The Unwilling Mate

Chapter 7

As I enter the woods I head in deeper and stop short when I hear a soft growl.I notice the black wolf step out of the clearing and slowly start approaching me. As I start to take a step, he lets out a low growl, until he realizes it is a step forward then he stops. We continue walking toward each other; once we are right in front of each other I sink to my knees and stare into his deep dark blue eyes. I continue to gaze into his eyes as I graze my hand across his silk-like fur. He circles me three times before he lies down with his body curled around me. I sit down next to him and lay my head on his body. I continue to run my hand through his fur listening to the beat of his heart as I slowly start to drift off to sleep.

I stretch my limbs with a little smile on my lips. That was the best sleep I have had for a long while. I feel the pillow under my hand and the comforter over my body. My brow furrows as I recall I should be laying on leaves and laying next to a big wolf. I open my eyes and see Liz. I start to feel extremely guilty for leaving her all alone last night. I feel so stupid he could have attacked her when he brought me in. I close my eyes in anger towards my self with tears threatening to spill over. I sit up and put my hands to my eyes with big deep breathes. I have to get a grip on everything that is going on. I get up out of bed and start heading downstairs. As soon as I start to make pancakes I hear Liz walk down the steps. She sits down at the island. While she yawns she says,  while eyeing me " How did you sleep last night? Any problems?" 

I fall silent and turn around to continue making our breakfast. I cannot help, but feel I should tell her the truth. She will not think I am crazy if it is just a dream right? After a moment of silence between us I decide to tell her about last night. After I finish I say, in a convincing voice " The dream felt so real though." 

I look at her and she is looking at me so serious as if I told her I killed her dog. As I look at her if confusion and am about to speak. She interrupts by laughing awkwardly and says, " It has to be a dream. Nothing like that happens in real life." 

I watch her for a few minutes deciding if I should say something. I decide to look pass her strange behavior as she is not wrong. What happened had to have been a dream only way it would make sense. Although as I decide this I have a gut- wrenching feeling that more is going on than I know.

Later that night Liz is about to leave my house to head home when I get a phone call. " Give me one minute and I will walk you out." I tell her. She waits for me by sitting on the couch and I go to pick up the phone and put it to my ear. "Hello?" i say into the receiver. " Hey Ad it is me Henry I am calling about our date."

I am silent a moment as i try to recall what he is talking about.  When I finally remember I let out a gasp, "  What?" I question with confusion. I notice Liz look at me with interest. I slowly walk away and lower my voice. " I thought you were joking." I say in a whisper.

I hear a low rumble through the phone. I cannot help, but feel shivers go through my body at his laugh. "Listen how about I pick you up tomorrow at 6?"

I bite my lip and start chewing then let out a breath." Sure it could be fun." I say with fake enthusiasm.

"Great then I will see you then. Bye." I hear the phone dial ringing in my ear then pull the phone away. I pull in a deep breath and click the phone off. As I exhale I turn around and jump up with a smile. "Okay lets go." I say to Liz

She looks back at me and smiles back. "Everything alright?" She says with a hint of knowing. Although that cannot be possible. " Everything is good I just made a date with Henry." I tell her nonchalantly as I shrug my shoulders. As I watch her response I notice that she does not react much to my news. 

"Are you okay?" I say to Liz as we reach the door. She looks at me and smirks. " I am fine. Good luck with your date." She says with a lilting tone. 

As I go back into the house I cannot help but feel that something is going on with Liz and Henry. There has to be. Maybe she likes him.

The next day I am sprawled on the couch watching 'The Mentalist' on sss. I glance at the clock and see it 5 o'clock. I shoot up on the couch and throw aside my blanket and race up the stairs.

I get ready as quickly as I can. I decide to leave my hair down and leave it slightly messy. I apply red lipstick with an orange- brown tint of eyeshadow to match. I lightly apply the rest of my make-up as I decide what jewelry to wear. I pick my red garnet earrings. As I finish up I go over to the closet and look at the time and see I have 15 minutes left. I decide to wear a black crop top with high-waisted jeans and black ankle high heeled boots. As I finish getting my look together I hear my doorbell ring. I open the door and my eyes connect to Henry'sand it felt like time stopped as we both took a step closer. I do not know how long we stood there for when all of a sudden a car horn honked and we broke out of the trance. I took a step back and let out a awkward giggle.

