Chapter6: What Are We

My two best friends chatted as though everything in the world was normal as we walked to the bus stop. We missed the school bus again, so we had to take the city transit home. I was only half-listening to their chatter as my mind kept straying back to Matteo and our moment in the music room.

“I can’t be with you,” he’d said. “We can’t be together.”

I almost called him a liar because the stark agony of his deep green eyes when he was saying those words told me that his mouth was telling me one thing, but the wolf within him felt different. That must be why he wouldn’t reject me. His wolf wouldn’t allow it.

Cora and Gia were gossiping about some girl whose boyfriend was cheating on her, but I was only half-listening. I couldn’t stop thinking about Matteo and what he said: that he couldn’t reject me, but he didn’t want me to reject him.

I couldn’t even lift my shoulders, never mind my head, and with my shuffling feet, I most likely resembled a zombie student to home commuters. A car horn yanked me back to reality. I looked over my shoulder and saw Evan, Gia’s brother, waving at us.

He gave us his signature charming grin. “Get in, guys. I’ll drive you home.”

Gia squinted at him. “Won’t you be late for your border duty?”

Evan smirked. “Just get in the car, will ya? Duties can wait.”

We squealed with joy and dashed for the car.

Awww, wouldn't it be nice to have an older brother? I say wistfully to Alera. She snorted in response.

I aimed for the backseat, but Cora and Gia beat me to it. Just as I was about to enter the front passenger door, Jay’s Corvette cruised by behind me. As his car’s windows rolled down, Matteo’s eyes locked with mine. They were filled with disapproval.

“As if!” I flipped my hair over my shoulder and got into the car without another look at him.

He can’t glare at me like that after telling me he doesn’t want to be with me. Is he nuts? Alera snorted in agreement.

Evan dropped off Cora and me at home. There’s nothing shady about him or anything; he’s got a steady girlfriend he’d been seeing for a while. They’re both over eighteen and obviously not each other’s mates.

We said thanks and waved goodbye to him and Gia. For some reason, Alera was feeling smug about something and she wasn’t sharing the reason with me. She’s so annoying when she thinks she’s being slick.

I turned to go inside with Cora when a vague prickling on the back of my neck alerted me to a certain somebody’s presence. With my wolf’s vision, I could see him beyond a bush standing behind a tree in the woods that served as our backyard. As if! He doesn’t own me, Alera. Who does he think he is?

Alera cried in my head. No, I want my mate!

Cora, framed by the door of the kitchen, poked her head out and looked at me with concern. “Hey, are you alright? You sufferin’ from heat stroke or something?”

Neither of my parents were home yet, so I was free to roam around for a tiny bit more.

I needed to go for Alera’s welfare. I couldn’t give two shits about Matteo.

You’re such a liar. You want to see him, too. Alera was gleeful and yipping to herself.

“I’m fine,” I assured Cora. “I just need to take Alera out on a run. She’s a little restless. Lock the door after me, will you.” I threw my bag inside and made a mad dash for the woods.

As soon as I reached the tree-line, I didn’t need to say anything. I could feel Matteo all around me. I shifted into my wolf form, pushing Alera to the forefront of my consciousness. Even though she was in charge of us, I retained full awareness of our surroundings and situation, as well as my human rationale. I padded deeper into the woods, waiting for him to show up even though I knew he was nearby. I could feel him in my veins. My blood quickened in alertness of him.

His wolf—black, gray, and bigger than me—stepped out from the shadows and approached me. His eyes were amber yellow and burned with human intelligence, but an animal’s desire. We circled each other in a mating dance, sniffing each other, testing each other’s limits. I leaped and bounded deeper into the forest where no one could hear or disturb us and he stayed right on my tail. He faced me and angled his head over mine. He sank his teeth into my neck, but not enough to hurt, just a male greeting his female.

Hello Thunder, said Alera. We finally meet.

My beloved. I could hear Thunder’s voice resound in my consciousness. It was deeper, rougher than Matteo’s voice and eased the discomfort in my soul. No matter what Matteo may feel for me, Thunder wanted me and Alera.

Suddenly, Thunder threw his enormous head back and chuffed. He retreated from us and padded into the bushes. Before our eyes, he shifted back into Matteo.

No, Alera moaned in pain. Oh, girl, I know, I commiserated. We found a bush of our own to hide in and picked up the black oversized t-shirt that sailed over our head. I looked over the bush at Matteo until he turned away. I shifted back into my human form and pulled the t-shirt over my head. It must be his because it smelled like him and looked like a dress on me.

