Chapter 27

I woke up engulfed in Ryder's muscular arms. The last thing I remember is crying myself to sleep on the couch. Everything started to come back full force. The shopping trip, meeting the pack, eating alone. I felt a new round of tears start to form, but I quickly pushed them away as I felt Ryder move next to me. My face was under his chin with my arms held against my chest. I tried to move my arms, but they felt numb to me and it didn't help that Ryder was in the way of letting me stretch them out. I flip onto my back and Ryder still had his arm wrapped around my waist. I tried to move them again, but they didn't budge. I then sat up getting fed up with my numb arms. Immediately when I sat up my arms fell to my sides. I tried to move them, but they were incredibly numb. I started to freak out a little at be so numb.

Ryder soon woke up a few minutes later and got a confused look at my stressed out face. I look at him then turned the other way. I couldn't let him see me like this. "Hey," he spoke softly, "What's wrong?"

"I can't move my arms." I couldn't look at him as the embarrassment took over.

He picked up my arms they were dead. He shook them and I couldn't feel anything. Ryder then dropped them and they landed in an awkward position. I couldn't feel what it was like because of being numb. "I guess they really are numb. Let me try to help with this." He flipped me so that I was facing him again. Ryder made me sit on his lap and I fell off immediately. My arms couldn't hold onto anything, but Ryder immediately caught me and grabbed my arms. He started to rub my arms and I got this tingly sensation like little needles poking up and down my arms. I was finally able to feel his warm hand rubbing my arms.

"Thank you," I repaid him with a hug and a light kiss on the cheek. He returned the hug and I felt him smile really big on the side of my neck. He started to peck my neck lightly before he stopped and pulled away from me. He still had his arms around my waist, but a confused expression filled his face.

"Why didn't you come to dinner last night and why did you fall asleep on the couch?" I'm not going to tell him about the part when I felt unworthy because he would go up in a fit about that.

"I couldn't face the pack yet. I didn't want to take you away from your pack and besides I only saw one chair in there open. I knew that one was for you and I didn't want to worry you. I let you go ahead so that you could go and have a good time. I knew I would just ruin everyone's dinner if I joined. I came up here afterwards. I ate dinner on the couch and I got sleepy so I fell asleep. There's not much to say about it." He sighs and hugs me closer to him. I think he knew I was lying a little, but he didn't say anything.

"I will make sure by tonight that there is an extra chair for you right beside me. Don't forget that you are the Luna of the pack now. You are going to be spending a lot of time with them so you might as well try getting to know them. I will introduce a few at dinner to you, but you have to be braver and not afraid. Just remember that if they give you any trouble then come to me immediately." I nod my head and took a deep breath. That's true of what he said and if I don't make a good impression then my life will just become harder. I hug him back and we finally pull away.

He kept his promise at dinner. At first I was a little shy, but after talking to the girl next to me I became a bit more comfortable. After dinner Ryder and I headed back to our room, I am just facing the facts that he and I will be together, and got ready for bed. Ryder whispered in my ear just before I fell asleep "We have school tomorrow."

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I woke up to an annoying alarm clock. I whacked my hand around until I shut it up. I slowly got up only to be tugged back into Ryder's chest. I don't have time for this. With school today I have to get ready and figure out how to get there. Ryder can't drive me there because that would ruin his school reputation and my bullies will bully him.

After a good 10 minutes I was finally able to wiggle out of Ryder's hold. I was able to get ready in about 15 minutes and headed out the door. My stuff is always left at school so it would never be stolen away from me in the middle of the night as I was living on the street. I made sure not to put my shoes on until I was at the front door as not to wake up anyone. My jacket is wrapped tightly around me as I make my way off the property and to school.

It takes about 35 minutes to get there on foot. As I reach the front door someone comes up behind me and puts his arm around my waist. I turn my head and see Ryder next to me. As we enter he whispers "We will talk about this on the way home, but just know that you will never come to school without me." I sigh and nod my head. My eyes stay to the floor as I felt everyone's eyes on us. We didn't even go that far into the school until we reach my locker. I open it up and suddenly there was a blast of red, purple and blue from my locker. After that there was glitter that headed towards my face. Laughter fills the hallway as everyone points at me. I felt Ryder growl next to me and brings me into his arms. He yells "What the fuck is wrong with everyone? What the hell did Rosa ever do to you? I may have not have been here long, but I know that this is wrong. Fuck you all." Ryder grabs everything from my locker and leads me to the main office. He speaks venom to the lady that sits there. "How dare you let these students be so cruel to Rosa and not even say anything. Fuck you and everyone who ever came to this school. You can count me and Rosa to never come back to this school. Good luck with your sorry lives." He walks aways with one arm still wrapped around my waist. We head towards his car and I realize that the paint and glitter will get all over his car. Before I can say anything he says "I know you are worried about my car and if you really don't want to sit on the seats I will get a blanket for you to sit on so you don't have to worry."

"What about the blanket?"

