Chapter 6: Meet Giselle (2)

Giselle looked up at Dorris with startles.

Her heart was pounding. In Giselle's mind, her inner wolf's voice was urging her: "Say it! Say you were forced to do it! Edsel isn't here! Tell her!"

Giselle bit her lip, choosing not to say anything. Her finger under the table fidgeting: "No. I want to do this myself."

Dorris blinked, not knowing what to think anymore. The Luna's eyes flared golden for a second then disappeared.

"You've seen Marcus's picture, right? How do you see Marcus?"

Giselle blinked and tried to skim through her memory for the image of a man whose name was Marcus.

It was true that Edsel had shown her his picture, but Giselle was not very attentive at the time, and in her head, she was only worried about her mom. So, she obviously could not remember what Marcus's face looked like.

Right there and then, Lady Bailey's question seemed a little bit all of a sudden. Giselle did not think Lady Bailey would ask that question. It caught her off guard. She thought about it for a second. Finally, muttered out a decent answer:

"Yes, I saw it. He seems to be a friendly and good man."

Lady Dorris laughed. Suddenly there was a feeling that this girl was not carefully observing Marcus.

Despite being a mother, Lady Dorris admits that if someone ever looked at Marcus's photo only, they could not say Marcus was a friendly person. Her son in the photo often gave off a quite distant impressive. He might seem cold, if not somewhat aggressive. Marcus had the typical resting bitch face. In short, you could not say that Marcus was friendly by just looking at his photo.

He was a good man. It was just not shown in the photo.

This girl was indeed forced into this marriage by Edsel.

Mrs. Dorris felt somewhat sorry. How good it would have been if this girl had met Marcus before Tina did. And even better if Giselle cast Marcus under her spell!

If so, Lady Dorris wouldn't feel guilty for what she was about to do.

"I..."

"Yes?"

Giselle hesitated to raise her voice to cheer Lady Dorris. She raised her head, looking at her expression of wanting to speak again. She said, "What do you say?"

"I... I want to get married as soon as possible."

Giselle gathered all of her courage to look directly into Lady Bailey's eyes. Giselle clutched her hand and uttered this statement.

Lady Dorris was quite surprised.

A moment of silence passed, Giselle saw Mrs. Dorris just looking at her without saying anything, causing her heart to jerk. Was she too hasted? Was Lady Bailey going to cancel this marriage or not? If Giselle caused the wedding to be canceled, would Edsel do anything to harm her mother?

Thousands of questions ran through Giselle's head. Her inner wolf, of course, restless.

It screamed at Giselle, telling her how stupid she sounded. She couldn't be that straightforward to a woman she had just met and barely remembered her fiancé's face!

Giselle knew she was stupid. But it was too late to take that back.

***

Marcus Bailey frowned as he looked at his cell phone. It had been four days since Tina had not replied to any of his messages. He did not know what was going wrong. He re-thought of it, but nothing came to his mind.

They were in the good term. But then, the next time he knew, she was keeping her distance away from him.

He had not told her about their marriage yet. He wanted to purpose first before his mom spoke with her dad about their relationship. But little did he know, his mom had done everything beforehand.

"Cheer up man, what's with the long face?"

His friend Toby pulled up at the parking, turning off the engine. Ben, who was sitting next to Toby at the shotgun, let out a chuckle: "10 bucks he is waiting for his girlfriend text."

"20 bucks his girl dumb him." Toby followed.

"Shut up." Marcus rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"You don't say. They're merely a week away from their wedding don't you remember?"

Tim, who was sitting beside Marcus, jolted up and jokingly said: "Marcus has been ditched, everyone. This is a great story to tell your kids later on. The almighty Marcus Bailey has been ditched before his wedding! "

"Shut up!" Marcus was in a voice, annoyed, getting out of the car first.

Sometimes he hated his friends to the gut.

He loved them but hated them at the same time. Guess that was what they called a love-hate relationship.

"Oh, come on!" Those three young wolves exclaimed. Their laughter annoyed Marcus even more.

He hissed: "You three want to come out or not?"

"Dinner on Marcus!" Tim exclaimed.

"Drink on him, too!" Ben followed.

"Destroy his platinum card!" Toby sounded so excited.

Marcus sighed as he walked into the small restaurant at the corner of the street, following those three friends of his. Toby said he had found this restaurant accidentally. The restaurant looked cozy from the outside, and most importantly, the restaurant was always crowded, which meant the food might have been great. And last but not least, this restaurant was located on a neutral street, which meant no packs claimed this. They could eat in peace.

Marcus did not say anything. Whatever his boys like. He promised to treat them the other day.

As they approached the dinner, Marcus spotted four girls were waiting outside, too. And as he got closer, Marcus recognized a familiar face.

"That girl from the bar." He mumbled.

The girl stood there with her friends, hands shoved in her front pocket, looking unamused. She was focusing on one of her shoes which drew a circle on the ground. She seemed unbothered. Three other girls beside her were constantly chit-chatting about something, and then, one of the girls saw them, she exclaimed, waving both her hands excited:

"Over here!"

She was calling for them.

"Toby, over here!" The girl was overly joyful. She even ran to them.

Marcus turned to look at his friend. His eyes widened while his eyebrows crooked in curiosity.

Did Toby know those girls?

The unspoken question clearly ran through Toby's mind. Toby beamed, shrugged, and then ran to the girl, hugging her: "Miss you."

Marcus exchanged an odd look with Tim and Ben. The two men shrugged.

"We've been waiting for so long. I thought you won't come." The girl pouted.

