"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
"There they are," Alex said. Shiro looked over to the entrance to see the rest of Jett's friends coming in. They all looked like a big happy family. It was something he had always wished to see with his own pack. That alone made him smile.They waved them over to make sure that they were seen. The first person to come up to their group was Jett's Gamma. His name was Manny, if he remembered correctly."Jin!" Manny smiled when he saw the tall man. "Long time, no see!""It's definitely been a while, besides the party of course," Jin smiled. "Now you get to see us all without the kimonos.""You look sharp," Manny said. Shiro hadn't met him before the party, but he had learned quickly that he was a talker. As soon as he had seen Jin, he stuck onto him. Jin was perfect for someone who liked talking all the time. He was quiet yet attentive. It was a good thing that the two of them got along well. Jin's father wasn't that great of a diplomat. His father's council focused on the internal dilem