Mates with the Enemy

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Sean's POV:

Sarah has only been here for two weeks and she's already fitting in perfectly. My buddy Felix is so obsessed with her, I was actually quite surprised that he let her go shopping with the girls yesterday. We both know that they would never do anything mean to her, but he hasn't let her out of his sight since.
I'm very proud that he's found his mate already. Sadly, I'm turning twenty in 2 months and I still haven't found mine. I don't mind that much though, because I have Soph, Elle, and J to keep me company.
I checked my phone to see what time it was. 6:24. I woke up really early this morning and I just can't seem to fall back asleep. I jumped out of bed and threw on a black hoodie. I'm gonna go see what Soph is up to, she usually wakes up extremely early in the mornings. I have no idea how she does it though.
I knocked lightly in the door but there was no answer. There's no way she's still asleep. I mind linked her
"Soph, where are you?"
"Busy." She replied. What in the name of the moon goddess was she doing at this hour?
"Wait. Why are you up so early?" She asked after a moment
"Can't sleep." I answered, "Where are you? I'm bored."
"Fine, meet me in the kitchen." I headed down to the kitchen to see her waiting by the counter. I took a seat at the dining table. She turned around to look at me
"Hungry?" I nodded and she fixed us both a sandwich. She pulled a box of cookies out of one of the cupboards and handed me a glass of water.
"Where'd you even get these cookies?" I asked. If Jia found out that Soph had a secret stash of junk food then we'd never see it again. She evilly smirked at me
"I have my sources." She replied casually.
"So what were you doing so early in the morning?" I inquired
"Work." I eyed her suspiciously. I know she's hiding something, but I also know that I'll never be able to find out unless she wants me to know. She's one of the best people I know at keeping her secrets safe. Which is unfortunate because I completely suck at that. I checked the clock to see that it read 6:34
"What time did you even wake up this morning?" I questioned
"Around 5 ish.." I cringed at her answer. What kind of person voluntarily wakes up that early? "What's with all the interrogating?" She asked.
"Maybe if you gave me proper answers I wouldn't have to ask a billion and one questions." I replied
She rolled her eyes at me and nibbled on her cookie
"You'll find out. But not today." She said with a smirk. Now it was me who rolled their eyes
"You better not be hiding a secret boyfriend or something of the sort." She groaned at me
"How much faith do you have in your little sister? I'm too busy for guys."
"Busy with what?" She frowned slightly. There was no way I was dropping this subject until she told me what was up.
"Busy with work. And stuff. And more work." She replied. "Somewhat off topic, but do you think spring bud green or pastel pink would look better with royal purple and gold?" There was no way that I could get anymore information out of her now that she changed her topic. She's just gonna keep doing that every time I bring up her 'work'.
"No idea." I replied.
She looked behind me at the window and suddenly got up. I looked back to see what she had been looking at, but I saw nothing. She started packing away our dishes.
"Follow me." She said as she grabbed the box of cookies and walked out of the kitchen.
"Where are we going?" I asked. She didn't answer me, but continued to lead me upstairs.

Our house had four floors. The basement, where no one but Soph went, the main floor with the kitchen and living room, the second floor with everyone's bedrooms and bathrooms, and the attic, where just like the basement, no one except Soph went into.

She led me all the way up to the attic, but there was a trap door at the end of the stairs that blocked us from entering. She handed me the box of cookies and pulled out a key which was attached the necklace that she always wore around her neck. She opened up the door and proceeded inside
"You're actually letting me into your secret sanctuary?!" I said incredulously. She still didn't reply so I decided to look around.

It was super cozy in here. The attic was bigger then my bedroom and three of the walls were filled from top to bottom with Sophia's paintings. I marveled at all the different landscapes and portraits and abstract designs she had, they were absolutely breathtaking. The last wall was covered with a giant bookshelf that had a space in the middle to show one large window. There was a hanging chair in the very middle, with a comfy beanbag chair right beside it. Soph grabbed a fluffy blanket off of the hanging chair and motioned me over to the window.
She opened it up widely and climbed out, onto the roof. I followed her out and she set the blanket down for us to sit on it comfortably
"So what do you think?" She asked quietly
"Wow. Just wow." I breathed out. "I had no idea just how incredible the attic had looked. Your paintings are amazing! And how many books do you even have? Also, why do you have two chairs if you're the only one who comes here? And also, the roof is pretty dangerous.. somewhat off topic, but why is the roof so clean? I kinda thought it'd be covered in leaves or whatnot. Also"
"You talk too much." She cut me off. "I brought you here to look at the sunrise so shut up."

