Monster

It’s Saturday afternoon and we’re about to go through the whole town, showing people how our tigers look so they don’t get that scared if they see us running around when we run patrols.

I fucking hate to be an attraction, but I think Jason is right. It needs to be done. We shift at the pack house and start to jog through the streets in the whole town. Everyone in town is out on the streets to see us and I have to control myself, so I don’t growl at them.

When we’re done, we lie down on the town square so they can get a better look at us.

“Calm down Sikari. It’s not for much longer,” Maloc says. I haven’t gotten used to hearing his voice in my head yet, but I think it’s fucking cool and it could come in handy.

Then the worst thing that could happen, happens. Kids come over to look at us. Some of them even comes over and touches us. My reaction makes Sikari freeze, and I can feel that she starts to shake.

“It’s okay, Kat.” Jason’s soft voice runs through our heads, and I do everything I can to relax but it doesn’t help.

Children. I know I’m not going to hurt them, and my protection instinct is reaching out to them fiercely, but I can’t forget what I’ve done to all those children in the past. I know it was to put them out of their misery, but I still killed them. I’m a killer. I’m a monster.

“NO, YOU’RE NOT!” Maloc’s and Jason’s voices booms through my head. I’ve gotten a part of my humanity back, but it doesn’t change what I’ve done.

Sikari pushes through completely. She’s a proud animal. I wouldn’t say she loves the attention, but she calms down and lets the children touch her. A lot of them shouts, ‘kittyyyy.’ Other children just look at us excitedly.

Maloc enjoys the attention, and I can almost see him smile. Fucker!

Then Sikari surrounds herself with fire, but she makes sure it’s cool to the touch. Some of the children jumps back, others just squeal and keeps petting us.

I can’t help but snigger, “Nice touch, Sikari.”

“I thought you would like that.”

“Sikari!” Maloc scolds. “What,” she asks with her most innocent voice.

After an hour, we get up and jog back to the pack house where we shift back. Jason wraps me up in his big arms and gives me a little squeeze. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I scoff. “Maybe not for you. You know how I feel about it.”

“Still. I’m very proud of you.” Leaning against him, I try to relax, and it helps.

Out of nowhere, a little boy comes running over to us and wraps his arms around my naked legs. I freeze, raise my hands in the air, and look at Jason in panic. What the fuck should I do?

I pat him on the head awkwardly a couple of times before Jason tries to gently pull him off me and a woman comes running over to us laughing. “I’m so sorry. He’s just excited.”

“Okay,” I say with a shaky voice. She finally gets him off me and she almost has to drag him away from me. Jason picks me up and squeezes me tight. “It’s okay baby. It’s okay.”

“I... I need to go for a run,” I say while I gently push him away. “Okay, I’ll go with yo-.”

“No, I... please I need to do this alone.” Without another word, I effortlessly shift and start to run fast into the forest. I need to clear my head and think. I know I have to get used to children. I know it, but it’s fucking hard. How am I supposed to do it? How am I supposed to get used to it without freaking out every time?

I run between the two patrol lines through the forest and in a big circle around the town. I don’t know how many times I run the whole patrol line but it’s dark when I jog back to our tent.

I shift back and go inside with aching muscles, and I see Jason lying on the bed, reading. When he sees me, he throws the book down and jumps off the bed. “Are you okay?” His voice is worried, and I feel a little guilty for making him feel like that. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry. I just...”

He wraps me up in a tight hug. “It’s okay. I understand.” He holds me for a long time, and I lean against him, relaxing. Burying his head in my hair, he inhales my scent and lets out a big breath. When he lets go of me, he walks over to a little table filled with sandwiches.

He takes one and gives it to me, making me smile gratefully at him. Sitting down on the bed I start to eat. He rummages through my bag and finds me some clothes. He really knows what I need right now, and I fucking love him for it.

I’m still not used to this love thing, but I know that I do love him. I can’t live without him, and I want to spend as much time with him as possible. I would give my life for his.

