Ripped Jeans and Werewolf Kisses

Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

Camila was having a very entertaining conversation with Sara and her mother about her tendency to go around kissing everyone at school. In her words, 'making friends.'

She felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder and shock prickled across her skin. 

Taine sounded relaxed. "Sorry to interrupt but I'd like to borrow the Luna for a moment."

Sara's mother, Alicia smiled warmly at the pair. "Of course, we should get going. Lovely to meet you Camila....Say bye Sara."

Sara wriggled out of her mothers hold and hugged Camila below the waist. She tugged on the hem of her dress forcing her to crouch down to eye level. She whispered cheekily in her ear. "Remember what I teached you," Camila remembered alright.

Camila playfully glared at the giggling child. "Bye-bye Sara, I'll see you soon."

Camila turned to Taine. And tried to make her smile look natural. It didn't slip past her notice that Taine saw right through it. "Yes Alpha?"

"let's go."

With Taine is was never, "If you have eaten enough and finished socializing then please let us go back to my house."

He was a man of few words and she was beginning to see that it was just who he was. He didn't (usually) mean to upset her with his shortness. She would need to get used to him. They were two matched, yet mismatched puzzle pieces that needed to learn how to fit together.

 For some it was easy, but for them, it would take time. They would need to learn to give and take. Smooth out the burrs and let the other get close enough to try.

---

Taine would have loved for them to walk back together in silence.

But when Camila was in good mood, silence was a foreign concept. She babbled about complete nonsense, nonsense according to Taine. The food, the weather, the people she liked and didn't like. The lady who had magenta lipstick on her teeth the whole night, the "creepo" wolf that kept giving her weird looks...Taine didn't mind, he could tune her out if he needed to. He was happy with the bubbling chatter as long as she didn't expect him to talk back with the same un-understandable zest.

Abruptly her chirping stopped and he was gifted with the blissful sound of silence. After a moment or two, he realised that it wasn't as he remembered it. The silence felt too thin, too...empty. It no longer appealed to him as it once had.

He glanced at Camila to see a sour expression lace her features. Her eyes were downcast.

"What?"

Camila's eyes snapped to his, irritation spilling out of her gaze.

"You weren't listening." He could practically hear her deeper thoughts. You never listen. She felt like Taine shut down mentally and physically at the smallest sign of her happiness.

It was true, Taine was only half-listening, that much he could improve on... but he didn't need to concentrate on her words to hear the lifts and laughter in her voice. The lightness of her breaths as they walked. Accompanied by his own thoughts and the sharp scent of the pine trees. It was an infectious mood and he didn't want to disturb it.

"Sorry... keep going."

"No."

He looked at her furrowed brow. "Please?" The word felt forced and the sound felt even more foreign as it left him. It hung in the forest-fringed air waiting to be acknowledged.

Camila rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly, her anger broken. "Only because you said please."

After continuing her spiel for another few minutes a comfortable silence settled over them as they spied Taines house coming into view.