Chapter Four: Marisa

I shook, hugging my knees tighter to my chest. I was a complete wreck.

Ever since Blaize confronted me in the parking lot, I’d hid myself in the staff bathroom. Classy, I know.

But what was I supposed to do? There was no way I could go home now. For starters, I was probably too unstable to drive, and also, there’s the issue with my boyfriend, Collin.

My committed boyfriend of five years. The one who I probably would’ve ended up marrying, had I never gone to this town.

Fuck, I groaned mentally. My wolf was pacing anxiously. Apparently I wasn’t the only nervous one.

I thought back to the parking lot, which was where my mind had been going despite my attempts to derail that train of thought.

His scent was so delicious…and his physical appearance put even Channing Tatum to shame. And when he’d touched me it had caused electric tingles to shoot through my whole body. He’d called me his.

I sighed, and my body shook again. Sobs threatened to break through, and I rocked myself on the floor.

I shuddered.

What is wrong with you? My wolf growled. He loves us. You know that.

Yeah, but…Collin.

My wolf didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. Finally, she said, We will just reject him. He doesn’t need us, and we certainly don’t need him anymore now that we’ve found our mate.

I sighed, tuning out my wolf who was rambling on about how perfect her mate was.

He’s so young, and-

That’s when it started. I cried out, struggling to hold back my tears.

My wolf stopped her rant and tried to comfort me, but I couldn’t hear her. Despite my own efforts, the tears flowed and sobs shook my body.

The first day of my new job, my life as a true adult wolf, and it ruined me. There was no way I could face Collin, or Blaize, ever again.

That’s it. I knew what I would do. I decided to live in this restroom until I died of starvation.

Sounded like a good plan to me.

Stop being ridiculous. What does it matter that Blaize is younger than us? My wolf scolded.

I growled through my sobs. Don’t you get it? A relationship like that will only be destructive. I’ll lose my job, and-

By human law, My wolf snarled. Blaize is our mate. In werewolf eyes, no one will care. Especially since we’re future Luna.

I stopped myself right there.

Wait, what? Luna?

Yeah, my wolf said like it was obvious. Couldn’t you feel the power radiating from our mate? There’s no way he isn’t the future Alpha of the West Wind Pack.

I glared at the wall. Fantastic. Not only was my mate a student of mine, but he was also an Alpha.

Just fucking fantastic.

Why did this have to happen to me? I sighed. This was going to be a long…well, rest of my life. At the moment, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. If any humans found out the relationship between Blaize and I, I would lose my job and they might end up arresting me.

Calm down, would you? Our mate would be able to handle something like keeping us safe from human scrutiny.

Our mate…those few words instantly sent my thoughts back to the parking lot. Blaize had caught up to me before I could escape.

I remembered all of my feelings clearly. At first I had slightly dreaded seeing him. I was worried someone would catch us together and suspect something. But then…

I sighed dreamily. I recalled the longing I’d seen in his eyes.

He was going to kiss me. That thought brought a small smile to my lips.

There was no doubt about it, my mate was absolutely gorgeous. His appearance was gorgeous, his voice was gorgeous-

Stop, I scolded myself. There was no possible way this relationship would work, right? Maybe I should transfer…

What? My wolf’s growl echoed in my mind, and I winced. Why are you trying to fight this? He is our mate, our one and only and you want to reject him?

My train of thought froze. I hadn’t even considered rejection. What if he rejected me? What if we couldn’t be together?

Suddenly it felt like there was an empty hole within me. I honestly couldn’t imagine living on without seeing Blaize, even though I only just met him today.

And then, the tears fell.

I sat, huddled on the floor, crying my eyes out. I sobbed loudly, no longer caring whether or not anyone would hear me. I’d just pass it off as having an overwhelming first day. That is, if anyone heard.

Before I knew it, hours had passed. I was nearly asleep by now, so I stood to wake myself up.

My limbs ached from staying in my position on the floor for so long. I walked up to the sink and looked into the mirror before me.

I looked like the living dead.

My makeup had smeared, and there were tear stains down my cheeks. Dark circles had started to form under my eyes. I looked slightly lopsided because of my stiff muscles.

“Marisa, look what you’ve done,” I tried to say. My voice wouldn’t come out, though. It was strained and scratchy.

I sighed, grabbing my purse from the floor. It was time to pull myself together.

I rummaged through my bag and came across my emergency makeup. I washed off what I had on, then applied some new makeup. I then took my water bottle, filled it up in the sink, and then chugged it all.

I looked at my reflection as I stretched out my limbs. I looked a hell of a lot better.

Giving myself a small smile, I pulled out my phone to check the time. I noticed that it was 7:58 in the evening, and that I had about thirty texts from Collin.

All of a sudden, a loud bang came from the door. I jumped and squealed, huddling back in a ball on the floor. I sighed with relief when I recognized the scent on the other side.

“Risa? Are you in there?” came a smooth, deep voice.

“Yeah, Collin, it’s me,” I replied. I felt like the walls were suddenly closing in on me. Collin was here.

Collin, just leave me alone, I whispered inside my head.

