Slaves of the Night

Chapter 2: Just Say Yes

  Tristan insisted on complaining on every move I made the whole way down the stairs, his grumbling the only sound that was loud enough to be heard from inside the house. All I could do was take my own sweet time doing so just to irritate him more, and by the time I got outside he had his arms crossed over his chest and the image of a cartoon dark cloud over his head as he glowered at me.

  “What?” I asked, pulling on my left sneaker, the right one already put on as I hopped out the door.

  He raised an eyebrow, “Do you seriously need to ask?”

  “No, probably not. But I figured since you are already sizzling I might as well kindle us a fire,” I smiled cheekily to his demise, but all he did was roll his eyes.

  The air in the night was sweeter down on the ground level than up on the roof, my senses were still tingling from being woken up so suddenly.  My skin was glowing from the right light of the waxing moon. I didn’t even have to look to know how full it was, the tension growing steadily in my body proved it enough. My wolf wanted possession of control. But all I could o was clench my fists and step in front of Tristan, imitating his irritated stance.

  “You got me here, what now?” I said with a smirk, arms crossed over my chest. He eyed me questioningly, before making up his mind and heaving a sigh. He sure sighed a lot. I just grinned wider, glad to know that I could always get under his skin.

  “Come on,” he turned heel and started off in the direction that lead to the familiar path we had both walked down many times.

  “Are you even going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked, striding along to keep up. It’s not like he walked very fast, but his natural stride always had me walking twice as fast just to keep up never mind in an effort to surpass.

  “Nope,” he replied calmly, popping the p in his refusal. I groaned but didn’t pester any further. He probably had reasons to keep whatever it was away from my curious mind—most likely one of those being that he loved to irritate me to no end, just like I did to him—and anyway I would find out wherever we were headed soon enough. The heat had settled in the night causing my skin to quickly overheat.

  A year ago I would have jumped for joy at the mere whisper of summer, but now I would have done the same and more at the thought of winter. Cold, miserable, dangerous, winter. It sounded like heaven to me. I didn’t know how anyone else in the pack stood to deal with the unnescarry body heat that we created, personal furnaces that provided comfort to everyone besides ourselves. I almost found it more irritating than Tristan; the two of them were neck and neck with each other on the scale, but he’d win out every time.

  Speaking of, I glanced over at him walking along in silence down the path. He looked completely fine with everything, his face even totally at ease despite our earlier argument. Knowing him and his mind, it was probably already dismissed and put aside for later. I smiled fondly, he could be as stubborn as a mule most of the time, but at least he knew when to leave well-enough alone. His jaw bones created my favorite line of symmetry that lead up to his silver eyes that reflected the night with an air of mischief. All of it was shrouded by the blanket of his mass of black curly hair that glinted blue with the shining of the moon.

  Something must’ve slipped, whether it be the sigh that could have possibly slipped from my lips or a stumble in my step from being distracted but he caught me staring. It wasn’t until it was too late that I realized he had done so too, and I could feel my cheeks heat up in embarrassment. “What?” he questioned, a small smirk gracing his lips. All I could do was keep my eyes locked on his, taking in the perfection of his face for one more moment while shaking my head before looking back ahead of us.

  “You’re so weird,” he muttered in amusement, causing me to laugh.

  It was true. I probably was, but what normal person would take this whole world that I had been enveloped in seriously? I could either be weird or go crazy with the ludicrosity of it and I much preferred the former.

  My hand felt even warmer as he grasped it from swinging at my side, causing me to look back up, but he wasn’t doing the same anymore. It was a rare moment in the day when he showed affection to me—actually anyone besides his mother and possibly brother. So all I could was let my heart flutter in a cascade of warmth and walk on acting like it was nothing special before I ruined it all. We tended to do that a lot to our moments between each other.

  Crickets chirped in the woods around us and a cool breeze blew at our backs as the leaves rustled softly along with it. I found it hard to believe that I had ever been naïve enough to fear the forest; it turned out to be so beautiful no matter the season or time of day when one was left to wander its area. The smell was familiar, the feel familiar, and the aura soothing. That could also be that part of me now was forever tied to the woods was that that bound me to my wolf.

