"Okay," Bree said. "The last people we need to ask is Manny and his wife.""Can we please just figure this out already?" Jett hit his head against the dash of the car. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with all of this. He just wanted to call the number and get it over with already."I mean," Blake said from the back seat. "We already know they're going to want to go. Both of them love parties!""We need to know for sure," Bree argued. "This is the first party we've ever gotten invited to from the Reverence Pack, and I'm not going to mess this up!""Oh, come on, Bree," Alex rolled his eyes. "You know Jett was the only one invited. They're just trying to be polite and tell him that he could bring us along.""Can't we just give them a rough estimate and leave it at that?" Jett asked."You are so cute when you pout," Bree ruffled his hair. It reminded him of when they were both just siblings rather than leaders. "Look Jett, I know you so desperately want to talk to him again, but t
"Hey, Grandpa?" He walked along the sidewalk of the long empty streets."Yes, Shiro?" he watched him curiously as Shiro balanced himself on the small stone wall that they had been walking beside."What's it like to find your mate?""It's indescribable bliss," he smiled at him. "Finding your mate is finding the other half of your soul. Not only do they complete you, but they bring you happiness and peace for the rest of your days.""Do you think I'll find mine?" he stopped and sat down on the wall, looking at his grandfather with excitement."Of course, you will Shiro," his grandfather chuckled and put a hand on his small shoulders. "You are a Wang. And the Spirit of the Moon blesses our family with mates right when they are of age.""What do you think they will be like?""That's a good question," he said. "The Spirit of the Moon doesn't like telling her secrets when it comes to that.""But I didn't ask the moon," Shiro huffed. "I asked you, Grandpa.""Well," the tall man laughed again
"So," Alex leaned in from the back seat. They had decided to share cars for the drive up there. "How do you think the foods going to be?""If I can eat anything at the moment," Jett said. He was nervous. This was possibly the only chance he got to actually trying to talk to Shiro about all of this."Why are you so worried?" Alex asked. "You got his number at least. Now he's a simple phone call away."That was nice to think about. He wasn't expecting Shiro would give him his personal number on that invitation. He had no idea that he even had a phone. He never looked at it any time that he had seen him. He sent him a few texts at least and had gotten some replies, though. That made him happy."I'm worried because I don't know what he's going to say," Jett sighed. "This little party is where he plans on telling me why he wanted to hide this from me.""I still can't believe he takes care of the Luna duties for that pack," Bree shook her head. "A kid shouldn't have to deal with all of that
The garden was one of the places that Shiro had always loved to go explore in when he was a kid. His grandfather taught him how to care for each of the plants that they had. He loved to learn everything he could. It was amazing to him back then just how much knowledge there was in the world, even about the things that he could not see. And learning it from his grandfather made it all the more special.He wished he could ask him about what to do now. He wished he could ask someone for advice at the moment. There was nothing that could calm his heart or his thoughts and he absolutely hated it. He had learned to control so many things of himself; to be able to hide and distract. But he could not control himself with that scent in the air and the sound of him walking closer. He could not control the worry that he had about this situation. He still didn't know what he was going to say."This is a lovely garden," Jett was the first to speak, his voice low and calm. Shiro wished that he coul
"Jimmy," Geo stage whispered. "This is the worst place to talk about this, and the worst time to talk about it.""You won't let me talk to you anywhere else!" the boy cried. He always was a crier. Usually, it was Geo who had wiped those tears from his eyes and comforted him. Jimmy always came running to him when he was upset.Could Geo do the same, though? No. Even when they were together, he always had to be the strong one that took care of him and deal with all of his drama when he had a thousand other things on his plate. He hadn't even realized just how bad their relationship had been until they broke it off."There's nothing left to talk about, Jimmy," Geo told him. The tiny man was giving him the infamous doe eyes that he had used on him countless times. "It's already been said.""I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry," he cried. "I didn't mean to try and push you away. I just...""You don't want to be here," Geo finished for him. "I get it. But I'm not going to mark you an
