Soulmated

by Sara Summers

  “A much different lifestyle.” I agreed. She had no idea just how different.

  “How did you meet, then?”

  “Oh,” I thought back to the lie sheet. “He was filming a movie in Boise and I went into town with some friends. He tripped me on accident and felt so bad that he bought us lunch to apologize. He was planning on leaving after he paid, but he had too much fun so he stayed, and we’ve been dating ever since.” I told her the fake meeting in my own words, hoping I’d gotten the basic details right.

  “Aw, that’s cute. What’s your husband’s name? What movie was he filming?” Amanda wondered.

  My eyes widened when I realized I had no idea what any of his movies were called, even the one he’d done in Idaho.

  “Um,” I glanced at the door, hoping he would walk through and save me. Unfortunately, I was on my own. “His name is Logan Lush.”

  His name was better than any movie title, apparently.

  Her mouth fell open wide.

  “You’re married to Logan Lush?”

  I nodded.

  “My younger sister is in love with him. She has posters of him all over her room and even has a life-size cutout of him. He’s sure an attractive guy.” Amanda said, like that should make me proud to be dating him or something.

  I had no idea what to say with this girl sitting in front of me, telling me that someone had a crush on my soulmate.

  He was my soulmate, after all. I didn’t want to share him with anyone, even in their minds.

  “What a small world.” I forced a smile.

  “Yeah, small world.” She laughed. “I didn’t know he was married, though.” Her eyes went to my left hand, which was noticeably bare to a human who expected a wedding ring.

  “We just eloped last night. He’s getting the ring sized right now.” I smiled like I was excited, and congratulated myself for the believable lie. I’d lied so well that I almost believed it myself.

  Okay, that’s an overstatement, but it was a good lie.

  While she did my nails, she asked me lots of things about him, and I answered as well as I could. It made me uncomfortable that she knew more about my soulmate than I did, and that I had to make up stories about the two of us and our “secret relationship”. But I played along, pretending not to mind.

  When my nails were done—fake nails, with white on the tips—I followed Amanda back to the waiting area and let her hug me when she said goodbye.

  A few minutes later, I was taken back to the other side of the salon for the eyelash extensions.

  It was another woman doing the eyelashes, and she didn’t say much. I appreciated having some peace and quiet even though I felt incredibly uncomfortable sitting on a table with my eyes closed while she glued eyelashes on mine to make them longer.

  The whole idea of eyelash extensions was a strange one for me, but I tried not to think about it too hard. If I thought about it, it would’ve creeped me out a little.

  When it was done, I opened my eyes and felt a little unbalanced. My eyelashes felt heavy, my nails felt way too long, and my hair felt too flowy. The hair thing wasn’t nearly as off-putting as the other two things.

  I thought it was over after that, but the same lady took me to another part of the salon and used hot wax on my face, ripping out some of my eyebrow hair and a nonexistent mustache. She waxed my arms, legs, and a few other places I’d rather not mention. The whole thing was a new level of horror.

  When it finally ended I got out of the chair feeling like I’d just been tortured.

  “Hey, Em.” Logan smiled at me and walked up, wrapping his arm around me. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips, which surprised me a little. Not only was the torture over, I was also back with my soulmate again. That was a relief.

  Wasn’t it? I didn’t know. I’d just spent more hours in the salon than I’d even spent talking to Logan, and that felt a little off.

  “Hey.” I smiled weakly, feeling eyes around the room focused on me.

  “Ready to go?” he wondered.

  “Yeah.” I nodded, letting him take my hand.

  We walked out of the salon and into a cab that was waiting outside. I swallowed and looked out the window at all of the people and towering buildings. Everything felt so surreal. It was 2 PM, so I’d spent a long, long time in that salon.

  “Are you okay?” Logan asked softly.

  “I don’t know.” I leaned my head back against the seat.