That must be love.

~~~~

One month later.

“Babe, would you take the box with pots and pans,” Jason asks.

“Yeah, just a minute.” I’m carrying in the two small coffee tables into the living room and put them down in front of the couch. We’re moving into our house today. It’s nothing big and fancy and that’s just how I like it. I must admit that it’s nice to have a house because then we don’t have to use other’s bathrooms and kitchens.

I take two boxes into the kitchen where Jason is putting groceries into the fridge and cabinets. Putting down the boxes, I go over to him, wrap my arms around him from behind, and inhale his intoxicating scent before I ask, “are you happy?”

His last house was bigger, so I want to know what he thinks about this one. He turns around in my arms and wraps his around me too. “Very,” he says with a big smile.

“But what about your other stuff? Are you sad there isn’t room for it?” He brushes a strand of hair away from my forehead. “I don’t care about that. We have all we need right here, and the other things can be helpful to someone else.”

I smile back at him and kiss him. He’s about to deepen the kiss but I gently push him away. “Sorry. Bathroom break.” When I turn around and walk away, he slaps my ass and I glare at him, making him chuckle.

When I’ve peed and are about to wash my hands, the bathroom, the door opens and Jason leans against the door frame. I wash my hands and when I dry them off, he smiles a little. “Will you marry me?”

I stop drying my hands and turn to look at him with raised eyebrows. That’s the last question I ever thought I would hear, and it surprises the fuck out of me. “What?” I ask. I have to make sure I heard him right.

“Will you marry me?”

I look at him, almost in shock. Me married? Do I want to be? Does it matter? I don’t fucking know. The old me would have said fuck off, but what about the new me?

“We’re mates and you already claimed me and marked me. Why do you want to marry me?” I ask with furrowed eyebrows. Still smiling he shrugs. “I just want to. I want to claim you in every way I can and the only thing that’s missing is having you as my wife.”

“Isn’t it a little redundant?”

“Oh, for fucks sake, just marry me,” he says with a crooked smile on his face before he throws something at me that I catch it in the air. Looking at it, I see that it’s a silver ring with two skulls inside a heart. I actually think that it’s a nice ring, but I don’t wear jewelry. Although it could be useful if I have to punch someone.

I look at him and search his eyes. If it means so much to him... “Okay,” I say, making his face breaks out in the brightest smile, and he takes a step towards me. “Is that a yes?”

“Sure.” He cups my face with his hands. “Say it!”

“Yes, I’ll fucking marry you,” I say, and I can’t help but smile because how can I not? The ecstatic expression on his face makes me happy.

Picking me up he swings me around before he claims my lips in a passionate kiss. Carrying me into the bedroom he throws me down on the bed and I can’t help but giggle. He’s about to crawl on top of me when I hold up a hand, stopping him.

“On one condition.”

“What’s that?” he asks with a quirked brow.

“I want to get married in Vegas in some Elvis chapel or something.”

He laughs out loud while shaking his head. I don’t want a fucking church wedding so this seems like the best idea and maybe it could be fun. Who would have thought I would want to do something fucking fun?

“Deal.” Pinning me down with his body, he spreads my legs with his thighs and claims my lips in a kiss that shows me how much this means to him.

~~~~

We get of his bike and look at all the bright lights in Vegas. We haven’t told anyone about us getting married, we just told them we needed to get away for a bit to be alone. I didn’t really think this through.

There’s a lot of people here. I thought it would be fun to get married here, so I just have to grow some bigger balls. This is important to him, so I have to suck it up.

I have a small surprise for him to make it seem more real, but I haven’t bought it yet, so I have to go find a shop that sells it. Shouldn’t be a problem.

We intertwine our fingers and start to walk down the strip looking at all the fucking hotels and shops there is. We walk past a couple of wedding chapels until we find the one, we want.

“Okay, I have to go buy something. Can we meet up here in an hour,” I ask. Narrowing his eyes, he looks at me with an amused expression on his face. “You’re not getting cold feet, are you?”

“I guess you’ll have to find out,” I say with a smirk. Grabbing his neck, I pull his head down and give him a heated kiss. His hands move down my sides until they find my ass and he squeeze it.

“One hour, baby. Let’s meet up at the chapel, okay?” he asks. I nod and kiss him one last time before I let go.

Walking down the strip, I see the store I spotted earlier, and I go inside. A woman comes over to me and smiles before she looks me up and down and her eyes lands on the bullet hole scar on my forehead. I narrow my eyes and almost growl. Seeing my expression, she clears her throat and asks, “can I help you?”

“Yeah. I need some white pants of some kind of white t-shirt.” That’s what you wear when you get married, right? I’m not wearing a fucking dress, but it should be white, right?

She helps me out and I end up in a pair of white, ripped, skinny jeans and a plain, white, off shoulder t-shirt. She suggested at pair of white boots, but I refused that. No way am I waring anything else than my black sneakers.

The jeans are so fucking uncomfortable, but they were the only white pants I liked. She tried to sell me all kinds of stuff to put in my hair, but I shut that shit down. Why the fuck would I put some glittery crap in my hair?

Leaving the store, I think about if I should buy a ring for Jason. He needs one too, right? There’s the whole swapping rings thing, right?

I spot a jewelry shop, so I go in there. Luckily, they have all kinds of shit and I find a plain silver skull ring with red eyes. It’s the only one I think he will like, so I buy it and hope it’s the right size. Or else he can get it fitted, right?

I buy two sandwiches on the way back to the Elvis chapel because I’m fucking hungry, and Jason must be too.

Jason isn’t here yet though so I sit down on the curb outside the chapel and start to eat. I have no idea how long I took buying this, but I doubt it was over an hour.

I need to get a fucking watch.