by Jennie Dah
“What is it?” I sigh.
“Nothing,” Charlie says quickly. “Don’t mind us.”
“No, not nothing. Celia, you just ate enough to feed a small army,” Logan says in disbelief shrugging off Robbie's hand. “How the hell did you swallow all that down without blinking?”
“Are you trying to say something?” I ask defensively. “Because if you are—”
“No, just that it might help us figure out what you are,” Nick says softly taking my hand. I relax back in my seat. Oh.
“But I’m not a cow,” I tell them looking at them and everyone faces blanch and they blink at me.
“Uhh…”
“You…”
“Yes?” I look at them expectantly but everyone seems to be a little lost for words. “What am I?”
That seems to snap them from it and they all start talking at the same time.
“I’m thinking she’s a bear.”
“I’m thinking wolf.”
“Well I think she might be a hyena.”
I tune them out and look to Nick who has suddenly gone quiet. He seems lost in thought with a little frown pulling between his brows.
“So what do you think,” I ask Nick nudging him a little. He startles a little and I get worried. “Are you okay?”
“Oh...um...thing.” I frown at him and he gives me a little smile. I look to Stella and she seems to be hanging on to every word coming out of Michael’s mouth. I look back and forth between them both. Those two? Really? Hmm, nice.
“Well you’re all wrong,” I finally say making them look at me. “That was nothing. Usually I’d eat three maybe four balls of kenkey but I’m trying to lose some weight so I’ve cut down on what I eat now.”
“Kekey?”
“Kenkey,” I repeat more slowly and they nod. “And then my favorite ‘Akple’, I eat an average bowl of that but I prefer ‘Banku’ sometimes too when I’m in the mood.”
“You’re from Africa right?” Logan asks taking a sip of his water.
“Yes I’m Ghanaian,” I say proudly.
“Really? My grandfather’s a Ghanaian,” he nods eagerly his face lighting up. “I is it him from time to time.”
“Is he still alive? What’s his name? I might know him.”
“Um… Godwin Ankutse,” he leans forward staring at me eagerly. “Or at least that was the name he was using the last time I saw him.”
I shake my head. “Really? I went to school with this chick with the same surname but only after I moved to Poase Cement with my grandparents and I think she said she was from Agate or maybe it was Kajebi, I don’t remember but I don’t think I know your grandfather. I lived in Aflao all my life before we moved so I don’t know a lot of people from that area.”
“What did this girl look like?”
“Well I don't—”
“Hey it’s almost night fall. Do you guys want to go to the races?” Stella asks suddenly looking mostly at me.
“You guys can go but I think I’ll head back to the house, I’m tired,” I say around a big yawn.
Suddenly, my chair is pushed back and I’m lifted out my seat. It happens so fast I can do nothing but hold onto Nicholas as he carries me out of the room. I stare at him in surprise and look around. Yep, people are definitely looking at us.
“What are you doing?” I ask in a whisper waving at the guys who don’t even look all that surprised at his behaviour.
Is this something he usual does with the women he dates? That doesn’t matter now, I’m keeping him and I’ll break his legs before he even dares to try again with someone else.
‘I thought you said you were leaving,’ she drawls but she sounds distracted.
‘What are you doing?’ I ask suspiciously but she’s gone just as suddenly as she came and I growl.
“Taking you home,” he grunts.
I wait for him to say more but he just keeps walking. “But what about the races, don’t you want to go?”
“Not if you’re not going.”
“Oh,” is the only thing I manage to say. A smile breaks out on my face my heart doing funny flips in my chest. “Then let’s go.”
“No.”
“What? Why?” I frown confusion lacing my tone.
“Because you’re tired and you don’t want to go.”
He hasn’t looked at me once since we left the cafeteria. The way he’s been gruff and abrupt now, you wouldn’t believe such sweet things are coming out of his mouth.
