Chapter 7

My mate. How did I know that? I mean, he was a werewolf, or Lycan whatever, and they usually had mates, right? I mean in all of the books I'd read, they usually had mates.

I was laying in my bed trying to figure out what had happened this morning. I kept replaying it in my head: the silver wolf that came out of the woods, me shooting it, it turning out to be Raphael, me taking the arrow out and how his screams had twisted my heart painfully, then him limping to the house and me tripping, him looking at me with his worried golden eyes. Oh, his eyes kept appearing everywhere I turned. Us talking, the part where his eyes went all foggy, and the hug.

It was just a hug, it wasn't supposed to be a big deal. But I couldn't forget the way his arms felt around me. And the warm feeling that spread through me when I smelled his scent. The thought of his minty smell sent tingles down my body. I smiled recalling the way he said my name. Then I came back to the part where the word 'mate' had popped into my head.

Mate, Raphael, Lycan. These three words kept going through my head as I lay still on my bed.

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After Raphael had left I stood in the same spot for at least ten minutes. Confused by my thoughts but happy. Then, I went to retrieve the arrows that I had left outside. I came back in and discovered that it had only been thirty minutes since I had arrived. I laughed out of the craziness of the situation and decided to do some tidying. Anna always told me that I didn't have to clean anything but right now I wasn't really working, I was just waiting for Paul to wake up from his nap. So I put his toys away, while trying not to think of Lycans. Then I cleaned some dishes, while trying not to think about the word mate and how it gave me butterflies. Then I swept the floors, while trying really hard not to think about Raphael, about his eyes, his firm body and the way it had felt when I had hugged him.

After Paul woke up from his nap, I changed him, clothed him, played and then fed him, we played outside on the deck, then his mom came home from running errands and such.

As I drove home I kept looking at the woods waiting for a silver wolf to jump out of them and turn into Raphael. But no such luck. I pulled into the driveway of my house at about 5:30 in the evening, and walked through the back door. I lived with my parents, and my siblings: Brad and Ulyssa.

I walked in and saw my sister cooking dinner, we were apparently having perogies and sausages. Perogies weren't my favourite but I loved sausages.

"Where's Brad?" I asked.

"What! No love for your slaving sister." She said dramatically. I rolled my eyes to her reply. 'Drama Queen' I said in my head.

"Let me guess, he's working." I replied to my own question.

"Yes." Ulyssa replied with a pout, then hurriedly said, "Could you flip those sausages." I took my coat and shoes off and headed over to the stove.

"And what did you do today?" I asked her as I flipped the sausages.

"Well, after I finished school." She was homeschooled, I had been too but I graduated last year. "I read my book, the driving one. Then I went shopping with mommy, and picked up some new clothes." She said with a smile. I nodded, wondering if Raphael likes sausages. Ulyssa kept talking, I nodded and hummed in reply every once in a while, but I kept picturing him in my mind. 'Ugh! Stop it!' I told myself but it didn't work.

We just ate dinner in the kitchen once it was ready. We did have a dining room but for four people with a meal like this, it was just easier.

My mom and Ulyssa sat on the two stools we had while me and my dad just stood.

"Brad still working?" My mom asked and as if on cue, he walked through the front door.

"Hey, family! You guys miss me?" Brad said as he came up the stairs. He walked into the kitchen, "Aw! You guys started without me!" He said disappointedly.

"It's okay, I made plenty for you and daddy." Ulyssa said. "Great!" Brad said filling his plate. Both my dad and Brad were gluten free. They would get extremely ill if they ate any.

I looked at my brother, he was about six foot five maybe, about the same height as Raphael. He was slim, but had some muscle, and his skin was very tanned from working outside all day. He had dark brown eyes, like mine. And short, dark, brown hair, almost the same colour as mine. Except mine had natural gold highlights. Brad had dimples and a boyish grin. 'It was amazing he didn't have a girlfriend yet.' I thought to myself. He was eighteen.

Then I looked at my dad. He was in his early forties, and had little sprinkles of silver hair in his nearly black, brown hair and short beard. He had hazel eyes, and very tanned skin, so much so that we hardly looked related, I was the palest in our family, which meant that I still had a little tan. My dad was a couple inches shorter than me and well, he wasn't fat, but he definitely wasn't thin.

I'd never considered my parents fat, but they weren't thin, I never knew how to describe them.

My mom was taller than me by quite a few inches. She had a round face like me, hazel eyes like my dad and glasses. She had pale skin like me, but it was still darker. She was also in her early forties but she didn't have any grey hairs showing yet. She had a, well, a plentiful bosom, as one might put it. Well she was a K-cup.

My sister Ulyssa, I had always been jealous of, she had a thin waist, perfectly tanned skin, nice full lips. It was also amazing that she didn't have a boyfriend yet, although she did turn heads from miles away. She was fifteen. She had inherited my parents hazel eyes, she had shoulder length brown hair, her hair was the lightest in the family. She stood like an inch taller than me, and she was very proud of the fact. My older sister, who had moved out last year, was around two inches shorter than me.

Yes, height was a very important matter in our house.

"What you looking at?" Brad's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, "Hmmm, nothing." I replied, "Just staring into space." Brad just nodded, then continued with his story. It was a fairly common thing in our family to stare off into space randomly. I wonder if Raphael does it.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting about work and Louisa talked about school. I stayed quiet, because my work day had started with me shooting a werewolf in the chest, then falling in love with him. Okay I was using those words loosely, I wasn't sure if I was in love with Raphael, but I certainly had feelings toward him, I just didn't know if it was love.

I told them I was going downstairs to change into my pjs. My room was downstairs.

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I have now been laying here, in my bed for the past forty-five minutes. Trying to make sense of my feelings and those three words.

Mate, Lycan, and Raphael.