Chapter Twelve: Ambrosia, the sweetest nectar. Yeah right!

"Wake up Kenzie!" Jake squealed as he hopped continuously on my bed, jarring me awake out of a quite restful sleep.

"Ugh.." I answered to him, pulling the pillow over my head in an attempt to block out his voice. It's too early in the morning to be that happy.

"Fine, but if you don't get up, you won't get chocolate waffles!" he said as he ran out the door, that woke me up. I jolted straight up in bed, my hair whiplashing across my face. I absolutely loved chocolate waffles. Jake was smart for a four year old, and surprisingly good at speaking, he knew just what it took to get me out of my cave of comforters and into the light of day. I stretched my arms above my head, locking the joints in a position that it looked like I more likely to dive into a pool, rather than get out of bed. Yawning I slowly slunk out of the bed, silently yearning for the warmth of the fluffy blankets.

The only reason I wasn't falling into another lapse of crying, was I was focusing all my thoughts on the chocolate in the waffles. Waffles had no complication, they just were. I tugged my shirt down, trying to straighten out the wrinkles I could see in the mirror. My brow furrowed as I glanced up at my face, my scar was throbbing slightly, something it hadn't done since I got it, which I couldn't remember anymore. It was a tinged gold, and caught the light when I tilted my head. I sighed, then combed my hair out and put it in a pony-tail.

The smell of chocolate wafted up from the kitchen up the stairway, Cynthia had made waffles once a month, usually on a Saturday. I raced down the stairs, skipping every other to get down quicker. That was a mistake on my part, for I tripped and fell flat on my face on the last step. I groaned into the hard-wood floor, silently cursing my stupidity. Blood oozed from my newly broken nose, making me groan again, realizing now I would have to set it. I got up, tipping my head upwards, pinching my nose with my left hand, feeling the way down the hall with my right. I was a sight to laugh at, and I shouldn't have been surprised when both Chris and Ambrosia burst into a laughing fit when I walked into the kitchen.

"Shut up," I said, but the sound of my nasally voice ruined the effect and force of the words. I walked over to the sink, and ran the water, finally looking down so I could place a wet cloth to my face. It felt cool against my cheeks, that seemingly stung as if I had been slapped, but I had, by the floor. By the time I sat down next to plate of heaping waffles, the bleeding had stopped and I was already starting to heal, the bones mending before our very eyes.

Jake grinned up at me, but there was an underlining concern in his eyes, I nodded lightly, I was okay, well as good as I could get at the moment. Ambrosia had practically scooted her stool onto Chris's lap, their legs intertwining underneath the table. She looked up at him adoringly, her affection not being hidden. Chris seemed at ease, almost happy, if one could say.

I eyed them both suspiciously before pouring a gallon of syrup onto my waffles, carefully cutting them into triangles. "So, what do we plan on doing today?" I asked between mouthfuls, causing both of them to break out of their trance, Chris looking surprised, and Ambrosia, just relatively ticked off.

"Oh, well, maybe we could take a tour around the town. Sound good," He asked taking his plate to the dishwasher, breaking his embrace with Ambrosia, much to her dismay.

Jake bounced up and down in his seat, clearly excited, "That's sounds great," I said with a smile, which he returned.

"Great, well, better get ready then, meet you at the town center in five minutes, kay'" I nodded back, and he disappeared through the arch of the doorway. Ambrosia continued to glare at me hatefully as I finished up my waffles, "You know it's not nice to glare at people," I said getting up and setting my dish in the dishwasher. Jake had already fled, running after Chris, so I wasn't afraid to break out some of my pent up frustrations against her.

She just continued with her silent treatment towards me, so I shrugged my shoulders and started walking out. The next thing I knew I was slammed into the wall on the far side of the room, Ambrosia pushing my hands behind my back, twisting them painfully. "Back off," She yelled.

"God! Crazy much, because if you haven't noticed you're the one pushing me into the wall," I said, twisting my head towards her, so I could look her in the eye, but she had caught me by surprise and put me into a position where I couldn't.

I could feel her talon-like nails biting into my forearms, drawing blood. She was furious, and it was bringing out the wolf side of her.

