Chapter 257

Chapter 17 – Oakley POV Wakey wakey!  “Ugh,” I groaned, stretching out, trying to ignore the call of my wolf Byrdie, but she was persistent, Wakey, Wakey!  She called again, be quiet.  She told me, and instantly my body seemed to become rigid, my eyes open peering in the darkness, inhaling, sniffing the air for scents that didn’t belong. Getting nothing I eased off the bed, leaving my pillow and bed sheet I carried into Ben’s room for the night. I really hope you didn’t wake me up for me to do our exercises; we don’t have to do that anymore, and Chelsea’s going to help us train… I said tiptoeing out of the room, heading back to my own. Plopping on the bed tiredly I was so tired I just wanted to sleep some more, especially when I saw the clock, bold red numbers, 6:37am. I wiped the sleep from my eyes though, going to the bathroom to brush my teeth, after changing into black sports bra and t-shirt, the matching shorts Chelsea had in my basket as well. When we were back home, without the voices in my head I never did this. I didn’t need to workout, however when I did start hearing the voice in my head, not only was it trying to keep me calm, support me so I wouldn’t feel alone, it had told me to start training, exercising so that I could build up my endurance. I snorted just thinking about it, but back then the voice nagged me for a week or so before I started doing just as I was now. Getting up an hour earlier than everyone in the house and doing crunches, push-ups, even searched for yoga on youtube and did that, when it came time to add running, I was stumped. I couldn’t leave the house while everyone was asleep, so instead I used allowance money I had saved up and bought a treadmill. I hadn’t understood at the time what was going on, why the voice wanted me to do this, but now it made sense. So I began, hoping that by the time I finished my sets everyone else in the house would be awake, then I’d go for a short run. On my last set of crunches, I wasn’t expecting it, standing less than six feet away from me was a similarly dressed Chelsea, “Ahhhh!” I screamed, frightened, crawling, scampering away from her form, my heart racing, pounding and my stomach rolled uncomfortably. I didn’t scream loud, it cut off as soon as my senses got the better of me, but it was sharp and loud enough to wake up someone. There was a small ‘ummph,’ sound then I heard patting feet on the hardwood, rushing towards my room, the door flying open, with Uncle Grant searching the room wildly for danger, the bedside table lamp from his and Aunt Julia’s room. The situation wasn’t funny, but his reaction coupled with Chelsea’s blank unafraid face did it for me, laughter bubbled up, “W-what-” I giggled, “What were you going to do with that?” I asked biting my lip, my body shaking. Crawling I went to the side of the bed, kneeling up to turn on the light, still giggling, “How did you get in here?” Uncle Grant asked Chelsea and even I had to lift a brow at him. "We were in a car one minute then in this house a second later-" “Shush you,” he grumbled lowering the lamp, “What’s going on Chelsea?” “Training,” she answered dryly. “It’s seven a.m. we’re all sleeping…” “You aren’t on vacation, but you’re right, I’m sure that criminals only attack after 9 a.m. when you’ve woken up.” Uncle Grant snorted, chuckling, “Proof, in case you didn’t look like each other,” he shook his head walking away. Standing I went to Chelsea, she eyed my clothing. “You thought I’d be coming?” she tilted her head. I shook mine, “No, I’ve been waking up an hour before everyone for almost a year, stretching, doing crunches, pushups, running…” she nodded. “Good, your wolf isn’t lazy, she’s strong and wants you to be that way too,” I beamed, what happened to ‘I want to sleep more?’ Byrdie teased. Following Chelsea, she stopped at the alarm and I entered the code, the steel coverings lifted and revealed two of the men she had brought with her and one she hadn’t. The blonde one, and another that looked like him, the other guy, was tan, an olive type complexion, with nice hazel green eyes, more green than brown with a bit of blue mixed in. “Oak, this is Jack, Casey – blonde shaggy hair guy – and-” “Where is your little boss?” I asked, Jack snorted; Chelsea smiled, looked from me then to Casey, who just shook his head. “She’s his mate Oakley,” Chelsea said and my eyes widened to the size of quarters if not larger, “Wait… like you and Gabriel are mates?” I asked stunted.  Chelsea nodded, “So you have to wait until she is older… is that hard?” I asked softly. “Nope,” Casey said smirking at me. I gazed back incredulously, but he just shook his head, “I’m over one hundred years old Oakley, I’ve wanted to find my mate since I was your age… I found her now, so even though she’s little now, I’m okay with that. I know I found her, all those years of wondering if I had some how missed my chance, had her right in front of me and just hadn’t shifted yet to tell… all that time I spent worrying that maybe my mate had died… when I met her, found Ava… it was like all those years melted away. As did the fear that I missed my chance, now… I’m just someone she bosses around as a kid.” “Good practice so she can boss you around when she’s older,” I nodded agreeing with him. Jack snorted as did the other guy, “How come you weren’t this funny?” he teased Chelsea while Casey just pouted. She eyed me, “she’s not being funny, she’s serious,” Chelsea shrugged but that only made Jack and the other guy laugh harder.