Sacrifice (Book 2 of 2 - Sequel to 'Arranged Marriage To The Werewolf Prince')

Sacrifice -4-

-4-

I think back to the wedding as I sit in my bed. For the past few days I have locked myself in my room with the exception of meals. I had been avoiding Aaron - of course I didn’t admit it. Skyler and Elena and Makeena had tried to coax me out, but I refused every time.

Maybe I could stay like this forever. I would be content. Every time I thought of Aaron I felt like someone was slowly tearing out my insides. I couldn’t think of him when he had a wife and possibly children - it would be wrong.

Everything was right when I was 15. Elena and Charlie’s wedding, four years ago, where we danced together to our hearts content. We got to know each other and I never wanted that night to end. 

“Ana!” Elena knocks on my door. 

“Auntie An!” Anna echoes. 

I stay silent. Hopefully, they will go away. At least that was what Makeena and Skyler were doing now that I stopped replying. 

“I know you can hear me,” Elena yells.

“Go away!” I say muffled by my pillow. 

“You’re going to get fat,” She harasses. “And none of the cute werewolf boys will want you.” 

“I don’t want them,” I yell back.

“Even if they are really cute?” 

“No.” 

“Anastasia?” I hear Aaron’s deep voice a few minutes later. 

I freeze. This is the first time, he has come, but it doesn’t mean anything. The entire family is worried, and I can’t let them know what is bothering me. 

“Anastasia, I know you can hear me. I’ll give you five seconds to open the door before I break in.” 

Five seconds to hide.

“I heard that,” I can picture him smirking in my mind. 

I sigh and opened the door catching him off guard. I take in his disheveled appearance. His hair is messy, he is wearing sweatpants, and a baggy white v-neck. “What?” 

He takes in my similar lazy appearance. Black yoga pants, my brown hair in a bun, and a baggy gray t-shirt, “Why have you been a hermit for nearly a week?” 

“Leave me alone,” I groan. “I don’t want to talk!” 

“Anastasia,” He catches my hand before I can turn around to close the door. “Talk to me. You are shutting everyone else out.” 

“Goodbye, Aar-”

“Anastasia,” He pulls me out into the empty hallway. “What has made you like this? If you need help coping with the change, you aren’t that different and you haven’t even shifted into a wolf yet. You don’t need to-” 

I love how he’s trying to help- No. “Stop it. I just want to be alone.”

“Not what your thoughts-”

“Stay out of my head, Aaron!” 

“I’m not going to let you stay in your bed room forever. At least tell me what the problem is.” 

I shake my head, “You don’t get it. You’ve been a wolf your entire life. If I go into the either world - with humans or wolves - I’ll be different. I wasn’t born into this life, but it is my life now.”

“So?” 

“I’m going to be a cat lady, Aaron! Okay? Or maybe I’ll adopt a pack of wolves.” 

“Oh. I see. I don’t have to talk about the marriage around you-”

“You chose someone-”

“No, no!” He holds his hands up in defensive. “I just won’t mention it around you. But Anastasia, I know a lot of guys that would love to be with you more than I’m comfortable mentioning.” 

I blush, but hide my face from him, “I don’t know any of them. And how could you know what other guys would think?” 

“It’s not like you are ugly, Anastasia,” His face is pink. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

“What kind of deal?” 

“If you go outside for a few hours and transform into a wolf I’ll leave you alone. Deal?” 

“I don’t know how,” I tell him. 

“I’ll teach you. Just bring extra clothes, they can’t disappear into thin air,” He suggests. 

After getting the clothes, we go to the forest and I place my clothes on the log we had sat on a few days ago. “What do I do?” 

“Close your eyes,” He commands. “Just think calm thoughts, it will hurt slightly, at first, but it gets better.”

I do as he instructs and I hiss at the stinging as I can feel my bones being restructured inside me while I am conscious. I feel a lift, and I look around after a quiet moment to realize I did it. Aaron is sitting near the entrance to the backyard as a white wolf with black spots. He turns around to me and I note that his eyes are now golden. 

Through his thoughts, I can see myself - a black wolf with sapphire eyes. How do you feel? He  asks. 

Different. 

I can hear him laugh, Don’t you see? You appear just like the rest of us, no one has to know that you were born human if you don’t want them to know.

Can you just drop it, Aaron? I beg.

Fine, let me show you what you can do as a wolf. Running in the forest is so much cooler, He suggests.

I follow him through the leafy forest grounds crushing sticks and twigs under my paws as well as going out of my way to crunch leaves. We run and it feels amazing, the wind smooths out my dark fur and I can run so fast, but nothing compared to Aaron. I suppose he has had most of his life to do this. 

When it grows dark, I finally realize that we have been outside for hours. We return back to our origin and Aaron promises, “Shiftings back is easy, I’ll turn around unless...” 

I glare at him. He shifted back and dressed before, just to prove it wasn’t impossible. As he turns around I stay calm and focus. I feel myself dropping back to my normal size, since I am considerably short. I get dressed as quickly as possibly into another pair of yoga pants and a white sweater. “I’m good.” 

“Okay, wasn’t it fun being a wolf? And like I promised I won’t bother you-”

“I’ve changed my mind actually.” 

“What?”

“I decided that I am going to do this more often. Maybe you will come?” I offer. Today was fantastic and I shouldn’t waste my life away in my room worrying about Aaron until he actually gets a princess bride.

“I am just that amazing, aren’t I?” 

“Don’t push it.” 

“Fine, this is going to be awesome. Skyler is more into archery than I am. So if Anna or Elena or Charlie want to join us this will be so much fun. But for now I guess it’ll be just you and me,” He grins.