"Back off Crispin, he's mine," she hissed in my ear, "I'm not going to let you try and win him over with your pity-party life, its not that easy."

I pushed off the wall with palms of my hands, effectively shifting into a position where I could see her face as she could mine. Her lips were curled upward in a snarl and I could just make out sharp canine teeth forming from her gums. I mirrored her look, and hissed back, "I don't want anyone's pity, especially not yours. You know nothing of my life, or my past, so take yours and Chris's pity and shove it,"

That caused her to pause, thinking over a comeback in her head, "Mine wasn't given to you in the first place," I pushed her away from me, and ran out the doorway, to my room. Slamming the door behind me, I had my back leaned against it, arms spread out, as if I was blocking out a monster from a horror movie. How stupid it felt to act like that naturally, when I was only running from a ticked off six-foot blonde that really had no threat to me. I took my hands off the door, and glanced at them disgustedly. Shaking my head, I walked into the closet and came out seconds later fully dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Slipping on a pair of sandals, I sped out the back door, making sure I didn't run into Ambrosia again.

The air sizzled in the heat, rippling in the air. This week it was supposed to top in the hundreds, and the low being nineties. I ran back in the kitchen, glancing in the living room to see Ambrosia sitting there with her head in her hands. I silently opened the fridge and sneaked out three bottles of water, we would need them if we were to walk around the whole town. I ran out the door again, hearing it clang shut as I ran down the path. There was a little wind, making the weather a little more bearable.

Jake and Chris were sitting on a bench, Jake running around picking up different types of leaves and resting them next to them both. When I walked up Chris looked up at me and gave me a grin, "I see he suddenly has an interest in plant life," I said giving a joyful smile towards Jake.

"Yeah, who'd think he'd love leaves so much, especially since they're all the same color," Chris said, with a smile and a shrug.

I handed him a water, which he nodded gratefully for. Jake only now noticing me, smiled up, "Water please?"

"What no hello?" I said, but I handed him the water anyway, he mumbled a hello as he tried to pry the lid open fast enough. I had to prevent him from drinking the whole bottle as he guzzled it down, "Slow down there, we have a long walk to go now," I carefully put the lid back on and stuffed the bottle in my pocket.

"Yeah, speaking about that, I think we should start this tour of ours," Chris said, getting up, signaling for us to follow. We started walking down the path again, kicking up the dirt slightly as the trees wafted high above us, the air was filled with the crisp clean smells of summer. Leaves swayed in the wind, causing a symphony of rustling foliage. Sounds of human life emerged after twenty minutes of walking through the shadowed forest, footsteps on the dirt along with us and murmured conversation. Sunlight broke through the leaves as we walked through the opening to the town; the Alpha's house had been placed farther away for privacy. Hundreds of people were bustling about; almost an exact replica of yesterday, nothing had changed with my new arrival.

Luckily this time, Chris was mobbed by all the townsfolk, and only received occasional glance and nod. Worming our way through the masses, Chris introduced me to various people, most of which I forgot their names shortly after. I shook so many hands, mine started to throb and my cheek muscles hurt from smiling so much. Jake just stood quietly by my side as we received many compliments on how adorable he was, and after awhile his lips started to turn down in a frown.

"Whew, you never said I'd be running a talking marathon, or else I would have brought more water," I said, closing the lid on my now almost empty water bottle. Chris just chuckled and swallowed some more of his, luckily we had found a pitcher of water and were able to refill the bottles so we weren't totally dehydrated. When we hit the edge of the housing part of the town life suddenly got a lot quieter and calmer, making my unknowingly tense muscles relax. Only a few people we saw were outside on the north side of the town, it happened to be mostly the church and town square; we had already passed the fresh produce market. "You guy's have a fresh food market?" I had questioned with one of my eyebrows raised, "Yeah, just to remind you we have over five-hundred families in the pack, so remarkably we have a various of talents in food producing, a.k.a farming." He had replied with a hint of sarcasm.

A girl passed us, she was walking at a normal pace, but that wasn't what drew my attention to her, her dark eyes sucked me into their infinite depths. Her gaze was directed on me, not wavering as we got closer, her black hair with purple ends drifted a little in the wind. Chris seemed to notice who I was looking at and his face grew confused, we had almost passed the girl when he stuck out a hand to stop her.

