Outsider (Outsider Series) (17 page)

I looked at him. At his pale skin, white-blond hair, and angelic expression. He would have been good looking if it weren’t for the scowl on his face and his black eyes. I could tell that his eyes were like his soul.
Black, lifeless, and evil.

“Good,” he said. I tried to stay strong, to not let him see the fear in my eyes but from the smirk that spread across his face I knew he saw. He came closer to me. I stepped back and was now against the wall. He stretched his arm across the distance, it wasn’t far, and stroked my face. I gulped. “Fear,” he said and inhaled the air around me.
“You should be afraid,” he breathed. He straightened and said, “I’ll have a devil’s kiss cupcake.”

For a moment I didn’t move.

“Tick tock,” he said.

My feet moved forward and I
grabbed a devil’s kiss cupcake
which was chocolate cake, with dark chocolate icing and a cherry. I put it in a box, told him the price and handed it to him. He smirked and threw a ten dollar bill at me. “Keep it,” he said and started for the door. Before he opened it though he looked back over his shoulder at me, “I’ll be back,” he said and left. I had a feeling he would be back for something other than a cupcake. Something
like
me.

I heard the back door open and jumped.

“Hey,” said Caeden, “did I see Travis’ car?”
It took a moment for me to get
my voice back. By this time Caeden was standing in front of me. “Well?” he prompted.

“Yeah,” I said and turned away so he wouldn’t see the lie in my eyes, “he just wanted a cupcake.”

His hand rubbed my arm. “Are you sure? You seem… shaken.”

“I’m fine,” I said even though I was far from it.
I mentally scolded myself. I had to act normal. Caeden didn’t need to worry about Travis harassing me.
I plastered on the most genuine smile I could muster and said, “He just makes me mad.”

Caeden seemed to buy it. “Oh,” he said, “don’t let him bother you.”

“You’re one to talk,” I said with a smile and bumped him with my hip.

He looked sheepish. “I know,” he said. “Sorry.”

The bell over the door chimed again and a big group of people came in, effectively cutting of our conversation. I breathed a sigh of relief.

We stayed busy and for the first time I was thankful. Normally I didn’t like it when the store was busy because it gave me less time to talk to Caeden. Finally closing time came. I locked the door behind the last customer and set to work cleaning. Caeden helped. He seemed to sense that I didn’t want to talk. I was grateful. We finished in record time since we didn’t goof off.

I let my hair down from the pony tail and turned to Caeden, “Do you want to come over for dinner? Gram’s making lasagna.”

“Wish I could,” he said, “but I promised my mom that I’d have dinner at home tonight.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. “Tell your mom that I’m sorry for keeping you from her.”

Caeden pulled me against his chest. “It’s not that. She’s just worried about me because of what happened with the Grimm’s she thinks I’m only safe if I’m in her line of sight. She tried to put a leash on me last night when it was time for my duty.”

“No, she didn’t.” I said.

“Oh, she tried all right,” he
said. “I guess she thought she’d
walk around with me all through my shift. But I’m a big boy and can take care of myself.”

“Oh, so showing up close to death on my front porch is taking care of yourself?”
I asked.

“You’ve got me there,” he said and kissed me.
“Oh, my mom wanted to know if you and Gram would come over for Thanksgiving dinner? The whole pack usually comes.”

“I know that I’d love to but I’ll ask
Gram in case she has something planned
,” I said as I locked up the building and walked to my car.

Caeden grinned, kissed me, and said, “Great.” With a spring in his step he got in his car. He let me pull away first before leaving himself.

Gram was excited about having Thanksgiving dinner with the pack so I promised to tell Caeden. I looked at Archie and realized that Caeden and I had forgotten to go to
PetSmart
after work. Honestly though, by the time we cleaned up after closing there wasn’t much evening left. Especially when you had homework to do. I knew we both had tomorrow off. Gram had another woman that worked only twice a week, Tuesday evenings and Friday evenings. Her name was Cate and she was older, in her fifties, but enjoyed her time at the shop.

