New Beginnings

Chapter 12

Isabelle's P.O.V.

1 month later

I stare at the calendar on the wall it's the twenty-second of December, in a couple of days it will be Christmas. This time last year I would have been bouncing of the ceiling at such a fact but this year it doesn't feel right. It will be my first Christmas without my family and I miss them more than ever.

Christmas was always my favourite holiday and our pack would always go all out for it. Sure you have your biological family, however, when you're a shifter your pack is also your family and every year we would celebrate together. The only word to describe it would be magical.

The ballroom would be unrecognisable for all the decorations, there would be a colour scheme of gold and silver and the room in such a state could bring a smile to anyone's face. There would always be a huge tree near Uncle Eddy's platform, decorated once again in silver and gold. It would be covered in twinkling lights, beads, tinsel and baubles. It would look so professional except for the bottom, my favourite part and the part that I would usually help with, the younger members of the pack would be able to decorate that part, this is where the colour scheme doesn't apply. They would spend days beforehand making their own decorations out of just about anything they wanted and we would find a space on the bottom of the tree for all of them, it's a tradition that was started for me and Drake, who couldn't just sit and watch and had to decorate the tree and it has carried on ever since. There would be dancing, present opening, games and eating, my goodness would there be eating. Months of hard work go into that meal, we are a very large pack just shy of one hundred members and they all need feeding. Unsurprisingly it takes more than one turkey, as much as I respect the vegetarian lifestyle we are all part wolves and we have never heard of a vegetarian wolf, and buckets of roast potatoes, as well as a whole harvest of vegetables. As for dessert well you couldn't ask for more, obviously there is Christmas pudding but there is also cheesecake, chocolate cake, ice cream of all flavours, cheese and biscuits, carrot cake,Victoria sponge, profiteer roles, a chocolate fountain with things to dip into it, you name it, it was probably on that table. I sigh at the memories, in the last two months I have never felt as homesick as I do now.

"You ready to go?" A voice awakens me from my day dreams.

"Erm, yeah. Let me just grab my purse." I reply. Tonight is works Christmas party, originally I wasn't planning on going but Elle is dragging me along and even made me buy a new dress.

I find that since my hair is now brown I have a lot more freedom with the clothes I choose. I was always so weary of looking stupid in a colour that clashed with the ginger. Yet out of habit I find myself in a green dress, which looks good next to my now brown hair anyway. It's strapless with a close fitting top that is a dark emerald green and is covered in sequins which sparkle as I walk. Around the middle there is a bow like belt which matches the bottom of the dress in material and colour. The colour on the bottom is darker and reminds me of leaves in the depth of the forest. The material is a sort of net material and when I spin around it floats lightly which makes me grin every time, for awhile I was just stood in the changing room swishing from side to side. I haven't gone overly short as it reaches my knees, a respectable length I think, since this is a work party. I have matched it with a pair of new killer black heels, that I will no doubt have to take off at some point in the night, and very dark, thick eye make up. It took me weeks to find a dress that I didn't hate, I wanted something simple and reasonably priced, the last time I had a jaw dropping dress I never wanted to see it again, which was such a waste.

I was three weeks into my job and I was loving it, I got to meet so many different people from all over the world, I learnt how to pour the perfect pint, the order of the knives and forks on a table where there is more than just one and I could make a mean mojito. This week was one of my better ones so far, I had finally moved out of the B&B and into a flat with Elle. She had been a God send since I started, always pushing me in the right direction. We bonded straight away and she quickly became my best friend and now roommate. We were starting from scratch, one day we were discussing how much we hated the places we were living, me in the B&B and her still with her parents, so we decided to find a place together and change the parts of our lives we didn't like. I had some money stored in the bank and this job had only added to it, I hadn't been spending only saving, and she said her parents would help her out, so here we are with our own place. It happened really fast but I couldn't be happier with the end result, all our furniture is from Ikea and we built each piece ourselves in one night that involved two bottles of wine and a take away pizza.