Crimson Mist ✔️

43: Get over it!

Another stuffed animal is being placed into my arms, as a grinning Tristan wiggles his eyebrows at me. The past few days he's been intolerable. He's been way too happy, even Petra has commented on it, which is a miracle. She's kept her mouth shut about basically everything else though.

So far, I've got a polar bear, a penguin with a hat and a vest on, like Hugsy from that one TV-show Michael and Tyler has been binging with me since the war ended, and a brown teddy. My brother moves towards another machine to hook up another one for me, trying his best to cheer me up after everything.

Unfortunately, I just feel like going to bed and staying there, under the warm, comfortable covers. The warmth reminds me of Jeremy, but the soft pillows has got nothing on his hard pecks that I've grown so used to laying on.

"Come on, come on," Alpha Lyell mutters as his intense stare burns a hole in the poor plushie he'd trying to capture with the metal claw. And when it falls, just outside the square he wants it into, he punches the machine so hard its lights flicker, and he spins around, shaking his closed fist in agony. "Fuck!"

"Tristan," I sigh, stepping closer to him, "you don't have to do this. I'm twenty, not ten. Stuffed animals are cute and all, but they're not my mate. I'll be fine, I just need some time. Just like you."

"That's what I'm afraid of," he groans, before setting course to another machine filled with pink unicorns and rainbow pillows.

"That I'll be as angry and boring as you?" I ask, rolling my eyes at him at the same time, because this was exactly what he said to me before. He said I'd be better off, once I got the time to heal, but now he's apparently changed his mind and wants me to be happy. "I'm already halfway there."

I clutch my arms around my three very soft new friends, and turn away from him. This human town is filled with people of all ages, from very small children to grandparents with said children. It's refreshing, and it feels like I don't need to hide anymore. It's almost like everyone has forgotten about the Thompson-girl who disappeared, because no one I've seen has batted an eye at my presence.

I walk through the crowded space to get out of the wall-less tent where all the machines were set up. The fresh air and the darkening sky above me makes me feel able to breathe again.

Even though I said I didn't need these fluffy, cute things, I won't ever abandon them. They deserve better than that, so I'll hold onto them with my life. Maybe I'll give them to my kids one day. My kids that I... I swallow before I continue my thought. My kids that I had gotten used to think about, with Jeremy training them playfully in the backyard to become great werewolves, just like him. I don't think I want them anymore.

"Hey, there you are!" a chipper voice from behind me says, as a hand lands on my shoulder.

I turn around to see Michael grinning widely at me with a string with some beads on it hanging from his other hand, in front of his face. He spins me around and lets out a laugh when he sees the three stuffed animals in my embrace, and I tighten my arms around them, as if he isn't allowed to take them away from me.

"Tristan won them for me to cheer me up," I mutter, and look towards Tyler who comes sauntering towards us.

He lights up a little as he stops in front of me and looks down at my prized possessions.

"Wow. Our Alpha does know how to party," he comments, before taking the penguin and the brown teddy from my arms.

They don't go without a fight, but Michael pulls my arm towards him while his mate inspects the two toys, and I hold onto the polar bear for dear life. They did cheer me up, but I don't want anyone to know it. I'm not a child. I was just robbed of a childish childhood, and I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm being immature by jumping up and down in glee from these things.