Chapter 9

After finally getting to meet my mate Cayce, it took everything in me not to literally ask him to marry me there on the spot. Or to take my bond. Werewolves do have a distinctly different way of forming an everlasting bond of love, known as marking, but that's not happening. Especially in a place like a school. It has to be a little more special, and when it does happen between Cayce and I, put him first before me, I'm going to make it a memory we'll remember forever.

Sitting with my cute mate during class, I couldn't help but stare and admire him. His perfect tiny face was just so beautiful, I wanted to touch it and pet it and kiss it and just love him as he is. I'm not so sure he appreciates how he looks himself, but there's a certain wonder in how you can stare at somebody you love for hours on end. It's creepy, and hopefully I didn't give the wrong impression to Cayce, but for now, I'm banking on that he only thinks I'm very friendly and that I'm perhaps only a tiny bit weird in my actions.

Though, I do feel a bit down. Okay, I felt a lot down. We haven't really moved past any step besides first impressions, and I'm certainly not going to just stay at that. That's not going to end up anywhere, and, how I think about it, getting to be friendly with Cayce, and then being really friendly, and then moving on to a more cuddly relationship as soon as possible, is only full of positive aspects. Being happy with him. Making sure he's with me. Not having anybody else get to him first. Love is a battlefield, and if you want to win against all enemies and odds, you have to move quickly.

Sitting at lunch with Grid and Greg, I'm anxious to see Cayce. Grid tells me how they've been eating lunch together since school started last week. I know I'm ready to see him, and hopefully he is ready to see me too.

Not to mention, he's hot, so now the idea of doing...more adult fun stuff sounds like something I want to put on the agenda.

Tapping my fingers a little bit impatiently on the table, I look around the cafeteria. Half the time of lunch break is gone, and still no sign of Cayce. I see kids enter the cafeteria every few seconds, but none of them are the tiny little angel of mine.

"Where is he?" I wonder aloud to nobody in particular.

Grid looks up from her lunch tray, where she's eating some macaroni and cheese. "Who? Cace?" she asks. I nod. "He's probably just running late. It's happened before. Just be patient." I huff anxiously but lean back in my chair. He's probably just running late. He'll be here soon.

"We should just go find him," says Oliver in my head.

"No. We have to patient," I reply back, "being too bold could make things worse. Right now Cayce seems to be pretty friendly toward us. Maybe not all over me as I want him to be, but still."

"Fine," huffs Oliver.

I know he's desperate to be with Cayce. And to do more than just talk with him. Oliver kept making my eyes go lower than Cayce's stomach and above his thighs on his backside, and what he whispered would be in the category of 'not safe for work'.

But it's crucial that I be patient. He'll be here soon. Hopefully.

I'm still thinking that when the five-minute bell goes off. I look around. No Cayce. I whimper in sadness and some frustration. Greg gives me a sympathetic and understanding look, being more than beta but the good friend he us. Grid's brows knit together, but she doesn't seem that disturbed by my little Cayce not being here.

"I mean, it could be that he just got caught up in something. He did just move here, so maybe he has to learn something we already did. Ask a teacher or whatever," Grid says in his defense, and I have to admit, it's a fair point.

"What's his next class?" I ask.

"History," they answer at the same time. But Grid uses must be using that secret bond between twins to read some amount of my mind because she squints here eyes and talks me out of what I thought of doing.

"Don't even think about it. Skipping class is a big no-no. Try it, and I'll have Dad feed you black licorice for the rest of you life. Oh, and get you grounded," she threatens with a slight smirk.

"I hate you," I say with a frown, which only makes her laugh. But I smile a little too. Dad would be disappointed, and even if it's for Cayce the mate of his son, he would not allow me to go around breaking school rules.

"I mean, can you blame him? The love of his life appears, and Bennet misses the chance to have his first lunch with him. It's a little tough to put all the pressure on Bennet," says Greg in my defense."

"True," says Grid as we get up to head over to English class, which is unfortunately, not, the same class as Cayce's, "though, if you waited the first eighteen years of your life for him, you can wait a few days before Cayce opens up to you."

"Do you think it'll be that soon?" I ask Grid as we walk through the noisy cafeteria, which also explains why I'm talking a little loudly. I would check to see if Cayce's around, but my sharp werewolf nose doesn't detect his scent near me, so I just concentrate on talking with Greg and Grid.

"I'm sure it'll be soon. Cayce's just a shy little button. Can't be helped," says Grid back loudly so I can hear, though we reach our class so we don't have to have raised voices anymore.

"Oh yeah, you should have seen how Cayce introduced himself. Not to deride him, but it was quite obvious he tried his best on the spot when he had to introduce himself on his first day," says Greg.

"Yeah, there was this cute little moment where Cayce's eyes widened when he realized that he might've said something silly, and I'm certain everyone knew that too, though they were all understanding of it.

"When's the last time we had to introduce ourselves?" asks Greg.

"Probably since first grade. Everybody knows each other in this town. Cayce just had to do since he moved here. My poor little button," says Grid as we sit down.

"Do you think Cayce, I don't know, doesn't like me?" I ask, thinking how, there might've been instances where Cayce did act shy, no necessarily disgusted, but shy nonetheless.

"I don't think so. Cayce's shy on the exterior, but once he gets to know you, he opens up. He's just that kind of soul. A little timid on the outside, but warm as the sun inside," says Grid.

Before we can talk a little more about my beloved Cayce, as well as anything else, Mr. Mead comes in and we have to pay attention. Writing, highlighting, reading, and listening should take up my attention, but it's a little hard to be focused on schoolwork when you heart is elsewhere.

My mind naturally wanders out to Cayce, and I wish I could have an out-of-body experience where I could float around the school and sit next to Cayce. Hopefully nobody sitting hear Cayce is too friendly with him, and the obsessive side of me grimaces at that thought. And, even if I wanted to concentrate and devoted myself to that, Oliver wouldn't let me. Along with making an entire blockbuster film of extremely inappropriate images of what Cayce and I could be doing together, Oliver decides to provide a wildlife-documentary style narration of each image in my head. Near the end of the class, I'm having trouble differentiating between Edgar Allen Poe's poems and X-rated content for me to hide under my bed.

The bell sounds out, and class has finishes up. Thankfully Oliver stops for not with the immature, or maybe mature images in my head, and I pack up my things to go on home. It crosses my mind to maybe try and meet Cayce he goes home tonight, and if I manage to, I can ask for his number. Of course, I'll attempt to come from a very friendly, literally, angle, and hopefully it'll work.

Both Grid and Greg nod and agree to come with me, and we head out quickly to go and try to meet Cayce. Going in the direction of his history class, and also keeping our eyes open wide for him, as well as our werewolf noses, we walk through the crowded busy halls. Though, by the time we get to the class Cayce was in, we don't see him, and I'm a little more depressed than earlier.

"Maybe he's at the parking lot," suggests Greg, but by the time we get to there, we haven't spotted him still.

"Well, I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow," I say in a droopy tone, and Oliver is both as depressed as me, but also somewhat mad to think he didn't get to see Cayce again.

"Wait, I know where he's going to be. We can go meet him," says Grid as she lights up.

"Or better yet," says Greg, grinning and looking at me, "you can go meet him. Since you are so invested in him, lover-boy."

I don't know what they're talking about, but if I get to see Cayce any bit, then I'm all ready for it.

"I'm in," I say, and both Greg and Grid grin more.