I bury my face in his neck to hide my smile and also because I want to breathe in his delicious scent. Outside the brightly lit lamps lining the street and the full moon up in the sky glowing softly gives the whole place an ethereal quality.
If I were a believer of fairy tales, I’d say I found my happy ending because right now in this moment being in Nicholas’s arms, it feels like my very own fairytale.
He looks like a fierce warrior heading off into battle the way his profile is set. The only time I’ve seen him a little relaxed was yesterday when he was with me at that little diner but the rest of the time he seems always on edge and alert. He doesn’t even talk much too I’ve realized.
Now I get what Stella was saying earlier that he was acting strange. He is so curt with everyone else, even Michael and the guys barely avoid getting his grunts. I’m starting to think he’s the silent hermit type, which is surprising because I don’t get that vibe when he’s with me.
“Why are you so quiet?” he asks turning his head to look at me, his eyes meeting mine. I suck in a breath at how beautiful his eyes are. They’re gleaming and anyone could easily mistake them for one of the few stars up there. My heart speeds up and I lean up with a hand raising to cup his cheek.
His face moves closer to mine an emotion flashing in his eyes but disappears quickly. My lips part and his eyes move from my eyes to focus on them.
A few inches from my lips and he goes still and quickly moves away from me. My chest constricts painfully and I sag back in his arms. The rest of the way home we’re both silent and my eyes fall closed when they start to well up with tears.
Don’t you dare cry, I scold myself. This is good anyway. I don’t want to get involved with anyone who just wants to have fun with me and I did say so myself, I’ll be leaving soon so this is great. I'll just continue as before and wait for the right man. Yes that’s what I’ll do. I nod and cling to that, laying my head on his shoulder.
My eyes stay closed even when we get back to the house and I sigh in relief when he puts me on a bed. I stay perfectly still, waiting for the sound of his feet moving away from the bed and the sound of the door closing but after a while it doesn’t come.
I jump a little when he touches my legs pulling off my slippers. Then he pulls of my jeans leaving me in my shirt and panties. What is he doing? The bed dips and then he’s wrapped around me pulling the covers over us.
What the hell? Oh hell no. He doesn’t get to reject me like that and think it’s fine to cuddle me. I start to move away from him but his arms tighten and then he buries his face in the back of my neck.
“Hey let me explain,” he whispers into the quiet room. At least he’s acknowledging that he did something wrong. Deciding to hear him out, I stop trying to get away from him and finally open my eyes but the room is too dark for me to see much. I hate my night blindness sometimes.
Wait, if I’m a shifter now or something that isn’t at least human anymore, that shouldn’t be a problem anymore, right? Taking my silence and stillness as his cue to go on, he starts explaining.
“Back there, it wasn’t you,” he says. Seriously? The ‘it’s not you but me’ line. I huff and kick my legs trying to get out from under the covers.
“Wait,” he grunts. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t want to touch you again until I know it’s what you want and that this isn’t some kind of game to you.”
I still at the vulnerability bleeding through his voice.
“I want you there’s no doubt about it but I won’t have
you only for a few days only to lose you because you think all this is fun and you want nothing to do with me after the whole supernatural thing wears off. I won’t touch you if I can’t have you forever.”
Is he really saying what I think he is? “Are you—”
“Yes. So think very hard and carefully about it before you say anything.”
“I don’t have to think about it.” I turn around in his arms and press my lips to his in a close mouthed kiss. We stay like that for a while before I move away. A warm hand comes up to cup my cheek and I nuzzle it while looking into his glowing eyes.
“I couldn’t bare it if I lost you—”
“You won’t. I’m yours for as long as you want me,” I say quickly. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I blurt out before he can decide he’s making a mistake. “Go out with me tomorrow.”
“You…want to take me out tomorrow?” I smile at the confusion in his tone.
“Yes. A date. Tomorrow. You and me. Alone. Getting to know each other,” I say teasingly breaking it down for him.
