Held For Ransom

Chapter 18

"What?" I ask, crossing my arms. This doesn't seem like something out of the normal. I mean, wolves are supposed to be able to run pretty fast...aren't they?

"You....how.. What??" Cole starts pacing, looking so dumbfounded that it's adorable.

Moving to stand in front of him, I grip his shoulders with my hands. "Why is this so weird to you?" I demand, growing impatient.

Shaking his head, he grabs my elbow and starts leading me to the door. "I'll explain in it our room, but not here."

Nodding, I follow him. At least I'm getting answers, right?

When we reach our room, he quickly shuts the door behind us, and I follow him toward the sofa. We sit next to each other, slightly angled to face one another.

"Alright, so you know how I told you that it usually takes a wolf a few weeks to get to that point where they're fully stable?" He questions, looking fully serious.

I nod. That's exactly what he said.

"Alright, well, I wasn't joking. It does usually take a few weeks. For you to already be running at full speed within a day, is completely unheard of," Cole explains, peering at me as though he's trying to read my mind, trying to figure out what makes me so different.

Too bad for him, I don't even know. I bet I'm even more befuddled than he is.

"Don't look at me, I have no clue," I admit, narrowing my eyes.

"This is just so odd. Are you sure no one in your family were shifters?" He asks, his tone a bit on the accusatory side.

My eyes widen a fraction, "Yes, I'm freaking sure my whole entire family were one hundred percent human!"

"Alright, sorry, but this isn't making any sense," he replies, looking apologetic.

"Well, I don't know. Sorry if you thought I did, but as I'm sure you know, I'm new to this whole shifter thing," I remind him, keeping my voice level.

"Yeah, I know," he says, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around my waist. I hug him back, and lean my head on his shoulder.

"I love you, you know that right?" He asks softly, holding me tighter, as if he's afraid I'll disappear.

"I do know, and I love you too," I smile, then stand on my tip toes to kiss his cheek.

"By the way, you're a very fast runner. Almost as fast as me," Cole remarks, smirking as he pulls away slightly to look at me.

I slap his chest playfully, "Give me a few days and I'm sure I could beat that arrogant behind of yours."

"Oh, you are on babe," he replies with a wink.

"Alrighty then. Hey, I haven't had breakfast yet; do you want to come with me to get something to eat?" I ask, not fancying the idea of going alone. Especially if I risk running into Isaac.

"Yeah, sure. And babe, don't worry about Isaac. I'll never let him hurt you, ever," Cole says, and I know he read my mind again.

"Let's just go," I reply, not wanting to talk about it. I don't want to talk about Isaac; I don't want to talk about the fighting; I just want to be with Cole normally, for once.

He takes my hand without a word and leads me out into the hallway, in the direction of the kitchen. When we get there, he tells me to wait by the door while he goes to talk to the chefs.

When he comes back with a large grin spread across his cheeks, I wonder what in the world he's up to.

"What'd you do?" I ask with narrowed eyes. I swear, if he asked them to make me something horribly disgusting, I wasn't going to speak to him for an eon.

No joke.

"Oh, nothing," he sang, grabbing my hand and leading me into the dining room. After sitting me down beside him, he started to 'nonchalantly' twirl his thumbs and whistle a tune unknown to me.

"If you're having them make octopus eyeballs or something, I'm going to severely injure you," I threaten him, to which his eyes widen a fraction. I smirk, knowing that I'd made my point completely clear to him.

"I'm hurt that you think I'd do such a thing," he replies, placing a hand over his heart in mock pain.

I shrug and laugh softly, "You never know."

Rolling his eyes, he casts a glance behind us and jumps up, "Holy crap, they are fast."

I cast my gaze behind us as well and suck in a breath when I see the chefs flowing in with large silver patters in their hands. They set them on the table, before bowing and exiting the room.

Cole sits back down after they're all gone, and he turns to me with a smile gracing his lips. "Go one, take a peek in them."

Eyeing him warily, I ask, "Do I really want to?"

He chuckles, "Yes. Please, before I die of old age over here."

Rolling my eyes, I decide to relieve him of the painful suspense, and lift the lid off the platter closest to me. Inside, is a large, tender, juicy and yummy-looking ham. My mouth automatically starts to water.

When I make a move to cut off a slab, Cole bats away my hand. "Nuh-uh, not yet," he chastises playfully.

"But it looks so good," I whine, already yearning for it again.

"And so does everything else. C'mon, you can have the ham in just a few minutes, okay?"

"Yay!" After hearing that, I hurriedly reach for the next platter and open it like a kid on Christmas Day.

Inside, I find the best looking scrambled eggs ever. Seriously, if there was a contest for best-looking scrambled eggs, this would by far be the winner. Seriously.

The next tray contains mountains of french toast, my absolute favorite food in the whole entire world.

Except ice-cream. Nothing can ever beat my precious ice-cream.

The last platter is actually a bowl, and within is large assortment of fruits. There are tons, some of which I have no idea what they are. There are strawberries, blueberries, melons, grapes, and all sorts of others that would take forever to name.

I stare at Cole, shocked, "You had them make all this for me?"

He laughs, "I don't really think you could eat all of that, but yeah I had them make it for you. The rest of the family will be coming in just a bit."

As if on cue, Marie walks in, along with Isaac, and the man from the meeting.

I recognize him from the meeting. I can't remember his name, but Cole soon comes to my rescue when he says, "Hannah, meet Jared, my third-in-command."

Jared smiles and bows slightly. I smile back and nod, appreciating his respectful attitude.

Unlike Isaac, who stands there gazing at me with a glint in his eye. I cannot make out what he's thinking, but whatever it is, it scares me to no end.

From this moment on, I make a promise to myself to watch my back, for I know that Isaac is up to no good.

No good at all.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Hey guys!! I know, you were probably thinking I wasn't going to upload, being its already Sunday night. I'm sorry! I had work yesterday and then I had chores and yeahh so I wrote last night and most of it earlier, and finished it up just now!

So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was really crappy, I know. I promise to try to make them better and longer in the future, but school makes it hard to write.

Ugh, right?

Anyways, yeah. Vote and Comment if you liked it! Comment anything that you think could be helpful or criticism. I don't care, it will all be helpful!

Again, thank you so much!