The Unwanted Wolf
Chapter 60

The rest of the week flew by. Most of the time was spent training and communicating with other werewolves to coordinate the attack. I was physically and mentally exhausted from all of the training. Not only was I spending the nights training with Ginger to improve my magic skills, but Mark was also teaching me how to fight.

I wasn’t completely hopeless with my fighting skills, since I had taken many self-defense classes, but Mark wanted to show me some techniques to use when engaging in a fight. I was still clumsy with the moves, but it was better than nothing. It was the same with my magic skills. I didn’t nail anything down, but I was able to do more now than before.

Tomorrow was the full moon, and we were all packing to leave Ginger’s house. We had plans to meet up with others today to make sure we were all on the same page for what we planned to go down. We packed up the car and then returned to the house to say goodbye to Ginger.

Daniel was the first one to give her a big hug. “Thank you for everything, Ginger. I really hope we can meet again soon so I can pick your brain again.”

Ginger shook her head and then ruffled Daniel’s hair, despite him being significantly taller than her. “You’re a good kid, Daniel. Don’t ever be afraid to follow that heart of yours. From now on, call me Gingy.”

Daniel beamed and pulled Ginger into another hug. “Okay. Stay safe, old lady.”

Ginger quickly smacked him in the back of the head. “Who are you calling old?”

Daniel just smiled and waved goodbye as he headed to the car.

Rie stepped up to Ginger next. “Thanks for hosting us this week and helping out Adira.”

Rie started to walk away, but Ginger spoke up. “Don’t be such a stranger, girl.” Ginger pulled Rie into a hug. When she let go, Rie smiled and headed out after Daniel.

Ginger approached Mark next. “You take good care of this girl, okay?”

“Of course. She’s my life. I’ll do anything for her,” Mark said. He looked over at me and smiled.

Ginger rolled her eyes. “Take care of yourself, too, boy. You can’t take care of her if you don’t make sure you take care of yourself.”

Mark just smiled and nodded, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you for everything.”

When they parted, Mark looked to me.

“Go ahead,” I said. “I’ll catch up in a moment.”

Mark went to the car, leaving Ginger and me by ourselves.

“Don’t get emotional on me now, girl,” Ginger quickly said. “We’ll see each other again.”

I pulled my lips tight and nodded. I hoped so, but I didn’t want to say that outloud. “You didn’t want to help me when I got here.”

Ginger looked at the ground for a moment before looking back up at me. “No. I didn’t. You aren’t the first one who has approached me for help, but you are the first one I decided to actually help.”

“Why?” I still didn’t fully understand what made her make the exception for me.

“Because you have a destiny to fulfill.”

Her words sat heavy on my chest. “But why me? I’m not particularly strong or special.”

Ginger patted me on the cheek and smiled. “Because you are unique. You are the only one in a position where you’ll be able to see both sides and be able to stop the darkness from coming.”

I bit my l*p, scared at that idea. “Can’t you tell me more?”

Ginger shook her head. “You know I can’t. I don’t have any more information I can share. You’ll be okay, though. You have a good support system around you, and you’ll be ready when it comes time.”

I took a deep breath, hoping she was right. If she was right, that would mean we would be successful with defeating Theron. “Thank you for everything.”

Ginger pulled me into a hug. “Thank you.” She pulled away. “Now get going. Your friends are waiting for you, and you have a long day ahead of you. Enjoy that date of yours tonight, okay?”

I smiled. I shouldn’t have been surprised that she knew about the date, but I still was. She somehow knew a lot of things that surprised me. I waved goodbye and headed to the car.

–

We made it back to Ashville and exchanged Daniel for Scythe at Jori’s packhouse. We didn’t bother to go inside, knowing it would not end well if Jori saw us. Daniel wanted to help us, but he had never trained with fighting, and so he thought he would just get in the way. We said our goodbyes to him, and he told us he better see us in the next few days, before we went home.

We met the rest of the werewolves from Mark’s pack at a hotel. There were only three others, since the rest of the pack couldn’t fight because they were either too young or too unskilled. It made for seven of us in total. It didn’t feel like a lot, but if we were fighting against Hailey and Theron, we would easily outnumber them.

The plan was for me to reach out to Theron an hour before the moon was set to rise and challenge him for the end of the battle. We would meet outside of the city to avoid any issues with humans catching wind of the fight. I had a feeling he would come, because he didn’t seem like the type to back down from a challenge. He was also the cocky type. Even though it would be obvious we would be prepared, I was sure he would still be confident about winning. Little did he know we had a few tricks up our sleeves.

After filling in everyone on the plan, I started getting ready for my date with Mark. I didn’t dress in anything too fancy, because I wanted to have a fun and comfortable night. I didn’t want to worry about my feet hurting from wearing heels or the wind blowing up my dress or any of the hazards of dressing up.

“Are you sure that’s what you want to wear?” Scythe whined, looking at my outfit.

I was wearing a pair of comfortable jeans and a maroon sweater. “Positive. I don’t think Mark will care about what I wear, anyway.”

Scythe threw himself back on the bed and threw his hands in the air. “Yes, but if you dress up, Mark won’t be able to resist you. Don’t you want tonight to be the night?”

