23 | Childhood Kisses and Jealously

"You have to show them that you're really not scared. You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare."

~Michael Jackson, Beat It

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After all the baking was done, the couple collapsed on the couch, a handful of cookies in each hand. Sophie popped a cookie in her mouth and asked, "Is there anything on our agenda today?"

Cillian mimicked her actions. "There is, actually. My parents invited us to dinner if we want to go."

"That sounds nice. Is that what you'd like to do?"

"I think so. It's just a... a little overwhelming."

"I'm sure." She reassured his feelings, wiping the cookie crumbs from her fingers to interlock them with his. "Whatever you need, I'll be with you every step of the way."

A sheepish smile stretched across his lips. "I actually wanted to ask you something." He said, his eyes searching hers. She gave his hand an encouraging squeeze and he continued. "I don't think it's safe for you to be alone here."

She released a breath and nodded. "Unfortunately I agree. I won't go anywhere without you, if that's what you're insinuating."

"It is, yeah. Thank you." He replied, relieved she agreed.

It wasn't that everyone was untrustworthy. In his heart, he knew there were a few that would potentially be safe. At the end of the day, family or not, his family were strangers to him. He'd do anything to protect Sophie from them- or anyone.

"Thank you." She corrected, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Thank you for keeping me safe."

•••

"I hope you don't mind, we invited a few more people. Just a couple other close family friends. They're all excited you're here." Andrew patted Cillian on the back.

He reassured his dad that it was fine, but Sophie could tell he was nervous.

His parents were hosting the dinner in their stunning log cabin. It had the same huge windows, gorgeous wood floors, cozy carpets and couches, and tall ceilings. It was breathtaking. Every house here was.

A little girl trotted in, no older than six years old. She wore a flowery pink dress and her hair was up in two pigtails. There were two adults that came in behind her, who Sophie assumed were her parents.

"Cillian! Oh my, it's so good to see you!" The woman exclaimed, but didn't make any moves to hug him. His parents must have warned them. "I'm your cousin-"

"Maddison, I remember." He greeted and surprised her by pulling her in for a hug. It was quick and he was quite tense, but he was working on it.

She pulled back from the hug, a huge smile on her lips. "I'm so happy you're here! I want you to meet my mate and daughter." She told him, beckoning them over. "This is Sam and my daughter Teagan."

The men shook hands, and little Teagan gave her second cousin a wave. "Nice to meet you both. Have you met my mate?"

"I haven't!"

Pretending not to be easedropping the whole time, Sophie looked up when her name was called.

"C'mere!" Cillian called her, waving her over.

She smoothed out her outfit and padded over to stand by his side. From how she's heard the conversation go from the other side of the room, Sophie already liked his cousins. Until...

"Oh!" Maddison exclaimed, her voice an octave higher in slight panic. She cleared her throat and took a step back, guiding her daughter to stand behind her. "Sorry, I just... she's..."

"My mate." Cillian finished for her.

"Right, but she's... not one of us." She said through a pained smile.

If Sophie didn't know any better, she would say that they were more scared of her than she was of them.

"No, I'm not. I'm a human." Sophie chuckled through a polite smile. "I'm Sophie, it's nice to meet you."

With her hand hung in the air for the lycan to shake, Maddison just stared at it, having an internal battle on whether or not to touch the human. Hesitantly, she briefly shook her hand and let go as soon as possible.

Teagan's head cocked to the side as she inspected the said human. "Are you human or Sophie?"

"We haven't taught her what humans are yet." Maddison chuckled awkwardly before turning to her daughter. "Her name is Sophie, sweetie."

"So what's human-"

"That's a conversation for later." She cut her off, swiftly and as sweetly as possible.

"Cillian?" A feminine voice interrupted from the front door.

He turned to face the voice, taking a subtle protective stance in front of Sophie. To him, everyone was a threat here until proven otherwise. His face remained emotionless, but the new person didn't seem to care to notice.

"It is you!" She giggled and quickly approached him. Her arms opened, expecting a hug, but his arms remained crossed protectively in front of him. She faltered, catching the hint. "Sorry, that was so rude of me, of course you wouldn't recognize me."

He eyed her, uneasy.

"It's me, Kendall. We sort of grew up together." She sweetly explained, tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. "Your mom would babysit me and we'd play together. Also went to pre-k and kindergarten together."

