Fearless

Perpetual Sleepover

Chapter Twenty-Three: Perpetual Sleepover

After Rebekah left, I pushed myself out of bed. I ran up the stairs, pushed past Alice who seemed like she was trying to talk to me, and left. Once outside I discarded my clothes and ran. I just ran and ran and ran. My anger and pain fueled me as I sped through the trees. How could she do that? How could she just leave? How could I let her leave? I skidded to a stop. I tried to get my breathing under control, but I couldn't even think straight. Tears clouded my vision and I took off again, ignoring the salty tears that got caught in the fur on my face.

I kept running, farther than I'd ever gone. I had no idea where I was. I stopped at a river and stared into the clear, rushing water. My reflection was blurry because of the moving water. Little fish swam against the current. I heard footsteps behind me, but decided to ignore them. A familiar coated wolf came up beside me and sat down at the water's edge. 'You're Michael, right?' she asked. I didn't answer. 'You're our backup plan. That must be strange for you, to have our fate slightly resting on your shoulders.'

'I'm Alice, Sam's sister. He's told me lots about you.' she told me. I leaned a little bit closer to her. I wanted her to keep talking, her voice eased my pain, soothed my mind. 'Charlie's worried about you. She didn't go into details as to why, but I have a feeling it has to do with Rebekah and Alex. Am I right?' she asked. I nodded solemnly.

'Are they mates?' she asked me. I took a deep breath and nodded. 'That sucks, I'm sorry. You must feel like shit right now.'

'That's an understatement.' I said. I could tell that Alice was happy she got me to say something.

'The first person I ever dated found her mate while we were dating. Jessie, the idiot wolf who walked in at the very end of the meeting, kept her mate a secret from me because she thought she was 'keeping me from even more pain' obviously, she was doing the exact opposite.' Alice admitted. 'But I couldn't blame her. I blamed myself for a while. I told myself that if I had just figured out that we weren't mates sooner I could have avoided the whole situation, but who was I kidding. I wanted Jessie to be my mate. Hell, afterward I wanted anyone to be my mate. So the pain would go away.'

'It isn't so bad after a while. It goes away, and then you find someone new.' Alice said. I turned and looked at her.

'Have you found someone new yet?' I asked her. She shook her head. 'Is the pain still there?' I asked her.

Alice shrugged. 'Every now and then when I see them together, it feels like I had a shovel laced with wolfsbane shoved into my chest. But other than that no. It's faded a lot, since then. Not completely gone, but just like an ache.' I knew the feeling. I was having it right now. But I thought it was a different ache. An ache for a different reason.

'During the meeting, you looked kind of upset. What were you thinking about?' she asked me. I was taken aback by her question. I didn't think anyone noticed.

'It wasn't really what I was thinking. I just felt like I wasn't in control. It's hard to put into words. It was almost as if I was extremely horny, but not quite.' Alice looked away from me and stared into the water.

'The books say that's what you feel like when you meet your mate for the first time.' she said quietly. 'Do you think that's what happened?' she asked.

'I don't know, probably not. If I had met my mate than they would have felt the same thing, and I don't think anyone else got the same feeling I got, except for Alex and Rebekah.' I said.

'How would you know what everyone else was feeling?' she asked me. I shook my head a little. 'For all you know, I could be your mate.'

I chuckled a little. 'Yeah, I guess you're right.' Alice smiled a wolfy smile at me. 'We should head back, it's getting late.' Alice stood up and shook out her fur for a second. We walked side by side.

'By the way, there was a dilemma with the rooms.' Alice said as we walked. 'All the others are full. So, I either have to room with my ex girlfriend and her mate, or I have to room with you.'

'You can room with me, I don't mind.' I told her. Alice pranced around happily.

'Thank god, I was worried for a second there. Fuck yeah, it'll be like a sleepover every night!' she exclaimed. 'A perpetual sleepover. That's gonna be so awesome.' I shook my head at her.

'You have got to be the weirdest wolf I know.' I told her.

'Even weirder than Sam?' she asked me.

'Sam isn't even a wolf yet.' I told her.

'Oh yeah, I forgot.' she said. 'Whatever, I bet he'll be a very strange one. Maybe even stranger than me.'

'I highly doubt anyone can be stranger than you.' I told her. Alice pouted her lip at me.

'The only reason I'm acting like this is because I'm comfortable around you,' she grumbled.

'Really? We met like five minutes ago.' she nodded. 'Well, I'm comfortable around you too. You make the pain go away. It's not even a dull ache.' Alice perked up.

'So I am helping! Sweetness. I thought me bringing it up would make it worse.' she admitted. 'I wasn't sure I was doing any good.'

'You're also very soothing to listen to. I feel like I could listen to you talk all day long and not get tired of your voice.' Alice looked over at me as we walked. 'I don't know. Is that weird?'

'Yeah, but I feel the same way. Your voice is very nice to listen to.' she said with an amused expression. 'You're making me feel strange. When your voice goes really low, I shiver. It doesn't make me cold, it just makes my hair stand on edge, and my thoughts spiral to a place they've never spiralled to before. I feel like I can tell you anything, like I've known you my whole life, like I'm safe around you.' she shook herself. 'Sorry, that was weird. Forget I said anything.'

'It's not weird at all. I feel the same way. You explained it perfectly,' I complimented. She rolled her eyes at me. We broke through the trees. 'God, there's still so much blood.' I said.

Alice stood by her clothes. 'I swear if you look at me, I'll tear your throat out with my teeth.' I turned around.

'I don't doubt that,' I said. She didn't answer. She must have already changed back. I stayed turned around until she put her hand on my back.

"Your turn," she said. I waited until she turned around. I quickly changed back and picked up my clothes.

"Y'know, I don't care. I'm used to people seeing me naked." I told her. I stepped into my jeans and buttoned them. "Where the hell did my shirt go?" I muttered. Alice turned around and gave me a sheepish look.

"I think I might have accidentally put your shirt one instead of mine," she said. I laughed a breezy laugh.

"That's alright, I can do without mine." I said. I bent down and picked up her shirt. As I handed it to her, our fingers brushed lightly. My head snapped up. I stared into her eyes, then my eyes fluttered down to her lips. Alice sucked in a shaky breath.

"Don't ever put a shirt on," she breathed out. I pulled her to me by the belt loops of her jeans. Her lips were centimeters from mine. She put her arms around my neck and pulled my head down. Our lips pressed together, and all I could think about was her. I craved more and more of her. I never wanted to stop, and nothing could make me. She knotted her slender fingers in my golden blonde hair, and I shoved my thumb under the material of my shirt she was wearing. She pulled a little ways away from me. I could feel her breath fanning against my face. "I think I just found someone," she breathed out.

"I think I did too,"