I smacked his arm and he chuckled. "Come on be serious," I said.
"Okay, I"m trained in most forms of martial arts but you probably already figured that out. I sing, play guitar, piano, violin, drums, saxophone, and the trumpet just a little bit," he said holding his thumb and index finger together to indicate how little.
"Wow," I said.
"I know," he hung his head. "You"re in the presence of a serious dork."
"I think it"s amazing. I wouldn"t have the patience to learn all those instruments."
"So," he said, "what don"t I know about you?"
"Well, when I was five my mom made me do pageants. By the time I was seven I had put a stop to that. I was always more of a tomboy. I used to play soccer and was good at it. If I had ever stayed at a school long enough I might have been able to get a scholarship."
"You"re perfect," he said and I laughed. "Maybe you should try out for the soccer team in the spring."
"No," I said. "I don"t think so."
"Why not?" he asked.
"I don"t know," I shrugged my shoulders. "I don"t really have the time. Between school and work."
"What about college?" he asked.
I looked up at him, "I don"t think college is really a priority anymore. I"m a shifter now, and an Alpha. I have a pack that I have to learn to lead."
He wiggled around. "I feel bad about that. If you want to go you should," he said.
"I don"t see the point in wasting a bunch of money on a pointless degree. I don"t think a college degree is going to teach me how to be an Alpha."
"I guess you"re right," he said, "I just hate thinking your choices are being taken away from you."
"Caeden," I said. "I was a shifter before I met you. You didn"t cause this. I just found out kind of late is all."
"Well, if you change your mind and want to go. I"ll follow you. The pack will too."
I laughed. "That would be awfully selfish of me."
"No," he said. "It would be selfish of all of us. We"ve talked about it before, the pack. We"d all like to go to college we just thought it would never be an option for us. We all come from money and so it"s not necessary. Our earlier ancestors built a fortune so we could protect our clan."
We exited onto the street and all talk of shifters ceased. The skeletal trees were wrapped in twinkling white lights. Old fashioned lights lined the cobblestoned streets. I really felt like I had stepped back in time. There was even a horse pulling a carriage. My breath fogged the air.
"This way," said Caeden tugging on my arm. He pulled me down the street pointing out various places before ducking inside a small coffee shop. I had never liked the taste of coffee but I did enjoy the smell.
"Caeden!" called an older man behind the register. "It"s about time you got here."
"Sorry, I"m late, Griff." Caeden said.
The old man smiled. "Just don"t make it a habit." The man looked to be in his late sixties. His hair was gray and hung down to his shoulders. His eyes were a light brown. "Who"s this?" he asked Caeden, pointing to me.
Caeden squeezed my hand. "This is Sophie, my girlfriend. I would"ve said, soul mate, love of my life, my everything, but I didn"t want to freak her out," said Caeden with a grin.
Griff"s laugh filled the room. "I think you just did."
Caeden shrug his shoulders. "Oh, well. Doesn"t everybody preach about their undying love in a coffee shop?"
"No," said Griff, "they don"t."
"d.a.m.n," said Caeden, "I must have gotten coffee shops and grocery stores mixed up."
Griff laughed. "Just get set up boy." He turned to me. "Sit wherever you would like and if you want anything it"s on the house," he said.
"Thanks," I smiled and followed Caeden through the coffee shop/small restaurant. It turned out that even though the coffee shop wasn"t very wide it was long and stretched on into a dining room. There was even a small fireplace that Caeden sat down by. "So, you play here?" I asked.
"Yep, every Tuesday. I draw quiet a crowd," he said with a wink.
"Oh, I"m sure," I said sarcastically.
"You just wait and see," he said. "I have to get set up. Why don"t you sit over there," he said pointing to an empty table in the front left of the room where I"d have a good view.
"Okay," I said, starting towards the table.
"Wait," he said and grabbed my wrist pulling me back. He kissed me lightly on the cheek and grinned. "Now you can go," he said.
"You"re so demanding," I muttered loud enough so he could hear it. He laughed lightly and sat down on a stool in front of the fireplace, pulling out his guitar.
Quite a crowd poured in and scanning it I quickly realized they were all girls around my age, some a little younger and some a little older. They grabbed a table right in front of Caeden. I guessed he hadn"t been exaggerating.
He turned and winked at me. "I just want to thank a very special girl for being here with me tonight," he said and nodded towards me. The group of girls glared daggers at me and I shrunk back in my seat.
He first did a cover of Swedish House Mafia"s, Save the World Tonight, and then moved into a cover of Death Cab for Cutie"s, I Will Follow You into the Dark. He then moved into a song that I knew he had to have written. I found myself blushing at his words. He did a couple more original songs and then finished.
As he zipped up his guitar case, one of the girls from the group, a leggy blond, tried to talk to him. My vision blurred red for a moment and I had to breathe deeply to get a control on myself. Girls were going to talk to him just like boys were going to talk to me. It didn"t mean anything. But that didn"t mean anything to the jealousy that flared annoyingly in my stomach. I tried to douse it with positive thoughts.
Caeden smiled at the girl and she took that as an invitation to puff out her ample chest. I dug my nails into the wood table so that I wouldn"t walk over there and rip out her dyed blonde extensions. I knew that this wasn"t really like me. This was the bond. The fact that we were mates. I didn"t want another female anywhere near him. He was mine.
Breath hissed out through my teeth. I knew in that moment, had my birthday already pa.s.sed, that I would have shifted right there in the tiny restaurant. My hands shook so I hid them in my lap so no one would see. The girl reached out and put her hand on his bicep.
That was it! I stood up from the chair so fast that it slammed into the back of the wall with a loud thunk. But instead of confronting the girl like I wanted to I ran into the bathroom.