I called Caeden and told him about Thanksgiving and asked him if he would want to go with me to the pet store.

“I’m so sorry, Sophie,” he said, “I completely forgot.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m a ditz and forgot too. How can I expect you to remember something if I can’t remember it myself?”
I joked.

He chuckled into the receiver. “That’s true. At least now I’ll get to bring Murphy along.”

“Will he fit through the door?” I joked.

“Of course. He’s a dog not a horse,” he said.

“I couldn’t tell the difference,” I said.

“You better get used to it,” he said. “We’re mates and we’re going to be spending the rest of our lives together and that includes Murphy and Archie. Oh, and Murphy sleeps on my bed by the way.”

“I guess I’ll have to sleep on the floor,” I said jokingly.

“Murphy will make room, promise,” he laughed.

“That’s nice to know,” I said.

We said our goodbyes and hung up. Archie took over my pillow again. I kissed the cute little dog on his nose and fell asleep.

* * *

Luckily school was just a regular uneventful Tuesday. For whatever reason I kept expecting Travis to jump around a corner and say, “Got
c
ha,” but he didn’t. In fact he wasn’t there at all. I felt that this didn’t bode well for any of us. He was planning something. I didn’t know what but I knew he had to be up to something. He had been far too smug yesterday.

I pulled into the driveway and grabbed my backpack, thankful that I hadn’t been assigned any new homework. Archie jumped excitedly at my legs when I entered the cozy yellow house.

“Gram!” I called out. Her car was in the driveway so I assumed she was somewhere around here.

“Yes, Sophie?” she said coming out of her bedroom. Her reading glasses were perched on the end of her nose and she held a large leather bound book in her hands.

“I just wanted to let you know that Caeden was picking me up. I need to get some things for Archie.”

“Oh, I’ll get you some money,” she said, turning and heading back into her room for her purse.

“No, Gram. Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Remember? Dad gave me a credit card. I think this would apply under emergency. I mean the dog does have to eat something.”

Gram laughed, “Yeah,
something other than my slippers would be preferable.” She looked down at the floor and I followed her gaze. Archie had indeed chewed a hole through both of her slippers. “At least he’s cute,” she said as Archie looked at us both with big round puppy dog eyes.

“Yeah, he does have that going for him,” I said.

“Talking about me?” asked a male voice from behind me. I turned to look at Caeden. Seeing my face he said, “Knock, knock.”

I shook my head. Gram laughed. “I’ll see you later.”

I gave her a kiss on her wizened cheek, scooped up Archie, and followed Caeden outside. Instead of his
Jeep
he was in Bryce’s.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Murphy’s a big dog, and leather and dogs do not mix. The car came with a warning label.”

I laughed. “I’m sure it did. Did this one not come with a warning label?”

“No,” he said. “It’s fabric.”

I climbed into the older
Jeep
and held Archie on my lap. Caeden climbed in and Murphy leaned forward between the two seats to give Caeden a lick on the cheek.

“I missed you too, buddy,” he said to the dog.

I laughed and then was surprised when Murphy’s large tongue flicked out and licked the side of my face. “
Eww
, dog drool,” I said.

Caeden chuckled, petted the dog, and said, “Good boy.” It looked like the dog smiled.

As we drove Murphy and Archie decided to inspect one
another. After a few cursory sniffs they must have been satisfied. Murphy lay down in the back of the
Jeep
and Archie snuggled into my lap. A light little snore filled the car
.

We drove into town and Caeden parked in front of the
PetSmart
. I didn’t have a leash for Archie yet so I held on tight to him. Caeden put the back hatch of the
Jeep
down and Murphy jumped out. The dog sat there and patiently wa
ited for Caeden to put his leash
on. Murphy’s leash matched his collar, chunky brown leather.