"I have been meaning to throw out the blanket because it is getting really old. You will actually help me get rid of it by damaging it beyond repairs." I nod my head as he gets the blanket. As we drive away from the school I see the entire student body looking at us. Just because I want to leave a mark I flip them the bird as we drive away. Ryder laughs and I can't help, but join him. Today has been horrible, but I was lucky to have Ryder with me. Something hit me right here and now. I realized Ryder does care for me, maybe not in life or death situations, but he does care for me deeply. I smile and grab his hand in mine. He looks at me and smiles while squeezing my hand.

When we return home the pack is still there. They all start to ask question at once, but Ryder shushes them and says he will explain later. We go to our bedroom and immediately head towards the bathroom. As I take off my clothes I hear Ryder say to throw them out because of the paint and glitter. I throw out my clothes and go into the shower. I start to wash off the paint, but nothing is coming off. I then try to take off the glitter, but the same thing is happening. I give a sound of frustration and I hear the bathroom door open. "Hey are you okay?" I hear Ryder call out.

"No, nothing is coming off. Can you come help me?" My cheeks flame instantly at my question for him. I want to say I fully trust him, but that's not true. I only trust him a certain amount. This can be a way for him to capture more of that trust for me. "Before you get any ideas Ry-" He cuts me off to speak his own words.

"I won't do anything inappropriate to you. Yes, I will look, but it will happen eventually. You can look at me too if you would like. I can promise you that I won't touch you inappropriately unless you want me to." My cheeks flame even further, but I take deep breaths as the shower door opens and closes. I open my eyes to see Ryder standing bare in front of me not even bothering to cover himself up. I keep my arms at my sides and keep chanting I trust him inside my head. I felt his eyes on me and I was so close to just bolting out of the shower, but he held my face in his palms which lead to bringing my eyes to meet his.

He says, "Hey I'm not going to do anything bad. And if you make a comment about how ugly you think your body is then you are insane." In all honesty I never even thought about my body, I just kept thinking that I need to trust him. He continues, "You are the most beautiful girl in the world and if the people at school can't see that then they are idiots. With you standing here right now, bare, for me to see your body means so much to me. I love that you trust me enough so that we can be in this type of situation. Thank you for this, you are my world, never forget that."

He wraps his arms around me and I wrap mine around his neck. He made me so happy that I felt a few tears come to my eyes. Lucky the shower hid the few tears that escaped. I realized that we were both naked, hugging, in the shower. I went rigid, now feeling his smaller self rub against me. He started to laugh and I think he understood why. He whispered, "You should know that we are taking showers together from now on. Don't give me that look, with your sexy body finally in my view I am want to be able to always enjoy it." I blush harder at his statement, but just nodded my head. I brought this upon myself and I now half to deal with it.

I continue to try to wash off the paint and glitter, but it still wouldn't come off. I gave another sigh when Ryder turned me to face him. He grabbed a huge bar of soap and started to rub up and down where the paint was. It quickly started to come off and when I went to ask what he was doing he said "I have a small ability to clean up things if I use a little amount of my werewolf gene. I can push it to my palm which is now in the soap." I was a little amazed as he began to wash me off. After I was finished he began to wash himself off. I felt a little out of place so I decided to wash his hair. Once I put the shampoo into his hair he looked up, gave me a smile, and then went back to work. After he washed himself he started to shampoo my hair. As he was washing he brought my face close to his and we began to kiss. I don't know how long we made out for, but we both broke apart after the shampoo was long gone.

We finally got out of the shower and went to bed. Ryder insisted that we both go commando, but I didn't want us to wake up in that state with someone in the room with Ryder. Instead we went for the next best thing and wore our intimates. WIth his boxers and my bra and underwear we fell asleep feeling almost every part of each others skin.

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I woke up being engulfed in Ryder's arms. I grab his phone bored of what I am going to do since I don't go to school anymore. I see the date and I freeze, today is my birthday. I can't believe it. I am officially 18 years old. I debated about telling Ryder, but I can't. He has already done so much for me that I couldn't possibly think of anything else he could do for my birthday.

The day goes by almost quickly as Nicole came back with her mate, Dalton. She explained all about how Dalton and her mated after realizing that they were mates in the hotel room. I smiled at how in love she is with Dalton. Every time I looked at him I saw her give Nicole a look so sweet that it would bring me to my knees if I wasn't already sitting down. Ryder stayed with me all day. We played a few games like Uno and Skip-Bo. I had such a good time and we actually invited a few pack members to join us. I felt so happy for myself that I was able to have such a good time even though it wasn't my birthday. As the day continues it was finally dinner and I became more open with everyone around me. Some members started to call me Luna and I told them to call me Rosa. I didn't deserve there respect because if the time comes no one would care enough to come and find me. They would get over it and go back to a normal life before I ever intruded.

Ryder and I were back in bed in no time. I felt so lenient that I allowed for us both to go commando. I snuggled closer to his bare chest as I smiled at the amazing day I had. With Nicole coming back I have a real friend I can hang out with. Me being able to open up to more of the pack made me even happier. I decided that I should tell Ryder that today was my birthday. "Hey Ryder," He mumbled in coherent words  and open his eyes a little to let me know he was listening. I proceeded with "Thank you for giving me such an amazing birthday." The last thing I see is his freaked out face.