The Journey To Become The Perfect Werewolf

by Olive P. Farley

  “I was so itchy! I think there were maybe two inches of my body that were spared. Jon didn't have it all over his body but his was in worse places as he had used it as toilet paper.” He laughed again and I thought back to my shenanigans with Lacey and missed her terribly in that moment.

  “Who's Lacey?” Gabriel asked. I was shocked at first but then I remembered the mind link. He could hear my thoughts.

  “Can you hear all my thoughts?” I wondered, thinking that could be inconvenient at times. He laughed.

  “Not if you don't want me to. You can block it so you can't be heard or even so you can't hear others when you join the packs mind link.” He explained.

  “Can you show me?” I asked. I loved having this bond with Gabriel but a girl needed some privacy.

  “Sure. But can we work on that later. I'm starving.” He hopped up and walked to the kitchen and I quickly followed realizing I was pretty hungry myself. It was after noon already and we hadn't eaten a thing.

  The kitchen was kind of bare. We hadn't had any time to shop so we only had the basics. I was thrilled when I found some maple syrup hiding in the fridge.

  “Yes!” I said enthusiastically. Gabriel raised an eyebrow as I pulled the maple syrup out of the fridge. “Did I ever mention my love for pancakes?” I said, far too giddy about my little discovery.

  “You did not.” He said and smiled. “But I don't think I have any pancake mix.” I shook my head as I started to rummage through the cabinets.

  “Mix?” I said with an attitude. “A true pancake aficionado would never use a mix.” I used the snobbiest tone I could manage while trying not to giggle. So far I had found maple syrup, milk, an egg, butter, flour and sugar. All I needed now was the…..

  “A ha!” I shouted as I pulled the baking powder out. “Oooh!” I said spotting some cinnamon and vanilla as well. “We are in business Mr. Knight.” I said. Gabriel came behind me as I organized everything on the counter. He slipped his arms around my waist and laid his head on my shoulder.

  “Someone is in a silly mood.” He said and then kissed my neck, sending a shiver down my back.

  “I'm just happy.” I said. I turned around and gave Gabriel a kiss. “Now, I just need a bowl and a skillet.” Gabriel moved and grabbed the requested items and I got to work. I mixed all my dry ingredients in the bowl and then added the milk and egg. I was careful not to over mix. Then I got the skillet heating up and added some butter. I found a spatula. Once the pan was hot, I poured in a tiny bit of batter and waited until the pancake bubbled along the edges before I flipped it. After about 15 minutes I had two beautiful stacks of fluffy pancakes. I sat down the plates triumphantly before grabbing forks and sitting down.

  Gabriel was smiling a silly smile. I gave him a funny look.

  “Graceful?” I asked. “No one has ever called me graceful.” I told him, hearing his thoughts through our mind link.

  “Well, you are. At least while cooking pancakes.” He said and I laughed. Suddenly a thought occurred to me. What day was it? I couldn't remember. So much had happened in the last few weeks and I hadn't really bothered paying attention to dates.

  “It's September 3rd.” Gabriel responded to my thought. Oh. Wow. My birthday. I had completely forgotten. Happy birthday to me, I sang in my head. Gabriel looked at me in shock.

  “It's your birthday??” He asked in disbelief. “Why didn't you tell me!?” I shrugged.

  “I forgot. I didn't even know the date. I knew it was coming up, obviously, I just didn't realize it was today. Don't worry. Birthdays aren't a big deal to me.” I assured him. Gabriel furrowed his brow seemingly annoyed with me.

  “Hey, seriously. It's just another day. No biggie.” It's not like I had celebrated my last few birthdays either. The last birthday that I had celebrated had been my 18th. Wasn't much to celebrate in the institution. But this was my 21st birthday. I thought back to all the times Lacey and I had planned for the wild night when we turned 21 and felt a pang of sadness. I really did miss her.

  “You never did tell me who Lacey was.” Gabriel said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “She was my best friend growing up. But I haven't seen her in a long time. She's away at college.” I replied. I wondered what people thought had happened to me. Rationally, no one would assume I had turned into a big wolf and killed Paul. So what did they think had happened. I wasn't sure. Did anyone even care? Not sure about that either. I shook off my train of thought. If I kept going down that road it would only depress me. Instead, I turned my attention back to my lovely stack of pancakes.

