City of Blood

8

I have never felt this anxious, except for when I first met Callum and proceeded to vomit all over him. At the dinner with my family, things were really uneventful. They weren't nice, per say, since Dad was in his interrogative mode, asking Callum a bunch of questions about himself.

Callum was graceful and answered them all smoothly, and I think Dad approves of him. All of my siblings seem to approve, even Raina. She was only there for a few minutes before getting a text message and excusing herself, but she surprisingly engaged in a short conversation with Callum and was welcoming, which I appreciated a lot.

Joseph was as kind as ever and Ramsay kept teasing Callum, but he did tone it down for my sake. My brothers both seem to get along with him and Callum seemed to be pretty comfortable around them. Since I have werewolf instincts and see my family as my pack, their approval of my mate does matter to me.

All of that was two weeks ago, and now I'm getting ready for my first official date with Callum. We have gone and gotten coffee, he's spent the night at my house a few times, and we've spent time getting to know each other in different settings, but tonight is different.

We're going to a nice place and going on our first official planned date.

I told Callum I was happy with the smaller things we've been doing, but he insisted that he wanted to take me out somewhere nice so he can show me how much he cares. I know he cares, but I do appreciate how meaningful it is. He told me to dress nice, but not a suit and tie kind of nice.

I have about twenty minutes before he comes to get me, and I'm still looking between three different shirts and panicking over which one would be the nicest for dinner but not over the top. Neither Joseph nor Ramsay is at home so I can't confide in them, so I swallow my anxiety and knock on Raina's door.

She's actually here tonight, but I don't know if she'll answer her door for me. After a short pause, I knock again and Raina answers her door, her phone at her ear.

"I didn't realize you were on the phone," I say, turning away, but Raina puts her hand on my forearm.

She doesn't address me right away, instead talking into her phone. "I'll call you back in a few minutes, okay? My brother needs something." She hangs up her phone and looks me up and down. "Where's your shirt?"

"I need help," I say, sounding a bit frantic. "Callum is taking me on a date to somewhere nice and he said to dress nicely but not formal and I don't want to overdo or underdo it and I'm stuck between three shirts right now... please help me."

Raina doesn't look too pleased with me interrupting whatever phone call she was on, but she follows me to my room and looks at the three shirts. She then goes to my closet and pulls out a different pair of pants that are black and a beige short sleeve button down shirt.

"Try it on and then I'll decide if it's the right choice or not," she says, sitting down at my desk and looking at her phone while I quickly change. "That looks nice. Are you going to do something with your hair?"

I frown and look in the mirror. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"It looks like you just got out of bed, Lennox."

"It always looks like I just got out of bed." I brush my hand through it, still looking at the mirror. "Is it that bad?"

"The messy look is nice a lot of the time, but on a date... maybe not. I mean, it's different for Ramsay and Joseph since their hair is curly so you can't tell if it's not been styled, but yours is straighter so... yeah, come with me."

Raina sits me at her desk in her room and takes out a weird shaped bottle that she flips into her hand and sprays out some hair mousse. The smell makes me crinkle my nose since it's strong and all chemicals filling my nose, but I stick it out so I don't irritate Raina.