Chapter 13

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The next morning, I went down for breakfast and I see Zeke as his wolf laying down next to the dining table. I suddenly remember last night and bit my lip to stop myself from smiling. I sit down in my usual spot, feeling the tug at my heart again.

Last night, I had another weird dream. This time, I'm standing in front of Zeke as he's holding a bouquet of different colored roses to me, but they're specific. I see red, coral, lavender, light pink, and yellow with red tips. The dream confused me though. Why have those specific colors of roses?

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" I nod and I can feel Zeke's gaze on me as I sat there uncomfortably. "Yeah."

"Good. You'll need it for today." I nod, remembering that she's teaching me how to use my powers and weapon better. She places a plate down for Zeke on the floor next to him while placing mine in front of me. We all ate and she immediately drags me outside. Zeke follows behind us, still a wolf, and I feel a slight breeze rush past us.

"Oh, it's been so long since I've been out." Rose closes her eyes to enjoy the moment. I take a deep breath myself and smile. Memories from when I was a child flows through my mind and starts to play like a movie, but it doesn't last long.

Rose pulls me forward and made me stand in front of her. "Okay, we'll start with your ice powers. What do you think you should do?" I stare down at my hands and shrug. "I don't exactly know. What are my limits?" I look back up to see Rose thinking about it. "I guess it depends on the person. The more you practice, the more you can do. At first, it'll probably be small things like icicles or frosts. Maybe a little more than that. How about we see what that is today?" I nod and she starts to tell me what to do.

At first, I don't notice much as I make small spikes of ice or patches of frost on the grass. Later, she goes farther. She tells me to picture something and make it like a mouse or rose. It only grew from there to a cat and dog. Slowly, it starts to take a toll on my body and I can feel myself weakening. Rose doesn't stop though. Not until my legs finally give out from under me.

"That's enough Rose." I turn and see Zeke treading to me with concern. I can feel my fatigue and I most likely show it as well. My eyes feel heavy and it feels like I can't move anything in my body. He kneels down next to me with a concerned expression turned to Rose. Rose looks to me as I softly pant in exhaustion. "I think that's enough for one day," Zeke says, gently stroking my arm. A shiver shot down my spine but I'm too tired to pull away from him. "Come on." He softly takes my hand and helps me up. We all head back inside.

Zeke helps me to my room and I hurry into the bathroom to take a shower. I stumble once or twice but once I got in, I scrub myself down of any exhaustion I may still have. My muscles relax from any tenseness and I feel more at ease now.

When I finish, I wrap a towel around myself. As soon as I step out of the bathroom, I see a black tail sticking out from in front of the bed. I walk around to see Zeke laying down on the floor in front of my bed. His ears suddenly perk up and he lifts his head and looks at me. I immediately start blushing when I realize the state I'm in.

I see a ghost of a smirk on his face as he looks at me, but he wasn't looking anywhere below my eyes. I quickly avert my gaze and hurry into my walk-in closet, shutting the door behind me. My blush deepens when I realize I actually felt his gaze on my bottom as I walked out. The nerve! "Why are you in here?" I ask, pretending I'm not actually agitated at him. I wait a few seconds before I get a response. "I was just making sure you're okay."

"I'm fine, thank you." I quickly put on a pair of jeans with a Batman shirt. I open the door again to see him standing right there. My breath catches in my throat in surprise, but I sigh. "I'm fine." I strut past him with the towel still in my hand. I bend over, throwing my hair around and twisting my hair into the towel as usual. I straighten back up and see him with a grim look. "Really? Then why did you fall? You looked exhausted and ready to just pass out."

He takes my hand but it was gentle. My heart speeds up again and a shiver shot down my spine at his touch. He holds my hand with a soft look but I yank my hand away, turning and walking towards my door, but he was faster than me. He sped past me and blocks the door with a determined look in his eyes. "Zeke, I don't want to deal with this right now."

"Deal with what? Me? Is there something wrong with me?"

"What? No. There's nothing wrong with you." His eyes narrow at me and he takes a step forward. "Is it the fact that I'm part wolf? Am I just a beast to you?" His voice grows louder as he takes another step forward. "No! It has nothing to do with that! Why do you care?"

"You read the book! You should know why!" I gulp, everything suddenly rushing back to me. "You hate me, don't you? You hate how I'm not normal like the other boys that talk to you." Something stabs at my emotions when he said that. For him to think something is wrong with him. To assume I hate him just because he's cursed or whatever. I start to wonder what happened to him in his past to make him feel this way. What got him so hurt for him to think such negative thoughts about himself? I shake my head. "Then what is it?!"

"Me!" I shout back. My voice trembles as I feel myself cracking under pressure. My head dips down as if already exhausted. "Me. No guy has ever talked to me, nor did I want them too. You heard me at the zoo, didn't you? So you know how hard it is for me to believe it. It's not the first time after all that I've been fooled." I laugh, but it was cold. "And I let myself believe it. I believed it then and I believed it last night."

I sigh and look up at him. "I don't think of you as a beast. I think of you as a friend. Maybe more than that. And there's nothing wrong with you. I don't hate you at all. In fact, it's the exact opposite. I just couldn't handle it, so I did what I always do when I'm scared or hurt. I ran and hid away." His expression softens and I shake my head. "You've lived for generations, so I'm sure you've seen and maybe experienced what love is. But I haven't. Not like that at least."

"I'm sorry," he says, but I shake my head and smile at him. "No, I shouldn't have run away like that, but I need time to think. Time to wrap my head around everything. I just found out that I have powers and I'm still pretty new to this whole 'breaking the curse' thing." We both laugh, but it's tense and awkward. It's suffocating to be here right now.

It stays silent for a few moments before my stomach growls. He laughs at me and I blush. "Let's go eat then. It might lift up some of the tension," he suggests. I'm thankful for the relief I feel wash over me and for my hunger announcement that helped change the topic. "Agreed."

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