough for her brothers? Did they send her in to punish me for running from them last night? Maybe that is the real reason she is here! I fight my fear and whisper, 

"Did they send you to punish me?"

She walked up to me slowly now. “Hey! hey, I didn’t mean to scare you, my name is Katie Mason... Wait! What?? No... I’m not gonna hurt you and they didn't send me to either. I was hoping we could be best friends. As you can probably guess, I don’t get to have many friends. Overprotective brothers. They always scare them off....” she sighed and laughed after saying the last bit, putting her hand lightly onto my shoulder.

I lifted my head at the contact, looking her in the eyes to see the truth of her words and give her a small smile. She then pulls me off the wall and with her encouragement I went and had a hot shower for the first time in years and got ready to go shopping with my new best friend.

“I’m Skyler Jackson, by the way,” I say as I close the bathroom door.

I couldn’t believe how much better I felt after that hot shower. I look in the mirror and I am really pale; I guess that is what happens when you are not allowed outside other than to go to and from school. I run my fingers over the rogue’s scars on my shoulder and then take a closer look at the smaller ones that have joined them over the years, but they don’t stop at my shoulder. They continue down my arms and all over my body. After seeing exactly how many little scars my father and brother have put on me, I wonder if with them being Alpha’s, if my body would be good enough for them when that time came.

I guess I will find out one day; I wipe the stray tear that slid down my cheek; I unlock and open the door. I walk back over to where Katie is waiting, and we walked together down the stairs to the front door only to be stopped by Cole, Elijah, and Max. I didn’t miss it, as Katie blushed when she looked up at Max, but she quickly hid it before he and her brothers saw it.

“And where do you think you two ladies going?” Asked Elijah with a small smirk on his face.

“I’m taking Skyler to the mall, to get her some clothes of her own,” Katie says with a bit of sarcasm towards her brother and her hands on her hips.

“No, you are not!” Cole says crossing his arms over his chest and leaning on the wall next to him.

“What?? Oh! Yes, we are.”

“Nope! Not going” Elijah joined in.

“Come on Please! Skyler really needs her own clothes,” Katie whined.

“But I like her in my clothes,” Cole chuckles and Elijah growls low.

“Fine, how about a compromise? Why don’t you guys come with us?” Katie huffs as a last resort.

“I’ve got work to do from yesterday. Elijah, Max, why don’t you two take the girls to the mall?” Cole says as he runs his hand along my arm as he walks past and heads towards his office, I shiver as sparks run down my arm and through my body. 

We are now in the car with the two guys sitting in the front chatting about pack stuff; I think Elijah asked at one stage how Cole had found me and what happened, but I didn’t hear his answer as Katie pulls me back into the debate we were having, sitting in the back trying to agree on who was the better looking one. We couldn’t agree. She said Max; I said Elijah, but I did admit to her that Max wasn’t that bad looking as well. We both end up laughing and chatting about other stuff all the way to the mall.

By the time we got to the mall, I was feeling really relaxed and for the first time since I was 7; I was enjoying being in the company of others. Once Max parks the car we get out and I look at it with awe, I’ve never been to a shopping place this big, I was never allowed to leave the packhouse once I got back from school, my father used to tell me I was privileged because he was still allowing me to go to school. I can’t help but smile and laugh as Katie’s excitement overflowed from her and into me. She grabbed my hand as soon as we got clear of the car and dragged me into the mall. I look back and see Elijah and Max following at a short distance, keeping an eye on both of us. I’m sure I saw Max staring at Katie a couple of times before he looked away and blushed a little before covering it up. I might need to look at what is going on between them, well maybe once I know them a little better.

After going into a few stores and losing the guys a couple of times within the clothes, they caught up with us as we exited another store. Elijah moved up to my side and slid his hand slowly into mine. I tense a little, but once I felt the tingles move up from my hand all the way up my arm, I relaxed again. I looked up at him as he looked over at me and I gave him a shy little smile, which made him smile too. I actually liked and felt safe, so I didn’t pull my hand out of his and we kept walking together.

As we walked around the mall and went into nearly every store. Katie made me get a whole heap of clothes, jeans, t-shirts, blouses both long and short-sleeved, even though I tried to convince her that I only wanted long-sleeved, I hate people seeing the small scars that run up and down my arms. We got some long and short skirts. Again I argue with her, but she wins, and the same happens again with some casual dresses she finds for me. They are a mixture of long and short. As we went into the last shop, Elijah pulled three elegant dresses off the rack. One was a dark sapphire blue short-sleeved, high at the front long at the back, one was a nice emerald green spaghetti-strapped thigh length and the last was a strapless dress that started as grey on the top melting into black at the bottom of the full-length skirt. He also picked up 3 pairs of shoes that went perfectly with the dresses. Once Elijah had bought all that he spoke quietly with Max and then disappeared as Katie and I went into Victoria Secret and picked out the final things I needed, I didn’t want to but Katie insisted I also get a couple of really sexy ones to show off to my mates when I was ready.

We met back up with Elijah and after hours and hours of shopping, Katie was finally finished picking all my new clothes. I even managed to throw in a couple of girls’ sweatpants and leggings. We then headed back to the car. Once there, Elijah and Max pack all our shopping bags into the back of the car and then join us sitting in the front again. As we were leaving the parking lot, I had a bad feeling; it was like I was being watched. I turned and looked out of the window, scanning the woods that surrounded the mall, and saw 2 sets of gold eyes staring at me. They follow the car and take a step or two into the carpark as we exit and make our way back to the packhouse.

Once back at the packhouse, Katie jumps out of the car yelling that the shopping trip was a success. Elijah and Max move to the back of the car and pull out all our shopping bags. They then carried them all inside. Katie must have spoken to both Elijah and Cole at some stage while I was sleeping, about giving me my own room for a little while until I get used to spending the nights with them. As Katie and I follow them into the room, I tell the guys to put the bags on the bed. The best part was that it was close to both Elijah’s and Cole’s rooms. We then started to unpack all the bags. Elijah looks at me and says,

“Okay, we are going to leave you, girls, to it. Just give us a yell if you need anything...”

The guys left the room, leaving us to unpack. Katie pulled out her phone and put some music on. I was a little envious, as a mobile phone was another thing I wasn’t allowed to have, as it was another privilege I wasn’t entitled to. We danced and sang until every bag was unpacked and put neatly in the walk-in closet. We flopped onto the king-size bed exhausted, which was another privilege for me. Katie picked up her phone and turned off her music. She then turned on the tv and scrolled through the movies that were available to watch on N*****x. We settled on a movie which we both fell asleep watching.