The Wrong Mate

Chapter 3 Darrin

Darrin- End of Eighth Grade

Middle school went by without a hitch. Darrin, Charlotte, and Brady made a good group. Despite his reservations to let Charlotte and Brady around one another, Brady had never made any moves on Charlotte.

The summer before eighth grade, Brady made a comment about Charlotte and asking her to a dance at the school.

Darrin thwarted that plan with a group date suggestion. He knew Brady had a small crush on her, but never had the guts to say anything. So long as he kept his feelings to himself, Darrin would gladly monitor their friendship. Thus, every school dance, they were both there with Charlotte-unless Brady asked another girl. 

He never did.

Charlotte was Darrin’s and he made his claim when they were five. If anyone wanted her, they’d have to fight for her. Brady included.

Their graduation approached, and it was going to be their final summer before high school.

Darrin and Brady were to have training during the days with their fathers, and the three had plans in the afternoons together. 

“What do we want to do first this summer?” Brady asked in the back of the Alpha’s car on their way to their last middle school dance together.

“I don’t know,” Charlotte answered.

“I was thinking we could take the bikes out and ride to the training grounds,” Darrin suggested. “I saw my dad pointing out hidden spots under the training grounds. I was thinking we could check them out.”

“Oh, that sounds awesome,” Brady said. “When are we going?”

Darrin eyed Charlotte from the side. He was in the middle between the two. She wore dresses occasionally, but not that often since they tended to do more outdoorsy activities.

But when she dressed like a real girl…

His heart melted. She was so pretty. 

He hadn’t seen the white dress she wore before—and he was familiar with everything in her closet. He spent enough nights in her room to know what she had as far as clothes went. This dress had never stood out. 

“Graduation is Friday, let’s go on Saturday,” Darrin suggested.

“Okay,” Brady answered looking out the window. 

“What about you, Char? You game?”

She smiled and nodded quietly. She rarely sat quietly or answered him without speaking. Usually, it meant something was on her mind. 

Luckily, he figured out how to mind link with her after his last birthday. 

You look beautiful in that dress.

She smiled and shook her head. Thanks, Alpha. 

Alpha. He loved it when she called him that. He had a name for her, too, but would wait to use it. He had four years before he would tell her, and boy if he wasn’t counting down the days. 

He knew she was his mate. There was no question about it. One couldn’t possibly feel the way he felt for her and not be mated to her. 

Is everything okay, Char? You’re pretty quiet.

Just thinking about stuff. 

Tell me?

It’s nothing, just girl stuff.

She hadn’t made a real friend since Rose left, and stuck pretty close to Darrin and Brady. She had never used the words “girl” and “stuff” together, so he wasn’t sure how to talk to her about it. He made a plan to ask his mom tomorrow, after he snuck back in the house from spending the night with Charlotte.

He had spent almost every night with her, staring at the ceiling in her room. They linked their fingers together, and stared at the ceiling. Since the first time he did it, he wanted to try to kiss her. Every night since, he had the same urge. Almost three years of secret handholding in the darkness and he never seemed to have the courage to kiss her. But there was a risk in that. She could just as well not want to, or maybe things would be weird after.

His fingers trailed to her hand resting on the seat between them. The familiar warmth filled him when he touched her. 

Her finger hooked with his as they rode the rest of the way to the school. 

***

“Charlotte, you wanna dance?” Brady asked the second they got into the school gym. He always asked her so politely, and always made sure to do the slow dances with her. Darrin resisted being jealous, but would get irritated trying to hear whatever Brady would say that made her smile.

He made her smile a lot.

Brady was never shy, but whenever it came to Charlotte, he seemed to be at a loss for words. Yes, she was beautiful, and smart, and funny, but she was Darrin’s and Brady should know it after eight years. Charlotte may or may not have seen the way Brady watched her from afar, but Darrin definitely noticed.

Charlotte smiled and nodded at Brady, taking his hand. She looked back at Darrin with a half-smile.