  It wasn’t until Tristan reached in front of us and brushed aside a stray branch that I noticed where we were. The favorite and most eventful place I knew around here, in both reality and in my dreams; the overhanging cliff over the lake. The moon shone across its surface in crystal clarity, illuminating anything that couldn’t be with my enhanced sight. Picking out the oddity around us, I saw a picnic blanket complete with a basket full of food and kindling fire. Shouldn’t I have smelt the burning wood? Tristan sure knew how to distract a girl.

  My mouth fell open, “What is this?”

  He looked at me, “A picnic…” there was a duh tone at the end of his voice and I couldn’t even make myself roll my eyes to the statement.

  Backing away towards the edge of the clearing again, he kept hold of my hand, “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Getting the heck out of here, because the world must surely be ending if Tristan Everdeen has turned all hopeless romantic on me…” I stuttered out.

  Now was definitely call for another eye roll on his part, “Really? I’m not hopeless but I never said, nor has anyone ever said that I’m not a tad bit of a romantic…” he cleared his throat, “You know… in a manly kind of way,”

  A smile cracked its way through my shock but I still stood there dumbstruck, “But you… and me… and no… ugh.” I tried to say what I was thinking out loud, but it wasn’t even making sense in my head.

  He tugged my arm towards the blanket, and I followed only because it was useless to try and bolt, “If you really want to leave you can… but I guarantee that this doesn’t happen very often.” He said, sitting down.

  Wrinkling my nose, I tried to my make up my mind, but it was simple. I plopped down beside him, “Very often? More like never in the history of this earth. You are not even a tad romantic in the slightest and now you’re all suave with a surprise and all. Are you sick?”

  He sighed, “You do know that I’ve been in relationships before this one, I’ve learned a trick of the trade before meeting you. And most relationships when they involve women, involve a little romanticism once in awhile.”

  I scoffed, “Yeah, I know about your exes, you don’t need to bring that up…” I growled in frustration, still trying to get over the simple hurdle of seeing a picnic basket.

  “Can we just eat and save all that talk for later, I kind of worked a little on all of this and I don’t like my work to go to waste?” he insisted, opening the basket to reveal a heated platter of my favorite dish in the whole wide world.

  “You have won my heart…” I murmured, as he took out the lasagna, extra cheese layered on top to make my mouth salivate. He smirked and cut us both a piece, making the impossible become possible by mixing a picnic with a normal sit-down-at-the-dinner-table food flawlessly. He pulled out a pair of forks and we dug in, gazing out onto the lake as we ate in happy silence. The blanket was huge, spreading over a good portion of the clearing, but we sat close to each other as the plates were cleared off by our scraping utensils.

  “Did you make this?” I asked, once I was as full as my stomach would allow, and yet the taste of it had me still wanting more.

  “Yes.” He replied simply finishing his own off, looking me seriously in the eye. My jaw dropped for the second time of the night, and if I were to be granted with many more surprises I’m sure I would have to go purchase new hinges for it.

  “Seriously..?” I was just about to ask when he chuckled.

  “No. I didn’t. It’s really a stupid question to ask, I can’t cook to save my life.” My mouth closed into a firm line as I laughed a little too.  “But I did manage to acquire us some refreshments,” he said, pulling out a pair of coca cola bottles, the original glass kind that you could only find on a rare occasion. Grinning like a kid in a candy store I graciously took mine, of course Tristan would know that Coke always tasted best from glass containers.

  “So what spurred this on?” I asked once we had packed up everything besides our drinks. The fire was crackling softly as it disinigrated the wood slowly, providing a healthy orange glow on us.

  He just shrugged taking another swig, before leaning back on his elbows and gazing up at the stars. I really had to wonder why he was shifting all of a sudden, but of course that was part of the Tristan way, always showing up with the unexpected and blowing your socks off in the process. There were times where that quality made me hate his guts and other that made me ache with the fondness I felt for him. It seemed impossible that he could go so unnoticed in the school, just skimming on the outside. How could people not see the extraordinary person he was? It practically shone through him, providing an aura that swept you up into it. I had been lost for words ever since I had made eye contact with him that first day of school last year. Of course then I wasn’t falling in love with him, in fact I was in one of those ‘hate his guts’ stages where I wanted to banish him from ever showing himself in my life again. He had ruined it, he had brandished it, and he had restored it. It was hard to tell if I gained or lost anything with coming into knowing of the secret that had stayed hidden for so long in the woods.

