I jolt awake as the bedroom door swings open.“Sorry, lost track of the time on the phone, I-” she stops herself.“Well, I guess you didn't even notice. I thought you looked a little tired. I guess a twenty minute nap isn't a bad thing.” She collapses onto the large bed beside me and snuggles in next to me. She smiles contentedly. Are all Shifters this cuddly? Or maybe it's just a Kane thing.“Was Bellamy here?” she questions.“I think I can smell him.” I shrug.“I ran into him in the hall. He was half-asleep. I think I must have woken him when I came up the stairs.” I keep my tone casual. Megan nods accepting my explanation. Wow, it is surprisingly easy to hide things from people when they aren't actually expecting you to lie. Not that I did lie technically, I just didn't go into a lot of detail. Okay, now I feel guilty.“Hey, Ry?” Megan sounds a little nervous. I smile at her use of a nickname for me.“Yeah?”“I know we haven't known each other long, but I was wondering if you would
“Uh, Ryann... did I... did I wake up earlier this afternoon? I remember... but I'm not really sure...” He trails off and stares at the floor. Great, now I feel awkward too. I was hoping he wouldn't remember that. He could have done us both a favour and pretended he didn't remember at the very least. He didn't have to bring it up, now we have to talk about it. Darn.“Oh, um... yeah. You were up for a couple minutes, although I wouldn't have really described you as awake. I think you were practically sleep walking.” Come on Bellamy. I've just given you the perfect out for this discussion. Don't keep going.“I... yeah, you're probably right. I had a lot of trouble trying to get to sleep in the first place.” THANKYOU! I am so ready for this conversation to be over. I can hear Megan's heels as she comes down the stairs. She joins us in the kitchen. Darrien is following behind her with a slightly dumbstruck look on his face. He can't seem to take his eyes off her. It's adorable.The drive d
I. AM. ABSOLUTELY. FLOORED. This room is stunning. How did Megan get this party put together in so short a time? She should go into event planning. There are round tables all around the edges of the room. Each table has a black table cloth with decorative candle things in the middle. The centre of the room is clear to leave space for dancing and the DJ is set up at the far end of the room. There are servers running around setting up places at the tables and I can smell something amazing coming from somewhere nearby which is making me wish it was time to eat already. To one side of the room I can see large open doors which seem to lead outside. I can't see much but I know there are some fairy lights twinkling away out there. The opposite side of the room has several large tables pushed up against the wall. These are mostly empty but based on the few things I can see there, it's going to be where the food goes. Buffet style dinner it is, I can't wait. Megan and Tristan are still over wi
Bellamy shrugs.“Or, you could just ditch the shoes.”“Excuse me?”“Just take them off, then you have no reason not to dance with me.” I shake my head.“Don't be crazy, it is completely inappropriate to take my shoes off here. Not to mention rude.” Bellamy rolls his eyes.“Megan won't care.” He insists. I open my mouth to argue but before I can get a word out, he drops to his knees and grabs my ankle. I squeal and instinctively kick out at him as he snatches my right shoe right off my foot. He stands and takes a couple steps away from me.“What the hell Bellamy! Give that back!” I stand up but don't try to walk, it'll be awkward with only one heel. He hangs my shoe over one finger and dangles it in front of me.“I'll trade it for a dance.” He offers.“You're ridiculous.” I counter. He just shrugs at me again. I try to take a step forward but stumble. I slip my other shoe off and hold it in one hand. I step forwards again and attempt to snatch my other shoe back from Bellamy. He holds
I- I cut off my own thought. This is not helpful right now. I take a deep breath and calm myself. I might even be almost relaxed when Bellamy finally finds me. Okay, that's not true. I'm completely freaking out. But I manage to hide it. Bellamy comes and sits on the seat beside me. He places my shoes on the ground by my feet and I slip them on. The silence is deafening until Bellamy finally manages to speak. His voice is quiet and almost completely void of expression, as is his face.“Are you mad at me again?” He asks. I shake my head. I don't know what I expected him to say but it wasn't that. “No.” He watches my face attentively.“But?” He waits for my reply. I stand up and move to look at a small water feature built into the wall. I keep my back to him.“But I can't do this right now.” I tell him. I keep my voice calm, but it's forced. I hear Bellamy stand and take a few steps until he's next to me. I don't turn to look at him.“What do you want?” His voice is a dull monotone.“I
“Great! Well in that case, want to come over for a bit? I thought we could look at some bridesmaid dresses and wedding dresses online and stuff. Search for inspiration.” Her sudden mood swings are giving me whiplash. I'm not awake enough to keep up with them.“Uh, yeah sure. Okay. I'll need a bit, I need to wash my hair and stuff before I can come.”“You only just woke up didn't you?” She accuses, her tone is amused though.“I thought you sounded half asleep. It's already almost midday, time to get up sleeping beauty.”“What? That can't be right? I feel like I haven't slept at all. Maybe I'm coming down with something.” I slept terribly and I feel super tired even though I slept in late. Maybe I caught a bug. Or all the stress in recent days is finally catching up with me.“Maybe. If it makes you feel any better, you're probably less of a mess than my brother is. I found him wandering the house at like five in the morning. I'm pretty sure he didn't sleep again. He's back in bed now bu
Next time I check my phone it's basically flat so I plug it in to Megan's charger. It's after six in the evening.“I should probably get going soon.” I inform her with a frown. I'm enjoying myself, I don't particularly want to go home and sit around by myself. It leaves too much time for thinking. Megan grins at me.“You look like you'd rather stay.”“I would.” I admit. She shrugs.“So stay then. We can have a sleepover.” She is suddenly excited, her excitement is contagious.“I'd love to!” I bounce back onto her bed and she laughs as I almost fall off again. It takes a few minutes for her to calm down enough to be able to speak again.“So, I was wondering something...” I start. She nods for me to continue.“Tristan, I don't know a lot about him, and you don't really talk about him all that much. What's he like?” I am actually curious what he seems like to her, because to me he just seems creepy. Megan smiles.“He's perfect. He always says the right thing and we never fight or disagre
When we reach my home, Darrien moves to the kitchen and starts going through my cupboards.“Go change into one of those fuzzy unicorn things.” He orders. I nod and head to my room to change. I've finally stopped crying. Now I just feel empty. I move around like a zombie as I throw on my pyjamas. When I head back out, Darrien sits me down at one of the chairs at my tiny little table and hands me a hot chocolate. So that's what he was looking for. He settles down in the chair across from me with his own mug.“I know you weren't ready to tell him, and he probably was a little annoyed to overhear that he's your mate. I'm sure he would have preferred if you had told him directly. But none of that explains why you're crying like it's the end of the world. What happened? This is two nights in a row I've had to drive you home in a hurry.” Darrien keeps his tone gentle. Still, it seems pretty clear that he has no intention of leaving me alone until I fill him in a little.“He overheard me talk