  Chapter 33

  After we finished eating our pancakes, I decided I wanted a bath. Gabriel offered to do the dishes, which was sweet of him. I went to the pink room, the bath in there was my favorite. I ran some steaming hot water and sighed as I sat down. Most of my injuries from the day before had healed, now only little lines that looked like scars but I knew my wolf healing would heal them so even that wouldn't remain. I laid there soaking for a while when I heard the door open and Gabriel came in.

  “Spying on a lady in her bath, are we?” I asked playfully.

  “Every chance I get.” He said with his cute mischievous smile. Would I ever grow immune to that smile, I wondered.

  “What about my smile?” Gabriel said and I blushed.

  “You really are going to have to teach me that blocking thing. You don't need to know every thought.” I said. Gabriel laughed.

  “I like it. You've always held so much back. It's nice to know exactly what you're thinking” he said. “So, I thought that since it's your birthday, I could take you out tonight.” He said.

  “Uhhhh, sure.” I said, wondering what he had in mind.

  “What I had in mind was,” he started. I was instantly annoyed. He read my damn thoughts again. I really didn't like the lack of privacy. I was used to keeping my thoughts very private and while I felt so close to Gabriel now, I still wanted to keep some thoughts to myself. I realized Gabriel was still talking about the plans and I had been so distracted I wasn't listening.

  “I'm sorry, what did you say?” I asked.

  “I said we could just go to the cafe and have dinner.” Oh. Okay. That didn't sound bad.

  “Sure. Sounds great.” I responded.

  “Great!” He said, standing up. He started to leave the room but stopped at the door. “Carrie?” He said.

  “Yes?” I said, wondering what else he had to say.

  “Privacy is overrated.” He said. Dammit! I thought. Gabriel laughed and I splashed water at him as he fled the bathroom. I could still hear him laughing.

  “Ass.” I said in my mind.

  “You love me.” He replied back the same way. I smiled. He was right. I did love him.

  After I finished my bath, I got dressed. I grabbed a cute blouse and my skinny jeans and flats. I really needed to figure out some work. I would eventually need more clothes and it was almost fall. I decided to ask Gabriel about it later. I debated drying my hair. It was still only mid-afternoon. I decided to just let it air dry. It took forever to blow dry and I didn't feel like dealing with it. If it was still wet before we went out, I would just dry it then. Again I wished I had got some basic makeup. Oh well.

  I left the pink room and went to find Gabriel. He was in his bathroom, also getting ready. He must have showered because his curly hair was wet. He was putting in some hair product, trying to calm the chaos of his curls. He was wearing a pair of jeans but no shirt. My eyes traveled down his torso appreciatively. He had such an amazing body. He was muscular and tan. He had a little chest hair but wasn't insanely hairy like some men. He was perfect and he was mine.

  Gabriel turned to me with a beaming smile and I blushed realizing he had probably heard my thoughts.

  “I'm far from perfect.” He said. He had finished his hair and walked over to the doorway where I was standing.

  “Well, you're perfect for me.” I said, slipping my arms around his neck. He lowered his head to mine and we stood there
forehead to forehead for a minute. Since we had marked each other the tingles had become a lot more intense. Every touch was now pleasurable. It was almost overwhelming but it was also comforting in a way. I sighed as Gabriel buried his head in my neck and kissed my mark. I felt a heat spread through my body and was surprised. Gabriel chuckled.

  “It's the mark. It's very sensitive.” I guess that made sense.

  “Does it feel the same to you?” I asked. Gabriel nodded. Out of curiosity I tiptoed up and kissed Gabriel's mark. He groaned slightly and I could sense his arousal. Being able to elicit such a response from him made me feel powerful and I started to suck and lick at the mark. Gabriel's heart quickened and I felt him grow hard.

  “Carrie, you keep doing that and I'm going to throw you down on that bed.” He warned. I looked at the clock. It was still early. We had plenty of time.

