Poisoned Ivy

Chapter 6

"Breakfast is ready!" Benji yells from counter as he puts the last few pancakes on his own mini model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I hear loud footsteps charge from upstairs and nearly trample me as I remain stationary by the fireplace. I give Henry a grouchy growl in response to his near collision.

Cole is mindful and walks around me, Cameron takes one giant over-sized step over me for comedic effect, and Roman just stands above me and leers through his groggy amber eyes. 

"Move." He gruffly groans. His ginger hair is in the classic bedhead style as he rubs his hand across his face. I imagine it's what Benji looked like twenty years ago.

But even if Roman had an ounce of Benji's good morning vibes, I'd never move myself for him. I keep my head laid down and give him a soft growl. 

He lightly picks his right foot up, revealing his toes from his pajama pants, and starts nudging me. "Anyone in there?" A few moments pass, "What are you, an opossum?"

"Hey Roman, anyone ever tell you to let sleeping wolves lie?" Garret calls from the kitchen. Roman rolls his eyes and takes a giant step over me to join the others in the kitchen for breakfast.

I hear a door open on the other side of the house. Moments later Wren walks through the living room with only his boxers on and a towel in his hands. He dries his short hair as he makes his way to the kitchen. When Wren sits down at the counter top to eat, Benji takes a sip from his coffee mug and frowns, "C'mon Wren, put some clothes on."

"I'm decent enough." Wren dishes himself some food and sits down to Cameron's left at the end of the island's counter-top seating.

Benji crosses the kitchen and makes his way over to me. He crouches down and rubs my shoulder, "Go take a shower. We'll save you some food."

I know what he's saying. I reek. The only thing strong enough in this house to mask it is his coffee, which is probably why he brought it over here to talk to me. I slowly get to my feet and stalk off to the bathroom.

Inside I shift and turn the water on. It's a weird sensation to shower after such a long time. I try my best to get all the grime off my skin and the tangles out of my hair. When I get out, I look at myself through the steamy mirror. I haven't actually seen myself like this in a while, it feels weird. Besides that, putting on a robe feels strange. Is this what it feels like to be Amish?

My eyes are bright green, the shade of which I am accurately named after. My skin is even and pale like the bark of birch trees. My lips are a soft dainty pink, and I'm not going to lie, they are chapped. I open the drawer under the sink and shuffle through it to find an old lip balm. My long black hair annoys me when I lean over. I look for some scissors while I'm at it, but I find neither scissors nor a hairbrush. As I try to take the cap off the lip balm, my long fingernails begin to annoy me more than my hair. I let out a frustrated snarl. Damn hair, damn nails, damn lip balm! I give up on the lip balm for now and place it in the pocket of my robe. Now to find some actual clothes.

Lucky for me Benji hadn't gotten around to sorting out and getting rid of all of the Rose family's abandoned possessions in the house. So I still had my old clothes and books scattered around the attic and garage. I went up to the attic first. It wasn't that hard to find jeans, socks, sneakers, a black long sleeved shirt, and some underwear. The challenge was getting a hairbrush. After a few minutes of opening five different boxes, I was successful in finding one and getting the last few knots out of my hair. I thought about tying it back but finding a hair tie in this mess seemed like too much work. I took the lip balm out of the pocket of the robe and put it in the pocket of my jeans. As I was making my way back downstairs I stopped at the top of the staircase to overhear the conversation in the kitchen.

"So what's the deal with Ivy?" Cameron asks between bites. I can just tell everyone is staring at Benji for an answer. I guess it's a normal group dynamic to look towards the oldest and strongest for guidance.

Benji takes a sip of coffee before responding, "You can't date her if that's what you're wondering Cam. And that goes for all of you boys."

"Who'd want to?" Roman mutters.

"Why's that?" Henry asks, ignoring Roman's comment. I don't even have to imagine the sparkle of naivete in his eyes, his soft voice expresses it all. It's funny, for a teenager he's not quite fully immature yet.

"I have plenty of troubles dealing with you boys as is, but throw in a competition over a girl and I'd be at my wit's end." Benji sighs, "Wait until school starts to chase all the girls you want."

Cameron chuckles, "You're telling me? Mister Cuddles over there was getting real close and comfy with her last night!" Wren doesn't respond and my cheeks blush a little.

I really don't want to walk in on this type of conversation, but I honestly don't want it to go on anymore either. I decide to make the loudest thuds down the stairs to warn them I'm coming down. Of course, I feel as graceful as a giraffe on ice skates when I do it. Oh well.

Roman gets up to wash his dishes and Benji remains standing behind the counter. As I walk towards the kitchen, I'm stuck between dragging my feet to avoid the awkward staring or just charging in there to get awkward stares over with. Maybe I should shift back?

It's too late, Benji and Roman have already spotted me. I realize that Roman hasn't seen me as a human yet. I feel uncomfortable by Roman's hushed "Woah."

Benji pulls his mug up and turns his back to me to whisper a reminder to Roman before taking a sip, "No dating." He then pats Roman on the shoulder, getting him to move along on his chore. Wren and Cameron both snicker at Roman's dumbstruck moment.

Cameron roughly coughs, "Hypocrite!" to Roman when I'm at the doorway. Roman shoots Cameron a harsh glare.

Benji sets his mug in the sink before calling my name and waving for my to come into the kitchen, "Ivy, come have something to eat." He begins to pull out a plate for me. "We have eggs, bacon, ham, pancakes, orange juice..."

I get a few odd looks from Henry, Cole, and Cameron when I don't put any meat on my plate. My entire diet the past three months has been 85% deer, 10% hare, and 5% wild berries. If I'm going to eat something new, it's going to be fruits, grains, and vegetables.

I sit down at Roman's previous seat along the counter top between Cameron and Henry. To Henry's left is Cole and on the opposite end Wren finishes up his plate.

Cameron is the first to comment on my plate. "Uhh, are you sure you're a wolf?"

"I've only had deer for the last few months." I reply before I dig in. I swear, my first bite of pancakes with strawberries and syrup is just amazing. I am never going total carnivore again. When the taste of my first bite blended with my second bite of salty hash browns, I swore nothing could take me out of culinary paradise. But I was wrong.

"So were you born or bitten in to our little elite club?" Cameron places his right elbow on the counter and rests his chin on it to stare at me with a childish grin.

I shrug, "Does it matter?" To be honest, I don't know. I come from shape-shifters on my mom's side, but I don't know how shifter genetics work.

Cameron raises a brow and looks up at Benji who is leaning against the opposite counter with his arms folded across his chest. Cameron turns his head back to Ivy and slightly waves his hand around the room, "For us, it doesn't. But for you, it does."

Oh, because I'm a girl. Yay.