His eyes flashed in partial recognition. "Nice to see you again." He greeted, halfheartedly- more so to be polite.

"So you do remember me?" She gasped, a hopeful gleam in her eye.

He shrugged. "I don't remember much from back then."

"But a little?"

"A little." He confirmed with a curt nod.

"Well it's nice to see you again. You've grown quite a few feet since I've seen you." She chuckled. It wasn't until then she noticed the human in the room. "Oh, you must be Sophie!" She greeted and offered her a hand.

Cautiously, Sophie shook it. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you! I never thought I'd ever seen Cillian again and it's so nice to see he's settled nicely with his mate."

Sophie wished she could have felt relieved that one of the lycanthrope wasn't put off by her being a human, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy about Kendall. Something seemed... off.

"Sophie, you're here!" Angie exclaimed, rushing over to wrap her in a hug.

She returned the hug, greeting her as well. "I wouldn't miss it!"

Angie moved on to her son next, wrapping him in an embrace. She was more careful with him, knowing just a sliver of what he's been through. She didn't push him to open up either. She knew he'd open up when he was comfortable enough to do so. Right now, she was just happy her son was home.

Her other son entered the room next, sending a chill down Sophie's spine. While Sully and Cillian looked extremely alike, Sophie wasn't scared of Cillian. Sure, to most he was an intimidating man, but Sophie knew him better than that. While he was more than capable of inflicting damage and harm, she knew he wouldn't unless it was out of defense. Sully, however... he was scary. Scary looking, scary sounding, just an overall scary presence about him.

Still, she didn't want to be on his bad side. As he passed by her, she warmly said, "good to see you, Sully."

One brow slightly raised at that, his jaw ticking in irritation. That was the only reply she got from him.

"Hope everyone is hungry!" They heard Andrew exclaim from the kitchen.

Everyone scurried to the dining room table and Cillian surprised Sophie by pulling a chair out for her to sit. "Oh, thanks." She breathed, taking a seat.

"Hope you like deer." Sully muttered, taking a seat across the couple.

Sophie did not think this through.

Her stomach twisted as multiple deer were set on the table, chopped up into different body parts sections, ready to be served.

Teagan was ready to dive into her portion of the deer, but was stopped by her mom. "Teagan, what do we do before we eat?"

Skin the deer, pull out the bones, and cook the meat would be nice- Sophie thought.

"Pray." She said sassily, before quickly blurting, "dearGodthankyouforsupplyingthisfoodforusblessittoourbodiesinJesusnameamen." She snatched the belly of one of the deer and quite literally dove into the carcass.

Sophie's face paled as she watched the little girl tear through the meat-with fur still on it, clean off the bone with her dangerously sharp teeth. Sure, she's seen lion's do this to gazelles on animal planet. She's even seen Cillian eat a deer leg or two- but these were the guts and intestines of the deer. And children! Teagan's face popped up, blood smeared all over it, and some long intestine in her grip as she asked, "why aren't you eating?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Sophie muttered, her chair making a loud 'screech' as she made a dash to the bathroom. She hovered over the toilet, on the verge of dry heaving. Cillian was there in seconds to hold her hair back.

"Hey, are you okay?"

She shakily loosened her grip on the toilet seat and sat on the cold tile floor to look at him. He had just a tiny amount of blood on the corner of his mouth. "Oh, hell." She hiccuped, closing her eyes to keep it together. "I saw its insides." She wheezed, taking in deep breaths.

He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror and quickly wiped it off. "I'm sorry." He sighed, rubbing soothing circles with his hand on her back. "I cleaned it off, you're safe to look... you were fine with me eating raw meat."

She peeked through her fingers, then lowered her hands completely. "Yeah, but you stuck to legs and ribs. I didn't have to see it's- it's guts and everything." She exasperated.

He winced and shot her an apologetic look. "Is there something I can make you?"

She shook her head and he helped her to her feet. "I don't have much of an appetite anymore."

He nodded in understanding. "That's okay. Do you want to go lay down?"

"No, it's okay. I just... I'll be careful where I look." She chuckled half heartedly.

He looked rather unsure about that, but even still, he helped her up and escorted her back to the table. They walked in on quite an interesting conversation.

"And then he kissed me." Kendall giggled.

"Who?" Maddison asked.

"Cillian."

"He did?"

Cillian's eyes widened. "I did?"

