The Alpha Female

THIRTEEN: COLD SHOWER TUESDAYS

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: COLD SHOWER TUESDAYS

            I sat alone in Mason’s room, twirling the end of the string on the red hoodie and humming softly to myself.  I wasn’t sure what to do here, all I knew was that Mason had to go somewhere so he wouldn’t get in trouble and I had to stay here.  He was probably turning me in, that was it.  He was turning me in and I was here waiting for it to happen…but we had had fun together today, hadn’t we?  I had learned so much about him, about humans, about me.  It was strange living this carefree, not a worry in the world.  I wondered what my dad would think.

            Nonsense.  He would tell me to get my head out of the clouds, to look out for my pack, not myself.  I was busy being selfish.  The pack was busy starving.  What if they were looking for me?

            My head shot up as the door cracked open, revealing a tired looking Mason.  I had learned that humans slept through the entire night, so at the end of the day they grew extremely tried and dragged something awful, I didn’t understand how they could do it.  For a shifter it wasn’t uncommon to wake every fifteen minutes, to nap in the middle of the day, besides, if I tried to sleep too long I was often racked with nightmares that had me up and in wolf form within no time.  Sleeping for an entire night scared me.

            Mason gave me a tired smile and wedged his way through the half open door.

            “Supper?” He asked, holding out a plate piled high with food.  I thanked him and reached up for it, not leaving my spot on the floor, leaned up under the now open window.  I couldn’t stand how musky the building smelled with it closed.

            Mason looked up at the window, back at me, and back at the window.

            “I opened it.” I told him as I picked up the red sauce covered strings with my hands, looking at them quizzically.

            “Noodles, that’s spaghetti.  Box made, but still decent,” I nodded, shoving them into my mouth.  “And I did give you a fork by the way.” I glanced down at the silver utensil that was sitting on the side of the plate and shoved my hand into the food again, bringing it up to my mouth and savoring the tomato flavored sauce.  We didn’t get tomatoes much at the den, they came in and out of season rather fast and the deer always got to them first.  Of course, we always got to the deer.

            Mason reached over me and pulled the glass to the window closed before sitting down beside me.

            “I was enjoying that.” I told him, annoyed.

            “Yeah, and my mom is going to blow a gasket when she sees the heating bill if that stays open.  We’re not trying to heat the entire neighborhood.”

            “You smell like sweat,” I informed Mason, not really meaning anything by it. 

            “Your hair looks awful.”

            “I could say the same to you.” I grabbed another handful of spaghetti and put it in my mouth, licking the sauce off of my fingers.  Mason let out a chuckled, propping his arms up on his knees and dropping his head.

            “What?” I snapped.

            He glanced back up at me, still smiling.

            “What?” I set the plate down, ready for a brawl.  So maybe he hadn’t brought a group of humans with him to kill me, it still didn’t mean that I couldn’t kill him out of pure annoyance.