Two Halves of a Whole

Chapter Six:

"I hate you," I growled at the blotchy faced brunette in the mirror. I was directing my words to the she-wolf lurking behind the bloodshot jade eyes glaring back at me.

I looked horrible, I felt worse.

I had already done my usual night routine; I dressed myself in a white singlet and running shorts- my pajamas- I twisted my long hair up in a messy bun and I had washed what little make-up I had worn tonight off. Now, if only I could wash tonight's events off as well.

I wasn't sad or angry; I was too tired to feel anything other than worn out.

That familiar empty feeling threatened to take over but I wouldn't let it, not again. I'd spent too many years dealing with depression; no matter how hard I tried I always had the dark cloud of memories always hanging over my head.

Tonight brought back all those feelings, the memories, the… faces, still as vivid as the last time I saw them.

"No," I said aloud, shaking my head.

I nodded determinedly at my reflection.

With one last fleeting look at my reflection I shut off the light and walked out to my joining bedroom.

I felt a presence before I saw the dark figure climb through my window. I think the shock of actually seeing this happen like some kind of horror flick is what made my legs go weak. The scent reached me just as my butt hit my carpeted floor with a low thud filling me with relief and then anger.

"Shit, Aimee I'm sorry, are you alright?"

I glared up at Nikko's concerned handsome face not missing the hint of amusement playing in his eyes. Jerk.

"What the hell are you going here?" I hissed, ignoring his offered hand and got up by myself, feeling rather embarrassed by my not so werewolf reaction. I may as well have just fainted.

He smirked, not at all deterred by my glare as he moved into my personal bubble and brought me into a hug. It annoyed the crap out of me, but I couldn't help the small smile that formed on my lips or keep the soft sigh of contempt from passing through my lips.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay, I did call your phone but you didn't answer," he murmured, his breath hot against my skin as he nuzzled my neck, "I'm sorry I scared you."

An involuntary shiver rippled down my spine, "I-It's alright," I winced at how lame I sounded. I cleared my throat gently detaching myself from his warm embrace, "I'm okay I mean," I said, walking over to my bed to busy myself with rolling down the sheets.

I heard him heave a heavy sigh from behind be, "Aimee, do you- I mean if you want to talk-"

I turned around to facing him again, catching him as he ran a hand through his hair, a habit I'd come to realize he did when he was nervous or anxious about something.

Our eyes met and he sighed again, "I'm here if you need to talk, about anything, you know that, right?"

I smiled, "yeah I know."

He nodded once, "good."

I rolled my eyes, turning back to my bed, "are you staying or going home?" I asked climbing under the sheets and moving around until I was in a comfortable position in the middle of my bed. I was proud my voice managed to sound nonchalant, even if my rapidly beating heart gave me away. I felt the bed dip behind me and I was sure my heart was going to pop right out of my chest.

I jumped slightly when Nikko curled an arm over my stomach pulling me snugger against his hard chest; he's not wearing a shirt, my mind screamed at me, causing my cheeks to heat up. My wolf was her usual calm, composed self, purring in delight.

"Goodnight Amelia."

I felt his lips against my neck, "Goodnight Nikko."

You know those mornings where you know you should get up but you really, really don't want to. That was me today, I knew it must be 10:00 or 10:30 about the time when I need to get out of bed or I'll never get out.

But I just didn't wanna

I groaned, stretching out in such a pleasurable way I made one of those 'baby dinosaur' noises. I yawned and blinked rapidly up at my ceiling feeling pretty serene; until last night's events came crashing back and I realized my bed seemed incredibly empty.

I sat up with a yawn, looking beside me, pressing my hands into the cool sheets meaning he'd been gone for quite a while. I saw the paper than, it was folded in half and badly crumpled so I figured he's grabbed it from one of my notebooks in my backpack.

I grabbed it, flipping it open,

Good Morning Aimee,

11:30 I'm picking you up, it's a surprise, but you'll want to wear something cool.

Be ready.

Nikko

P.S. You talk in your sleep ;)

It was written in a barely recognizable chicken scratch, but it read just like Nikko, short and to the point. I was smiling all the way through it until the last sentence. I talk in my sleep? Well shit, isn't that just fantastic.

I sighed putting down the note, now I won't be able to think about anything but what I said while in the dream realm. I could have gone without knowing this little piece of information about myself.

I stored the letter in a drawer in my bedside table, getting to my feet. I found it much easier to drag myself out of bed because well, I have a date.

I had to do my preparing in fast-forward because evidently I had slept longer than I had thought and if there was one thing I knew best about my mate, is that he was a stickler for punctuality. The note said 11:30, Nikko would be here at 11:30, which meant I only had twenty minutes to get showered, pick out a cool, cute and comfortable outfit and do my hair.

When the doorbell rang I had a mouth full of granola and was fixing my hair into a half up, half down style, with my bangs brushed to the side.

I hurried down the stairs, standing at the door just long enough to swallow the food in my mouth and slip on my loose high-top converse.

I opened the door, the whole 'you talk in your sleep' comment still floating in the forefront of my mind, but when I saw him it was momentarily forgotten as I got wrapped in his intoxicating scent.

He was dressed in a plain white t-shirt and a pair of tan cargo shorts. His hair was its usual messy unkempt tendrils. He looked amazing as always.

I snapped out of my mussing when he started leaning towards me for a quick peck on the lips, making me smile.