Luckily no one was in there and I had it all to myself. I braced my hands against the sink and breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. When I looked in the mirror I saw that my eyes had become bloodshot. So, much for my nice evening with Caeden. I might as well have stayed home and studied like I had planned. I ran the water in the sink and splashed it lightly on my face so my makeup wouldn"t run.
My hands were still shaking uncontrollably. "Sophie," I scolded my distraught image, "she"s just a girl. There is no compet.i.tion. Stop this now. You"re being beyond silly."
I nodded my head at my reflection and looked at my hands. They weren"t shaking nearly as bad. Good.
With one more deep breath I labeled myself dignified enough to leave the bathroom.
When I walked back into the dining area Caeden was sitting at the table and the group of girls was gone. "I"m sorry," I said sitting down.
"Are you okay?" he asked concern shown completely on his face.
I shook my head. "Honestly? I don"t know."
"I tried to get away from her as quickly as I could. I could see you were distressed and I"m so sorry about that."
"I knew there was nothing to worry about," I said putting my head in my hands, "but I couldn"t help it."
"I know," he said. "From what I understand of the legends it"s a hard thing seeing your mate with someone who shows interest. You kind of go into "back off" mode. It"s a natural animalistic reaction."
"But I"m not an animal," I cried softly into my hands.
He chuckled. "If it"s any consolation I would be ten times worse than you."
"Somehow, that doesn"t make me feel any better."
"If that doesn"t make you feel better maybe this will... The entire time she was touching me I hated it. It didn"t feel right."
"Stop talking about it," I moaned. "I want to stop thinking about it."
He chuckled. "Alright, I"ll stop."
"So," I said, "have I completely ruined our evening or can it be redeemed?"
He laughed, "Oh, I"m not letting you off that easy. That"s for sure."
I smiled. "Good."
"You mean you"re not freaking out about being away from your precious studies?"
"No, I"m not," I said with a smile. "It actually feels good to be a normal teenager."
He leaned closer to me conspiratorially, a grin playing on his beautiful lips. "We"re not actually normal teenagers. Aren"t you forgetting something pretty major?"
"Hmm," I said thoughtfully. "Are you a wizard?"
He laughed and scooted back to his original position. "Definitely not." He replied. "I run through the woods I don"t brew potions."
I smiled. "Thanks for making me feel better," I said.
"No problem. I have a feeling stuff like that is going to happen to both of us pretty often." He was thoughtful for a moment. "And it"s only going to get worse," he whispered. After another moment he smiled and took my hand. "Let"s go get some dinner."
I suddenly realized just how hungry I was. "Good idea," I said.
"Come on," he said leading me to the front of the building, his guitar case slung over his shoulder. "Bye Griff," he called before we walked out the door. The older man grunted and I smiled.
I saw that while we were in the coffee shop it had started to snow. It covered the cobble stone streets in a light white blanket and fell from the sky in endless circles.
"It"s so beautiful," I said breaking away from Caeden"s hands and twirling in the streets like a little kid, my tongue hanging out to catch a random flake.
Caeden laughed. "You"re more beautiful."
I stopped my twirling and met his blue gaze, my cheeks flushed from cold, I smiled and said, "Suck up." Then I resumed my twirling.
Caeden"s chuckle filled the half empty street. "I try to be the least bit romantic and you always shoot me down."
I stopped and fluttered my eyelashes at him. "If you call that romantic you"re going to have to try harder."
"You shouldn"t have said that," he said.
He came at me and suddenly my legs were swept out from under me. He twirled me around in the falling snow. I wrapped my arms around his neck. Little white flecks stuck to his black eye lashes making the blue of his eyes look cerulean. I took one hand from around his neck and pressed it to his scruff covered cheek.
"I can"t believe you"re mine," I breathed.
"Always," he said and pressed his lips to mine. The kiss was hot enough to melt the snow around us. Normally the thought of the people watching us would have worried me but with Caeden I didn"t care. He made all my other thoughts disappear. He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to mine. His arms still held me firmly. "As much as I"d like to stand here kissing you all night I really am hungry."
I laughed. "Okay, let me down."
"Oh, no," he grinned and I knew I was in trouble. "I"m carrying you all the way there. That"s your punishment for saying I"m not romantic." He laughed and started carrying me down the street.
"Put me down," I laughed beating on his chest.
"Nope," he said, "not yet."
Finally, after persuasion and fighting him didn"t work, I just let him carry me. However, with my arms crossed and a pout on my lips. He strode purposefully towards his destination. A smile kept springing on his lips, his dimple showing. His blue eyes looked down at me.
"I hate you right about now," I said.
He grinned. "Hate? I can handle that. Hate is a pa.s.sionate word."
"You"re incorrigible," I said.
We made it to the restaurant after what seemed like forever. But instead of putting me down like I expected he would he maneuvered me so that he could open the door to the restaurant.
A man stood with a stack of menus in his hand. "My word, is she okay?" he asked.
I rolled my eyes.
Caeden grinned. "She fell and I think she hurt her ankle but she was determined to get something to eat. I told her I thought she might need to go to the hospital. So, here we are," he said with a shrug.
I glared daggers at my mate.
"Well, come right this way. Let"s get you seated miss and I"ll get you some ice," he said striding into the dining room, Caeden trailing behind him with me in his arms.
"Really," I said, "that"s not necessary. I didn"t even fall," I whispered the last part.
Since it was late there weren"t many people eating but enough that we received quite many stares. The man placed our menus down and pulled out a chair which Caeden promptly dumped me in. Once the man was gone with a promise to bring me some ice for my ankle I said again to Caeden, "I hate you."
He grinned at me completely unashamed. "I couldn"t resist."