Ella is in a mood today. She isn’t happy, sad, excited, or lazy. She is just in a mood and doesn’t know what it is. She is roaming around the house doing this and that, never able to finish what she starts. The whole time she is going from room to room, her wolf inside of her is pacing back and forth in her mind. She is in a mood, too, and they are feeding off each other.
Trying to make the bed, all she accomplishes is getting the blankets and pillows piled on top of it. She throws pillows and cushions off the couch and loveseat in the living room, planning to flip the cushions over and set everything back to right. But as soon as she has them all on the floor, she can’t do it anymore and must move on to something else. While throwing all the cushions on the floor and piling the blankets up on the bed, her wolf hums in contentment.
Still, as soon as the mess is worse than when she started, she gets agitated again. In the kitchen, she is only half able to organize the fridge, just getting the bottles of water and snacks pulled to the front before abandoning that task. It is the same in every room she visits. She starts thinking she will clean the whole room, only to feel like she must do something else soon after.
She needs Eli to come home; if he was here, she could pick a fight with him. That could get her out of her mood. She loves Eli and is so happy living with him, but today, she needs more.
Ella is still moving from room to room, touching this and that, unable to get anything done. Eli is late, and her mood is even worse for waiting.
Eli is happy. Today is the day he plans on popping the big question. The ring has finally been completed, and he is picking it up on the way home, waiting for the jewelers to box it up and wrap it with a bow. He calls Razzi's, the cute little Italian restaurant where he and Ella had their first date, to make a reservation. He told Ella he wanted to take her out to dinner tonight, earlier in the week. He hopes she will be ready when he gets home.
When Eli walks through the door, the first thing he notices is the living room. It looks like a tornado has gone through it, piling all the cushions on the floor. Across from the living room of their small apartment, he can see into the bedroom where it looks like the tornado had also struck, piling everything up on the bed. Finally, he notices Ella standing in the doorway of their tiny kitchen, a glare on her face, her hip popped out with one hand on it. He starts to ask what is wrong but doesn’t even get the first sound out before she lights into him.
"Where have you been, Eli? I have been waiting here for hours for you to come home. You think I like being here all day on my day off while you are doing who knows what with your friends?” she exclaims.
“I know you got off work well over an hour ago, and it only takes a few minutes to get home from the office, so tell me, Eli, what was so important that you had to go cavorting with your friends for so long?” Ella asks.
She knows she is being unfair to him. He rarely does anything after work with his friends, who often go out for drinks, preferring to come home to her. But right now, it Doesn’t matter. She is in a mood, her wolf is in a mood, and she must do something now to get out of it.
Eli’s face drops as Ella starts questioning him. He knows she likes him home early on the days she has off from her job. This morning, she had seemed happy and excited about their date tonight, even though she didn’t know he planned on asking her to become life mates. To mark each other forever and be damned what the bigots think about a wolf shifter and vampire mating.
When Eli starts to speak again, Ella’s wolf lets out a deep growl in her mind, one that Ella mimics, the growl coming from deep in her chest rattling her bones. She starts to stalk toward Eli, furious now, even though she hasn't given him a chance to speak yet. She can feel the change beginning to come over her. Her incisors elongate, pressing down over her lips. She can feel the claws coming out of the tips of her fingers, the hair growing thicker on her arms. Her sense of smell amplifies a hundred times as her wolf nose emerges. Is that the smell of perfume coming off Eli? She feels her vision change to the brighter tones of her wolf vision. She knows that her eyes have just flashed over golden.
Eli sees Ella stalking toward him, her wolf form taking over. Instinctively, he lets his fangs drop down, and his eyes flash red as his vampire comes out to protect him. As she comes closer, he lets out a hiss in warning. Then, he realizes what he is doing. This is his Ella, the love of his life. He pulls back the vampire, his teeth retracting, his eyes go back to their typical deep brown, and he makes himself smaller, tilting his head up and baring his neck to her in a sign of submission. He knows her wolf will respond to this as an alpha, and she won’t hurt him.
Ella comes closer to Eli, her wolf liking his show of submission, but the closer she gets, the more pungent the smell of perfume. She can almost see it coming off his shirt.
With a throaty growl, she asks him, "Who is she? I can smell her perfume coming from you. Is that what you have been doing? Out with some vampire whore while I wait here for you?”
Eli is shocked for a minute. Never would he do something like that to his Ella. Then he thinks back, and the clerk at the jeweler was wearing perfume, and she might have touched his arm while he was picking up the ring.
Eli quickly explains, "I stopped by a store, and the clerk there was wearing perfume. She might have brushed me while I was getting my bag."
Ella comes right up to Eli. He still has his head up and to the side, exposing his neck, trying to soothe Ella's wolf. Ella pushes her nose right into Eli's neck, sniffing for the source of the perfume. Not finding it there, she runs her nose over his shoulder and down his arm. There, it is on the arm of his shirt. With a growl, she runs her claws down both sides of his shirt, shredding it before throwing it away from them.
She then runs her head up and down Eli’s chest and arms, searching for any hint that the clerk has touched his skin, rubbing her scent over any place where there might be even a trace of the perfume soaked through his shirt. Her wolf, finally satisfied that another woman hadn't touched what is hers and that Eli is marked with her scent, finally pulls back from Ella a little bit. Ella is still partially shifted, but her claws and fangs aren't as long now.
Eli relaxes some as Ella's wolf retreats a little. He smiles down at her as she is still rubbing the side of her head against his chest, marking him as hers. He loves being marked by his little wolf shifter. It makes him feel complete, which is why he plans to propose to her tonight.
He looks down at her and says, "Darling, I would never do anything to hurt you. You are the love of my life, and I want to spend the rest of it with you.”
Ella is still in a mood, even with her head against Eli. All traces of that whore clerk's perfume are gone. If she ever finds that clerk, she will rip her to shreds for daring to touch what is hers. At Eli’s words, a new feeling comes over Ella. Heat sweeps out from her core, bubbling through her entire body, and her teeth grow longer again as a new need fills her. She lets out another low growl as she grabs Eli’s belt and pulls him with her toward the pile of cushions on the floor. She nearly tackles him down on the pile of pillows and lands on top of him, lips kissing his neck and running her teeth over his skin. Ella doesn’t know what is happening to her right now. All she knows is that she has to touch Eli. She runs her hands over every bit of his skin she can reach.
Eli is shocked at Ella’s aggressiveness. He knows she is an alpha and likes to be in control, but this is beyond anything he has ever seen from her. At the same time, it touches a part of his soul, making his vampire want to come out and play. His teeth drop back down as he kisses Ella’s shoulder, running his tongue along the vein there. He drops his hands down to Ella's waist and starts to pull her shirt up. As soon as it gets high enough to begin impeding her from touching him, she reaches up and tears it over her head, ripping it down the middle in the process, and throws it aside.