Jackson ~
Not having the hindsight to carry my bag of clothes with me, I was forced to rummage through Aunt Rita's belongings to find something to wear. My pack was generally very comfortable with nudity, but I think growing up around humans left some sort of impact on me because being naked in front of my elderly aunt was not something I was okay with.
"I guess this will do." I pulled on a long purple skirt, that surprisingly fit me pretty well. Aunt Rita was a bit of a hippie and all of her clothing, which she had very little of, was made of a sort of flowy, stretchy material.
Since she wasn't at the cave cabin when I arrived, I had no choice but to wait patiently for her to return. Hopefully, she got home soon, so my sweet mate wouldn't think I was standing up to our plans to hang out after school. I would text him if I could, but there was no reception out here, thanks to Aunt Rita not believing in electricity…
Maybe she was crazy after all.
I mean who the hell chooses not to use the gift of electricity and bathes in the river?! It's so inconvenient! You know what?! I am not going to wait around here all day for a crazy old hag. I will wait 20 more minutes at the most, and then head back to school to pick my mate up. Our first full day together as a couple will not be ruined!
We will hold hands!
We will kiss!
We will have a romantic dinner!
"Hmm… I wonder what kind of food he likes to eat?"
"What who likes to eat?" A woman's voice whispered behind me.
"Eek!" I fell backwards off the tree stump I had been sitting on.
"You okay, Jackie?" The upside down owner of the voice slowly walked towards me, her long matted black hair covered her chest, but I could tell she definitely wasn't wearing anything.
"Aunt… Aunt Rita! Egh! Put some clothes on!" I screamed and covered my eyes, not bothering to get off the ground just yet.
"Huh? But they look much better on you than they do on me. I'll be embarrassed!"
"AUNT RITA!"
"Ho ho, still as shy as ever I see."
—
"You can open your eyes now." She huffed, placing her hands on her hips.
Thankfully, she was now wearing a mustard colored dress. There was no need for her to dress according to the cool weather, us wolves always ran hot. The only reason I ever wore warm clothes was to keep up appearances, when in reality I'd be fine in just shorts as long as the temperature stayed above 15℉.
"I've missed you so much! You never come to the house!" I pulled her into a hug. She was just an inch or two shorter than me, very tall for a woman.
"I've missed you too, you brat." She hugged me back. "I'm guessing you're not here for a social call though?" She raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"Well, I–"
"Don't say it! Let me guess…" She used one of her long nails to scratch her chin. "It's about that boy you're planning to take out to eat? I'm right, aren't I?!" Her slender fingers wrapped around my wrist and she smiled excitedly.
"I knew it was just a matter of time!" She laughed. "I will say I was a little worried though, isn't it almost that piece of shit's birthday?" She paced back and forth a bit, chewing on one of her long nails, muttering quietly to herself.
"Aunt Rita?"
"WAGH!" She jumped as my voice pulled her out of some sort of trance. "Cough. Oh yes! Do tell me when you are having the wedding? Your auntie will be sure to come!"
"Umm… we haven't exactly mated yet." My cheeks flushed, and I laughed and scratched the back of my head.
"WHAT?!" Aunt Rita grabbed my face and pressed our foreheads together. Her bloodshot green eyes had an unsettling look to them.
"Well," I pushed her back by her shoulders. "I only met him last night, and–"
"So? What's the problem?!"
"I'M GETTING TO THAT."
"Hff." I took a breath to calm down. It had been a while since I had last seen my aunt. She hadn't been as.. uhh eccentric when I last saw her. It didn't seem like living out in the middle of the woods by herself had done much for her socializing skills.
"I'm not about to just have my way with him!" I gasped. "He is too innocent and too precious and sweet and… anyways, I am NOT going to force him!"
"Okay whatever." She rolled her eyes.
"Aunt Rita!"
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just saying he loves you back already... well, subconsciously at least, so what's the harm in taking a little chop out of the back of his neck?"
"You know that's not all there is to it!" I pinched my nose. "Also, he's not exactly what you call a standard mate."
"Is it because he's a boy? He's what your heart most desires, so can't help you with that." She laughed and patted my head. "Don't worry nephew, I will still love you if you are gay."
"You were married to a woman!"
"Heh, you got me there. If you met her you'd understand, she was just too beautiful to pass up… I still remember her–"
"Tell me about your lovelife another time, I'm in a time crunch here. I need to pick him up after school!" I growled.
"Oh my! How lovely young love is." She sighed, clearly still reminiscing on her past lover.
"It's not that he's a boy Aunt Rita, I don't care about that! He's a human, which is very unusual, and he can smell my pheromones, which human cannot smell!" I finally blurted out, I forgot you could end up dancing around in circles all day with this woman.
"Well, he's not a human then is he?"
—
I ran quickly through the brush. Aunt Rita had helped a bit, but not as much as I hoped she would, though it probably would've been a more fruitful endeavor if I had been able to stay for a few more hours.
In the end, she had given me a couple of old books to look at, saying that I might find the answer in one of them, being all mysterious like she likes to do. She also told me to bring Clover to her cave, so she could get a good look at him herself, which I agreed would be a good idea.
I didn't want to do anything to upset my princess, but if it would help us figure out what was up with him being able to smell my pheromones I knew I had to go along with it. I'd just tell him we were going camping or hiking or something.
It was likely the mystery wouldn't be solved today though. I had ran about 8 miles with the book bag in my mouth before deciding to bury and retrieve them either tonight or tomorrow morning. I couldn't be sure if Clover would want me to spend the night or not heh.
Aunt Rita had said it was most likely that he just had dormant wolf blood in him that had awakened when we came into contact, and that seems reasonable enough. There was no need for me to figure out why he could smell me right now, or why a "human male" was my mate in the first place. What was important was that we spent some time getting to know each other, so he'd let me mark his slender neck before Liam's 25th. We could figure out the rest later.
—
I retrieved my clothes from the bag I stashed them in before I left for the cave. They were all wrinkled and a bit damp after sitting outside for so long, hopefully my mate wouldn't mind.
I checked the time on my phone… 3:40 pm. I had arrived with 5 minutes to spare!