Chapter 9 CHAPTER 09
"I see six. Do they take a long time?" I asked.
"Yeah, they make me tired." Raven said.
"How did you get the streaks of white in them?" I asked.
"They are just there when I wake up."
"They look good on you." I told her. She shrugged again.
"Is this a part of you boning with your wolf?" I asked.
"I guess what I can remember is that my mom's hair was all braided. I asked her if she ever wanted to take them out. She told me they were sealed by her wolf, and one day, I would understand. " she told me.
"Ah, so you and your wolf did them together?" I asked with a smile. She nodded.
"I never heard you sing before we left. Is that something to do with you wolf too." Again, she just nodded. I was hoping she would open up to me and talk, not just nod.
"Are you mad at Clare for something?" I asked.
"No," was all she said. I took her hand and held it between both of mine. She did not pull away. Just let me hold it. I waited for her to say more. It took a few minutes, but I just sat there, holding her hand. When she did speak I was surprised.
"Hawkins, I know. It is not fair to you.?" She said, sounding sad.
"What is it, Raven, that you know?" I asked.
"Both, Clare and I are your mates." She answered. I did not think she really knew what the mate bond was, let alone we were mates. I put my arm around her and pulled her close to me.
"I have no intentions of acting on the mate bond until either of you are ready. I don't even understand why you are both my mates. I'm still confused about it. But I do know I love you both very much. Is that why you're mad at Clare?" I asked. She looked up at me with her beautiful eyes.
"I'm not mad at her at all. I really don't know how thing went as far as they did. My wolf scared her. Her name is Spirit, by the way. She never came forward like that before. It scared me too that she took control like that." Raven confessed. I took my hand and lifted her head, so she looked me in the eyes. I don't know what came over me. I wanted to kiss her. I could feel her heart beating a little faster. I leaned down to kiss her lips. Quietly, I got control of myself and kissed her cheek.
"You will learn to control her soon enough. She is only as powerful as you let her be." I said. Then quickly stood up and walked to the end if the bed putting some distance between us.
"Come back downstairs with me Raven, you will eat something, even if it is just toast and fruit, understand?" I said. Her face was flush. I could see she was going to argue with me but changed her mind and nodded. She got off the bed and came and gave me a quick hug and left the room. I told her I would be right down. I had to get a hold of my emotions before I went back down. I had wanted to take her right there. I shook my head, went into the bathroom, and washed my face with cold water. When I got downstairs, she was waiting to go into the kitchen with me. We went back in, and I made her toast and jam and got her a bowl of fruit salad and placed it in front of her. Raven ate as I requested.
"What would you like to drink?" I asked her.
"Just water, please." She answered.
I sat down with a fresh cup of coffee. No one asked anything. Joe just smiled at me. Jessica showed up around noon. Joe introduced her to everyone. I made Raven come down and eat lunch. Though she argued she was not hungry.
"Raven I have something for you let me get it." Jessica said. She came back from the hallway and passed Raven a cotton bag.
"What is it?" Raven asked not taking it. Jessica put it on the table.
"Something I heard you could probably use. It is not much really." Jessica said.
Raven finally took and opened the bag and smiled. She got up and went over to Jessica and hugged her.
" thank you so much. It is so appreciated." Raven said. Hugging here again. Then went and sat back down closing the bag. I saw Darlene and Jessica smile at each other.
Whatever was in the bag, Darlene must have told Jessica to pick it up for Raven. It had to be something Raven really needed for it to make her almost cry. She actually ate lunch and helped clean up. Then went to their room. Clare on the other hand stayed down with us. Joe and I went out and did the first shift of shoveling the snow away from the trucks. When we were done he stood by the truck to have a cigarette.
"So what happened with Raven?" He asked.
"Nothing, I just talked to her." I told him.
"When you came down her face was flush, so you want to try that again?" He said.
"She knows we are mates. Clare too." I told him.
"And" he asked.
"We talked, I almost kissed her, but I stopped. It was not appropriate she is to young. We talked about what happened with Clare. She said her wolf just came forward she could not control her." I told him.
"Did you look at her eyes?" Joe asked.
"They are the same blue, but I noticed a hint of violet on the edges. She has 6 braids now. She does not know why she does them." I said.
What did Jessica being her that made her so excited?" I asked.
"Four leather bound notebooks and a bunch of different pens and pencils. Also, a gift card to a popular stationary store. To get more books if she needs them." Joe told me.
"That was nice of her." I said.
"Darlene saw the shape of the book she was writing in and it looked almost full. So they put their heads together and got her what they did. I'm glad it lifted her spirits." Joe said.
"Anything else you need help with out here?" I asked.
"Nah, go get some hot coffee into you." Joe said. When I went inside the ladies were in the kitchen baking. Clare passed me a cup of coffee, smiling shyly at me.
"Where is Raven?" I asked.
"In the room, she didn't want to help." Clare said.
"What was she doing?" I asked.
"Braiding her hair again." Clare said rolling her eyes.
"Clare be nice," I told her.
"Yah, Yah, she is going threw a lot. She is not the only one taking this trip, Joe." Clare said. I could hear the irritation in her voice.