  “Want to swim?” he asked, breaking me from my train of thought. He looked toward me expectantly, that usual natural sarcastic emotion that he always wore even when he wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. It just came with his cockiness and jerkitude.

  I looked back to the lake, realizing how warm I felt at the moment again, I had managed to push the heat away from my senses for a moment, but it would always come back. “Sure,”

  Not even bothering to peel out of our clothes, besides him taking off his shirt, we walked towards the edge of the cliff face. It wasn’t real far to the water from the edge, but it was enough to be able to swan dive of off with elegance. Of course, neither of us could do anything of the sort, it was only an example.

  So instead of being as elegant and feminine as I would have liked to be, I just couldn’t resist taking a few steps back before propelling myself into the air to form the perfect cannonball into the air. The splash immersed me into the chilled water, cancelling all the sound around me and enveloping me in a bubble. It was the only reason I could stand getting water in my ears, because I knew that it helped silence everything else out. Moments later a second crash collided into the water, indicating Tristan’s presence in the underwater realm. Opening my eyes, I could just barely make out the reflection of his looking back at me.

  It was hard not to wish every evening would work out like this.

  “And now you’re cold?” he asked as we made our way back up the small path to our fire and blanket. I could only glare at him mutely as I shivered, my body made no more sense to me than it did to him.

  “You should have better knowledge of all this, you were born this way,” I grumbled, wishing that my personal skin heater of mine would come back to me when I needed it. I wasn’t going to be happy either way, I could see that now. Great, I couldn’t wait for a lifetime worth of complaining at my bodies functions.

  He raised his hands in the air with resignation, “Don’t be asking me, like we all have said this hasn’t happened…”

  “In hundreds of years, blah blah blah. I know that Sherlock, no need to remind me,” I grumbled finishing his sentence for him. Because I totally knew he was going to end it with triple blahs.

  He chuckled at my irritation and made no move to walk faster, “If we get to the fire quicker, you can become warm quicker…” he pointed out, and he couldn’t have told me anything that made move faster. Practically running, I sprinted down the path in the dark, by sheer luck coming upon the camp and flinging myself onto the picnic blanket near the fire.

  “Would you have moved that fast if I had said there was danger?” he asked, laughing.

  I peeked up my head from the comfort of the blanket, “Of course not, I laugh in the face of danger. Ha.” I scoffed and hid once again.

  There was shuffling and I heard the picnic basket be moved before Tristan sat down beside me, draping a second blanket over me. I looked up again, “Always prepared for the unexpected,” he said simply, tossing the basket to the side. His hair was sopping wet because it had only been moments ago that we had pulled ourselves out of the water from a good hour’s worth of splash fighting and attempts at dunking the other under. In the end we had declared it a draw, because each of us had advantages over the other and my body temperature had already dropped down to below what I was used to. All that led to shivers were ran up and down my arms and legs along with the slight chatter of my teeth.

  Reaching over me, he grabbed a pre-cut piece of wood and added it to the fire, the sweet smoke filling my nose as it was disturbed from it resting place. I was so glad that school wasn’t until Monday and that it was Friday, because I could bet that school a day after this would be pure torture. Not that it was really much of school anymore, more likely just work to get everything ready for graduation a week or so from now.

  Sighing he laid down beside me, using one of his arms to rest beneath his head. I peeked out from under the blanket now that I was started to lose the edge of the chill, glancing up at him as he looked to the stars peacefully. “Do you ever wonder why it has an effect on us?” I murmured.

  “Hmm..?” he asked, turning his head to look at me.

  “The moon. It really doesn’t seem like it would have anything to do with me changing into a world, they really have nothing much h to do with each other besides the fact that someone constructed a fairy tale that turned out to be true in the end,” I explained, exposing my face further and tucking the blanket around me.

  He looked back to the sky, pondering over my question. The moon was half full; a reminder to me that I should beware very soon, my time alone in my body wasn’t going to last much longer. I hated it when my wolf invaded my thoughts and actions, and the way she achieved more power within me each time. “While I’m not totally sure on the science of it all, I used to believe as a child that it was magic that changed us. When you really think of it, what else could do something of this magnitude? Transform a whole body and turn it into another shape flawlessly and back again? While it’s not likely that that’s what really happens, it’s the most probable reason I can think of at the moment.” He mused, more talking to himself than to me.