"Right smack on the lips." Kendall confirmed with a chuckle. "We were only five but we were each other's first kiss."

"I would hope that was your first kiss, being five and all." Sophie muttered under her breath as she sat down. Of course, she forgot about everyone's advanced hearing, and everyone chuckled at her comment that no one was supposed to hear.

"Cillian, outside of me and Sophie, were you ever kissed other than that?" Kendall wondered, biting a bite of her food.

His brows furrowed as the thought back. Some of the human women who "served" with him would sometimes get too close for comfort. Some would touch him without permission, see who could get the closest, or how far they could get without it being considered "assault." But no, no kissing.

"Sorry, is that too personal?" Kendal asked with an awkward chuckle when she got no response.

"No, it's okay." He cleared his throat, snapping back into reality.

"Sophie, why don't you tell us a little more about you." Angie butt in, changing the subject, knowing there must have been more at play considering Cillian's lack of response.

"Oh, sure!" Sophie responded, nervously running her clammy hands on her pants. "Well, before I met Cillian, I was a dog trainer."

Sully snickered under his breath. "Is that right?"

Unsure what was so comical, she replied with an enthusiastic, "yep!"

"Is that how you got him so well behaved?"

"Solomon!" Angie corrected, glaring at her youngest son.

"Oh, c'mon, you don't see the irony? A dog trainer amongst the wolves?" He resorted, his hands up in mock surrender.

With a sheepish expression, Sophie stood from her chair. "You know what? I'm still not feeling that great. I think I'll excuse myself for the evening." She said as politely as she could. Cillian was ready to join her, but stopped at the weight of her hand on his shoulder. "You should stay." She figured he could enjoy his family more without her being such a distraction.

"I don't want you to go alone." He quietly replied.

"I'll be fine. The guest house is just next door. I'll text you when I'm there, okay?" She told him, leaving no room for him to say otherwise. She bent down, planted a gentle kiss on his cheek, and bid everyone a good night.

The second she was out the front door, she breathed a sigh of relief. The tension was eating her alive in there. She jogged up the deck stairs to the guest house, her hand on the handle.

"Sophie!"

Sophie froze, hearing her name be called by an unusual voice. Before she could turn around to face the voice, a heavy arm was draped over her shoulders and she was quickly ushered inside the guest house.

"There you are!" The eerily delighted voice continued.

Her suspicions were right, as the voice did in fact belong to the person she feared it was- Kendall. She was a gorgeous woman, tall, slender, perfectly curled hair, the best clothes and jewelry.

Sophie normally lived in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. If she wanted to dress it up, she swapped her sweatpants for leggings.

In one smooth movement, Sophie ducked out of Kendall's hold, her stomach churning in fear. While she disliked the woman, she had a healthy fear of everyone here.

"Can I help you with something?" She politely asked, despite her fear.

With a big fake smile, Kendall replied, "I was actually wondering if you could help me."

She stilled, unsure what she was insinuating. "How so?"

Towering over the human, Kendall laughed and drew closer once again. She beckoned her closer like she wanted to tell a secret, but the human stayed where she was, and it was the lycanthrope that closed the gap. "The people here aren't happy. Cillian is next in line to take over as Alpha. You can imagine the rest of the pack's distaste for a human becoming the Luna with him." In a split second, her smile was gone. "We need you to disappear, human. You will be the end of our people if you stay. We're going to be nice and give you the chance to leave on your own, but if you don't..."

Sophie wasn't sure what came over herself, but a surge of confidence came over her. She took a step closer and said, "I have been nothing but kind to you, your pack, and everyone else that hates me here. If I leave, Cillian said he comes with me."

Kendall's hand darted out, but stopped just centimeters from the human's neck as if she had to hold herself back. A soft giggle escaped past her plump lips, her head cocked to the side. "That's so cute. You really think he wants you? Especially now that he's back, surrounded by his people? You don't think he hates your species just as much as the rest of us do?" She seethed, claws out and ready. "You'll watch as with our help, one by one, he'll end your species in front of your eyes, and then finally, he'll end you."

Sophie swallowed hard, her stomach turning in sharp cramps. "He won't. You just want him and you're mad he doesn't feel the same." She said as calmly as she could, keeping her voice steady. Though she knew she could hear her frantically beating heart, she wouldn't let her words give that fear away.

Two more lycans appeared on either side of Kendall, making Sophie take a step back.

This was a trap.

•••

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