A Blessing or a Curse

Chapter Eight
“So what is it that you have to tell me sooo damn bad, you can’t even do it at school?” Ashelle asked as she added another roller into her blond hair. She was sitting in front of my vanity mirror on my swivel stool.

She invited herself to a sleepover with hundreds of magazines, hair products, face mask, ice-cream and KFC. This is how we were spending out Friday night.

“Okay,” I placed the Vogue magazine on my nightstand and popped a fry into my mouth. “So…um…I found him.”
She turned from my vanity mirror to face me her sparkling blue eyes wide with shock. “F-found who? Him? The him?”
A smile creeped upon my lips and nodded biting my bottom lip and waited for her reaction. “My mate Ash, I found him; my other half, my soulmate.”
She immediately jumped up and squealed. “Shut up! You’re so lying. This is a joke!” she sprinted toward my bed and plopped herself in front of me sitting on her knees and grabbed my hand in hers. “Gospodi!” she cried something out in Russian. “Why didn’t you tell me any sooner?”
I squealed in delight and sighed contently, “Because I know if I told you at school we’d end up screaming like this!”
“Oh God, does he go to our school? What’s he like? What’s his name? How old is he? Where is he from? Is he in our pack? Is he hot? How hot is he? What’s his last name? Does it sound good with your first name? How long have you known? Are you guys officially together-together? Do I know him? When are you going-”
I cut off her endless rant of questions, “Ash! Relax! Jesus!” I laughed.
“When did y’all meet?” she bit her bottom lip while bouncing like a three year old on my bed.
“Sunday” I answered her. “This Sunday.”
She hopped off my bed and walked over to my calendar and picked up a sharpie and wrote something on it. “April 13th, 2013 is the day you met your true love.” She giggled.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “But things are sorta complicated.” I sighed again and leaned backward letting my head hit my fluffy pillow. Ting barked and jumped up and licked my nose.
“Well, what’s so complicated about it? What’s wrong?” she sat in front of me and pulled me up to face her. “Tell me, maybe I can fix it.”’

I snorted and rolled my eyes. Ashelle always thought she could fix anything and everything no matter the problem although she rarely did. “It’s not that simple Ash…he’s so fucking stubborn!”
“What do you mean?” she took a sip out of her coca cola. “What’s he doing?”
“I met him while I was out on a run, just going through the forest,” I began. “And…I bumped into him, well I followed him sorta. I caught his scent about a mile away and I was just like ‘wow’! I swear his scent is an orgasm to my noise.”
I closed my eyes and threw my head back and smiled thinking of his scent. “Oh he smells like fucking heaven Ashelle.” I moaned.

“Back to the story!” she snapped her perfectly French manicured nails in my face. “Continue…”
“Right…anyway…he was in his wolf form and I was too. We hung out for a while like that as wolves, until I went to shift. He wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t let me see his human him. And every day since Sunday, when I first met him…we’d meet at the same place after I got off from school and he’d be in his wolf form. I don’t even know his name Ashelle.” I pouted and fiddled with the ends of my hair. “I don’t get why he doesn’t let me see him. The real him.”

She sighed and looked deep in thought for a moment. “I really don’t know why he’d try to hide his identity from you.” She pulled out some red nail polish from a basket of nail shit I had and began to paint my toenails. “I mean…is he rogue?”

My eyes widened in shock and I gasped. Maybe he was that’s why he didn’t want to reveal himself. “I never thought of that. You think he could be?”
She shrugged and chewed on her bottom lip. “Well, if he is we can just add him to the pack.”
“It’s not that simple Ashelle. If he’s a rogue he either got kicked out or left a pack for a reason. And Alpha Korlav already hates me. He’s not gunna jump at the chance to let a rogue into his pack so easily, you know.” I frowned.
“Well, we don’t even know if he’s a rogue! So let’s not worry about it, hmm?” she patted my knee before returning to paint my toenail. “We’re just being paranoid, most likely.”
“Why won’t he show himself?” I asked more to myself than to Ashelle. She looked up at me and gave me a sad smile. “It pisses off my wolf like crazy ‘cause she’s curious to see what he’s like. We both are.”
“He must have a good reason. Remember patience is a virtue. Patience is your friend.” She finished my last pinky toe.
I rolled my eyes and chucked some popcorn at her. “Shut up Ash.”
She laughed and returned to putting rollers in her hair. I continued to blow at my toenails wishing they’d dry faster. “You know…if he’s a rogue it probably means he’s a badass.”
She turned to look at me and rolled her eyes. “What’s your obsession with them Lolita? They’re no good! Bad boys are bad people, Lolita.”
“Not necessarily.” I argued. “Some of them are just misunderstood, judged too quickly.”
“Shut the fuck up Lolita.” She shook her head and continued with her hair ignoring my teenage-girl fantasies.
“Well, I don’t see anything too wrong with wanting a little excitement in my life.” I shrugged and walked into my bathroom.
“Be careful what you wish for Lolita!” she called out, “Remember a wish come true can either be a blessing or a curse!”
“I mean what’s the worst that could happen with a bad boy?” I called out from the bathroom.
“Oh, I don’t know? Hmm let me think.” Ashelle sarcastically pretended to think about my question. “Oh yeah, a broken heart perhaps!”
I rolled my eyes and began to wash my face with my acne scrub and I then walked back into my room to see Ashelle’s head was no fully covered in red rollers. “He’s my mate, it’ll be different. He won’t break my heart.”
“You…know it’s not like it’s impossible to break your mate’s heart, right? It’s happened before.” Her voice got quieter with her last sentence. She frowned and sighed and placed some pore strips on her nose.
She was thinking about her poor dead sister who committed suicide because of her mate’s rejection.
“He won’t break my heart.” I stared off into space imagining my mate hurting me. A sharp pang entered my chest just from thinking about it. “He can’t do that. I’m telling you Ashelle I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

She looked up at me sympathetically. “Don’t worry Loli. Who could ever reject your sexy ass anyhow?” she changed the atmosphere. “Boys flock over you like crazy!”
I rolled my eyes and scoffed. I was a regular girl who didn’t get much attention then the next girl. I won’t lie I was rather pretty and did get asked out every now and then but I was no Angelina Jolie either.
“In speaking of which…what’s up with Damien?” she asked.
My mouth dropped open and looked up at her wide-eyed. “Oh shit! I completely forgot about him! Last time I spoke to him was Sunday! He was so upset. I completely like ditched him!” I cried out.
“Last I heard he was at the Alpha’s son’s funeral Wednesday, he was a mess. He wouldn’t talk to anyone. The pack is sorta in deep shit right now and like four families are mourning the loss of loved ones and we need a new heir once Alpha Korlav steps down. He won’t be young and shifting forever.” Ashelle said, “My mom saw him at the funeral.”
“I feel awful…” I admitted guiltily.
“Don’t…he just needs time to think, you get me? Losing a loved one is never hard.”
“Who even attacked us?”
“Rogues. Bunch of them, around sixty. They just keep coming. That first attack two years ago at Winors Mount, where a whole bunch of pack families were having a picnic and what not, then the second one at-” Ashelle cut herself off when she realized she was about to mention the one my parents were killed.

I just gave her a weak smile and shrugged. “Fuck all this serious pack affairs talk.” I shook it off. “Wanna watch the Notebook?”