Her first Friday night in Polar, Alaska and it was dull. Sitting in the dark, listening to somber music alone, was there anything more pathetic?
Her laptop in the mess of quilts with her, she clicked an internet browsers open, to reveal a new messages in her inbox. Some part of her hoped it was Grayson but that wasn't so.
Dodge Wheeler
Chloe... that's too bad about Alaska. I think of you every day. I miss you. Call me sometime... soon?
Disappointment plagued her and she clicked away from the message, not replying.
In her news feed, she found herself on Annie's page, but only to stare at tagged photos of Grayson. The more she snooped, the more she thought about him. He could be hers. They could date and watch movies on the couch and... Chloe groaned, palming her forehead.
“I'm sick. What's going on with me?”
His wide eyed, saddened face from earlier still burned in her mind. He'd come all the way from where ever he'd been for her. Right on time too and she'd left him.
Groaning, she threw the computer off her lap and got up. Her dad hollered at her for supper and she turned, leaving the room.
Henry, still in his uniform, had two place settings at the table for them, food included.
Sitting down, she dug into her food without a word. Her brain consumed with a certain boy. She took another bite of the decent moose roast.
“Were you alright last night?” Henry asked, “I came by around two in the morning to check.”
“I was fine,” she'd had Grayson, before he'd hacked her computer, confessed his liking for her and held her hostage in a janitorial closet.
Henry didn't speak much; he seemed more concerned with getting to work. That didn't surprise her. It was his happy place and she guessed everyone had to have one.
Chloe sighed, “It's your last shift tonight before your days off?”
He nodded, “Yep, but tomorrow, I said I'd go hunting with Roger. Did you want to come?”
She stared at him, “And shoot innocent animals?”
He laughed, “We don't do it for fun, Chloe. We use the whole animal and get great meals like this. We're going for Caribou.”
Chloe shook her head, “Have fun.”
“Eh,” he got up and put his plate in the washer, “I'll turn you into an Alaskan girl yet, Daughter.”
She smiled, “Good luck, Father.”
He waved her off, adjusting his belt as he threw on his winter coat.
“Have a good rest of your shift.”
“Thanks, Loe. See you tomorrow,” he walked out of the kitchen.
Pausing her eating, the sound of his truck start and the fading of the tires in the snow reminded her of where she was; alone in the middle of nowhere, with real wolves.
She ate for the next twenty minutes and once finished, got up to put her dishes away.
A long, deep howl came from the frozen outside.
Startling her, she dropped the plate and it shattered at her feet. She didn't flinch from the breaking, because right outside the kitchen window, in the bright moonlight, stood a massive grey wolf. His muzzle so white as he bowed his head toward the glistening, unchartered snow.
“Holy.” She gasped.
His frozen breath cascading around him in the haunting light.
It was her dream wolf, she knew it.
Unable to function through her terror, she watched him sit in the snow. Another lonely howl resonating from him.
“Oh gosh.” She whispered, still paralyzed in amazement.
He stopped his long, dark how, licking his lips. His eyes were as eager as the shadows of the night. Standing, she swore he made eye contact and then in swift movement, he turned and bound into the near forest.
Chloe threw herself towards the window and searched for him, “This is insane!” she slipped and her foot caught a piece of shard.
“Owe!” she fell to her rump, her foot bleeding, “Damn...” looking up she grabbed a near dish towel, rung it around her foot, and limped pathetically to her destination on the couch. She sat there awhile before peeling back the cloth to inspect.
Deciding to make her way to the upstairs washroom, she found an old band-aid that looked like it was from the seventies. Likely being true and her only option, she bandaged her foot.
Taking care of the mess in the kitchen, she swept the floors and headed to her room. Making a search engine date with her laptop.
Wolves were the topic and within minutes, it consumed her.
Timber wolves, Alaskan wolves, Grey wolves.
Wolves, wolves, and more wolves... but they all had one thing in common.
A close nit family that protected one another, that ran territories for miles, calculated hunters, fierce, beautiful and in one very interesting fact, they mated for life. The internet was a world of information and she tried to absorb as much as the night allowed.
In the morning, she woke, her laptop still open and her crumpled body near. She mumbled as her arm hit the keyboard, the computer pinging to life. Squinting from the abrupt brightness, she read the time.
“Eleven?”
Her eyes scanned the last page she'd been reading. The Werewolf, an in depth guide on what they were and how they functioned. Somewhere, between midnight and two in the morning, she'd moved from real life to fantasy.
“I'm losing my mind,” she snapped the screen down and jumped out of bed. Another night in her clothes, her skin raw on her side from her bra. Deciding on a shower, she grabbed a towel.
The droning on the television was heard as she skipped into the bathroom, her dad's snoring intermixed.
Shaking her head at him, she closed the bathroom door and went about the mornings preparations for defying her cop daddy later that evening.
“Party-party, baby.”
***
Roger had come to the house to go hunting with her Father and she avoided being downstairs for that. Not wanting to be around the man that raised such a well mannered, yet invasive boy.
Avoiding had developed into picking out an outfit for that night. Two and half hours later and she was still undecided.
Her laptop across her room, pinged at her. She turned from where she had been staring at herself in the dusty mirror and dropped the light pink blouse at her side.
Walking over, she clicked her glowing inbox.
“Wolfboy?” She perked, “Finally...”
Grayson Holtz
Hello, Chloe
Are you going to that party tonight or not?
Staring at his message, she experienced a lot of the same emotions from the day before.
It wasn't the nicest message, more direct and straight to the point but it meant something.
Another message from him came.
Grayson Holtz
I'm sorry about school. I'm sorry about going on your computer.
I need to talk to you.
Grayson Hotlz
Well, I want to.
Grayson Holtz
I mean, I would like to.
Wide eyed, she chewed her tongue, her stomach knotting. She had to type something back, but she just didn't know what, other than one thing.
Chloe Pryce
Yeah. I'm going.
She sent it and closed her eyes.
Without a doubt, he would be at the party, if she knew anything about guys that liked girls.
The pinging of a new message came and her eyes snapped open.
Grayson Holtz
Do you need a ride?
She whined and buried her face in her hands, her head meeting the desk.
To accept a ride from him would be... She remembered Annie was getting her a ride, meaning she wouldn't have to suffer next to Grayson in his monster truck!
That was more time to prepare herself to see him.
Chloe Pryce
I have it covered.
She sent it, cringing out of fear of him again. Her tongue was starting to hurt from the constant nervous chewing on it.
Grayson Holtz
Of course, you do. I'll be there at some point, hopefully see you? Unless, you decide to give me the slip again.
She let out a soft breath, feeling bad but she couldn't reply. Closing her laptop, she left the room.