When I woke up, Jack wasn't in our room and I was still wearing yesterday's clothes, so I got up and put on fresh jeans and a white v-neck, before throwing on my hoodie and heading out to get some grub. Jack was sitting with Jade and Nicki near the armory, with Miguel and Ashley half-listening in while working on moving the guns into storage, I was curious but I was more hungry. I put a skillet on the stove, cranked it to a 6, and cracked some eggs on it with two burgers, while they started cooking I grabbed a red onion and cut some slices for my sammich. Jack walked in and grabbed a soda from the fridge, passed me a Diet Coke, saw that I was cooking, and got excited.
"I want a sammich too, dude."
" 'Don't beg' I believe were your exact words, were they not?"
"Fuck you! I'm hungry!"
"Make yourself a sammich then, just wait 'till I get out," I said and put some bread in the toaster, waiting for it to pop I called Nicki over while Jack waddled back to where Jade was sitting.
"Morning Jake, sleep okay?"
"Yeah, It was a weird night, why?" I asked and loaded my sammich: bread, cheese, burger, egg, onion, cheese, burger, egg, bread, it was my favorite thing to make because it was delicious, and not horribly, disgustingly unhealthy.
"Just curious, what made it weird?"
"I had a dream, instead of being in hell, and I was a hellhound instead of my normal self," I said and took a bite out of my sammich, moaning at the taste, it was as if Jesus was into bestiality and birthed a beautiful cow, that later became a hamburger.
"One, that sounds like a mate dream, and two, you're making Jack jealous of your sandwich, don't moan," she said and I looked over at Jack, who looked extremely hungry while staring at my sammich.
"It's my sammich!"
"Go make me a sammich then," he said and I walked over to him and slapped him, he wasn't ready for what was to come.
"No, you make me a sammich!" I said in a stern voice, there was nothing but silence...for all of four seconds until we all started laughing at my excitement of an old feminist meme.
"But you already have a sammich! What?! Doth through desire two sammiches!??!"
"Yes! Your king demands it!" I said, laughing and hugging my stomach with one of my arms, the other holding onto my sammich as if it was the last thing to keep me alive.
"I don't have a king! I have a queen...or at least I will...probably," Jack said, making us all laugh again, it was funny but I could see the pain behind the joke. 'One day, my man, soon' I sent through mind link and he smiled, thanking me for the reassurance, as much as I was scared that our mate would hate us, or worse, I had hope, and I knew that having hope was what was best for Jack. We all calmed down and I finished my sammich, while Jack explained my dream to them, the consensus was unanimous in that they agreed it was a mate's dream, they were all far more educated than myself.
"Probably a stupid question, but I imma ask it anyway, what is a mate's dream, and what is it used for?" I asked and immediately felt stupid by the gazes they gave me, Nicki had her mate dream a week before she met Jade, and Miguel had his four days before he met Ash, they all knew what it meant but I was still confused as could be. Luckily, Nicki always had my back when I was in a tough situation.
"The mate dream is, for demons at least, the Ancient Evil's way of informing us of who, what, and/or where our mate is. You said that you resisted and barked at the wolf?"
"Yeah...I was confused as to what it was and what was happening."
"Two things: One, you might not want to call Alex an 'it', might give her the wrong impression, and two, she might've thought that you were a feisty puppy, instead of an intimidating hellhound," She said, and that made me blush, so I willed my hair to go ablaze so no-one could see the red forming on my cheeks.
"What makes you think it was Alex?"
"Are you kidding me!? You're so painfully oblivious it's almost cute!" Ash yelled from the armory, making me even more confused, 'I'm not oblivious, what're you talking about?' I thought as I let my hood down and unhinged my jaw, devouring my sammich in one chomp.
"How am I oblivious?!"
"So. Many. Reasons. You fucking dork," Jade said, "You want a fuckin' list?"
"Sure, you won't get more than two."
"She kissed you, she stalked you twice, her wolf perfectly describes the one in her dream, she has flirted with you, need I go on?"
"No! I-i get it, you don't need to keep going," I said and took a swig from my drink, trying to ignore the blatant blush that was creeping along my face. They were right, I was oblivious to Alex and whether or not she was my mate was yet to be found, I hated when they were right.
"Alright, alright, Jack go make yourself a sammich, Jade stop teasing him unless you want me to make you scream right here, right now, Miguel and Ash continue with the armory," Nicki said and nodded at me towards her room, she turned and left, I put my plate in the sink and followed after her into her room. She sat on her bed and I closed the door before sitting in the La-Z-Boy she had, she called it a La-Z-Girl which we both found amusing, and she turned on her radio. The music was Fall Out Boy but it was quiet so we could talk, her cabinets were filled with books, makeup, and clothing. Back before we grouped our family, when we would hang out, she would practice her makeup on me because no one else would. I would never admit it to her, but I didn't have that much of a problem with it, lipstick made me more confident, but that was really the only reaction I had to her makeup because I felt fairly neutral towards it.
"You're not going to go out of your way to find Alexandria, are you?"
"You gotta chase what you wanna catch, she's an alpha, she's the boss at her pack and she knows the rules."
"And if she chases you? What happens then?"
"We'll see when it comes to that, I don't think I'll run because I don't have a reason to," I said and willed a soda in my hand, she did the same and we continued talking like that for a while, sexual innuendos, and jokes throughout.
"You know that when Alex claims you as her mate, I'm going to show her pictures of you with lipstick on, right?"
"Two things, One, that would require her to accept me as her mate even if y' all are right and she is, and two, if you do I would hide in that closet and refuse to come out," I said pointing at the closet she used as a place to store backup ammo, guns, makeup, and other random shit.
"If you could fit in there, you mean."
"Touché," I said and we clinked our soda cans together, we used to do this more, but with family issues and jobs after jobs popping up, we never really had time, "this is nice."
"Being able to talk and get shit off your chest?"
"Exactly, it's been a while since we've been able to," I said and got cut off by Jack running in excited and looking like it was taking every ounce of willpower he had not to jump up and down like an excited puppy.
"Jake! Miguel got everything working on the truck!"
"Okay?"
"And he said we could go and shoot the big gun!"
"Really?!" I got up, surprised and now just as excited as he was, and I could feel the gaze of judgment from Nicki on my back.
"Yes! Come on, I wanna go shoot!" He said and ran off towards the garage, I told Nicki that we could talk when I got back, and I chased after Jack towards the garage. Inside Miguel was holding Jack back from getting to the gun, making me laugh, and Ashley was waiting in the truck.
"Why not!?"
"Because Jake called dibs on being able to shoot the gun first, you'll just have to wait for your turn," Miguel said, making Jack get in the back of the truck, and opened up the back for me to climb into.
"Why thank you, sir," I said jokingly as he closed the door, and explained how to get into the gunner's seat, after about ten minutes of fiddling and a handful of scrapes and other mishaps, I was in the back and ready to shoot, I was so excited I could barely hold it in.
"So boss, where are we headed?"
"I have an idea, let's go back and pay a visit to our friends in Arizona," I said, smirking as I pieced together my plan, 'THIS. Is gonna be fun.'