The Hybrid

Chapter 18

Note: The "sugar rush" is just fiction: something that is invented and/or untrue.

Chapter 18 – Sugar Rush

I wake up too early for a Saturday morning and can't go back to sleep. It's probably because of sleeping in an unfamiliar room, one that I had requested if I was going to be staying at Vulcan's place. He had argued a hell of a lot last night when I made my request, before grumbling out a dissatisfied "fine."

Around ten o'clock, Caia texts me to meet her in town so, I decide to go out for a bit. I change into a t-shirt, denim jeans and combat boots before pulling on a jacket. I leave my hair open for the day before slipping my phone into my back pocket and heading out the door with just an apple and a granola bar in hand. Because I had taken too long in the shower, I can't have breakfast otherwise I'll be even more late than I already am.

I head downtown to meet Caia and we join Nikolai at the skate park. I cheer him on as he successfully completes a trick, making him notice us and come over to where we stand. We talk for a while before he forces me to have a go. Grabbing the skateboard from him, I step up on it whilst clasping my helmet on before riding down the ramp and up to the other side. Caia follows behind and soon ends up beside me, grinning happily.

It's a good thing Damon had taught me this otherwise I would have ended up in a heap on the floor. Eventually, I manage to get another skateboard and the three of us proceed to spend the whole morning at the skate park.

As we're heading back, they invite me to come to the pack house because ''Helena, the pack cook, makes the best breakfast!'' So now, after breakfast, I'm lamely rapping in time to the beats Drew makes with his voice in the pack house kitchen, some pack members crowded around us. He's one of the pack warriors and we had instantly clicked.

I spend the next half hour with the pack members playing fruit salad. It's a game where whoever is playing sits on a chair in a circle. In our case, we stand on the grass in the backyard. Going around the circle, each person is given the name of one of three fruits, e.g., apple, pear, banana, apple, pear, banana, until everyone has a fruit name that they need to remember. It starts by someone standing in the center of the circle and calling out the names of one fruit. Everyone who is that fruit (e.g., all the apples) must get up and quickly move to an empty chair, including the person who called the fruit. Those who are not 'apples' remain seated. Whoever ends up without a chair then takes a turn in the middle, calling out the name of one group of fruit again.

But I, as one does when you've baked too many cupcakes, set a new rule: anyone who doesn't get a chair gets a cupcake smashed into their faces by a person. And I'm the first one to experience that. I move to the center, grinning as I lick icing off the corner of my mouth.

''Fruit salad!'' I yell, sprinting to a nearby seat and smashing a cupcake into Nikolai's face.

***

Vulcan Romanov's P.O.V.

I hurry down the staircase, buttoning my shirt. Learning from Indigo and most of my pack members that my mate is at the pack house, I'm rushing to see her. The events of a week ago run through my mind, it has been only a week that she has accepted me and everything is going good. Our bond is strengthening but with that comes the intense pull that wants me to complete the marking and mating process with her.