Chapter 123

"Well someone looks like they had fun." Shana croons to me, jumping on the bed beside me.

I just groan and throw a pillow over my head. "Go away, Shana." I mumble, my voice muffled under the pillow.

"Is that a handprint on your thigh?" Shana demands in disbelief. "What the fuck were you two doing?" 

"Shana." I warn, throwing the pillow off my head to glare at her.

"Oh wow." She mutters blankly, her wide eyes fixated on my neck. "I mean I know I kept saying it but, just… wow." She points a hand at my exposed neck. "He really did try to eat you."

"Shana." I whine, uncomfortable with the topic.

"Sorry but I'm also traumatized here, two of my best friends making out, yeah well, that's pretty traumatic." She says, pushing a hand through my slightly damp hair.

"We're best friends too." I mumble under my breath, red splashing across my cheeks.

"You and Virgil?" She asks in disbelief, scoffing. "Please, you've never even been friends, you're just selectively blind."

"What?" I sit up in a rush, staring at Shana in shock. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is…" She starts to say, pulling me down to rest my head on her lap so she can get a more comfortable position to keep tangling up my hair. "Ever since the first day I met you guys, he's always acted like he's mated to you." She says blunty.

My cheeks get uncomfortably red again and I give up on the possibility of them returning to their original color this night. "That's stretching it a bit." I mumble, trying to process what Shana is saying. "He never said anything plus there's the obvious fact that he's straight."

Shana groans in frustration. "If your naivety wasn't so cute it'd be annoying, I'm actually tuning things down, he literally just ripped apart an entire wolf because, and I quote 'it was looking at Hayden weird.'" Her hands trail down the side of my face, cupping my cheeks. "Plus really? That's the card you're playing? For your information, Virgil doesn't have a sexual orientation…"

My eyes fly open in surprise, my mouth parting slightly.

"Wait, scratch that, he does, his sexual orientation is you."

I huff out a laugh. "That's impossible."

She gives me a blank look. "Really? Virgil dislikes most people, yet you manage to get away with everything, if you didn't exist he would be an aromantic and asexual psychopath."

"That's laying it on a little thick."

Shana just shakes her head in exasperation. "Sure believe whatever helps you sleep better at night, best friends definitely leave hickies on each other's necks and fingerprints on thighs."

"You're never going to let me live this down, are you?" I say in a muffled voice, hiding my face behind my hands.

"I won't need to." Shana replies. "There's going to be more."

"Hayden?" Shana asks after a short spell of silence. 

"Yeah?" I take my hands off my face at her serious tone.

"Who would you pick?" She asks seriously, her hazel eyes staring down at me.

I go quiet at her question, I keep running from the question, I know but I'm not claiming to be the emotionally strong one.

"I mean, Virgil only allowed it this long because you took a shine to Dale and he was hoping that Dale was just messing around." She shrugs. "But now…"

"Now what?" I prompt her curiously.

"Well, Dale hasn't given up yet so that should give you a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about."

I roll off her legs to lie on my stomach. "I don't know, Shana." I say softly. "I…" The door swings open and I clamp my mouth tightly shut.

Virgil and Dale walk in looking worried and we both sit up to look at them.

"What's doing?" Shana asks.

"We met Leon, he was on patrol." Dale says shortly, a slight frown on his face.

"And what? He said he was sleeping over?" Shana prompts when no one says anything again.

Virgil makes a disgusted face. "What the fuck! No."

I just shake my head, totally expecting that reply.

"He said he had been tracking a rogue that had been hanging around the fringes of the forest, that was the same rogue Werewolf that had attacked us."

My eyes go wide at this, was this going to become a common thing? What would we do if the rogue Werewolves started to move into town?

"Apparently, it had followed Hayden's scent all the way here." Dale says darkly and my eyes go wide.

"Wait, what?"

"That same rogue Werewolf you had bumped into in the woods had memorized your scent and had been tracking you for days." Virgil explains tightly, walking over to the wardrobe to pick out a shirt.

His hair tips are wet again and he's wearing a different pair of shorts, same thing with Dale who leans against the door with his hands stuffed in his front pockets.

"If we hadn't been around today or if the rogue had found the house tomorrow…" Dale trails off looking slightly pale and green.

Shana shuffles closer to me, wrapping slightly trembling arms around me.

"Oh my God…" She whispers in horror.

"Let's move to the hangout room, Renee is waiting for us." Dale says pushing himself up from the door.

My eyes trail over to his bare arm and remain fixated on one spot. "Dale? Are you hurt?" I ask in worry, already making a move to get off the bed.

He quickly tugs his sleeve down, covering up the slight gash on his arm. "It's fine, it's just a tiny cut." He says reassuringly. "There's not much time or opportunity to run around in my wolf form back in the city so I'm still adjusting."

Virgil just gives him a blank look. "Sure, let's go."

We all file out and I try to come to terms with all that has happened tonight.

My mom is waiting for us, she had laid out popcorn so we would binge watch movies but now the mood was gone.