“Fine stop, I get it,” he says with a laugh. “Where am I taking you?”
“No. You got this all wrong. I'm taking you out on a date.”
“What?”
“Sleep and rest for tomorrow because I plan on wearing you out,” I tease laughingly.
“No one has ever taken me out on a date before,” he murmurs into the dark room and I smile.
“Well tomorrow someone will,” I say around a yawn already half asleep.
Damn I’m so tired and I didn’t even do anything today. Nicholas moves to lie on his back pulling me to his chest. He lifts my chin while leaning in at the same time and kisses the hell out of me until I couldn’t think straight anymore.
Damn! So this is why people like kissing so much. He pulls away when it gets difficult to breathe and I lay my head back on his chest. I run a hand through the sparse hair on his chest and let the calming rhythm of his heartbeat lull me to sleep but not before I feel the soft kiss he presses to the top of my head.
Chapter 10
NICHOLAS
I jolt up in bed my heart beating wildly in my chest and I look around for any danger that might be lurking around but everything is fine. My mind flashes back to the dream I was having just seconds ago and my blood chills.
There was fire, lava was spewing from the ground destroying everything in it’s path as the ground broke in on itself. Celia had been there too but I couldn’t save her. I run a hand down my face cringing at how sweaty it is. Looking down beside, I almost have a heart attack when I don’t see Celia in bed beside me.
I look around the room but she not no where in the room. I scramble off the bed and search around on the floor but she not there either. Not even under the bed. Panic surges through my body when I don’t feel her around. Damn it. My senses would’ve helped now if only my beast hadn’t abandoned me. It’s moment like this that I hate him.
I’d thought we’d made progress yesterday but obviously it was all in my head. I growl and put on some clothes while rushing out the door. I rush down the stairs but halfway there my skin begins to buzz rapidly with waves of electricity, sending zings of electric current through my bloodstream.
It takes me a while before I understand what is happening. I haven’t been one with him for so long I don’t remember what it feels like anymore when he’s coming to the surface.
‘What are you doing here after all this time?’ I growl anger rushing through my blood finally blowing up from all these years been locked deep inside me.
'We'll discuss our issues after we find our mate.’
‘Our Mate?’
‘Now is not the time for this.’
‘Now is not the time for this?’ I seethe. ‘You left me when I needed you and you choose now to show up out of the blue laying claim?’
'Yes. She’s mine just as much as she’s yours. We’ll talk later,’ he replies calmly. ‘She’s in the kitchen.’
Just then a crash sounds in the kitchen and I take off running there. I round the corner and sag in relief when I see Celia standing in the middle of the kitchen over a pot of some kind of black goo.
She grabs a rag and wipes it up before turning around to stir something on the burner. I rush over to her and squeeze her to me, the vice around my heart loosening it grip. I bury my face in her neck before pulling back to attack her lips.
The way she melts into me has my cock stiffening in my pants and I reluctantly pull away from her before I give into the urge to fuck her on the kitchen floor. I grit my teeth at the images that run through my head at the thought. I look at her and she looks dazed. Suddenly, the smell of what she’s cooking hits me when my arousal slowly dissipates.
It’s like nothing I’ve ever smelled before but better than anything I’ve ever had. What is she making? I step away from her and take a seat at the counter and watch her move around the kitchen when she finally snaps out of her trance.
I glimpse something white in her ears and it dawns on me that the reason she didn’t hear me come down the stairs is because she hasn’t heard me. Explains why she seemed surprised when I grabbed her. She keeps glancing in my direction worriedly.
I’m just glad she’s okay. I watch her flit around the kitchen occasionally looking over her shoulders at me and so lost in watching her graceful movements, I don’t see her turn around and I startle going on high alert as she screeches clutching a hand to her heaving chest staring at me like she’s never seen me before.
“Nick?” she whispers looking at me as if I were a wild animal and my insides tighten in alarm at look of fright on her face.