"What was what?" Geo asked, locking the door behind him. At least this way his parents would just think he was asleep or something. And no one else would try and go in there. It really must have just happened on the spot for Miki, if she forgot to even lock the door."That smell?" Alex looked at him curiously."What smell?" he started leading him down the halls again."Oh, come on!" Alex laughed. "The look on your face when you got out said it all!""I really don't know what you're talking about," he shook his head.If Miki was gone for their plan of distracting everyone, that meant that there was someone who wasn't getting looked over. Geo would probably have to go and distract them as well now. Which was going to be annoying, but doable."Hiroko," he called out to her first. He was worried about Shiro. He knew that he was new to all the romance stuff. It was something that he never explored due to all the pack responsibilities. "How's Shiro?""I was hoping that I could talk to you a
"You completely missed the part where the lights went down," Alex smiled. "That was, by far, best part of the night.""And then he disappeared again?" Blake asked. They were taking a walk around the downtown right then just so that they could all collect their thoughts. Manny didn't have to open the bar that day, and all his kids were with their mother at the moment. Alex would have thought that Bree wouldn't have been able to come with all her baby duties, but she was walking with them too."Into thin air," he told him. At least Jett looked like he was enjoying this story. Blake just rolled his eyes."You're fallin' too hard for someone you're not going to get," he said."I'm not falling for him," Alex told him."Never would've thought that he would be the one to tame you," Blake shook his head. Jett and Manny laughed as he said that."Will you shut up," Alex said. "I don't need to be tamed.""Oh please," Manny chuckled. "You need to be tamed more than Blake needs to stop spending so
Summer rain sucked.It wasn't cold, or refreshing. It didn't help you cool off from the heat that the summer was going to bring. All it seemed to do was make BlackCreek ten times more humid than it ever was. Unless you were a kid and having mud fights while trying to avoid any screaming adult that had to clean up after you, it wasn't fun.Ah, those were the days though.He had been worrying the past two days. Worrying because of two things: the first being that Shiro was barely even messaging him, and it was usually just to tell him that everything was okay, he was just busy. How someone who wasn't even the leader of that pack be kept busy for so many days absolutely baffled him. He didn't exactly like the look on his beta, Geo's face when he mentioned that he was really busy with Sakdah either. He seemed worried, or like there was something wrong.The second thing he was worried about was this damn carnival being canceled. Considering it was the only thing that he had to be able to s
"Why is it so cold in here?" Shiro shivered, sinking into the covers more."Because that's the only way that you'll let me hold you," Jett chuckled, pulling him closer. They had been practically living in that bed the whole week. Shiro wasn't used to laying around all day. It made him restless, which made him not being able to leave the apartment all the more frustrating.Jett did keep good company, though. He always seemed to know when something was wrong, or when he was upset. They had talked a lot that week they had been together. It was mainly about things like their past and their family and friends."I'm too used to having a whole bed to myself," Shiro huffed, giving in to the man who was holding him tightly. "I like to sprawl.""Then sprawl on me," Jett pet his hair. He loved when he did it. It was a relaxing feeling. "I don't mind.""It's not the same," he complained grumpily."You're really cute when you act grumpy like this," Jett laughed."No, I'm not," he frowned. He hated
Sleeping was so nice. He never had to deal with his father yelling at him when he was asleep, or all the worries that he had about Shiro as well as the rest of the pack problems. He didn't have to deal with hiding himself from everyone. He could simply be himself in the black pitch void that was his slumber. Sometime, when he was angry and couldn't find a way to get it to go away, he'd just sleep. Was he really getting rid of the problem? No. It would still be in the back of his head. But that was how life was. That was how his life was at least. Sleeping was just a better alternative to punching someone in the face.Having a completely soundproof room, with curtains that could block out the sun as well as the heat, he could sleep for days in that room of his. It was his cave and his safe place. And he needed it the most right then.How on earth did Shiro contain the symptoms of the curse? He was only half way through the month and it was already eating him up. He supposed it was karm
He woke up calmly. It didn't feel like he needed to do anything. He was merely hungry. That was always a good reason to wake up. But his body didn't want to get up. It wanted to stay in the comfort of the bed he was in. If it weren't for his stomach screaming at him, he may have laid their a little longer. He enjoyed the snug feeling that it gave him. It was as if he had gotten tucked in. Hiroko used to do that for a while, after his grandfather passed away. The small action helped sooth him in many ways.When he finally opened his eyes, he slowly began to take in his surroundings. He was in Hiroko's apartment. The one that she had always used whenever her cycle for the curse came. She had prepared it for him before her departure. She would help with the Luna duties until the day before Shiro was supposed to come back, as she had another trip that father wished for her to go on. But her apartment was stocked with everything that one would need when they underwent something like this.