In the car I could not help, but feel nervous sitting with Henry.  As he is driving the car fills up with awkward silence. We continue the drive and I cannot help look at our surroundings feeling a deep longing to go into the woods. All of a sudden I hear Henry clearing his throat. When I look at him he puts a smile on his face and says,  excitedly " You will love where  we are going."

I just chuckle at his words "You are that confident huh?" I say questionably. He looks at me like I am the crazy one as he parks in front of the building. " Why is that even a question?" He responds back I shake my head as I look to see that we made it too an axe throwing place.

We walk to the area where we throw the axe to the target. " I am not sure I feel comfortable with this." I say as I look at the weapons lined up.

He looks at me and then says, "Come on it is not too bad it can help release your anger." I could not help but look at him like he was crazy.

"You realize I am not angry though right?" I ask. He raises his brow in question. Then he hands me the axe and says, " What can you think of that makes you angry still. When you find it then throw the axe and it will help liberate you and you will feel light." 

As I think back to dad and how mom is never home. As I feel my blood boil at not being enough for my mother to stay home for. I throw the axe and I keep throwing until i feel my arms get heavy and start sweating from the throwing and panting like I ran a marathon. Once I finally caught my breath i felt completely calm about the issue now and started o think of it a little differently when Henry catches my attention to tell me it is time to go. 

We head into a sushi place. Which I felt really giddy about since sushi is my favorite food. "Oh My Gosh! I love sushi. How did you know?" I asked him in genuine curiosity.

He chuckled at my childish behavior and says, " I asked Elizabeth what you would like." He replies sheepishly.

I giggle as we sit down. I should have figured he would have never known this by himself. Although when did they even talk to each other. Plus that explains why she was not surprised by the date. I was about to ask about them talking when he asks, " How do you enjoy the date so far?"

" It is fun."  I tell him honestly. After we order our food it gets silent among us; I decide to bring up our project and talk about it. However Henry had different plans. " Come on we are on a date. We should talk about other things besides school work."

My cheeks start to heat up and I am sure they are cherry tomato red on my face. I turn my head toward the doors were the waiters and waitresses come out. "Why don't you tell me about yourself?" He asks.

"You already know quite a bit about me." I tell him honestly. When I notice and intense look come across his face. I look directly in his eyes and he asks, in a soft voice "Why do you live alone?"

I continue to look at him and my heart drops. I break the contact and stutter out, " That is not really your concern."  When I look back at him I see in his eyes that i hurt him a little. " We do not know each other well enough to go into that topic yet." I say softly to him hoping he would understand. " How can we get to know each other better then if you won;t talk to me." He says in a harsh voice.

I look towards him nervously and widen my eyes at his angry expression. I hold his gaze when my palms start getting sweaty and my heart starts racing. I quickly avert my eyes tell him, " I Am not comfortable with the topic right now."

He lets out a sigh and says with an annoyed tone, " Fine." 

"Thank you." I say with relief thinking the topic was dropped. As the food arrives and we start eating he asks me "What about your family?" I lift my eyes to his and give him an if looks could kill expression. "You know what I am leaving. You just won't drop anything. Also you are a psycho you know that." I say to him. " What guy creeps into a girls house at night." I whisper yell at him not wanting anyone's attention on us. Just because I am angry does not mean I want it to be public.

  I walk out of the restaurant and talk my phone out of my purse to call a lyft. When I hear someone running up behind me I let out an annoyed scoff. " You are even worst than me then. You have no right to judge you were gonna put a knife in me." he says raising his voice in anger. I look around and notice no one around. 

" I only did that for self defense which you cannot criticize me for you jerk." I say with equal fervor. My phone rings and I pick it up and say, " Okay, Thank You." I turn around to leave while looking for the lyft driver. He grabs my arm and tries to pull me back. I fight his arm off me and when I spot the driver getting out of the car I run and ask his name. Once he confirms I get in the car with tears in my eyes. While he takes me home all I can think about is going home and seeing the wolf again.