“Yes,” I say back just as carefully. Why is she looking at me like that? “What is it?”
“Your eyes. They are glowing,” she whispers while pointing at me face. “An–d–dd you loo–kk l–llike you’re about to pounce on me.”
“What?” I cock my head to the side her words not making any sense.
“Is that yellow?” she adds curiously.
“Oh.” I didn’t realize Griff had come to the surface.
‘She’s a strange one,’ Griff says in his dark raspy monotone. Celia cross the island to stare more closely at my face.
“Is that—” she starts to ask but I cut her off.
“Yes. Sorry, he just popped in but he was just leaving,” I say loudly and the sound of a snort fills my mind.
‘Yeah right. I'm not going anywhere.’
“No, it’s fine. I thought your eyes were breathtaking before but now,” she says with a little sniff. “Damn, you’re hot.”
'Heard that? She thinks I’m hot. Whatever that means.’
I mentally roll my eyes at him and focus back on Celia blocking him out. I feel him recede but not before leaving a warning.
‘Soon.’
My mind is stuck on her words from a few seconds ago so I brush it off. She thinks I’m hot.
“Oh.” She says disappointment lacing her tone when Griff completely steps back. “I thought you said you couldn’t shift?”
“What are you doing up so early?” I ask in an effort to get her mind off it but it only makes my fear from earlier flood my system making me sounder gruffer than I intended.
“Uh… it past 6am and I’m making you breakfast,” she mumbles blinking owlishly and I curse when she looks uncertain.
“You made me breakfast?”
“Yeah. And there absolutely nothing in your pantry so I made a list of what we will need for a few days before I can make a proper one,” she says going back to stir the pot on the burner. “Okay, it’s done. Why don’t you come wash your hands while I serve yours so it can cool a little?”
At the sink, I wash both my hands with my back turned to her. No one has ever made breakfast specifically for me before. I smile at how well she fits in this house. The house I built with my own hands to fill with family. I go to her and take her around the waist and kiss her in thanks. “Thank you.”
“What for? I sho
uld be thanking you. You gave me something back.”
“What’s that?”
“Memories of my grandmother I’d forgotten,” she says softly placing another kiss on my lips. “Go sit down.”
She sets a plate of food in front of me and I stare at it strangely. I’ve never seen this dish before. She sets a glass of water and a glass of orange juice beside me too. Not wanting to disappoint her I pick up my spoon and scoop up the reddish brown looking mix of rice and beans and eat it.
I smile tightly at her expectant expression and chew. I swallow and it goes down quite easily. Hmmm. Not bad. This time I scoop with the sauce and the black looking goo with a little of the spaghetti and chew and it feels like a thousand fireworks going off in my mouth. Damn, this is good even if a little spicy. I smile genuinely at her this time and the sound of her tinkling laugh fills the room.
“What is this? It’s so good,” I say around a mouth full halfway through the meal.
“I know right?” I couldn’t help but smile with her. Her smile is contagious as well as her excitement.
“What’s this anyway?”
“It’s called ‘Waakye’ where I’m from.”
“Waashi,” I attempt saying but I don’t think I did it right. Celia’s soft laugh confirms it. She looks at me softly before heading to the sink. She starts cleaning up and I frown at her. “Come here.”
She still at my voice but slowly turns to face me with her head cocked to the side. I crook singer at her and she look at it like I’m crazy. She shakes her head slowly before she comes to stand in front of me.
“Why are you not eating?” I set my spoon down and staple my fingers in front of my face.
“Because I have to clean up,” she says like it’s that obvious.
“When did you wake up this morning?”
“A little before five.”
“You must be hungry by now. Here, have a sit and I’ll make you a plate,” I get off the stool but she shakes her head with a fierce expression.
“No. I’ll eat after you’re done and this kitchen is back to being spotless,” she says hurriedly pushing me back to my stool. And then she adds softly, “I made this for you so just enjoy it and let me do this, okay?”