Sophia's POV
Sean pretended to zip up his lips and we sat there in silence looking at the beautiful sky. I had always loved how sunrises and sunsets brought out so many different colors in a sky that usually tends to be a similar shade of blue.
This is the first time in many years that I've let someone come into the attic. I've always been really shy, and there's nothing I like more than peace and quiet, but I don't usually get to have that when hanging out with other people. Because of this I've always been kinda introverted and preferred isolation over people. Sean was the complete opposite and so growing up, he had always hung out at his friends' houses while I preferred to stay at home. This is why I've converted the basement and the attic into my own little sanctuary, so I could temporarily escape from the world and it's problems.

"How often do you come up here just to watch the sunset?" He asked softly
"Whenever I'm not working, I'm up here." He nodded solemnly at my answer before cracking a cheesy grin
"So this is where you are when I can't find you!" I rolled my eyes at him.

Once the sun had fully risen we headed back inside. I made sure to lock back the attic before going back downstairs; just because I showed him my special place doesn't mean I want him popping in here whenever he wanted to. We went back into the kitchen to put the now empty box of cookies into the garbage bin and I heard a knock at the front door.
I raised my eyebrow at Sean, I wasn't expecting anyone and most of his friends didn't wake up this early
"I was texting Felix earlier because I was pretty bored this morning when I woke up." I nodded as he made his way to open the door.
"I'll be heading out then." He called before closing the door back behind him.
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
No offence to Sean, but I'm actually kind of glad that he left. Don't get me wrong, with him gone I can continue working on his birthday gift. That's what I had been doing this morning before he interrupted me. I was pretty happy with the little interruption though, because it meant bonding time with my brother, and the two of us hadn't hung out together in a long time.
I went back downstairs into the basement and unlocked the door. I sat down at the stool beside my large wolf carving and pulled out my chisels. His birthday is coming up in a month, but I should be able to finish just on time with the pace I'm going at.
I have been sacrificing a little bit of sleep in the morning, just around and hour or so, so I can finish it.
One thing I love about carving and wood burning  is the smell of wood. I have many different sanctuaries all around town, where no one but me know about. Most of them are in the forest because I love nature, but when something stops me from going there I like to come down here in the basement and work with my wood or clay.
I was able to work on Sean's birthday carving for a solid four hours before I heard Michelle and Jia trying to mind link me.

"Girl, where are you?!" J cried out.
"Soph are you alright? We've been looking everywhere for you!" Elle said worriedly.
"I'm fine. What's up?" I replied as I started packing away my tools. I might as well take a little break now
"Soph! Don't you give us that 'I'm fine' nonsense! We were worried sick! Get your butt at Jia's house right now!" I mentally sighed. Elle could be so caring, but she was the mom of the group. I locked the basement door and left.
The walk to J's house was short, but peaceful. I knocked on her front door and it immediately flew open only for me to be engulfed in a massive bear hug by Elle.
"Soph! Why didn't you answer your phone?! We were so worried!!" She shrieked
"Yeesh. It's not like I was dead or anything." I mind linked to her. She frowned at me
"Silent treatment?" She asked glaring.
"Technically, she's still speaking to you, it's just through her brain." J came up from behind. She grinned at me and I winked back. Sarah snickered at us as Elle huffed in annoyance.
"So what's so important that you had to disturb me?" I asked raising an eyebrow
"We want to go check out a new restaurant." Sarah replied. Jia pushed us all forward into the direction of her car
"Come on guys, hurry up! I'm starving!!" She whined. We piled into the car and drove to the best restaurant in the world.

Sarah's POV:

We were all seated down in the new restaurant and we had just finished ordering.
"So why weren't you answering your phone earlier?" Elle questioned.
"I was busy." Soph replied in a very soft voice. My jaw dropped
"Oh goddess! Did you just speak?" I asked incredulously. She smiled back at me.
"My hands are kinda sore so I don't want to sign, but I don't want to exclude you from the conversation either because you're one of us now."
She smiled at me and I smiled back. I was loving this pack so much but I still felt a small twinge of guilt in my heart. I missed Aaron and his pack. I pushed the thought out of my mind and focused on the present. No point dwelling in the past when I can't do anything about it.
We ate our food and walked around town, having lots of fun. At the end we were so tired we decided to go back to the pack house. I smiled out the car window, feeling content with my new life.