  24 hours earlier, I’d been in my parent’s house in Mount Edge. I’d just gotten home from working construction, and I was full of calm energy. Life was simple, 24 hours earlier. Everything had felt easy and right.

  Now that I had Logan, though, nothing was simple. I had a list of lies to remember, I was hiding who I was, and I didn’t even look like me. But that was to be expected, I told myself. My life was supposed to change when I met my soulmate.

  I just never expected it to change so much.

  Eight

  “I brought you some food.” Logan handed me a paper bag with a logo stamped on it. I opened the bag and found a plastic container with soup in it.

  “Thank you.” I smiled. I was hungry, but not for soup. My brothers and I had PB&J sandwiches every day for lunch. I loved having lunch with my brothers, talking about work and wondering what the future would be like and making fun of each other.

  PB&J was a part of my life. Soup? It just didn’t feel like me.

  But Logan was sweet to remember that I’d need to eat, so even though I would’ve killed for a sandwich, I thanked him and acted like I wasn’t on the verge of tears.

  “You can wait to eat it when we get to the house if you want. My mom’s stylist filled the first floor of our house with clothes for you, so they’ll be making alterations all afternoon.” He explained.

  “Great.” I hoped my smile didn’t look crumbly because it sure felt crumbly.

  “How was it? Did it feel weird to have your first manicure?” Logan wondered. He looked happy for me. I didn’t want to hurt him by saying that I’d been miserable and wished I could go back in time and shift and run for the hills when he’d pulled up in my driveway.

  “It was different.” I agreed. “But kind of nice.”

  Kind of nice? Okay, that was a lie. The pedicure had only been a little uncomfortable and getting the eyelash extensions was pretty much just a nap, but everything else had been awful.

  “I got you a phone while you were at the salon,” he said, handing me a fancy cell phone and a big blue purse.

  “Great.” I felt my smile start to fall and knew that I was going to start to look crumbly soon.

  Reaching up to the cotie on my neck, I scratched at the marking and tried not to think of the forest back home. I wanted so badly to shift and run through the forest with my brothers until life felt better—until everything felt more manageable.

  But all I could see was buildings, and there was an eight hour airplane ride separating me and my family and the forest that I loved.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, for the second time since we’d gotten in the car.

  I guess he’d seen my crumbly smile after all.

  “I don’t know.” The answer was the same as the first time.

  “You can talk to me, you know.” He reminded me.

  “I’m tired and I miss the forest and my whole body is itching to shift. My eyelashes feel heavy, my nails are long and fake, and I liked the way my hair was before. I don’t feel like me right now.” I looked away from him, turning my gaze out the window.

  “I’m sorry.” He took my hand. While it was a sweet gesture, it didn’t fix anything.

  “I’m an alien here, Logan. I don’t know what I’m doing in this city.” I gestured to the buildings around us, as we were stopped in the middle of the street, surrounded by cars.

  “You’ll learn to love it, I promise. It felt weird to me too when I first moved here.”

  “Maybe.” I closed my eyes for a long second before turning to look at him. “Can w
e just take a nap? Or have a few minutes together? The nail lady’s little sister knows more about you than I do.”

  “Tomorrow I’m all yours, okay? We’ll spend the whole day together. Today we have to do what my mom wants, but tomorrow I’m all yours.” He assured me.

  “Fine.” I looked out the window.

  “Emma,” he protested. My frustration was apparent.

  “What do you want me to say? That I love letting your mom decide how my hair should be? Or my nails? That I’ll love putting on whatever uncomfortable clothing she has waiting at your house? That I enjoy having extra hair glued on my eyelashes? None of that is true.” I folded my arms.

  “I want you to say that you think it’s worth it.” He said, putting his hand on my knee.

  “If I didn’t think it was worth it I wouldn’t be here.” I turned to look out the window. “But my mom didn’t try to force you to fit into my world. She told you that she was so glad you came and found me. Yours called me trash and sent me to a salon for ten hours so I could look the way she thinks I should.”

