The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 7

CAULDER

\tHarper was quiet in my arms. She had barely looked at me since we started dancing. Even though I held her in my arms, the distance between us felt greater than before, and I didn't understand it. \t"Are you okay?" I finally asked. I knew the answer already, but I didn't know why.

\t"Why would you pick me to dance with?" Harper looked over my shoulder, and her voice was quiet.

\t"What do you mean?" I wanted her to just look at me for a moment, but she looked anywhere but my eyes.

\t"I mean, why didn't you ask Michelle or Daina or Lindsay or any of the other girls you've gone out with? Why did you ask me?" Her body was tense in my arms, and I wanted nothing more than to help her relax, but I knew I was the reason she was tense. \t"Because I didn't want to dance with them. I wanted to dance with you." I couldn't keep my feelings to myself any longer. I wanted to scream to everyone that Harper was the one I wanted, but she already felt like a flight risk.

\t"Why? You could have had any girl dance with you tonight, so why waste it on me?" This wasn't the Harper I knew. She was normally so brave and confident. She spoke her mind and wasn't afraid to put people in their place.

\t"It's not a waste." My voice was confident as I spoke. I needed her to know exactly what she meant to me. "As far as I am concerned, I'm the luckiest guy here for getting a chance to dance with you. You are absolutely stunning and sweet. You have been my best friend my entire life, and tonight, you're the only one I wanted to look at."

\tHarper finally met my eyes, and it made my heart skip a beat. I wondered if this feeling would ever fade with time. I hoped it wouldn't.

\tHer eyes were large and confused as she stared at me, but it all slowly clicked together, and her breath hitched when she came to a full conclusion. "I told you to ask the girl you like to dance with you tonight, and you asked me to dance."

\t"Yep." My lips popped on the "p" sound. I wouldn't tell her she was my mate. I would wait for her to come to that conclusion on her own. But that didn't mean I couldn't tell her that I liked her. I hoped confessing to her would be what she needed to see me the way I saw her or at least spark a small fire.

\t"And now we are dancing together." She squeezed my shoulders as if to stabilize herself.

\t"Uh-huh." I smiled down at her. Her body seemed to relax a little, which told me she wasn't opposed to the idea of me.

\t"And you've been flirting with me and making suggestive comments all day." She chewed on her lip to buy herself some time. She already knew what this all meant, but she was hesitating to say it, as if part of her still didn't believe it to be true. \tl couldn't take the delay anymore. "Harper, I like you."

\tShe started to smile at my words, but then she forced herself to stop. "Caulder, be serious. I'm not the type of girl you normally go for."

\t"I am being serious. Harper, I like you. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you all day. Your eyes, your mouth, your-"

\t"Stop it." Harper's voice was firm, which jolted me. She rarely used that tone on me. "Caulder, I get that you have a crush on me right now, but your crushes last ten seconds. I'm not the kind of girl you can woo, hook up with, and then discard a week later. I'm the girl who wants a boyfriend. I want to go on dates, hold hands, go to family functions together."

\t"We already go to family gatherings together." I smiled, amused by my own joke, but Harper didn't replace it funny.

\t"Caulder, that's not what I meant, and you know it. I refuse to be another girl on your list of conquests. Your friendship means too much to me, and I would be too broken if you just left me behind like the others." Her voice was higher pitched than normal, and I could tell she was genuinely upset by the conversation. This wasn't how this was supposed to go.

\tl hated that she saw me in this light, but she had every right to. The longest relationship I had had was two weeks, and I wasn't even sure if I could call it a relationship. My track record proved her right in every way. I knew there was nothing I could say to make her see that I was different, and telling her she was my mate would only make things worse. She would just think it was a trick, or she would end up rejecting me because she didn't trust me. I had to show her I could change.

\t"You're right," I finally said. "You're not like other girls. I actually like you. And your friendship means the world to me."

\t"Then let's drop this before it goes even further." Harper let go of me and tried to pull away, but I held onto her hand and pulled her back. I wasn't going to give up that easily.

\t"I don't want to drop this. I know you don't trust me with my history with girls, but do you trust me as your friend, Caulder?" I spun her around the dance floor. Others were now dancing on the floor with us, so the attention had been pulled away from us. \tHarper didn't respond right away. She held onto me, and I could feel her debate in the way she gripped my shoulder. "Of course I trust you, but-"

\t"Then give me a chance. In all of your arguments, you never once said that you don't like me back. If that's the case, tell me now, and I'll back off. But if there is any part of you at all that might like me, then give me a real chance. I'll take you on a date, and I'll show you that I'm different. I'll prove to you that you have never been and will never be just another girl on my list." I laid my heart on the table, and I hoped it would be enough. If Harper told me she didn't have any feelings for me at all, I would back off. But I hoped that deep down, some part of her could feel the mate bond, even if it was suppressed.

\tHarper took a deep breath. "I can't believe I'm doing this, but okay. I'll give you a chance."

\tl smiled instantly, my heart racing. "Really?"

\tHarper rolled her eyes. "Don't make me regret this, Caulder."