Darrin choked on a growl. He looked at Charlotte with eyes wide open after she accepted and followed him to the dance floor. 

After two songs too many, watching Brady make comments off and on that sent Charlotte into small bouts of giggles, Darrin nearly broke them apart. Brady would smile and stare when she threw her head back in laughter, and Darrin caught that look. Brady was staring at the spot on her neck.

He was going to die if he didn’t keep his eyes away from that spot. It was reserved. It was going to be Darrin’s mark there, Brady needed to keep his beady eyes off of it.

“Mind if I cut in?” Darrin asked. 

Brady smiled and nodded, “I’ll go find us a table and grab some drinks.”

“Yeah, okay,” Darrin ignored him. He took Charlotte’s hands, and pulled her in for a slow dance.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to dance like this to the song.”

Darrin scowled, “he had you for three dances, I’m getting my slow dance with you, too, Char.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, but…” she smiled uncomfortably, “to Barbie Girl?”

“Just dance with me, Char?”

She rolled her eyes, “sure.”

They twirled around slowly while the other eighth graders gyrated on the floor. “What does Brady say that always makes you laugh?”

“Oh, he was just making fun of the music and saying how it was too serious for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds.”

“Oh.” It could have been worse. Plus, Brady was right. The music they played seemed too girly.

“He also asked if he could kiss me.”

“He what.” His face dropped and he searched the floor for Brady. He was going to hit the guy.

“I’m just joking,” she laughed, “gosh, you’re so protective. Like the big brother I never asked for.”

“I’m not your brother, Char, don’t call me that.”

“Fine, body guard, whatever.”

“I can live with that. Sure. Body guard. You’re not kissing any guys.”

“What about the ones I already kissed?”

“Charlotte, I swear, if you don’t stop trying to make me mad, I’m going to actually get mad at you.”

“What would you do,” she challenged.

“I’ll…” his brows pinched together, “I don’t know for sure, but it would probably involve an Alpha command that you never kiss anyone ever again.”

“Even you?”

He stilled. Did she just…?

“Me?”

She turned her face away, but he caught the nervous look in her face. “I was just kidding,” she said low. “Can we talk about something else?”

The fluttering inside his stomach was out of control. Did she want to kiss him? Is that why she asked?

“Do you want me to come over tonight after we come home?”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll just need time to pull all the pins out of my hair and wash up.”

“I’ll help you.”

“Uh, I can take a shower on my own thankyouverymuch.”

“No, I meant the pins in your hair.”

“Oh,” her head jerked back, “um, okay.”

“Unless you don’t want me to, then I can just see you tomorrow.”

“No, it’s okay. I just didn’t expect you to help with my hair. I mean, you’re a guy.”

Sure, he had no clue what it meant to remove pins, but he could figure it out, right? If she needed to talk about ‘girl stuff’ maybe helping with her hair would help him out.

Or she would think he was weird.

“I’m also a good friend, and we always spend time together.” In truth, he had come to rely on their nights together. He slept better beside her, listening to the soft sounds of her heart while she dreamed. He would set her alarm for one hour before his parents woke up, and snuck out of her window while she still slept. A time or two, he laid a kiss on her forehead, but the second time she nearly woke, and he never did it again.

They danced for four whole songs, and made their way over to Brady who looked bored at the table he found for them. “Finally,” he groaned. “I’m so bored.”

“I’m getting all hot and sweaty in here,” Charlotte fanned her face.

Darrin and Brady’s eyes snapped to her, “want to go outside?” Brady asked a little too excitedly for Darrin’s comfort.

“Actually,” she said, “I’m feeling kind of tired. Would it be okay if we left?”

The boys agreed and Darrin found a chaperone to let him use an office phone so he could ask his mom to pick them up. 

After they made it home, Charlotte linked Darrin when she was ready for him to come over. She said her parents had gone to bed, so she unlatched the window, and cracked it open for him. 