  I thought for a few moments, scooting over closer to Tristan, and soaking in some of his body warmth. His other arm slipped easily around me and holding me close, not even hesitating in the motion like normal. “That’s true. I’m not really sure if I should discredit anything from being true anymore; it would be disrespectful considering the circumstances.”

  He lay still for a few moments as we both watched the still sky, waiting for magic to appear before our eyes to prove us right, but everything stayed the same. The stars still burned brightly in the atmosphere and the moon radiated the light from the sun, nothing special. But it had to be out there somewhere.

  “It’s been getting worse…” I sighed, closing my eyes against him.

  “What has?” he asked.

  “The moon shifts, it’s like every time that I see the full moon I lose more of myself to it, last time I couldn’t even remember half of what I had done,” I remember waking up on the forest floor as a human, my hair rumpled and my clothes wrinkled. Luckily Tristan had been there beside me, watching over me as I had ran in my wolf form, and he was sleeping when I woke up, but I had been frantic not knowing where in the world I was. Fear seized my chest that one day I would wake up and remember nothing, not a single thing that could tie me back here. Not only was my wolf taking my body, but she was taking my memory too.

  He paused, “I’m sure it’s just something that you’ll work through… everyone goes through their first year’s worth of changes differently. Don’t worry, I’ll be here with you either way,” he squeezed the arm around me in to emphasize my security with him. His voice was gruff as he tried convincing me that everything was alright and for the moment I relaxed, believing every word of it like it was sacred.

  “Will you always be here though?” I asked, “What if you find something that is better for you, a person that could fit you better than a misfit human turned rogue? I wouldn’t blame you at all,” I said sadly, keeping it from my voice though. It was the truth too; he would be so much better off as a Beta without a burden like me at his side. I even remember back to when he had said he’d much rather not have a mate at all than me; I never heard anywhere that mates were forever. They could crumble at any second and I was fully expecting my reality to wake me up soon.

  “Do you really believe that?” he asked softly.

  I was silent at his tone, it was accusatory like I was a moron for saying something like that, but I knew I wasn’t. I could just be another waitress at a restaurant two towns over in another pack just as easily as the last girl was. It made me feel cheap and not worthy of much of anything in that sense.

  “You shouldn’t…” he sighed, taking his hand off me to run it through his hair in stress before placing it back. “I’m not going to say this because it’s what you want to here, because in reality that’s what this was all leading up to. Now I wasn’t really expecting you to spew I-don’t-deserve-you crap, but…” I bristled at what he was going to say, almost positive it was going to be offensive in some way.

  “What would you say if I asked you to marry me?” he asked. There was silence. And more silence. And even more at that. I couldn’t speak and my whole body was frozen in shock, I could only bless that my jaw wasn’t dropping again like it would have if I had been standing up. “Would you marry me, Sam?”

  There was no getting down on one knee, no declaration of love in the extravagance that was usually written by poets; no, just Tristan laying here beside me under the skies, his arm around me positioned so that I couldn’t even see the look in his eyes as he said it. I really didn’t know what to say, my whole body was screaming yes but my mind was taunting me as if it was a joke. It couldn’t really be a joke, right? I mean Tristan wouldn’t joke about something as big as this. I mean come on; it contained feelings, a subject he was touchy on. Just say yes… my mind told me as I took a shaky breath.

  “Yeah. Tristan I’ll marry you,” I finally spoke up, only loud enough for him to hear. The way he tensed up I bet he couldn’t believe what was happening either, that I had actually said yes, but he relaxed instantly too and we were back to before as if nothing happened.

  A comfortable silence to the crackling fire and a pair of confused minds that had just promised each other a hand in marriage. I would have laughed had it been someone else’s situation but all I did was smiled pleasantly and allow myself to be drifted off into a blissful sleep.

  “I love you, Samantha…” Tristan murmured under his breath, so soft I barely heard it in my dozed state. He probably thought I had been deep asleep and never would have heard him, and I could have guaranteed that I would have jumped up and down and rubbed it in his face that he had finally said it if I wasn’t so tired. So I just let myself go to sleep, peacefully happy and calm.