  With a low growl Gabriel scooped me up and threw me on the bed. I laughed and playfully tried to scramble away but Gabriel caught me by the ankle and pulled me to him. He settled between my legs and kissed me again.

  “What am I going to do with you?” He asked. I kissed him again.

  “You could always make love to me.” I said. So he did just that.

  At around seven Gabriel asked if I was ready to go to the cafe.

  “Yes.” I told him, looking forward to our little outing.

  “Great! Let's go!” He said. I could tell Gabriel was excited but I wasn't really sure why. We were only going to the cafe. Maybe he was just hungry. We hadn't eaten since our little pancake brunch and I was pretty hungry myself. Must be it, I thought. Not to mention, our activities this afternoon had worked up quite the appetite.

  We walked out to the car and Gabriel opened my door and then got in himself and drove us to the cafe. When we got there, I was surprised at how crowded it looked. Maybe the last time we came was just a slow night. Gabriel didn't even seem to notice how busy it was so I figured it must be normal. We got out of the car and again I could feel how excited Gabriel was. Why? Was I missing something? He opened the door and we walked into the cafe and my jaw hit the floor.

  “SURPRISE” Everyone yelled as I froze in the doorway.

  Chapter 34

  I looked around the room in awe. No one had ever thrown me a surprise party before, let alone planned one in the same day. Everyone I had met from the pack was there and even a wolf I didn't know yet. Gabriel's Mom and Dad were here. Marcus and Lauren as well as their two little boys. I made a mental note that I needed to learn the boy's names. Suzie was here. I hadn't seen her since my brief stay in the pack hospital. There was a man with her who I hadn't met yet and I could only assume it was her mate. And Jon was here too.

  There was a cake sitting on a table and I saw it even had the words “Happy Birthday Carrie!” on it. There were even a few gifts sitting on a table nearby. I was so overcome by the thoughtfulness of everyone. His family barely knew me, yet here they were going through all this effort for me. I smiled up at Gabriel and tears started to form in my eyes as I desperately tried not to cry. I felt like I had cried so much since meeting Gabriel. It was getting kinda ridiculous.

  Gabriel had his arm around my waist and looked down at me.

  “Happy birthday baby!” He said.

  “Thank you” I croaked, causing me to clear my throat. “I don't know how you pulled this off.” I added.

  “I have my ways.” He replied elusively. I laughed. Gabriel's Mom was the first to come running over and gave me a big hug.

  “Happy Birthday Carrie! Oh, I'm so happy we get to celebrate with you and Gabriel. I was so excited when Jon linked us and told us that it was your birthday and what Gabriel wanted to do. We just dropped everything, not that we really had much going on. Don't worry, we didn't miss anything important. At least nothing as important as your birthday. How old are you?” I was always surprised by how much Debra had to say. It always seemed like everything she said was one long run on sentence. Somehow though, it wasn't annoying, rather it was quite endearing.

  “I'm 21.” I replied.

  “21 is such a good age and a perfect age difference for you and Gabriel.” She added. Suddenly she squealed and I jumped in surprise. “Oh, your mark!! You marked each other!” She was basically jumping up and down as she hugged me excitedly and then ran over to Gabriel to hug him too. When she got close, Gabriel quickly grabbed her, picking her up in a big bear hug and she laughed hysterically.

  “You naughty boy.” She laughed as he set her down. Then she kissed his cheek and I laughed as Gabriel wiped his face like a child.

  Next Chuck wished me a happy birthday. He was such an opposite to Debra. Where she was bubbly and chatty, he was more direct and no nonsense. He simply wished me a happy birthday, giving me a quick hug.

  Next was Lauren. She was still very pregnant and she waddled her way over to me.

  “Happy birthday Carrie! I'm so happy for you and Gabriel.” She said. I caught myself looking to her and then looking at Suzie. I had never noticed it before but they looked a lot alike. Lauren saw me looking between the two of them and laughed.

