Black Blood: The Runaway Mate

Chapter Five

I didn't know if life was playing at me or it just wanted to make me feel miserable, but with what I was going through at that moment, I felt like it was enjoying doing both things—playing with me to make my life miserable.

As I was slowly trying to put things back to the way they were, when I didn't know yet that he knew about my existence, it was like I was receiving an error message. Although the phrase broken pieces of glass was often associated with trust, it could also be applied to my situation. It seemed like no matter what I did and how much time and effort I exerted to put the pieces back together, the cracks were still there to remind you how it was before.

When all I thought was that I could finally move on with my life and set my eyes fixed on my goals again, I was utterly wrong. I was wrong in every assumption I had come up with whenever it involved Aziel. Ever since he appeared and trespassed in my small world, I couldn't seem to remove him from my narrative—and he was currently ruling over it.

I hate it.

I really do.

Aziel might be innocent as he didn't know anything, but he was slowly trying to ruin all my plans. Falling for someone wasn't on my list, and I had no plan to write it down until I finally and successfully took an oath as a lawyer. I had big dreams, and I didn't want to be distracted in any way. However, it seemed like he stole the pen from me and wrote it down himself.

Biting my lip and continuously tapping my pen against the study table, I was in the midst of creating a new list on my planner. But instead of revising my short and long-term goals or making notes for academics, I was jotting down all of Aziel's good traits and characteristics—doing research on what were the things which made me attracted to him.

On top of the list, sitting in the number one spot, was his looks. He is undeniably gorgeous. No one would dare argue with me about that. Anyone who can see would be able to attest to that. But just to be more specific, I even put branches next to it.

His deep pair of turquoise eyes. His long lashes. His well-defined nose. His chiseled jaw. The shape of his red lips and his perfect set of white teeth, led me to the second number on the list—his smile. And being reminded of his smile, I started to lose it at that point.

I found myself writing nonstop until I reached the 18th number and realized that I was being too generous when giving him praises. However, when I tried to read from the top and see if there was something I could remove, no changes were made. Every reason was well-deserving to be listed.

If there was one thing I noticed, all these reasons were just superficial. Something in me felt like it was shallow.

With a sigh, I leaned on the backrest and blankly stared at the list in front of me.

I knew a lot of good-looking and kind men—well, most weren't at my age and far from my reality—but there was something different with Aziel. I still couldn't wrap my head around it, though. I just knew there was.

It must be the werewolf thing that I kept insisting on. I could also just be fascinated because someone like Aziel knew me. Maybe him being the odd one out to the people on top of the hierarchy made me interested in him. It made me feel like there was more to him than what most people painted him to be. Despite his identity as the cruel and dangerous next alpha of the Black Blood pack, he was just an ordinary person like me—and I felt like I was the first one who saw that on-campus and experienced his warmth.

Reaching on to the planner while I was laid back, I wrote number 19 and put three question marks beside it. I still couldn't decide.

"Chandra?"

I almost fell from my chair when my mother suddenly opened the door and peeked her head inside. Slightly panicking, I turned to her while hiding what I wrote using my forearm like I was just casually resting my arm on the table.

I forced a smile. "Yes, mom?"

Light creases appeared on her forehead. She must be thinking that I was acting strangely. But then she slightly shook her head, deciding to just shrug it off.

"I need you to run an errand at the grocery," she told me. "Can you do that?" Her eyes glanced down at my planner. "Or are you busy studying?"

"I'll do it," I replied, as I also needed to take a breather. "I was just writing down notes. Nothing important."

"If you say so..." She still sounded suspicious of me. "I'll just list down the groceries we need. Wait a sec."

I nodded and smiled. "Sure, mom."

My mother looked hesitant to leave my room before turning around to get the list done outside. As soon as she was gone, that was my cue to clean up my desk and hide the planner like I was desperately trying to cover up a crime.

I trust my mother.

I trust her, but it was best for me to hide the traces and not get caught in case she let her curiosity rule her.

I knew she would love it if I shared things with her, especially when it came to these things. She was worried that I wasn’t getting enough experience and enjoying my life while still a teenager. Unlike other parents, she hoped I would stop sticking my nose to books, go out, have fun and date. On the other hand, I’d rather wear my pajamas and slip under the covers while reading—both fiction and nonfiction books.

However, I knew it wasn’t the right time to tell her about these feelings. While I had not come to terms with it yet, no one should know about it. Not even the people closest to me—who were only my mother and Lindsay, by the way.

Once I was done hiding the planner, I changed clothes and wore my favorite, overworn white padded coat hanging behind the door. I also put on a white beanie which covered down to the top line of my brows.

“Are you done?” I asked my mother as I got out of my room.