I instantly felt myself blushing. Scythe saw right through me, but I didn’t want to admit he was right. “If what I wear makes it so Mark doesn’t want me in that way, then we have bigger problems than wearing a sweater on a date.”

“He’s going to want you either way,” Scythe said, sitting up. “But don’t you want to make him crazy for you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Tonight is about having fun. If I’m too distracting, that might get in the way of that.”

“You’re at least wearing sexy underwear, right?” he asked.

“Scythe!” I scolded him. I felt too embarrassed to talk to him about that.

“Well?” He widened his eyes at me.

I turned away from him, not wanting to make eye contact. “Yes,” I muttered under my breath. I have to get going. Mark’s waiting.”

I opened the door to my hotel room and came face to face with Rie. She was wearing a big smile, but the moment she saw me, her smile faded.

“Are you really letting her wear that?” Rie asked Scythe.

“I tried! She wouldn’t listen,” Scythe complained.

“I’m not having this conversation again,” I said, slipping past Rie. “I have to go.”

“She’s at least wearing sexy underwear,” Scythe said.

“You are?” a deep voice said from behind me.

My face instantly flushed, feeling completely embarrassed. I knew it was Mark standing behind me. I gave Rie and Scythe a look that said they were dead later, but they just thought it was funny.

I turned around and grabbed Mark’s hand. “Come on! Let’s go before we’re late!”

“What are we going to be late for?” Mark asked, laughing. “I want to hear more about this sexy underwear.”

My face felt like it was on fire. I didn’t want to talk about what I was wearing. I felt silly for doing it in the first place, and this was just making it worse. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”

Mark chuckled again. His deep voice churned something deep inside of me. He pulled my arm, making me stop. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me flush against his body. His lips brushed my ear.

“I’m definitely hungry,” he whispered in my ear.

My entire body shuddered from his voice. I turned in his arms and looked Mark in the eyes. I was thinking what he was, but I was determined to have a good date. I wanted the night to be romantic and fun.

“I want to go on our date first,” I said. “I don’t want to rush the night. I want to enjoy every moment I can with you.”

Mark smiled. “Okay. Where to first?”

“Well, I figured we can get some food. And then there is this beautiful rose garden that I thought it would be fun to walk through. I always wanted to go there when I was younger, but I never had anyone to go with. After that, I don’t know. I figured we could see how we feel and go from there.”

“That sounds like a wonderful evening,” Mark said. He leaned forward and kissed me gently.

My body instantly responded, melting into him. Suddenly all of the plans flew out my head, and Mark’s idea sounded much better. I pressed into his body more, but Mark suddenly pulled away, a cocky smile adorning his face. He let go of my face and poked my nose.

“If we don’t stop now, we are never going to leave this hotel,” Mark said.

“I would be okay with that,” I muttered, looking at the ground.

Mark only laughed at this. “Why the sudden change of mind?”

I scrunched my lips. “I don’t know.”

Mark grabbed my hand and started pulling me to the car. “Come on. Let’s go. You want a slow, romantic night, so that’s what I’m going to give you.”

Mark drove us to a nearby restaurant. It was just a simple place, and I ended up ordering a burger. It felt much more casual of a date, but I loved every moment of it. We laughed and teased each other. Mark even did the cheesy wipe my face off with a napkin when I got some ketchup on my cheek.

After finishing our food, we went to the rose garden. It was dark now, but there were twinkling fairy lights covering the garden. Without the sun, it started getting pretty chilly, so the other people who were in the garden quickly left. I could feel the cool air chilling my nose, but with Mark’s hand in mine, I didn’t care.

“You know, I grew up in this town, but I have never once been here,” Mark said.

“Oh really? You didn’t have any girlfriends you wanted to take when you were younger?” I asked. With how good looking he was, I imagined him having several girlfriends or love interests.

Mark shrugged. “Not really. I was never really interested in dating when I was younger. No one ever sparked my interest. Until you that is.”

“Really? You didn’t even have a crush on anyone before?” I asked.

“Nope. My friends were the most important people in my life. I didn’t see a point in dating, knowing I would replace my mate later in life,” he explained.

“But some people never replace their mate, or their mate rejects them,” I said.

Mark looked at me and smiled. “Something told me that I would replace you one day, and here you are.”

I turned away, trying to hide my blushing, but Mark grabbed my face and pulled me back at him.

“You don’t have to hide from me. I love seeing every part of you, blushing or not.” He leaned in and kissed me softly.

He pulled away and we kept walking through the garden. I loved seeing all of the flowers under the night sky. The lights were the perfect mood lighting, and I could have kept walking for a long time.

“So what about you?” Mark asked. “Got any old boyfriends I need to beat up?”

I instantly laughed. “You wouldn’t beat them up, even if I did. But to answer your question, no. No boyfriends. I went on a couple dates here and there, but I never liked any of them enough to get serious. I guess I was waiting for you.”

Mark squeezed my hand, and I saw him smiling like a fool out of the corner of my eye. I loved knowing I could make him smile like that.

“So,” Mark said, swinging my arm back and forth. “Is there anything you want to do after this?”

I stopped walking and turned to him. I placed my hand on his chest. “I was thinking we could go back to the hotel and warm each other up.”

Mark’s eyes darkened at this. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” He picked me up, making me squeal, and ran us back to the car.