Angel Blackwood (11 page)

I hesitantly
look into the mirror after put
ting the shoes on. “It’s perfect!” I look at her in the
reflection of the mirror and she blushes.

At the checkout counter
Daisy refuses to let us pay for the dress.

“Then please
tell me you can come to my ceremony tonight?” I ask her. It’ll be
good for me to make more friends now that I’m living with my
parents. I almost regret asking her because she suddenly looks
panicked and
upset.

“I wish I
could. I
t means so much to me
that you even asked, but…I can’t,” she says.

I don’t ask
questions, I just nod and
whip
out my phone. “What’s your number then?” her frown is immediately
replaced with eagerness as she rattles it off. I call her and watch
her take out her phone and save my number.

“Now we can plan to meet
up sometime.” I smile at her, before pulling her in for a hug. “You
call me whenever you want, okay? Even if it’s just to chat.” I feel
her arms tighten around me.

“Thank
you,
” she whispers.

****

We leave the store and
make our way toward our car down the street. I quickly spot two
large men leaning against Alex’s car.

Alex stands
a
small distance in front of
me in a protective stance when we get closer. The men have their
eyes on me. One has dark olive skin with tribal tattoos down his
left arm. He has short shaven black hair and his eyes are light
brown. His face is blank as he stares at me; they hold no emotion
whatsoever and it’s a unnerving to say the least.

I turn my attention to
the other guy and immediately stand upright, almost taking a step
back. I realise that he witnessed my hesitance when a grin appears
on his face. He has black hair, shorter on the side and longer on
the top, almost covering half his face. His eyes are a light blue,
so light that I’d be able to spot them a great distance away and
one ear has a black small round plug in it. His square jaw is clean
shaven and the skin on his face is pale. That’s about all of his
natural skin tone I can see because the rest of his body is covered
in ink. He’s wearing a black shirt and leather jacket, but from
what I can see he has lots of artwork covering his skin. Just below
his neck over his Adam’s apple is a big blue butterfly; this is one
of the few things that stands out to me, there’s so much going-on
on his skin. I also see what looks like a heart with a knife
through it in the middle of his chest, just above where the V of
his shirt starts. His hands are also covered in little ink designs.
I’ve never seen so much ink on one person. He has a pair of navy
jeans on and black combat boots where his jeans are half tucked
into them.

“Zeke. Axel. What can I
help you boys with today?” Alex says, full of her usual charm as
she nods to both men.

I watch
them relax their posture as they
stand tall and feel Alex do the same in front of me.

“Alpha Caspian wants to
meet the little lady,” Zeke says, moving his brown eyes to
mine.

The walking canvas
doesn’t say a word, but continues his perusal of me with those
piercing eyes. His grin widens; I’m pretty sure he can sense how
uncomfortable I feel right now under his intense
scrutiny.

Alex looks
between Axel and I and smiles.
“Someone has his eyes set on you,”
I hear her voice in my head and turn to see her
silently giggling to herself.

“Boys,
we’ll
head over there right
now then,” Alex says, pushing past them towards her door until Zeke
takes her keys out her hands.

“Here
, Luna, I’ll
drive you ladies there. Hop in,” he says as if he owns the car.
Alex huffs and shakes her head.

“Damn wolves
and their egos
.” I hear her
thoughts and judging by how the two men are chuckling, I’m pretty
sure they heard it too.

Of course Alex jumps in the
passenger seat next to Zeke leaving me in the back with Mr Mute
himself.

Axel spreads his legs
wide as he takes up both his seat and the middle one making sure
his knee is close to mine. He’s basically lounging in the back of
the car, his back half leaning against the door as he continues to
stare at me.

“Don’t like me
lookin’ at you
, babe?”
I hear his husky voice in my
head.

“No! Stop
it!
Get the hell out of my
head
.” I send the message back
making sure he feels my irritation.

I hear his snicker next
to me as I lean back against the chair. I close my eyes trying to
close myself off so he can’t get in my head anymore.

“You’re
going
to have to try harder
than that,”
his voice echoes
again.

I ignore
him,
block out all thoughts
and feelings and go back to that emotionless place I used to visit
so often.

“Little Lady is
good,
” I hear Zeke say. I
raise my eyebrow at Axel knowing I just one-upped him. I kinda
wanna stick my tongue out at him too, but I suppose that will come
off as too childish so I don’t. He laughs, then finally turns and
looks out the window leaving me with a small smirk on my face as I
do the same.

****

We arrive at a
large mansion where
two brown
wolves sit on each side of the front door. When we get out of the
car both stand mirroring the others movements.

Wonder how
long they trained to get
that
timing right.
I think to
myself.

I hear laughter next to
me and look up to see Axel shaking his head as he
laughs.

“Shit!
” I mumble
forcing the walls back up.

“Dude, stay
out of my head.”
I nudge his
stomach as I walk past.

“If I
did,
I would miss all the
funny shit you don’t actually say out loud, especially about this
‘walking canvas’.” He laughs harder.

“Crap,you heard that
too?” I laugh to myself feeling the blush creep up.

He nods his head.

“Come on
ladies,
” Zeke says as he leads
us up the stairs. We walk towards the front door, but I stop when
we get to the wolves sitting upright by the door looking forward
avoiding our eyes. I stand in front of one and bend down a little
to look into its eyes. He stands so still and doesn’t even blink
when I look at him from just a hair’s breadth away.