"You look beautiful," he said with a soft smile, it was a rare smile that always seemed to warm the dark brown of his eyes into a liquid honey color, "Ready to go?"

I didn't get to see this smile often but when I did, it was something special. I nodded my head as an answer to his question and placed my hand in his outstretched one.

"We haven't had much alone time in the last couple of days," he said, starting his car up and pulling onto the street, "you still feel like a mystery to me Aimee, I'm hoping that after today we'll get to know each other, become closer."

Was it just me or was there a double meaning?

I didn't give an answer to him and I was grateful that he turned on the radio.

We passed through town quickly and continued driving until houses began to disappear and the trees started to get smaller and further apart.

The forest was breaking apart making big, beautiful open fields.

I noticed we started to slow and soon we were pulling over to the side of the road.

Nikko got out and I waited for him to come get my door. His chivalry was cute and kind of disarming at first; I wasn't used to such actions from anyone but my father. He nearly bit my head off the last time I got out of the truck by myself. "My mother raised gentlemen," he had said.

I wasn't complaining though.

I followed him to the bed of the truck.

He reached inside and pulled out a large lunch box first, than a blanket. They were little clues leading to only one solution, "you've planned a picnic," I said in a type of cooing tone.

He smiled down at me draping the blanket over my shoulder and taking my hand, "my mother and Emily had that same look of surprise when they found me making sandwiches this morning."

I laughed, "Not a big romantic?" I asked amused.

"Only for you, baby."

I shook my head softly snickering to myself as we walked through a wall of trees and out into a little meadow full of wild flowers and tall green grass. The sight was enough to make my breath catch, it was so beautiful.

Nikko let go of my hand long enough to lay out the blanket, he took it again to pull me down on the quilt. I took in the view as he started to un-loud the contents of the lunch box.

"I found this meadow when I was hunting a few months ago," he explained, drawing my attention back to him, "actually I wasn't really hunting I was taking a break from patrolling, probably not the best decision to make as an alpha."

I gave a snort, shaking my head; I walked on my knees so I was kneeling in front of his sitting form. I reached out and held his face firmly between the palms of my hands.

"You- are- far- too- serious," I kissed his lips between each word, smiling playfully at his shocked expression. I traced my thumb over his bottom lip, cocking my head to the side in a thoughtful way, "I think you've forgotten how to have fun."

"Oh really," he said, one of his eyebrows quirking in a type of challenge and before I knew it I was flipped on my back and my sides were being attacked by his teasing finger tips. I choked on my laughter, "okay, okay, you're fun," I gasped out, calling surrender.

The tickling stopped and I opened my eyes, immediately captured by the intensity in his. It only took the look to get my body heated to a boiling point.

His lips were covering mine and I eagerly kissed him back.

The sound of a phone ringing put a quick stop to our play.

Nikko gave an irritated growl, I grinned against his lips giving him one last lingering kiss before gently pushing his shoulders so he'd get off to answer his phone.

He didn't move.

"It could be important," I said and with a look equivalent to a pout he moved off me.

I watched as Nikko pulled out a phone from his pocket. He read the number and his face instantly lost its relaxed deposition and turned back to its usual seriousness.

"What is it?" he asked, his tone turning all business like.

His eyes flicked up at me and I didn't like the look in his eyes, "yes she is."

"She did what?" his eyes grew very dark and his face twisted with rage.

"She asked you…no I'm coming home…yes I'm bring her… call her parents," he ended the call and shoved the device back in his pocket.

"We have to go," he said, picking up the tubs of untouched food and shoving them roughly back in the bag. I sat there confused as he aggressively cleaned up out little picnic set up.

"What?" I asked lamely, watching as he stood, he looked down at me still on the ground and lowered his hand to help me up.

I took it and he immediately started pulling me to his truck, "Wait," I muttered trying to keep up with his long aggressive strides, "Who was that?" he didn't answer instead continued to drag me behind him.

We reached his truck, "get in," he ordered, dropping my hand and going to the bed of the truck to dump the bag of our stuff.

I frowned at him, crossing my arm, "not until you tell me what's going on," I said.

He came towards me, and roughly opened the door, his eyes full of fury and something equivalent to panic, "Amelia we don't have time for one for your stubborn acts, now get in the damn truck!"

I flinched at his harsh tone and even though my wolf was snarling at me to stay put and make him tell us what the hell had him so riled up, I climbed into the truck.

He slammed the door closed and it wasn't long before he was climbing into the driver's seat.

Neither of us said a word to each other and it wasn't long until we were pulling into his driveway. I got out not waiting for him to come around to the door, knowing it would irritate him. I also didn't bother waiting for him as I started for the house.

I didn't get very far however, only a couple steps when a hand wrapped around my wrist pulling me to a stop. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something I may or may not regret later.

"You can't go in there," he said, his voice much softer, "the call was from my father, Mercedes is in there."

I finally turned to face him, pulling my wrist free, "so what?"

"Mercedes has challenged you," his jaw flexed and like when he was on the phone his whole body seemed to coil together, "She challenged you for the alpha title."

Like a switch was flipped in my body, I went from being angry to completely shocked speechless.

From many summers with my grandparents I knew every law and custom written down in the werewolf society.

A challenge… is a fight to the death.

Sorry for the long wait!

I tried to make this a long chapter to make up for it :)

R&R please