I didn’t know if it was due to his nearness or the cold, but my nipples were hard. I crossed my arms over my breasts to cover them. “Talk. Why are you here?”

His answering growl made the surrounding trees tremble. “In the future, I will be your Alpha. You have no right to order me around.”

I scoffed and made a face at him, leaving the safety of my bush. “You ain’t Alpha of shit. What the hell are you doing in my woods and how do you know where I live?”

His eyes burned with green fury and anger radiated from him in waves. I thought he was going to slam me into a tree, choke me, or take a chunk out of my neck like what I’ve seen in werewolf movies made by humans, but he didn’t. Instead, he bellowed, uprooted a small tree next to him, and smashed it into another tree like a baseball bat.

Uh, okay, so he’s psycho strong, I told Alera. Maybe you should bow down in supplication so he doesn’t kill us, my very helpful wolf suggested.

He paced around and raked his hand through his short black hair. “I told you never to test me, Adassah. As your pack’s future Alpha, I know every single member and their place in the structure except for you. I only knew Lyndon and Mia had a daughter, but never saw your face until that afternoon at the mall.”

All right, he was scaring me a little right now, but it was nice to know that I had the power to get him a little hot and bothered, too. He looked like he wanted to tear out my poor heart, but I bet he’d be sexy about it.

Alera’s smugness flowed through me, but it did nothing to calm the pace of my rapidly beating heart.

“Why did you get into his car?” he snarled, getting into my face.

I pulled my head back. Alera was getting a little too excited by our male’s proximity. “Excuse me, but I’m my own person. I can choose to get into anyone’s car when I want to, as long as it’s not yours or your sleazy Future Beta buddy. You don’t want me, remember?”

He flashed his canines at me. “I’m this close to losing my patience with you.”

“You haven’t already? What did that poor little tree ever do to you? Just wait till I tell your Daddy Alpha that his precious son abuses his mate, broseph.” I probably have a death wish because I stuck my index finger in his chest and gave him a push.

“Broseph?” He sneered. “We’re far from siblings, my little bitch.”

Somewhere between my birthday and today, I must have lost my mind because before I knew it, my hand was sailing through the air toward his face.

I shrieked when he caught it just before it struck him. “What? What do you want us to be, then?” I demanded. “I mean, what are we? You’re not my friend. I’m not your lover or your mistress, so where does that leave us, broseph? Oh, that’s right. Littermates.”

He snarled and knocked me down so that he was on top of me and my back was on the forest floor. “You keep pushing me, Adassah. What do you expect to get out of this? Do you want me to kill you? Is that it?” He raised his fist over my face.

“Go ahead,” I challenged him. “You don’t want me, but you don’t want to reject me. You forbid me from rejecting you. Fuckin’ kill me, then, asshole. Do it!” I didn’t flinch when he smashed his fist into the ground next to my head.

He sprang to his feet and hauled me up with him, grabbing me by the front of my shirt. “I ought to show you who your Master is the old-fashioned way,” he hissed in my face. “Would you like that?”

Alera was practically swooning within me, which gave me the courage to go on. She knew he wasn’t going to hurt us because she could sense Thunder’s desire. “Go ahead. Oh, but you can’t. Because then you’d have to claim me, wouldn’t you?” I could hear myself saying these words, but I couldn’t stop myself. I felt like a runaway freight train. “Fuckin’ coward.”

He shoved me away in disgust. “Is that your plan, Adassah? Get me so worked up and angry that I hurt and rape you? You’re pathetic. Get the fuck away from me.”

I wanted to double over in pain from his rejection, but I knew that if I didn’t stand firm, I would never gain his respect. If I didn’t have his love, I could at least start with that. “Look, I don’t know why you’re still bothering with me or why you’re even here. You said you don’t want me. Why do you give a shit about what I do? If you really don’t want me, just stay away from me. Pick a lane and stay in it. If you prefer your bubble-headed girlfriend over me, fine. Have at it. Just leave me the fuck alone. I just want to get on with my life.”

The hatred in his eyes when he looked at me could have peeled paint off a wall. But he didn’t say anything or move.

I swiped the back of my hand over my eyes, feeling bone-tired and weary. Within me, Alera was silent and blocked off from me. I took a deep breath. "I, Adassah Natasha Rumanoff, reject you, Matteo—”

I couldn’t finish my rejection of him because his hand closed around my throat just before he slammed me against a tree. My teeth jarred within my skull and I tried to catch my breath, but his fingers only tightened around my neck, threatening to crush my larynx so that I couldn’t speak. “Just fuckin’ try it, Adassah, and I’ll kill everyone you know. Your pretty friends at school. Your kindergarten teacher. Your mother. Your father might meet with an unfortunate accident during one of his patrols. Just fuckin’ try it.”