He couldn't believe this. Jett hadn't even known that this was a way in which you could bypass this stupid curse. It raised more questions on top of the ones thjey already had. How many people did this? How did they figure this out? Why on earth was this pack trying to bypass this curse?Well, historically, every pack had tried to find a workaround to it when they first got it. They had worked with witches, demons, just about every magical being. Nothing worked. If anything, it made things worse for a while. This trick must have been something that only the Reverence Pack figured out. But he couldn't imagine mates letting the other go through so much pain alone. Just the thought of it made him hurt."Don't do anything stupid, Jett," Alex told him. "This could be life threatening.""I'm aware," he told his second. Alex always got worried about him when he got in this mood. "I just need to find him.""You want me to try and get the warriors to help?""No," Jett parked the car on the sid
"And you guys didn't find anything?" Alex asked over the phone. He was talking to the member of the Dynamic pack that had been assigned this case."They had all but disappeared the past three days," he said. "And the night that you were talking about was so dark, we couldn't catch a whiff of anything."Alex sighed. For the past four days they had been doing nothing but trying to find clues about what was going on in that pack. The first day of Summer had come and gone as if nothing was happening. But there had to be something going on.Because why would they all have disappeared from the city? Why would Shiro's ceremony get canceled? And the fact that Geo wasn't texting him as much was only putting him more on edge about the situation. He didn't like this one bit.And here he thought that he would only have to wait two weeks. Alex huffed a laugh. He was never lucky when it came to a mate, he shouldn't have been surprised. It just hurt that Geo wasn't even talking to him. And he was on
He was on cloud nine. Even with all the work that he did in his office, the kind that would bore him to tears but always needed to get done anyway, he could close his eyes and still be right back in that part of the forest.That laughter. It was addicting. He had never heard something so purely joyful in his entire life. The man was amazing like that. It had taken him a little to get the real him out of the serious man that he had been, but once he did, he could tell why so many people still remembered him to this day. Even the way that he talked changed. Instead of always being respectful, or speaking like he was a royal prince, he talked like he was actually from this time and not the 1800s or something.He also couldn't get over how easily he disappeared in that fog. He could hide in it and Jett wouldn't have a clue as to where he was. Then he would spring out of thin air and pounce on him. He had no clue just how happy the man could be just by doing that. It was as if Jett had bro
He was still living in that moment. The one where they played in the woods and laughed until their stomachs hurt. He didn't even know what they were laughing about, but it made him happy every time he thought back to it. He couldn't even be annoyed with how much extra work he had been given or the fact that he still had not heard from his father about important matters. None of that seemed to matter to him as much at the moment.The rest of his pack seemed to notice his smile and relaxed demeanor. When they asked him about it, he merely told them that he was given a day of rest in which he could meditate. They believed him, for they hadn't gone a day without seeing him working on something. He made sure that Geo had his rest, as well as all of his council members. Jin was the one who worked quite a lot. It was difficult getting him to rest. But Shiro knew that he had a reason. He had to help his father and battle his own issues that he was going through. Sometimes, work helps with tha
He didn't think he was cut out for all the mate stuff. It felt amazing having his touch lull him to sleep, and what had happened the night before will be etched into his mind forever. He was sure that his mind would use it as ammo whenever it tried to rebel against him again. His scent was lovely, and soothed him to the very core. It was an earthy smell that reminded him of times when he would roll in the dirt when he had first transformed into a wolf. He always seemed to bring out that part of him: the child that he had pushed down a long time ago.+But now he didn't think he was cut out for this because of one thing:He was stuck.Why did the Valor Pack have to be the strongest? Why did those strong arms have to hold onto him so tightly? He was thinking about trying to be polite and making him something to eat for when he woke up, but that didn't seem to really work out. Every time he moved in the slightest, those heavenly arms would pull him closer. He was glad that he could heal s
Shiro: I can't leave my territory right now. But I can talk over the phone.Jett: Not good enough, Prince. This has to be in person.Shiro: Where do you want to meet?Jett: How about that shed of yours right by my territory lines? Is that safe enough?He impatiently waited for a reply. Dr. Bailey had told him to get some sleep to get his wounds to heal faster, but he just couldn't. He was restless as his soul threatened to pull him all the way to that man. He needed some answers. But, more importantly, he needed to see him. Because the last time he saw him was when he had those cold eyes. The ones that he had when he was looking at him as if he was an enemy, rather than a mate. That wasn't the real Shiro. And Jett needed to finally see him with that mask of his off.Shiro: That's safe. No one typically goes near that one unless it's for purposes such as when we went to your territory to help with the hunters. I have some chores to do, but I'll meet you there.Jett: Chores? After what