Blood Rose

18

!!     I M P O R T A N T     A N N O U N C E M E N T     A T     E N D     !!

Water ran down my skin and I leaned on the tiled wall. I knew I wasn't alone, but I didn't make a move to cover myself. I was too tired to care, or at least I didn't really want to.

"What are you doing?" I spoke, not moving to turn around.

"I can't tell if this is progress or if you're too exhausted to care."

"Me either." I looked behind my shoulder at Fox who was leaning against the opening of the shower with raised eyebrows. "What do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious what the next step is for us?" I narrowed my eyes at him before turning back around.

"Give me a towel."

"There goes the progress." I looked behind my shoulder once the water was turned off and a towel was thrown at me, quickly wrapping it around me before he got a chance to see the goods. "Is a towel really necessary?" I tucked the end of the towel into my chest so it stayed on its own and turned to face him.

"Depends, how good is your self control? Because from what I've seen it's not very enduring." He shrugged and held up his hands before crossing his arms.

"What can I say?" His head tilted and an orange glow reflected in his eyes. "I'm insatiable when I don't get the full package."

"Sometimes the delivery takes awhile when the shipping and handling wasn't paid for." I brushed past him and found another towel to dry off my feet.

"Now that you're the Luna there's a couple things to do before a normal routine can start."

"Like what?" I got out the hair dryer.

"Well first of all as there's a traditional Luna celebration in a couple days, in other words a ball where the ceremony is held and you become the official Luna with a blood bond."

"My mother never had to do that." I watched as Fox shrugged and leaned against the counter.

"Every pack is different Naomi."

"So I have to get in a fancy dress and go around talking to pack members and shed my blood? Doesn't sound too difficult."

"There's a catch, and that's the other thing I was going to get to."

"Why do I feel like it's something I'm not going to like?"

"We have to mate before the celebration before you can hold the Luna bond to the pack." I bit my bottom lip before sighing.

"Great, so are we just supposed to arrange a day and time like it's a meeting and do it then?" I angrily threw my brush in the drawer and shut it loudly.

"No," Before I could blink he was pressed against my back and had his arms wrapped around me. "of course not. I'm not like that, remember?" I looked at his reflection in the mirror and dropped my tense shoulders.

"Then how are we supposed to naturally make it happen without it seeming scheduled in the course of a couple days?" Fox's head dropped to rest on my shoulder and I shivered, hating he knew that he had an effect on me.

"We spend as much time together as we can and see if it happens naturally." I hesitated before speaking, feeling like my voice had no effect to fix what I really wanted, which happened to be time.

"Okay." He stayed for a minute until he broke away, tearing the warmth away with him. I pursed my lips as I watched him leave the bathroom through the mirror. After a minute passed, I picked up the hair dryer and turned it on.