"Umm, excuse me, but I don't seem to know your name," Chris said politely, but there was a great deal of confusion underlining it. At first the girl just stared as if not sure what to say, not realizing who she was even talking to. Finally with a tiny nod of her head, "My names Raven," she replied hastily before withdrawing from Chris's roadblock and walking back down the road in the direction we had come from. She only glanced back once, her eyes slightly worried for a second before the turning of her head took the image away.

"Hmm, usually I know all the people, and it wasn't as if she was a new pack member, it has to pass through me to be accepted in the first place. She only looks about fourteen so that rules out the possibility she was married into the pack," he said, his eyes staring out blankly as he thought through his memory of all the pack members. His voice had trailed off, and he was staring for a good five-minutes before he shook his head, "Well we must finish up this tour, I have errands to run soon," he said, turning back around and we headed towards the town buildings. We passed a couple of small restaurants, including a bakery. The smell of fresh bread wafted to our noses, sending my mouth watering. There were a few stores that looked as if they would sell regular groceries such as milk and such, but my gaze drifted over to a tall brick building, its paint on the doors peeling around the edges. "What's there?" I asked curiously, it looked interesting, and had a draw to it that made me want to run to its weathered doors.

"Oh, I think you'll like this one," Chris said, as he searched through his pockets for something. He pulled out an old-fashioned key ring, several keys jingling in its circle. He carefully selected one and walked up the slightly uneven stone steps. Placing the key in the door, the tumblers tumbled, and the wood creaked as he opened it. I walked into the darkness and the crisp smell of paper and ink filled my nose, I immediately got excited, for I knew what had to be in there. Chris flipped on the lights, and they revealed shelves upon shelves of books and novels. Some of them looked old and well used, others stiff and new. "A library," I breathed, taking it all in, I would have never thought a town so small to have a one, and the thoughts of all the new reading material made me want to leap with joy.

"Yeah, it's closed on the weekends, but open every other day of the week, so you may come and pick whatever you want. As long as you take care of them," he said with a wink, full-knowing that I never so much as bent a page on the books that I had owned at home. Jake looked up with awe at the shelves, easily ten times his size, filled with numerous titles and authors.

Apparently errands forgotten, we spent the rest of the day roaming through the shelves, picking up books and reading the summaries. I hastily wrote down all the titles that sounded good, but soon came to realize that to do so I would need a much bigger sheet of paper. I ran over to the librarian's desk, which Chris had said was on vacation for the week so it wouldn't be so bad to look for a pen and paper. Picture frames were lined up along the desks length, against the shelf resting next to it. Pictures of happy families, eating at picnics, and laughing, I quickly picked out the woman Chris had described as the librarian, her shoulder length brown hair streaked with gray, and kind eyes silver in the light. The only picture I saw her in, she was laughing with a man her age, who looked strangely like her, and it took awhile to realize the man was the father from my dreams. I would have asked Chris more about it right there and then, but that would mean telling him about the dreams, which could have been true or not, I didn't know.

The clocked chimed five times, signaling the scheduled time Chris had wanted to leave, for another supper with the family, this one would be a lot quieter because his mother had went to a meeting a couple towns away and wouldn't be present. I reluctantly set the picture down, my gaze settling on the man's happy face. "Come on Kenz, we can come another time," Chris called from the door, his hands waiting patiently on the light switch. I ran out the door, giving a sweeping glance over the silent library, I would be back.

We walked back home, Jake chatting the whole time about the books about Peter Rabbit he had found, and all the adventures he had never knew he had taken before. Me and Chris laughed along with him, and for once since I got here, almost everything felt perfect and safe, the dreams forgotten for the moment, lost in the glee of the time spent.

The lights on the front porch were lit, and I could just make out Ambrosia glaring through the curtains. I decided to do something on a whim, at first not even realizing I was even doing it. I straightened a little and gave a peck of a kiss on Chris's cheek; I closed my eyes feeling the warmth of his skin beneath my lips. When I opened them Chris was smiling slightly but staring ahead. My cheeks were flushed and I couldn't help thinking, had I been testing Ambrosia's limits, or my own.