I wheezed and grabbed his wrist with both hands to pull him away, but he didn’t budge. I was starting to see stars and edging toward unconsciousness. As a last-ditch attempt to save myself, I clawed him across the face with my talons. He yelped in pain and let me go. I slid to the ground, coughing and struggling to catch my breath. His wounds would heal, but not right away. Wounds inflicted on a wolf by his mate take a little longer to heal.

“Bitch,” he shouted, clutching his face. “Little bitch.”

Grasping a tree branch, I pulled myself up, still massaging my throat. “Everyone’s going to hear about this. Alpha, my ass. Just wait till the pack—” I gasped when a bolt of pain stabbed me through the chest and I fell over. I looked over at Matteo, but he was also doubled over and on the ground.

Alera, what is this? I asked my wolf. Within my skull, she released an ear-piercing howl which was soon followed by a chorus of baying and howling from other wolves near and far. I could hear Thunder in my head howling just as clearly as I could hear Alera.

As soon as the howling and baying subsided, Matteo coughed next to me and spat out blood. “Father.” He took a deep breath, though it looked like it pained him. “Rogues.”

I searched my immediate surroundings, but there was no one, not even a hint of a scent. Alera couldn’t sense anyone, either. I thought about my parents and panic brought me down to my knees. I hadn’t seen them since last night. Dear goddess, where were they?

Just as I turned to bolt toward my house, a big black and gray wolf appeared in front of me, blocking my way. His amber eyes locked with mine, and I realized instantly that it wasn’t Matteo, but Thunder.

Come on, his gravelly voice said in my head. He was about three times the size of a regular wolf. I climbed onto his back, held onto him with my arms and legs, and allowed him to take me away.

The familiarity of our bodies moving together struck me as perfect. I could feel our hearts beating in sync. Instead of fear, I had security and safety. Thunder would die for me.

He didn’t bring me home but took me straight to the packhouse.

I climbed off of him. “My parents, where are they?”

Everyone’s in the packhouse, little one, Thunder assured me. Don’t worry. I will watch over you.

I rushed inside the large brick and concrete complex and initially called out for them with my voice. When no one answered, I tried the mind link, but I got nothing.

I sniffed the air and smelled blood. Oh, Alera, this is not good. Be on guard. I took small steps toward the door of the main receiving room. From behind me, Thunder pushed forward and led the way.

The pool of blood underneath the door made my stomach turn. I opened the door for us since Matteo was still in wolf form.

Thunder, what’s going on? I followed him step by step, hardly even breathing. I was afraid something might spring out and attack me. Big bad wolf I was not.

Stay put, little one. I’ll check it out. Just stay here and don’t move.

Thunder… what if… Alera was restless inside of me. She wanted to get out and investigate with her mate. I was not willing to get us killed, so I fought to keep her inside.

Amore, I will not have you hurt. Do as I say and stay here.

I bristled. Even though I preferred Thunder over his human, his domineering ways still irked me. Werewolf males were famously chauvinistic. Hey, Ada, is it me, or does Thunder have an accent? Alera wanted to know.

I caught a flash of movement in the corner of my eye that made me yelp, jump back, and ready to shift. Alera was primed for action. But something stopped me.

What caught my eye is a shirtless male wolf in the living room, standing there in a protective stance.

Thunder growled at the male and reared back, ready to spring at any sign of hostility from this unknown element. But he seemed to relax when a tall, beautiful woman glided down the grand staircase with my mother, looked at him, and told him to stand down.

I ran to my mother and threw myself into her arms, holding her tight. Just as I was about to cry like a little girl, two gorgeous male wolves with no shirts on entered my field of vision. I was too entranced to act like a whiny baby.

Hallelujah, I murmured to my wolf, who grunted disapprovingly and called me a hussy. We have a mate. I reminded her that he doesn’t want us.

Damn, Alera, just check out those abs. You could grate cheese on those abs. Within me, my wolf was seething with anger because she viewed my lusting over other male wolves as disrespect and disloyalty to our mate who, again, I reminded her did not want us.

It’s not like he gives a shit, Alera. As far as I’m concerned, it’s open season. My wolf growled and called me a suicidal idiot.