I opened my eyes to darkness, knowing it had to be early. I reached for my phone on the bedside table and squinted at the screen. 5:00 AM. There were still two hours before I needed to leave for school.
I tried to close my eyes again, but the memories from my dream lingered, too painful to ignore. Sleep was impossible now. I might as well get up. Reluctantly, I sat up and spent a few minutes mindlessly scrolling through social media before finally dragging myself out of bed.
I took a quick shower and dressed in black skinny jeans with a studded belt, a black band t-shirt, and my leather jacket. I was a rock chick through and through. When I first moved to this pack, I'd spent so much time and effort trying to hide anything that might make me stand out. I dressed and acted like the popular kids in the fruitless hope that they would accept me. I was so desperate to fit in and make friends that I almost forgot who I really was. But it didn't matter. No matter how hard I tried, they still treated me like an outcast.
I even went through a phase of trying to fade into the background, wearing huge baggy clothes to hide my curves and slouching so my height was less noticeable. If anything, that seemed to make the rest of the pack bully me more. That was when I realized I wasn't the problem. There was nothing I could do to make them like me, so I stopped living my life on their terms. From that day on, I dressed exactly how I wanted, and I didn't care what they thought of it.
I would finish the look with dark makeup and jewelry after breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, I was starting to feel starving. I headed downstairs and started preparing coffee, bacon, and scrambled eggs for me and Ryker.
Our house was a lot smaller than the mansion I was born in, but bigger than the cozy three-bedroom cottage we had all lived in for ten years. Downstairs, there was a comfortable living room, a large kitchen with a dining table, and a formal dining room that Christian used as his office most of the time. Upstairs, there were three large double bedrooms and two bathrooms. It might not have been the most lavish home, but it was comfortable, and I loved it here.
"Oh my god. Diana, this smells amazing." Ryker's voice caused my heart to skip a beat.
I may have grown up with Ryker, living with him for most of our lives, but we were not related in any way. I hadn't admitted this to anyone, but over the last couple of years, I'd developed a huge crush on him. I couldn't help it. He was six-foot-three with a muscular build, long blond hair, blue eyes, and the kind of face that could break hearts with a single smile.
What made it worse was knowing that he felt the same way about me. If our situation were different, I would have asked him out in a heartbeat, but our current living arrangement made any kind of relationship awkward. I hoped that once I turned eighteen, my wolf would recognize him as our mate, and then we could be together without feeling guilty. Until then, I guessed we'd just have to settle for silently pining for each other.
"I know I do, but what about the food?" I joked.
"That smells almost as tasty as you do," he said, a slight husky growl coloring his voice.
I wished I hadn't started flirting with him. We weren't meant to get this involved. Heck, we weren't even meant to acknowledge our feelings for each other. He walked toward me, poured himself a cup of coffee, and put some bread in the toaster. I was so busy focusing on the eggs that I didn't notice how close Ryker was until he started turning the bacon in the pan right next to me.
I was suddenly conscious of the proximity. I could feel the heat radiating off his body. If I leaned slightly, my whole body would be pressing against his. I could just lean over slightly and kiss him, then I would know if he tasted as good as he smelled.
This was bad. I needed to put some distance between us before I did something I would later regret. Ryker took two plates out of the cupboard next to me. I could feel his breath on me, and I saw the smile crossing his face out of the corner of my eye. He knew exactly what he was doing to me, and he was enjoying it. Damn him.
I backed away slowly and walked over to the jug of coffee. I picked my favorite gaming-related mug out of the cupboard and poured myself a cup. I breathed in. The moment the coffee hit my nostrils, it was as though my body suddenly started to come back alive. I quietly moaned, although it wasn't quiet enough to escape Ryker's notice. His eyes shot in my direction straight away. I could feel my cheeks heating up; apparently, I was determined to make a fool of myself today.
I walked over to the kitchen table and sat down so he wouldn't be able to see my face. I hoped he didn't notice. There were only a few things you could guarantee in life: death, taxes, and that Ryker would take every opportunity to capitalize on my embarrassment.
"I don't know how you can drink black coffee," Ryker commented as he started putting our breakfast onto plates.
"It is like my soul," I joked.
Ryker laughed as he set the plate in front of me. Hopefully, my dark humor was enough to break the tension between us so we could eat breakfast together like normal people.
I tried to focus all my energy on the plate of food in front of me, something I normally had no problem with. Today, however, I found myself glancing in Ryker's direction every so often. I even caught him doing the same thing more than once. The tension between us was so strong that I could hardly bear being in the same room as him. All I could think about was how much I wanted to kiss him.
Things weren't usually this bad between us. A few weeks ago, things were almost normal, but then Ryker broke up with his girlfriend, Mary-Anne. Ever since then, our feelings for each other had been growing stronger. It was starting to get to the point where neither of us could hide how we felt. I was so glad that my birthday was only a couple of days away.
I saw Ryker glance my way out of the corner of my eye. He looked me up and down while nibbling on his bottom lip. Okay, I needed to get out of here right now. I stood up from the table and started walking towards the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" he said, his voice huskier than normal.
I turned to look at him. He was still sitting at the table, but he had turned his whole body so he could look at me.
"Just going to put some make-up on before school," I said.
I tried to sound nonchalant but missed the mark. My voice was a few octaves higher than it should have been, and my breathing and heart rate were a dead giveaway of the effect he was having on me.
"Someone as beautiful as you doesn't need make-up, but I could think of something else we could do with the next half an hour instead," he said.
He stood up and started walking towards me. The look in his eyes was so intense that it made my heart skip a beat. I licked my lips. It wasn't intentional, but it was probably the worst thing I could have done because I heard his heart rate instantly accelerate.
He took a step closer to me and raised his hand to touch me. His fingers were millimeters away from my cheek when I heard a door open upstairs. He looked up towards the noise, so I took the chance to slip away before he could distract me again. I had never run up stairs even half as quickly as I did at that moment.