  We stopped before he could reply, right in front of a massive old stone house wedged between other huge buildings.

  I got out of the car and walked around to the other side of the car, taking my new purse and phone and case of real fake hair. Logan hurried to pay the cab driver and jump out of the car with the paper bag he’d brought me.

  “Emma.” He stopped me on the stairs that led up to the front door with a hand on my waist.

  “I’m your soulmate, your mom isn’t. Stop touching me, I don’t want to be close to you right now. Now please open the door so I can get the rest of today over with.” I gestured to the front door.

  “Whoa, I’m not letting you walk away like that.” He protested.

  I put a hand on my hip.

  “You’re not letting me?” I stepped up to him so our chests were nearly touching. “I’m a wolf, Logan. I grew up surrounded by boys who loved football, wrestling, and fighting. You don’t let me do anything; I do what I choose to do. Go ahead and try to stop me.”

  I left him on the stairs, marching up to the front door and grabbing the handle. I got lucky, because it was unlocked.

  “Welcome, Miss Emma.” A voice said over some sort of an intercom in the entryway. I jumped a little when I heard it, but figured that was why the door was unlocked. No luck involved, apparently.

  If I hadn’t been so upset, I would’ve been in awe over the fancy foyer area with its white and gray tile or the grand staircase leading to the second floor. As I was, I took it in stride.

  “Oh good, you’re back. You need to try these on so Mary can get the alterations finished by this afternoon.” Laren stood from the regal-looking white couch beside four racks filled with hanging clothing. She didn’t mention the completely new look she’d had the salon give me.

  “Alright.” I handed Logan my bags and stepped over to the rack of clothes.

  “You have one hour, and then she’s mine.” Logan told his mom.

  “She’ll be trying things on until Elouise arrives for makeup.” His mom said, matter-of-factly.

  “You have an hour or nothing. I’m going to spend time with my wife before the party.” He warned. That was the first time I saw him stand up to his mom.

  “Fine. We’ll be done in an hour.” Her words sounded clipped and unhappy, but she didn’t argue.

  I was impressed. I hadn’t known if he had that in him. While I’d just about cringed when he called me his wife, standing up to his mom was enough for me.

  “Emma,” he stepped up close to me but didn’t touch me. He’d been listening, and that meant something to me. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “We’re going to talk about what just happened when you’re done with this. This conversation isn’t over, I’m not okay with leaving things like this.”

  “Alright.” I nodded once before joining his mom and the alteration lady by the racks of clothes.

  The next hour flew by. While I was tired and hungry, I was just putting things on, waiting while Mary pinned and marked the clothes, and then putting on something else. It wasn’t exciting, but it was much better than the salon.

  When Logan came down the stairs, Laren was having me try on shoes to figure out what size I wore. I’d told her I wore size seven, but she didn’t trust my Dumpster shoes I guess.

  Of course, trying on shoes only proved that I did indeed wear size seven.

  “Alright, you can be done.” Laren agreed reluctantly, since there were still two racks of clothes I hadn’t tried on.

  “We can finish tomorrow if you want.” I told her, since it was obviously important to her that these clothes fit me.

  “Yes.” She nodded. “I told Elouise to be here for makeup at 4:30, so you have a little more than an hour.” She spoke directly to Logan. That wasn’t a surprise, but she had talked to me a few times while I was trying things on.

  I met Logan at the bottom of the stairs and we walked up what felt like a thousand stairs, stopping on the fourth floor.

  “Right here.” I saw him reach out to touch my arm and then stop, remembering what I’d said earlier. Instead, he gestured to the door.

  “This is your room?” I stepped inside and looked around. The walls were the same grayish white as the ones on the rest of the floor. There was a guitar in the corner and a TV on the wall across from the bed, but it was empty other than that.

  “Yep. Yours too, if you’re okay with that.” He sounded cautious.

  I folded my arms over my stomach.