A few minutes later, his parents went to bed, so he made the short trip across the street to her window. As promised, it was cracked, and he was able to climb in without knocking.

Charlotte was sitting on her bed with a mirror in hand, pulling small metal pieces from her hair. Darrin didn’t notice them before, but could see how they held her hair up.

“Hey,” he breathed.

“Hi,” she smiled, pulling another pin from her hair. “I’m actually almost done.” She gestured to the pile of little metal pieces on her bed beside her. “Give me like thirty seconds.”

“Take your time,” he took his shoes off and made himself comfortable on her bed. He had come to claim the side closest to the door as his own side. Though they weren’t technically sharing a bed, they were. And his was the side by the door. He grabbed a book he kept under the mattress, and opened it to the ear-marked page he stopped reading it at.

Yes, he kept a book there for the nights she wasn’t ready to go to bed yet. He needed to look busy and not seem like he spent the night watching every little movement she made. 

In Darrin’s mind, this was going to be the norm, so he was just enjoying it already.

“How’s the book?” she asked.

“It’s good,” he answered. He had actually read Pride and Prejudice once, on her recommendation, and had pretended to read it three times since while he laid in his spot. On her bed. In her room.

“Does it change each time you read it?” she got up and picked up all of the hair pins, laying them out on her dresser along with the mirror. She pulled a hair tie off her wrist, and pulled her hair up on her head.

“No, but I notice new things when I read it again. Things I didn’t before.”

“Oh,” she crawled in beside him after shutting off her light. 

Darrin put the book back under the mattress and settled back in. “Did you have a nice night?”

“Yeah, it was okay,” she shrugged. “I mean, I like parties and dancing, but the humans aren’t as fun.”

“Yeah, they don’t seem to have the same sense of fun as we do.”

“Only a couple more years with them, right? We’ll make it,” she smiled.

The stars on her ceiling had slowly lost their glow over the years, but they could still see them and make them out.

“Charlotte, what was bothering you tonight?”

“Oh,” she sighed, “it’s nothing, really. Just stupid stuff.”

“What’s stupid?”

“These girls in the pack were just saying things and it was just hard to ignore after a bit.”

“What did they say,” the concern boiled inside of him.

“They were all saying in the locker room how one of them was going to be your mate, and when they saw me, they said the first thing they would do as Luna is have me thrown out. They think I am only friends with you because I want to be your mate. Just stupid stuff.”

“Who was it?” Whoever it was, he was going to have his father speak to them, and then when Darrin became Alpha, he would make sure those girls were gone.

“It doesn’t matter, Darrin, we’re fourteen. They’re allowed to say stupid stuff.”

“Not to you, they’re not.”

“Can we please talk about something else?”

“Not yet. I want to know who it was, Char. They’re not going to speak to you like that.”

“It doesn’t matter! They’re stupid and whenever they find their mates, and you find yours, they won’t be able to say anything. They’re the ones who look stupid.”

“I just don’t want anyone talking to you like that. You’re going to be—” he stopped before he said anything further. 

“Going to be what?”

“You’re…going to be an important member of the pack some day and they need to respect you.”

She rolled her eyes. “We’re also teenagers. It happens. I think they call it bullying.”

How could she be so careless about something like this? 

Darrin breathed out a long breath, and settled back into his pillow. He reached for Charlotte’s hand, and held it the way they always had. “What would you think about coming to my training with me and my dad?”

“Your Alpha training?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t that for Alphas?”

“Char, if you haven’t noticed, you’re kind of like an Alpha yourself. You are a leader in so many ways. What if your mate is an Alpha? You would make the best Luna, especially if you trained like an Alpha.”

“What?” she chuckled. “Train like an Alpha to be a Luna? Those are different.”

“Doesn’t have to be.”

“But that’s not how it works, Dare.”

“What if,” he bit his cheek to get the courage to get through this conversation. “What if you were mated to an Alpha, though? Besides, you should use your leadership skills and use it in case you are a Luna.”

