Chapter 4

When I walked into The Bookshop I instantly felt relaxed. The Bookshop was a small local place with a coffee shop in the front left corner and rows of books everywhere else. I'm tall enough that I can easily glance over the bookshelves and around the store and see that Rosemary is not here yet. I decide to head over to the Coffee shop counter where a short hipster looking boy with a slightly curled up mustache, and a girl with long curly black and red hair all the way down her back are standing. Their animated conversation stops the second I reach them. The girl is still laughing from whatever they were talking about . When she turns towards me, I could see she was absolutely stunning.

"Hi" She laughs. " What can I get for you? "

Her smile lights up her whole face and you can still see the shine of a tear in her eyes. Her cheeks are sprinkled with freckles. I can't help but to stare into her deep honey brown eyes transfixed.

" Your number" I blurt out without thinking, surprising all three of us in the suddenly claustrophobic place. Horrified, I fumble around to try to fix what I said. " Um. . . . I. . . Uh. . would like a Matcha Latte, please. "

The hipster dude turns his head between us, trying to stifle his laughter before turning to presumably make my order. He doesn't go very far and I can still see his smirk out of the corner of my eye. I bet he's listening.

The girl is now typing in my order onto her little screen. My heart is pounding so hard, And I try to calm it by looking everywhere except her face. . I notice the silver name tag on her chest says "Amaya".

"$4.57" She states, glancing up at me . Even the way she looks up at me is cute. She's so small she couldn't be more than 5'2, 5'3 tops. I pull out my wallet and tap my card to the terminal.

" Uh thanks" I mutter, relieved to be walking away from that awkwardness I felt. I walk to the pick up section and grab my latte without looking at the mustache dude, still smirking from behind the counter.

To make matters worse I nearly bump into Rosemary as I make my way to a table. In my embarrassment I didn't even hear the door chime that signaled her arrival. I pray that the girl behind the counter and her friend didn't see that.

" You ok?" Rosemary asks, pulling out a couple of napkins from their holder on a nearby table. She gently taps the napkins on my hand where green liquid spilt. . I nod, taking a seat before I can do any more damage to my ego.Rosemary heads off to the counter to get a drink of her own. I risk glancing at them as she orders. After all It didn't escape my notice that Amaya never answered back.

Usually before I ask a girl out I go through all the stereotypical things so I can see if she is even gay. Yeah I know you can't look at someone and tell if they're gay, but knowing that they are makes everything so much easier. With a gay girl at least you have a chance. If she's straight , I'm just that creepy lesbian that randomly asked her for her number. Plus for all I know Hipster dude could be laughing so hard because he's her boyfriend.

Before I get too deep into beating myself up, Rosemary slides into the seat in front of me. With one question she brings me back to the reason why we're here.

"What happened at the First Moon Ceremony. "

I take a breath before launching into my story, making sure to talk quietly so that no one around us can hear. I go into detail about everything; from the moment I found myself drowning in the water world to the conversation I had with my mother when I woke up two days later. Rosemary sat through it all soaking it up like a sponge. It felt like an enormous weight had been taken off my shoulders, just being able to get it all out made it all feel more manageable.

"Damn" she finally says after a long pause.

"I know," I responded

' I don't know what's worse, you losing your wolf or you being forced into marriage with a man."

"Definitely the marriage with a 40 something year old man'" I shrug.

"Well, how do we get you out of it?" This question was not for me. I can tell she has put on her thinking cap. Rosemary has always been the smarter out of us two. Her plans have saved the day a thousand times. I am smart, sure. But I have never had the forethought or the discipline that she has. So I just let her brain do its magic.

As she thinks, her face became more and more serious. I see the moment she reaches her conclusion, and watch her face as it sets with determination.

" The only way out for you is to leave the pack and disappear" She states it as if she was telling me the sky is blue. Like it is a fact that we had known for all of time. I can't believe my ears.

"I can't leave my pack, are you crazy? " I stutter.

" You can, You have to" I shake my head as she continues. " You cannot be fully registered as a member of the pack if you have no wolf. Your father set up the marriage probably in hopes that you can produce a powerful joint heir to combine both Bridgecrest and our packs. Going back on the marriage would throw our pack into war with Bridgecrest. And your father would rather sacrifice you than the pack. If you stay you are getting married. Your only hope for that to not happen is if you go to a place they can never find you. " She leans back in her seat . She was right. Of course she was right, she's always right. But . . . .

"What if I get my wolf back? Then I could join our pack and my father wouldn't need . .." She quickly cuts me off "He would still expect you to mate with a man for an heir, and as far as he is concerned there is no better husband than the Alpha of Bridgecrest. Plus getting your wolf back just makes you a better deal anyway You have to disappear"

I drop my head into my hands defeated. There was no other way. My father probably set this up months ago. How else would he have gotten such a powerful man to agree to having me as his mate in two days.

"Ok. " I agree. " Let's make a plan"

We stay there for several hours going back and forth thinking of different ways our plan could go wrong , and how we could fix it. The plan we come up with is solid and I feel a little hope. But there are a lot of moving parts and uncertainty and I would be all alone long before we leave our pack borders. This way Rosemary won't be suspected of aiding me when I am gone. In fact it isn't even safe to let Rosemary herself know where I will end up. That part I will have to figure out on my own.

"Excuse me" A sweet voice calls from my right. Rosemary and I both look at the pretty Barista with the long red tipped black hair. For a second I thought she was going to ask us to leave. Instead, Amaya slides a cute cream colored pastry box with the store's logo on it. And turns slightly to me.

" I just thought since you ordered the Matcha latte you might like to try our new white chocolate and matcha mousse cake.'

" Don't mind if we do. " Rosemary says excitedly, grabbing the box. She absolutely loves everything sweet. The girl's eyes widen and she quickly retreats behind the counter through the swinging door to the kitchen. Once she's gone I turn my attention back to Rosemary just as she opens the box.

Once it's opened she looks up at me with a huge smile. She turns the box and its attached open lid to me and says dramatically, "Ohhhh I'm sorry, THIS dessert was clearly for you"

I look at the delicate light green cake slice in the box, but it only takes me a second to see the reason behind Rosemary's smile. On the inside of the lid is the name Amaya, with 10 digits right underneath. My heart begins to race with excitement. And now I am grinning just as hard, if not harder than Rosemary. I take out my phone and take a picture. Making sure to get the name, the number, and the cake. I double check to make sure the full number is readable and for extra measure I take at least 6 more shots. Finally, I added her name and number in my contact section.

In this moment, I have all the answers I need.