Crimson Mist ✔️

5: Sharing is caring, right?

I turn around to face away from Jeremy, and look at my surroundings. We're in a clearing inside the never-ending forest. It looks almost like someone has made it this way, with the tree stumps scattered around, a log there, and a fire-pit in the middle. A few meters away from me is a treehouse, leaning against one of the bigger trees surrounding the clearing. It looks like it's filled with comic books and toys, and I take a step closer to it, just to see if I'm right.

I am right. There are several issues of Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Hulk laying on the ground inside the treehouse, along with action figures and stuffed animals. They all look pretty old, except for the box with Lego's under a faded, red table. That looks almost brand new.

"I used to come out here with dad when I was a kid, when he had patrol," Jeremy says, but he doesn't move. "Dad and his beta, Paul, built it for me and Paul's son Tyler, who is my best friend. You should meet him, and his mate. I have a feeling you'd hit it off."

I turn around and frown at him.

"Just because I'm supposedly your mate, it means I'd become friends with your friend's mate, just like that?" I ask him, suddenly full of fire for his assumption that since I'm a girl, I'd be friends with another girl, no questions asked.

I don't have friends, I don't do friends. Not even before I was kicked out. I had a few friends, but no one was my best friend. That spot was reserved for my grandmother, who always supported me. I could talk to her about anything.

"Now who's assuming?" he says, arching an eyebrow at me. "Tyler's gay. His mate is a dude. He's pretty much you, only louder and, well, with a dick."

"How would you know I don't have a dick?" I ask, ignoring the fact that I was stupid to assume anything, obviously, even though I'm a little embarrassed by it.

He doesn't say anything yet, he just looks down at my crotch with his eyebrows raised, and his lips quirked up in an amused smile.

"I wouldn't necessarily mind, but there's no bulge in your pants, so either it's really small, or my little mate has a pussy."

His smile seems a little too smug, and I really wish I had a very big one between my legs right now, so I could whip it out and show him. That would probably push him a little further away from me, right?

"I'm not your mate," I tell him. "The whole thing is bullshit. Why would every werewolf have one out there, but humans don't? Or cats, or dogs? It's too good to be true."

I watch at his face turns from his annoying grin, to a more disappointed look, and then back to halfway amused again when I utter my last sentence.

"Too good to be true, huh?" he questions, and steps closer to me. "First of all, it's not bullshit. I know you feel it. When I'm here your ears only focus on me, right? And when we touch, there's sparks and euphoria, and the first time you heard my voice..."

He steps even closer now, staring deeply into my eyes as he does, and then he leans towards me. I'm sure he's gonna kiss me, but he doesn't. In stead I feel his bearded cheek against mine, and his arms are once again around my waist, holding me in place.

"You got shivers down your spine, didn't you?" he continues, making his voice even deeper on purpose, which in return makes goosebumps erupt on my skin. Even places I didn't know I could get goosebumps.

I fight the trembling that my spine is threatening to do, and clear my throat.

"Why would I feel all that?" I ask him, maintaining my facade.

I try to take a step back, but I stumble, and his arms tighten around me to keep me from falling. He looks at me, his smile is gone, and his eyes are narrowed as they move all over my face in search for an answer to the question I just asked him.