New Rogues In Town

Chapter 6: Better Days

I worked the next few weeks while Carter was nowhere to be found. Seems like a legit time for him to come up missing. Oh well, guess it was better for the both of us. I settled into my duties fine and to be honest, I loved working around the cars. The downfall was that I had to work with Tawny, which was almost as excruciatingly painful as being mated to Carter. She was a spoiled little bitch for sure. But, I thankfully she didn't show up to work a lot. Though, most of the time, it was coincidentally the days when Carter wasn't there either. I wondered about that more than I liked to admit and my blood boiled over it.

I told myself that I was probably just jumping to conclusions. Trix, my wolf, had other ideas though. She needed her mate, stupid animal had made me physically sick over her worrying and need to mate. She kept reminding me how much she had done for me, making me feel unnecessarily guilty. She had taken most of the pain for me, but I was still left this empty shell.

It was Friday, and typically Joya and I had pizza and movie night. So after leaving work, I stopped to pick up the chicken and bacon pizza from Papa John's and rent the entire Nightmare on Elm Street movie collection. They are our favorite! As I entered the house, I saw J already in her floral nightgown reading "The Elf Stones of Shannara" by Terry Brooks again. We share the collection but that one is her favorite.

"Hey love. You got the pizza?" She asked, setting her book down and standing up.  

"Well of course I do. I know I couldn't be admitted through the door without it!"

"That's right. Go get comfy and I will get everything ready." J said taking the pizza out of my hands.

I ran into my bedroom and emerged a few moments later wearing my Mickey Mouse footed sleeper. I am truly a big kid at heart. J put us both four pieces of pizza on our fine china, also known as paper plates, and poured us some cream soda. She had the 1984 version, the original version, of Nightmare on Elm Street in the DVD player. I settled down next to her on our love seat and munched away.

By the end of the third movie, we had devoured two large pizzas, a bag of MNM's and a tub of Krazy Kookie Dough ice cream. Joya was fast asleep, with my wolf hearing, I can tell her breathing had become regular and I could faintly hear snoring. She had just a few minutes ago went into her room. I, on the other hand, was so hyped up on sugar and too afraid Freddy was under the couch waiting for me to fall asleep that I nearly peed myself when my phone rang.

I stared at the unknown number wildly wondering if the person on the other end was going to ask me what my favorite scary movie is. Picking up the phone and sliding the answer button to the right, I cautiously placed it to my ear.

"Um, Catherine. Cat. Is that you?" a muffled voice called out almost in a whisper.

My body instantly relaxed as I realized there  wasn't a killer on the other end. But did tense back up at the same realization of who it was.

"Cat, you there?"

"Yeah Carter, what's up? Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine." I heard him breathe out a deep sigh. "I just need to hear your voice. Well I-I mean my wolf. My wolf needed to hear your voice."

"Well, now you have heard it, anything else?" I snapped.

I know, I sounded rather bitchy but what can you expect. It's easier to push people away than to except the option of heartbreak. I was trouble wrapped up in dynamite, surrounded by bear traps, inside of a nuclear zone. I worried every day about Joya and her affiliation with me. The only reason I allowed myself to stay with her was because she was there when everything happened, when her family was killed and the demise of the pack was fated. She was fragile and without me, should would be alone. I couldn't risk bringing anyone else into the mix, especially not Carter, not my mate.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm just tired. I would like to go to bed." I said, faking a yawn.

"Okay Catherine. I hope you have a good night. And for what it's worth, I miss you."

Then all I heard was a dial tone. Dragging my jaw off the ground, I trudged to Joya's bedroom and snuggled into the sheets. Pulling her close to my chest, I settled in for what I learned would be a restless night.

I would absolutely be lying if I said I didn't wake up feeling like I was missing something. I barely slept. I'm reminded of the quote by Shakespeare out of the play Hamlet "In my heart there was a kind of fighting that would not let me sleep." I can't seem to win the fight though because I wasn't sure why I felt this way. I seemed to be fighting an internal battle with myself, and I was losing. I guess I just needed to stick it in the back of my mind like I did everything else, and keep going. Repression had become my super power.

I figured I would get up and make me and Joya breakfast; that would shock her, and keep my mind busy. I'm not a morning type of gal, but it was the weekend and she deserved breakfast in bed. I rolled over and glanced at J's alarm clock. Holy fuzz chicken. It was freggin 4 a.m. The last time I was seen awake that early I was just getting home from a club. I  just went to bed two hours ago.

"Fuck that. I'm going back to bed."