Normal is Relative

Page 5

"Just a misunderstanding. I better take you home." She slid on my bike behind me quietly.

"You sure you are alright?" She says after she gets off from behind me in front of her house. "I know he hasn't been here long, but you guys seemed like really good friends."

"Looks can be deceiving."

"Well, if you need to talk you know where I am." She kissed my cheek and went inside. I waited till she waved but I didn't go home I went out to the park. I needed a run and I needed to think. I knew running in fur was a bad idea, so I changed my boots for the tennis shoes and hit the hardest trail. I hiked and let my mind go.

He'd been dreaming of me. He knew and hadn't told me. I'd told him rule three quickly, so he hadn't told me he was my mate. But fuck he'd heard rule two, he knew I was waiting for my mate. He was right if I accepted my life went to hell. I'd be a pariah in town, and I had only myself to blame. The way he'd walked away the hurt in his eyes. It haunted me as I hiked. I couldn't believe I'd hit him. My wolf was just as devastated as I was. We'd waited, dreamed of who our mate was. Of what he'd looked like, of what he'd be like. I'd just hit him and let him walk away. I staggered to a stop and threw up the lunch I'd had earlier. I'd waited for so long. I'd told myself that it would be easy once I had my mate that it would all be fine once I had them. But it wasn't I had been lying to myself as much as I had been lying to everyone else. I heard a branch snap and gave a heavy sigh when Matt stepped out of the trees. His face was straight, but his breathing was labored he'd been working hard to keep up with me. I didn't have any idea what to tell him yet.

"Do you just follow me everywhere?"

"Generally." He said crouching in front me. His eyes flicked to where I'd been sick and back to my face. "You okay?"

"That's not stalkery or anything. And no, I'm not."

"I'm sorry you've made your feelings clear I'll leave you alone." He stood and turned. Panic went through me. He couldn't leave, my wolf insisted.

"Aren't you worried?" I asked. He turned.

"About what?"

"What the town, the pack, everyone will say and think about you if am yours. They'll blame you as much as they blame me. Thinking you somehow corrupted me."

"I don't care what the humans think, and the pack will be happy for us. I'm aware of the trouble that could be caused, I think you're worth it."

"I don't think I am. I've lied and deceived everyone, why would you want me?"

"Because you were meant for me. Because you are my friend. Because no one else will ever be able to mean to me what you do. Not to mention you are a really good quarter back." I laughed, then sighed.

"Pull up a pile of leaves." I said. He sat down against a tree facing me. There was one thing, more than anything else that I needed him to know before I even contemplated going further. "I never slept with them?" He frowned.

"What?"

"I'll admit to being handsy and receiving the occasional blow job, but I never slept with them any of them." I saw him stare at me in surprise. I retch over and covered my puke with some dirt burying it and the smell. "Girls are easy to handle they want to be treated like princesses and put on a pedestal. A girl gets off and you don't require her to do anything for you and she thinks you are wonderful. Guys are more complicated. It was easier to date girls who I could have fun with and leave them then to deal with a guy who doesn't understand that I'm not going to roll over and let them fuck me because they want to. I wasn't going to be with anyone like that until I found my mate. I tried to think about the now and not drive myself insane with the how I would meet them or when it would be. I think I did too good of a job." He didn't say anything. My never moving mountain just sat there with me.