His brown
eyes
are harsh and focused and
he has a scar on the one side of his face near the eye. I raise my
hand up and I feel the wolf tense, his breathing becoming ragged. I
ignore the low growl coming from him and kneel down in front of the
wolf so that he stands taller than I do.

Now
th
e wolf turns to look down at
me as I raise my hand again and gently touch his face. I stroke him
a little and then finally the wolf submits and leans into my touch.
I smile and the wolf licks my hand. I turn to the other wolf to
find her standing right next to me, almost brushing up to my
shoulder as she watches the exchange. Her coat is beautiful and she
has the same eyes as the scarred wolf behind me; something tells me
that they are related. She eagerly leans down for me to stroke her
head and just like her brother, she licks my hand.

“Remarkable,
” I hear a
deep gravelly voice say.

The
brown wolves immediately scurry to
their former positions. I look up to see a tall man in a suit
looking down at me. He gestures for me to take his hand and I do. I
get to a standing position but he doesn’t let go of my hand,
instead he brings it up to his lips and gently kisses the top of
it. I can feel his power and dominance even though he seems
young.

He has on a
pe
rfectly tailored dark grey
suit, his eyes are blue
-
but not as remarkable
as Axel’s or the twins
-
and his blond hair
is neatly combed over. I can see from his broad shoulders and the
tightness in his sleeves that this man is built and rock
solid.

A dimple forms
on his face and I drop my head and plant
my free hand on one of my flaming cheeks feeling my
blush all the way to my heated fingertips.

“You heard my thoughts didn’t
you?” I whisper looking down at his large rough hands that still
hold my one prisoner.

I watch
as
he removes one hand from
mine bringing it towards my face. He places a finger underneath my
chin forcing me to look him in the eye.

“You, my dear,
are perfect
.” I hear his voice
within my head; it comes out as a whisper only the two of us can
hear. He smiles at me one last time then removes his hands. I find
Axel and Zeke leaning against the columns on the porch. Axel’s
stare is now a glare and Zeke has a frown on his face. I look over
to Alex and she has a huge grin on her face.

She’s probably
already planning our wedding and
thinking up names for her future grandbabies.
I laugh out loud at the thought,
making Alpha Caspian turn and smile at me.

Caspian
places both hands on each of the
brown wolves’ heads and says, “You may leave your post.”

Then I watch as
they
leap off the porch and
run into the nearby forest.

“Those are two of my best
guardians and you just made them look like weak little kittens.
They were basically purring for your affection.” He shakes his head
and removes his hands from his pockets.

“The name is Caspian,
Alpha of the Crystal Bay Pack.” I place my hand in his.

“Angel,
” I say as he
kisses my hand yet again before letting it fall free.
“
That you are, my love. That
you are.”
I hear his thoughts
but I’m guessing that was his intention.

He turns to
Alex.
“I’ve been hearing
stories about Angel here. We were unaware you and Johnny had a
child, but the story moved through the pack and when the boys saw
you walking the streets with this beauty they told me it was true.
I must say Alex, you and Johnny created a masterpiece.” Caspian
looks me over, he may be charming and handsome as hell, but I do
not like the way he’s looking at me… as if I’m something to own… to
possess.

Alex says
proudly, “Thank you
Cass.
Johnny is real proud of her. You must see how beautiful her wolf
is, she shifted for the first time without help from any of us; my
baby did it all on her own.” She pulls me to her side and kisses my
forehead.

At the mention of me
shifting without the help of anyone, the boys in the room
immediately stop to stare at me.

Caspian
is the first to speak, “She is a
strong one. She will make a powerful Luna one day.” His eyes find
mine as he speaks to Alex, then his head rises to look at her and
he says, “I need to have a word with Johnny.”

Alex smiles at
me.
“You should attend her
ceremony tonight, you and he could catch up. We have extra rooms if
you want to bring some of your boys to spend the night, you won’t
have to drive?”

Dimples appear
on
Caspian’s face then he
turns to look at Zeke and Axel.

“I’m
in,
” Axel says, sounding
unfazed.

“No can do boss, have my
little girl tonight,” Zeke says.

“Right,
then
Axel and I will attend.
Better save me a dance, love,” Caspian says, looking down at
me.

Chapter 7
:

Alex disappears as soon as we
arrive home, she needed to help the caterers set up for the
party.

While I’m unpacking all
my new clothes into my closet I hear a knock on the
door.

“
Come
in,
” I call out.

Nixon pops his head in
and smiles when he sees me. “You have a good day?” He asks as he
plants himself on my bed next to the rest of my gift bags filled
with clothes. He starts digging through them.

“Yeah, I think I made a
new friend.” I smile to myself thinking of Daisy. I take my black
dress out and lie it on the bed neatly, placing my purple platforms
on the floor at the base of my bed. “I met some new people too, two
of which were rather strange, but you’ll meet them tonight so you
can judge for yourself.”

“Well, tell me about this
friend first,” he says, emptying another bag full of clothes onto
my bed.

I tell him all about
Daisy and how she looks and what she said. I also tell him that I
sense something has happened to her and how withdrawn she seemed.
He doesn’t like the fact that her mate says she’s weak, but I
reassure him, tell him that she’s got my number and that I told her
to call me if she ever needs someone to talk to.

I
feel something hit my back and see
the white lace thong I bought today sitting at my feet on the
floor. I look up just in time to catch a turquoise one being flung
my way as well.