Toby laughed, leading them to the girls who stood waiting outside of the restaurant.

Giselle, at that point, had looked up. Much to her surprise, her eyes widened at the sight of Marcus approaching.

What was he doing here?

The closer Marcus got, the stronger the smell of cedarwood coming from him. It was not known if it was because of her overly sensitive nostrils, but Giselle could smell Marcus's scent more clearly than ever before.

And it made her inner wolf unsettling. It wanted more of that scent. It desired to bathe in that pleasing and comforting scent. Giselle's heartbeat raised, and her inner wolf could not stop moving around. Giselle felt hot. Incredibly hot!

"Gi... Giselle, Giselle..."

Her friend Anne shook her hard, pulling her away from her bewilderment.

Giselle looked at her friend awkwardly, asking: "Why... What's wrong?"

As she spoke, she glanced at Marcus and three other men who were just five footsteps away from them then. At that moment, her and Marcus' eyes collided.

Other than her confused expression, Marcus casually laughed: "Look like we've met again."

Giselle had a smile that couldn't have been wrier. What a small world!

"Not like I am expecting it," Giselle said.

Their friends looked at the duo, strangely.

"You have met?" Tim nudged Marcus' side, asking.

Marcus nodded. He then went on and told them the situation of why they had met. The boys knew the reason why the moment Marcus mentioned the bar. But for the girls, they were human. They wouldn't have known nor should they need to know.

"Anyways, girls this is my boyfriend, Toby," Fiona said with her giggling tone. She then proceeded to introduce her friends: "They are Anne, Sarah, and Giselle."

"Nice to meet you guys." Toby shook hands with them, took a turn introducing his friends, "I'm Toby. They are Tim, Ben, and Marcus."

Giselle shook at hearing the name.

Marcus?

Did Toby just say "Marcus"? Did this Marcus, by any chance was the Marcus that Edsel constantly mentioned?

However, it was not uncommon to have the same name. Giselle assumed that the man had the same name as Marcus Bailey. They could not be the same person.

God, if only she had remembered the face of that Marcus Bailey guy.

***

The dinner went well. Marcus got to find out this dinner belonged to Giselle. He felt the need to say that he was impressed. Giselle looked young but already owned a restaurant of her own. Although this dinner was not big or whatsoever, it definitely had a homey feeling. Not to mention, the food was on point. The best Marcus had ever tasted. His wolf agreed, too.

"To be honest, I didn't expect that dinner would be that good."

Marcus sped up, walking side by side with Giselle. They had finished dinner and decided to take the dinner date to the riverside instead of going into a bar. Their friends were in front of them, chatting and giggling all the way.

"Thanks... I guess?" Giselle shoved both of her hands in her front pocket.

She did not expect Marcus to talk to her. The last time they had met it was not that good. She was distressed, annoyed that night. Moreover, she was tipsy. Giselle had a high alcohol intake, but drowning five shots of strong alcohol at the same time was not a good idea.

"You're welcome." Marcus looked up from his phone, wittily reply to Giselle before taking another look at his phone, sighing, and putting it away.

"Waiting for someone?" Giselle obviously noticed that.

"My fiancé," Marcus said. He sounded sad. "Our wedding is near, but I can't seem to get a hold of her recently."

Giselle took a look at his frown face. She cleared her throat, said: "Give her sometimes."

"Excuse me?" Marcus crooked his eyebrows. He did not understand what Giselle was saying.

"If I was your fiancé, I would like to have some time for my own now. You guys are getting married real soon. Maybe she's scared right now. Love is one thing. But marriage... And the marking thing..."

Remembered the marking thing, she could not help but shuddered.

Marking was a werewolf tradition. It was a way of marking your partner and promised to stay faithfully for life. In the past, once the werewolves had marked their mates, the marks would remain for life. They could not remove it whatsoever. They would be bonded together until one of them died.

But that was not the case lately.

These days, there was something called surgery.

Giselle only heard about how terrible a surgery might do to an Omega but has not experienced that yet. Hopefully, she would never have to. But with this forceful marriage, Giselle did not so sure.

She touched her neck where her scent gland was, mindlessly.

"You have something on your mind too?" Marcus voiced. Suddenly, the smell of cedarwood emitted from him made Giselle feel caressed. The anxiety had just disappeared. She felt relief.

Giselle looked at Marcus, under the dim light of those yellowy street lights Marcus's features felt more attractive. Marcus's mystery and char impression were further enhanced. His blue eyes, which were as deep as the bottom of the ocean, seemed to have attractions that Giselle could not escape. She saw herself being sucked in by those deep eyes, sinking into the deep ocean.

The ocean was incredibly warm and familiar, too. It did not scare Giselle, but vice versa. She felt very secure.

"Is there anything on my face?"

Marcus awkwardly scratched his nose. His old habit was hard to break. He found himself doing it whenever he was confused.

He did not know whether he said anything that might make Giselle uncomfortable, so she stared at him like that? 

Giselle's stare made Marcus's inner wolf go crazy. It did not stop moving around in eagerness. It wanted more. It wanted Giselle not just to look at him but hug him, kissing him, so that it could emerge itself in her comforting eucalyptus scent.

This scent made Marcus feel relaxed, very comfortable. Unlike Tina's rose scent that constantly made his inner wolf feel odd.

Giselle's scent made his heartbeat raised.

But it could not be that way.

He had a fiancé. They were happily in love and about to have a wedding ceremony in just a few days.

Just because Tina was acting cold and ignoring him these days did not mean he could think of someone else.