I couldn’t think about my relationship predicament right now though. I had more pressing things to worry about, such as how the heck I was going to get out of here without being fretted over by Collin.

“Babe? Can you come out? Why are you in there?” he asked. I sighed, shuddering slightly when he called me “babe”. Usually when he called me that I felt happy. But now I felt disgusted.

“Yeah…I’ll be out in a sec,” I gathered up all my things and grabbed up my purse. Slowly, I made my way to the door and unlocked it. I opened the door, only to be engulfed in a smothering hug.

“I was so worried about you, Risa,” he mumbled into my hair. “You weren’t answering your phone, and you didn’t come home…”

I smiled slightly at his consideration. Of course he was going to be worried. He was still my boyfriend after all.

“It’s alright,” I murmured. “I just had a very stressful first day, that’s all.”

He hugged me tighter for a moment before pulling away. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

I gave him a fake smile. “I’m tired, and I’d like to go home now.”

He nodded. “You okay to drive?”

“Yeah. How’d you find me anyway?” I asked, walking into one of the hallways toward the door.

“Oh,” he said. “I called one of your coworkers. They said last they’d seen, you’d ran into the bathroom and never came out.”

I nodded and said nothing. We continued walking in silence. As soon as we reached outside, we separated to go to our own cars.

When I got into my car, I let out a huge breath of relief. I was desperately trying to sort out what I was feeling at the moment. Why did I feel so disgusted, simply because I let Collin hug me? I’ve never had any feeling of this sort with him before.

As I started to drive away, my wolf answered my question.

You feel like this because you’re going behind our mate’s back.

I scoffed. I’m doing nothing of the sort! How is hugging someone considered cheating on Blaize? Blaize and I aren’t even together.

My wolf growled. Letting another man touch you – especially one who thinks he’s still in a relationship with you – is definitely cheating on our mate.

Blaize and I are not together.

Yes, you are. He’s your mate. You’re together for life. My wolf stated proudly. I sighed, knowing that I wasn’t going to get through to her.

The drive home was painfully boring. I parked my car in front of the townhouse Collin and I shared and hurried my way inside.

Collin was already in the house, and when I entered, I saw that he wasn’t in my line of sight.

Sighing with relief, I dumped my purse on the table and kicked off my shoes.

I remember house hunting with Collin over the summer. I’d found this place, but Collin didn’t like it. I, of course, got what I wanted, but in the end, I paid for the place.

Come to think of it, Collin really was an uptight bastard. My wolf growled in agreement.

“Babe? Are you coming to bed? You have to work tomorrow,” Collin called from upstairs. He was probably in our bedroom.

Yuck. I’ll have to share a bed with him, I thought.

“Yeah,” I called up. I looked at the clock. It was only 8:40. I made my way up the stairs and into our bedroom.

I hastily made my way into the bathroom after grabbing a t-shirt and some pajama pants. I got ready as slowly as possible, though, not wanting to have to face Collin.

Eventually, I stepped out of the bathroom and back into my bedroom. Collin was lounging casually on the bed, shirtless as he usually was for bed.

When I entered the room, he looked up at me and smiled. “Hey, babe, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out this weekend?”

I just looked at him. What was I supposed to do?

“Um…sorry, I can’t. Maybe the weekend after? I need some time to adjust to my job and all…”

He flashed a smile again. “Don’t worry about it, I understand. Next weekend it is, then.” He paused and winked. “I’ll hold you to it.”

I shuddered ever so slightly. There was no way I was going anywhere with him. I couldn’t possibly betray Blaize like tha-

Hold the fuck up, I scolded myself. You aren’t even with Blaize! He’s a fucking sixteen year old boy for fuck’s sakes!

I walked over to the bed and laid down on my side of the bed, not bothering with the blankets. It was too warm anyway.

I groaned, rubbing my temples. My mind took off in a flurry.

What would happen tomorrow? I would certainly have to see Blaize again, there would be no avoiding that. What if the parking lot incident happened again? What if he took it further than last time?

The hours went by quickly as I worried myself a storm. I simply laid there, thinking over what would go down tomorrow when I saw Blaize.

Finally, I grew sick of laying still. I stood up quickly and made my way out of the bedroom and down the stairs. I threw the back door open and stripped down, my body bathed in moonlight. It was a nice temperature outside.

I ran farther out into the yard and shifted into a large, russet brown wolf. I sprinted at full speed toward the woods behind my house, quickly going to my favourite spot.

I arrived at a small clearing at the top of a hill. It was my wolf’s place, where she went to howl. Usually when we went there, it because we were upset about something. So now was definitely a good time to be here.

She lifted her furry head and howled into the night. I listened with admiration as my wolf’s melodic voice rang out through the night.

I was so lost in her voice that I didn’t hear the wolf howling at the opposite end of town.

A/N: Whoo! Chapter 4! Marisa’s got some serious issues, doesn’t she? You all know who the other wolf was, right? Haha. Yeah. Anyway, I’m glad I finally got this chapter out. It was surprisingly hard to write.

Picture on the side is Marisa’s wolf.

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~Niclla