\t-

\tREMY

\t"You didn't have to take pity on me," I said to Bennett. We were dancing arms-length away, and I felt extremely awkward. I was just ready for the song to be over, so I could run off the dance floor and hide to compose myself. \tBennett tilted his head to the side. "I wasn't taking pity on you."

\t"Just because it's my birthday, it doesn't mean you have to lie to me. I know nobody wanted to dance with me."

\tBennett burst out in laughter. "What are you talking about? All of the guys are extremely jealous that I'm dancing with you right now. I can feel all of their eyes on us right now." He shook his head with a smile still on his face. "You really don't see how incredible you are, do you?"

\tl furrowed my eyebrows together. "I'm confused. No one but you asked me to dance. I have never even been asked out before. Guys just don't see me that way."

\tBennett laughed again. "It's because you were supposed to ask someone to dance, not the other way around. And the guys are just too scared to ask you out. No one wants to be on Caulder's bad side. If you started dating any of these guys, and things didn't work out, it would be bad news for the guys. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be the poor sap facing Caulder after making his favorite person cry."

\tl narrowed my eyes at him, not fully believing what he said. "Yeah right. Stop being so nice to me."

\t"Why don't you think I never asked you out?" Bennett's voice was quiet, and I wasn't sure if I heard him correctly. Was he being serious?

\tl had never thought of Bennett that way, and I had never even gotten the impression he liked me. We had spent a lot of nights studying together, but that was just because Bennett was the smartest student at our school, and it was nice to study together. Even if he did think of me that way, it would be silly to go there now. We were both eighteen, and our wolves would have told us we were mates. Dating now would only guarantee heartbreak for when one of our mates eventually came along. \t"You are really sweet, Benny," I said. "Whoever your mate is will be extremely lucky."

\tBennett smiled at me, but there was a slight sadness in his gaze. The music stopped, and so did Bennett. He bowed his head and gave me a forced smile. "Happy birthday, Remy. Don't forget to have the time of your life tonight." \tHe sulked off the dance floor, and I couldn't help but feel like I had hurt him. I hadn't outright rejected him, but if he did have any feelings for me, it was for the best that he moved on now before they grew even deeper.

\tThe dance floor was now filled with other couples spinning around the dance floor. I made my way off of it to make sure I didn't get in the way. On my way off, I caught a glimpse of Caulder and Harper. They were still spinning around the dance floor in a blissful moment. I knew the rest of the world didn't matter to them as they smiled at each other. Caulder had somehow managed to woo Harper after all, and I was really happy for him.

\tBut as I watched him, I couldn't help but feel alone. Harper and Caulder were my best friends, and when they officially got together, I would become the third wheel. The nights the three of us would spend together would suddenly become the two of them, and I would get left behind. My chest ached at the thought, and I was starting to wonder if I was destined to get left behind. I wasn't meant to be the alpha of the pack, and Harper would end up taking over as Luna when they were both old enough. I didn't have a future role in this pack. I wasn't skilled enough to lead the warriors. I didn't have the birthright to lead the pack. I would just be here, stuck a step behind for the rest of my life.

\t"Something's wrong," Raven said in my head. Raven was my wolf, and I hadn't heard from her much since my wolf emerged at the age of fourteen. I knew when I turned eighteen, the bond between my wolf and I would grow stronger, but her voice in my head still surprised me. It had been over a week since she last spoke to me.

\t"Something's wrong," Raven repeated. Her voice was strained and scared, and it made my heart start pounding in my chest.

\tl looked around, but everyone was having a good time, smiling and laughing. "What do you mean?" I linked back.

\t"Something's coming for you. I can feel it." Raven sounded out of breath, like she had been running, but there was nowhere for her to go inside my head.

\tl looked around, and Raven's panic became my own. My blood ran cold, but I couldn't see anything that felt dangerous. I could feel it now, though. The hair on my arms rose, and there was a cold chill in my spine that simply wouldn't go away. I could feel the dark presence lingering beneath the party, but it was invisible. I looked at the faces of the partygoers, but no one seemed to pick up on the pending doom.

\t"What is it?" I asked Raven with a feeling of desperation. I felt the need to protect the people around me from whatever was coming, but I didn't know what to do.

\tRaven didn't respond to me, and everything grew quiet around me. I looked around, and I could see people laughing and talking still, but everything was silent. I looked up into the sky, and the full moon was shining brightly down on us, but then a dark shadow was cast upon the moon before the entire thing turned red. It all happened so fast, and then when I blinked, the moon looked normal again.

\tA hand touched my shoulder, and I jumped and screamed.

\tCaulder grabbed me and gave me a strange look. "Remy, are you okay? What's going on?"

\t"Did you see that?" I looked back up to the sky, but there were no signs of the red moon.

\tCaulder looked up. "I don't see anything. What's up with you? I can feel your heart pounding and your panic as if it's my own."

\tHarper touched my arm and frowned. "You also look really pale."

\tMy heart was still racing, but as I looked around, everything was normal. Did I just hallucinate all of that?