“Uhuh…” She hummed even when she was still writing. “Fifteen seconds.”

A smile broke across my face, watching her hands pick up speed to write faster. While she was busy, I went past her to the fridge. I got the pitcher out to pour myself some water to drink and leaned on the counter.

“There…” My mother whispered to herself once she was finished with the list. She picked up the paper from the table, pulled 100 bucks from her purse, and turned to me. “This is good for two weeks. We still need to save while I haven’t started working yet.”

“I know, Mom, don’t worry,” I reassured her. “We still have some groceries left from last time.”

I understood very well why she was being frugal. Although my father left us enough to keep us covered for years, moving out of state would cost a lot of money. We had to prepare a lot of things, especially our housing and accommodation. We also decided not to move our furniture and appliances. Hence, we wouldn’t sell our house to have a place to go back to for vacation and every time we would come to visit my father’s grave. On top of those things we needed to consider, I was also going to college.

To be honest, she didn’t have to worry since I had been saving up my scholarship money. But the thing was, she didn’t want to use my money unless it was for emergencies. As long as she could still keep working, she would continue to provide for me and our needs in the household.

After a brief instruction from my mother, with my wallet, grocery list, cellphone, and car keys in one hand, I opened the door and went outside to my sedan. I pressed on the key fob and entered the car right away since it was snowing slightly. It was very chilly outside, so I made sure to turn on the heater as soon as I started the engine before driving to Walmart.

There was something about doing grocery shopping that I found therapeutic. It somehow cleared my mind from the turmoil. I was at peace that I didn’t want to leave the grocery store even when I had already checked off all the items on the list. If I wasn’t afraid that the snow might get worse, I would’ve really stayed longer and looked for new books to buy and read, which would probably take me hours.

After strolling in some aisles, I proceeded to the counter and paid for the groceries. Since I bought many things that were too heavy for me to carry, I borrowed their cart to the parking lot.

I was slightly relieved to see that it stopped snowing, but I didn’t want to be too complacent, especially when I looked at the gray sky turning even darker as the day was about to end.

I quickly loaded the bags into the sedan's back seat, pushed the cart back to the entrance of the supercenter, and drove home. Instead of taking the same road, I decided to take a detour to see the countryside part of Fairbanks. It was where Lindsay and I usually go to watch the Northern Lights while sitting on top of my sedan, with a lot of hot packs and thick layers of clothes to keep us warm.

The green pasture every spring and summer that we used to see was a field of snow, like the whole place was covered in a white blanket. It gave a different kind of beauty to nature, which I also appreciated. I couldn’t help but slow down my speed just to give it a better look, when my car gradually stalled until the engine died.

What the hell?

I tried restarting the car a few times, but it would only make me hope for no more than three seconds and die again. And like life was trying to tell me it wasn’t my day, as I looked out the windshield, it had also started to snow again, and there weren’t any cars passing on the road.

I didn’t want to go out while it was snowing, so I just reached for my phone and decided to call my mother. But because of the snow, there was bad cell reception. The call wouldn’t go through. I was having a hard time trying to reach her.

Great. Just great.

Feeling a bit hopeless, I leaned back on the seat and took a deep breath. The Creamer’s Field and the Fish & Game office were in the far distance, which would probably take me five minutes to arrive if I decided to go out and walk to ask for help.

The freezing weather made me hesitant to get out of the car. But it was also starting to get colder as the heater was already turned off. If I didn’t go out, I knew I would be spending hours or the whole night freezing inside the car, which became the deciding factor for me to brave the snow. However, just as I was about to unlock the door, the headlights of the car approaching gave me hope.

Although I kind of feared strangers, I knew I had to face it.

Like it was my last chance to go home safely tonight, I bravely opened the door and went outside. Every time a flake of snow touched my face, I could feel the chill seeping through my skin, but I fought the cold to signal the car coming my way.

Fortunately, I still had a little bit of luck left in me. The car slowed down and parked in front of my car.

Wait a minute.

I forgot about the cold and being stranded when I familiarized myself with the car, which stopped to help.

It’s a black coupe!

It was too late for me to process everything and identify the owner of the car as he finally showed himself to make things easier for me.

Aziel casually went out of the driver’s seat, wearing only a gray pullover and denim jeans, like we weren't in the middle of winter. I wanted to scold him for wearing only one piece of clothing. I was worried that he might catch a cold or fever. But as soon as he stood in front of me and pulled me even closer to him, his warm body made me feel like we jumped through the seasons and went straight to summer. It reminded me that he wasn’t an ordinary human like me once again.

He’s a werewolf.

“You’re freezing, Chandra,” he said, sounding very worried while still keeping me close to him. “Let’s get you inside my car first.”