"I'm so hungry," I complain to myself. I can hear the laughter of two teenage girls in the kitchen. Should I go get food and have to deal with two teen girls or stay here and starve? Yuck, both of these options suck. Also, the embarrassing thought of facing my sister's friend, Chris, again after last night.
I gather some courage and walk into the kitchen.
"Hey," Mist says to me as I enter.
"Hi," I reply back. I look towards her friend and she looks away immediately.
"I appreciate that you put pants on this time. I did not need to see your firetruck underwear," Mist states.
"You remember that. I was hoping you wouldn't. Trust me when I say I didn't want you to see my underwear either."
"Why? Because of the toy firetrucks and puppies on them?" Chris asks.
My face turns red for the second time within twelve hours. New record. One I didn't want to have.
"Chris!" Mist shouts.
"What? We all saw them."
"Doesn't mean we have to talk about it," I add.
Chris frowns and her face turns red.
I walk around the island to get to the fridge. I accidentally bump into Chris. She starts to fall, and my instincts kick in, and I grab her before she can fall any farther. She squeaks. Not surprised but unexpected. She stares at me with a blank but kinda weird look on her face.
"Ryder," Mist says.
"Hmmm?" I glance at Mist.
She points at me. I look back at Chris, and I realize that I've been holding her a little too long.
"Uh." I let go and take a step back. I clear my throat. "Uh, sorry." I turn around and walk as fast as I can out of there. I feel so very flustered. Damn, it's been a while since I liked a girl. I like a girl. I like someone? Dammit, I made it awkward. And I walked out of the room flustered, flustered! Smooth, Ryder, smooth.
Mist comes running up to me. "What was that?"
I stuff my hands into my pockets. "What was what? I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything."
"You know exactly what I'm talking about!"
"I don't think I do."
"You do and it's a big fat no."
"No? Wait, hold up, no? No to what?"
"No to you dating my best friend. It's a no."
"Why am I not allowed to do so if that were the case? Which it's not."
"I've seen my fair share of movies when the sibling dates their best friend then everything is weird and awkward and never the same anymore and when they break up so do the best friends so for the five millionth time no!"
"Okay."
"So, we all clear here?"
"I think?"
"Good." She turns on her heel and marches back off to the kitchen.
Oh no. That's not good, this isn't gonna end well. Yeah, this is a bad time to tell her I think Chris could possibly be—but I'm not quite sure—my soulmate... Yeah, definitely a very very bad time.
***
Mist jumps onto the sofa next to me in my room.
"Chris leave?" I ask.
"Whatcha up to?"
"Watching TV."
"Fun."
"Yeah, it's quite interesting. Since you're here I have a theoretical question for you."
"Okay?" She looks at me strangely.
"Would you ever stand in the way of me getting to be with my soulmate when I find that person?"
"Why would I do that? Whoever she ends up being, I wouldn't want to get in the way of the only person you can ever truly fall in love with. Why would you think I'd ever do that?"
"Would you stay out of the way even if it affects you?"
"Anyone who you'd be with would affect me. I mean, you'd be with someone. You'd be spending a lot of time with them and probably less time with me."
"Hey, I'd always find time, a lot of it, to spend with you."
She leans against me. "You're a good brother. I'm glad you're a part of our family."
"Me too." I kiss her hair. I'm never going to be able to have the guts to tell her. Let's just hope I'm wrong. I push those thoughts to the back of my mind.
"It's not fair."
"Huh, what's not fair?"
"That werewolves can tell who they are meant to be with when they meet that person. It's really unfair," she grumbles.
"Well, you could have a werewolf soulmate and he could tell ya for you."
"And the odds of that happening are, like, none."
"So, you would actually date a werewolf?" I ask.
"I never said I wouldn't. You guys aren't so bad. I'd never date you because ewww."
"My thought exactly. But the point was I didn't know you'd be willing to."
"If the person I'm meant to be with is a werewolf. Well, it's hard to argue with that."
"So, if it was Hunt, would you date him?"
"Do you hate me?"
"Of course not."
"Then why would you say something like that?"
"You said it yourself—if it's meant to be, it's meant to be."
"No way on earth Hunt is my meant-to-be. If he were, he'd never done what he did to me."
"I was just trying to see if you meant what you said. So, would you or would you not if he was your soulmate?"
"I-I don't know. I don't want to be with someone who has hurt me like that, even if they're my meant-to-be. Does that answer your question?"
Buzz buzz.
I dig my phone out of my pocket. One new message from Hunt.
"You have his phone number?" Mist asks.
"Uh, yeah. For when I was helping him. Remember that?"
"Yeah," she grumbles.
I open the message.
Can we talk?
YOU ARE READING
Foster Wolf
Werewolf(Complete) Ryder is a teenaged boy in foster care. his parents died when he was two and was put into the foster system. He has bounced from one home to another. Either he was sent back or ran away, but this time when his social worker, Mary, found h...