  “Suzie is my cousin. The hair and eyes give it away.” She said with a wink. I smiled. Funny I hadn't noticed it before. They were both shorter and had the auburn hair and the blue/green eyes. They were also both pale with freckles. But Lauren's features were more delicate and she was younger. Also, while Lauren had a few freckles, Suzie was very freckled. Upon hearing our conversation, Suzie made her way over.

  “This one telling tall tales over here?” She said playfully. Lauren rolled her eyes.

  “No, I was just telling Carrie that we are cousins. She had noticed the resemblance.”

  “Yes, the auburn hair runs strong in our family. I'm afraid you'll find it rather easy to pick out the rest of us.” She said and Lauren nodded. The man I had seen earlier had joined us and Suzie introduced him as her mate, Jeremy. We said hello but didn't get a chance to say anymore when Lauren's boy came running up.

  “Mommy! Mommy! Can we have cake now?” The five year old boy I had met last time asked.

  “Not yet, Alijah. We haven't even sang Happy Birthday yet.”

  “But I want cake!” Alijah whined.

  “Cake, mama! Cake!” The toddler boy started to chant.

  “Not right now Deklan!” She shushed him. He pouted briefly but then Marcus came over and scooped him up and he giggled. Marcus also wished me a happy birthday. Then Jon came over and greeted me as well.

  “Happy Birthday!” He said.

  “Thanks Jon.” I responded. “I heard that you had a hand in planning this.” Jon smiled.

  “It was all Gabriel's idea. I just helped spread the word and ran an errand or two.” I was about to ask what errands he ran when Debra called me over and lit the candles on the cake. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and I nearly cried again.

  “Make a wish.” Gabriel said. I had to think about it. What more could I want? My parents, I thought sadly. I quickly blew out the candles but I knew that was one wish that wasn't coming true. Everyone cheered and then Debra started to cut up the cake causing the boys to start cheering and clapping excitedly.

  After cake, I was forced to sit down in the center of the room. The center of attention, oh goodie.

  ”You're the birthday girl.” Gabriel said through our link. I pictured sticking my tongue out at him, not sure if the mind link worked that way. Gabriel snickered and winked and I knew he had got the message.

  The first gift I received was from Debra and Chuck. I carefully unwrapped the present and found a make-up kit inside. I smiled. This was perfect! It was nice too! It had all the basics. Some foundation, blush, a large eye shadow pallet, some lip gloss, and a few eye liners in various colors. I thanked them for the gift.

  “Gabriel told us you were wishing you had some make-up. Not that you need it, I mean, you're gorgeous! But every girl should have some make-up I suppose.” Debra explained.

  “Thank you. It's perfect and I love it.” I told
her.

  The next gift was from Suzie. It was a small package. I opened it and it was a gift card for a shoe store in a town over. I thanked Suzie. I had only got a few pairs of shoes when Gabriel had taken me shopping so another pair or two would be great.

  Next, Lauren and Marcus's gift. This was also small and inside I found a gift card for a clothing store. I started to suspect Gabriel had heard all my thoughts earlier. I had mentally noted that I needed clothes and make-up and now I was getting exactly those things. I looked at Gabriel and he winked at me, making me giggle and shake my head.

  I was surprised when the next gift was from Jon. While we had mended fences, I still hadn't expected a gift from him. Like the other gifts, this was a gift card as well. This one was for an athletic wear store.

  “I figured you may want some clothes to train in.” Jon explained. I smiled and thanked him as well.

  My last gift was from Gabriel. It was a small package but larger than the ones that had contained the gift cards. I unwrapped the present to reveal a box. It looked like a jewelry box. I glanced at Gabriel as I opened it and inside was a beautiful necklace and earring set. The chain of the necklace was silver and gold, intertwined. It had a teardrop shaped pendant with a sapphire surrounded by diamonds and the earrings matched. I stared at the set in awe. No one had ever given me jewelry like this before. Gabriel walled over and took the necklace out of the box and came behind me. I lifted my hair as he placed the necklace on my neck.

  “The pendant and earrings were my grandmother's. The chain I bought. I thought it was perfect with the silver and gold intertwined. Since we have silver and gold wolves.” I felt the cold metal touch my neck and lifted the pendant to look at it again.

  “The sapphire's reminded me of your eyes.”