“Why are you having these silly thoughts? I’m no Luna. My family has never been ranked on either side. I’m not mated to an Alpha.”

“You could be.”

“I’m not.”

“What if you are, though?”

“Darrin, I’m not mated to an Alpha. I’m just not. That’s not how it works in my family. We’re unranked and we mate with other unranked wolves.” She crossed her arms, her typical body language when she was done with the conversation.

His heart was beating harder and faster with every exchange. How could she not see it? She always held his hand, they couldn’t sleep without one another at night most nights. They were basically living together in secret at this stage. Yet…she didn’t see it too?

“Charlotte, how do you not see this?” He held their hands up. “We spend almost every night together. We don’t do anything without the other. I mean, how could you think you and I are anything but mates by now?” He watched her head roll in his direction. “Char, what did you think this was?”

“I don’t know! I mean, I have always thought maybe, but you can’t tell until it happens, you know?”

“Char, don’t you see, though?” He sat up, and pulled her with him. He took a chance by linking his fingers with hers in one hand, and cupping her soft cheek with the other. “I’m so madly in love with you. I’m already dead set. You’re my mate and I’m yours. Wholly. I’m just waiting for my coming of age so everyone else can know it, too.”

“But how do you know, Dare?”

“Can’t you feel that warm, tingly feeling when we touch?” He held their linked hands up. “Can’t you feel that energy coursing through us?”

Her eyes narrowed on their hands. “I mean, I guess?”

“You guess.” He dropped from her cheek. “So, what you’re saying is that this is me alone in this. You don’t feel anything?”

“No, I mean I do, but we’re too young, Darrin. Nobody figures out who their mate is this young!”

“Well I did! And I’m ready for the next three years to breeze by. I’m ready for the world to finally, finally, know.”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not! Char, if there’s one thing that I can promise is that you and I were made for one another.” He watched her think about his words. “Char, I promise you I know this all the way down to my very core. You and I are going to be mates and when I become the Alpha, you’ll be the Luna. The whole reason you and your family came here was destiny. You and I are destined to be together.”

Her voice was quiet and unsure. “Are you sure about this?”

“There’s nothing I believe more than this. Nothing else I know like I know this. We found each other when we were five years old, Char, and now we can tell our future son or daughter how we found each other and knew long before we even came of age.”

Charlotte sighed. “I do feel for you, Darrin. Really, I do. I’m just…”

“Scared?”

She nodded.

“Don’t be. No matter what, I just,” he considered holding back everything, but decided he may as well get it all out on the table. “I love you, Char. I’ve been in love with you since I was five years old, and felt the small tingle of a pull when I first sat down at that table in Kindergarten.”

She smiled at him, while tears pooled in her eyes. “I love you too, Darrin.”

“Okay, then. I’ll have you know, I already accept you and will always accept you. I hope you will too when the time comes.”

“Of course I will!” She smacked him on the shoulder. “Why wouldn’t I? How incredible to be mates with your best friend who you’re already in love with!”

“Now that that’s settled,” he guided her back down on her back. Darrin laid down beside her. They both faced one another, both hands interlaced with one another now. “We should probably get to sleep.”

She bit her lip with furrowed brows, “are you going to tell Brady?”

“Nah, not for now. Maybe we’ll keep this between you and me for the time being.”

“I like that idea.” She closed her eyes until she heard him whisper her name again. She peeked one open. “What?”

“Would you…” Darrin’s cheeks pinkened. “Would you want to…”

Charlotte leaned forward and pressed her lips on his. It was a slight peck, but a kiss nonetheless.

She pulled back to Darrin’s darkened eyes. “Did I do it right?” she asked.

“I think so?”

“You think?”

“I could definitely get used to feeling that, Char.” He threw an arm over her side, pulling her into him. He held her tightly and as close as he could, taking in her scent. Listening to her breaths as they slowed when she fell asleep. Now this, this was exactly what he could get used to. His mate, his Char, asleep under his hold every night for the rest of their lives.