“Come on Murphy,” said Caeden. The dog strode purposefully towards the store. Obviously this wasn’t his first time. People in the parking lot openly gawked at the large dog. My heart went out to Murphy, it had to suck having people stare at you, but instead he seemed to like it.
He held his furry dog chin high and eyed the staring people, his large tongue lolling out the side. At one point I would have sworn he winked. He grinned his huge, wolfy dog, grin at a man who had stopped in the middle of the road. Caeden laughed at his dog. I was quickly discovering that familiars were more like people than dogs.

The sliding doors opened as
we entered the store. There weren’t many people there and there was only one person on the registers. Birds chirped loudly and I could hear hamsters twirling in their little metal wheels. Caeden grabbed a cart, which I put Archie in, and headed towards the back of the store.

I immediately grabbed a big bag of dog food. I picked out a dark purple leather coll
ar and leash. I figured since if it
was a darker color it was a little less feminine.

“Purple? He’s a boy,” said Caeden. Apparently Caeden didn’t.

“So? Boys can wear purple. Plus, it’s a dark purple.”

Caeden shook his head and looked at Archie. “Sorry, man. I tried.”

I narrowed my eyes at Caeden and proceeded to pick out some dog toys. I held up a toy shaped like a newspaper that crinkled. “Do you like this boy?” I asked the little black and white dog. He sniffed the
toy and took into his mouth. “I guess that’s a yes.”

I tested him a couple more times. He refused to take several of them so I could only assume he didn’t like them. He really was like a little person. Caeden got Murphy a couple of new toys too. Murphy found a pack of tennis balls which he took into his large mouth and pulled from the shelf. He walked around the store holding his prize proudly.

A
fter I picked out a dog bed for
Archie we were ready to go. We paid and headed back to the
Jeep
.
Dark
had already descended and the full moon winked at us like an old friend. I looked at Caeden. “You’re not going to go wolf on me are you?”

Caeden laughed. “I’m a shifter not a werewolf.”

He opened the back hatch and Murphy jumped with
amazing
agility for an animal of his size. Caeden unpacked our cart and I climbed in with Archie. I had snatched his collar from the bag so I affixed it to his neck. His blue name tag, that I had made before we left, dangled from it. Archie quirked his head and then licked my cheek.

I stuck my tongue out at Caeden as
he started the car. “See? He likes his purple collar.”

Caeden shook his head and looked at Archie. “Silly dog.”

Archie stuck his tongue out and licked Caeden’s nose.

We stopped and picked up something quick to eat before Caeden dropped me off at home. He helped me unload the car and then gave me a quick kiss goodbye. My stomach fluttered at the touch of his lips on my skin. I hoped desperately that the feeling never went away. I knew that
my
body and heart were already in love with Caeden and my mind was quickly catching up with them. I just didn’t know when I would be able to say those three little words of, I love you.

ten
.

It was Thanksgiving morning and I was completely undecid
ed on what to wear. I didn’t want
to wear my typical jeans, sweatshirt, and hair in ponytail. I wanted to look nice. No, not nice, I wanted to look beautiful.

I stood in front of my closet with my hair dripping wet down my back
and a towel wrapped firmly around my torso
. I put my hands on my hips. What to wear?

I finally pulled out a pair of gray slacks that I had once worn for an interview and my cozy red sweater. Satisfied as far as my wardrobe went I headed to the hall bathroom to do something about my flat, straight, hair.
Sometimes, my hair dried with a slight curl on the ends and other times it hung lank and lifeless.
I blew it dry the rest of the way and then curled
it
into
soft waves. I thought it looked decent enough. I pulled out my makeup and spent more time than usual, adding eye shadow and blush. Normally, I only wore lip gloss and mascara. But today was important. I wondered if Caeden felt it too. One day I would marry Caeden, he was my mate after all, and we would be spending holidays together… as a family. This was the start of that tradition and it sent butterflies flying excitedly through my stomach.