  “We’re soulmates, Logan. I might not be enjoying all of this, but I’m still going to be your soulmate.”

  He nodded, walking to the edge of the bed and sitting down.

  “About what you said earlier,” he ran a hand through his hair. “You were right, I haven’t been fair to you. I didn’t think about what you needed. I was too worried about what my mom wanted and thought you needed to fit in here. I wasn’t trying to force you to change, I just want you to feel like you belong.”

  I sat down next to him.

  “I’m glad that you want me to feel at home here, I am.” I gave him a tiny smile. “But changing the way I look isn’t going to do that for me. You’re the only one who can make me feel like I fit in here.”

  “Alright, then what can I do?” Logan met my gaze, and I could see a sort of determination in his eyes. “What do people usually do when they find out they’re soulmates in the Cage?”

  My smile grew a little.

  “They take a few days or weeks off work—no one works for money there, there’s no money in the Cage—and just take the time to be together. Some of them go see new places, like humans on a honeymoon, and some of them stay inside to figure out how their new life will work. No one pretends it’s not a big change to find your soulmate.”

  “Okay.” He nodded. “Let’s do something like that.”

  There was a knock at the bedroom door that paused our conversation.

  “Come in.” Logan called out.

  The door opened, and it was a man dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt. I had seen enough old movies to know that he was something along the lines of a butler or assistant. He had a paper bag in his hands like the one from the cab earlier, with soup in it. This one had a different logo stamped on it, and I hoped that meant there was something other than soup inside it.

  Anything was better than soup.

  “Thanks, Kyle.”

  The butler’s name surprised me, and I stood up quickly when Logan closed the door.

  “Oh crap. Kyle.” I swore.

  “What?” Logan frowned.

  “It’s a long story. Can I borrow your phone?” I looked over at the bed, where his phone was resting on the blankets.

  “You have your own now.” He reminded me, gesturing to the big blue bag he’d brought when he picked me up from the salon. “But your phone call can wait while you eat.” He held up the bag.

  “Oh, right.” I nodded. I was hungry, so I
couldn’t turn down the food even if it was soup. “What is it?”

  “I saw the way you were looking at the soup earlier.” He grinned and pulled a foot-long sandwich out of the bag.

  My stomach growled when I saw it.

  “If your goal is to win me over, you’ve just discovered the key to doing it.” I accepted the sandwich eagerly.

  “Good.” Logan sat down next to me again, pulling his sandwich out of the bag. “Why do you need to call someone named Kyle?” he wondered.

  “Long story.” I shook my head, taking a bite of the sandwich. “Too complicated.”

  I wasn’t necessarily worried about trying to explain my family situation to him, but I wasn’t excited to do it either. I knew it would sound strange to him, or that he would be uncomfortable when he understood.

  “What, is he an ex-boyfriend or something?” Logan checked, taking a bite of his own sandwich.

  I quickly shook my head.

  “I told you I never dated anyone. I was waiting for you.” I reminded him.

  “Then why don’t you want to tell me?” he pushed a little. Part of me wanted to push back.

  But the rest of me understood that he was just trying to get to know me. He was my soulmate, and he wanted to be close to me. We couldn’t exactly be close if I didn’t even open up to him about my weird family.

  “It’s weird. I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.” I admitted.

  “Alright.” Logan stopped eating for a second and held out his pinky. “I pinky swear not to judge you if you tell me whatever is weird about Kyle and why you need to call him.” He vowed.

  “Fine.” I linked my pinky with his. “Kyle is my dad. Kind of.”

  Logan’s eyebrows wrinkled together when he frowned.

  “I thought Ty was your dad.”

  “He is too.” I grimaced. I knew it was going to sound weird. “Ty and Leah are my parents that raised me, but they’re not my biological parents. My biological mom was named Bree, she died when I was three. She was a human until she was twenty. While she was a human in college, she went to a party and was drugged. I was born nine months later.” I tried to explain it as simply as I could.