Free mate

Breakfast

Sunlight hitting my face woke me up. I laid in bed, waiting to hear birds or wind but all I could hear what I believed were cars far below. I closed my eyes, wondering when was the last time I've felt this well-rested. Even with the aching body and strained ankle I felt good. I kept listening while I enjoyed the warm sunlight on my skin.

There were people moving in the house. I heard steps and doors opening and closing, indistinct talking and laughing. When I strain my hearing and try to focus I can recognize one of the twins but I'm not sure which one. They sound relaxed and happy.

If I were to run off now would be a good time. I could take the food that was still left on my table and be gone before they realize I'm not sleeping anymore.

I shake the thought away and sit up. Now that my head is clearer and I can focus there are things I need to figure out. After living in the secluded family pack for basically my whole life I must have missed a lot of important skills and if nothing else I can see what a werewolf pack is supposed to be like. My heart is beating fast again but I limp to follow the voices.

A big kitchen opens up and Sera is there with the teen boy from last night and the man that I briefly saw when he came in with Daniel.

“Morning Kate!”, Sera smiles at me warmly from where she's frying eggs. The boy looks like he's half-asleep, head leaning on his arm and eyes closed. He opens them enough to look at me and I notice he has the same ice-blue eyes as Hanna and Sera. He must be the other sibling Hanna mentioned even though his shaggy hair isn't blond like theirs but a light brown. The boy just nods and closes his eyes again.

“Hey”, I greet them, shyly smiling back. I turn back and notice the man studying me with a serious face. He's big and muscular, I automatically shrink under his gaze.

“You can sit down, I'm making breakfast”, Sera glares at the man who rolls his eyes. I sit on the other side of the table, opposite the boy.

“I could help?” Sera shakes her head at my offer.

“Thank you, dear, but I'm almost ready.” She does give me a plate of eggs and bacon quickly. The others don't get this treatment, they get up and gather their own breakfast before sitting down to eat.

My presence is bringing tension into the room, the easy laughter that I heard earlier was gone. Sera sits next to me and introduces the others.

“This is my brother Matt”, the boy had woken up once his food was done and offered me an easy lopsided grin.

“We met already”, he says. Sera doesn't seem surprised.

“And he's Oscar”, she waves at the man who focused on inhaling his food with impressive speed. He's not looking at me, even when Sera glares at him. Matt looks at me and shrugs with an apologetic expression. Oscar makes me nervous, he obviously already hates me. He only looks at Sera, they appear to have a silent conversation.

I freeze when Sera growls and the man snarls before jumping up. He leaves his empty plate as he leaves, door slamming. I don't know what happened but I keep my head down and stay still, bracing for some sort of punishment.

“Excuse me”, Sera's voice has an edge to it that I hadn't heard before when she takes the plated to sink and marches out of the kitchen.

They sounded so happy before I came in. Not that I was surprised to see that there was something wrong with me but still it hurts to realize that already they were done with me. I wondered where Daniel was, would he still want to see me.

“Don't mind them, Oscar is being an ass”, Matt says, pulling me out of my self-pity. I just shrug, but he doesn't get it and frowns.

“Seriously, Sera will talk sense to him”, he takes the empty plates to the sinks and turns to me.

“So, what do you wanna do now? They are gonna be away for a while.”

I didn't know what to answer. Was I supposed to do something? Matt seems to sense my confusion as he signs for me to follow.

“Shouldn't I do the dishes?” I ask. He laughs at me and shakes his head.

“Nah, it's cool. I'll do them later.”

Matt led me to the living room where he sat on the couch, tapping the spot beside him.

“Are you gonna answer if I ask what happened to you?” he asks when I sit down. His straightforward question catches me off guard.

“No.” I expect him to get mad but he just shrugs and puts the tv on.

“Okay, but Daniel will come later, he'll want to talk to you. Anything you want to watch?” He's relaxed, leaning back and scrolling through movies. I involuntarily got excited when he mentioned my mate but the tv distracted me. I shook my head slowly, staring at the options.

We had a tv and DVDs but it looked like Matt could choose any movie he wanted straight from the massive tv. He settled on some comedy but I can't focus on the movie. I'm seeing Daniel today, the thought makes my stomach flutter. There's so much to ask that I don't know where to start. Matt seems relaxed, looking et the tv but he does glance at me every once in a while as if to check if I'm okay.

“How big is your pack?” I wouldn't call the people I grew up with a pack but from what I gathered it was unusually small. I never found out why they lived like that, isolated and alone.

“There's around 15 of us. My family and Daniel obviously, and our friends. Not as big as some of the other packs but we're in good terms with most of them.”

“What's your alpha like?” I dreaded the idea of meeting a man like Nicolas or Jason who both had alpha blood. Matt looked confused.

“Daniel? You didn't know?” I'm stunned speechless again and shook my head. Of course he was the alpha, I should have realized it earlier. Hanna had said that the alpha would visit and the way he controlled the room effortlessly. I was just too shocked to have a mate that the thought didn't even cross my mind, even though I had understood that he was powerful.

“He's a good alpha, don't be so worried. Could use a little more humour but he's not like a crazy power-seeking alpha or anything.” As if I wasn't nervous enough already, this brought a whole new set of trouble for me. And Matt wasn't done with me.

“Your turn. How did you not know you're a werewolf?” Lying awake in the night I figured it must be some emotional wall that I built when everyone kept telling me I'm just a human over and over again. I wasn't allowed to show any emotion at home so I must have just pushed my wolf so far down that I never shifted or even felt her. Now I just hope I could undo that but didn't seem to go well so far.

“I just never knew”, I shrug.

“And your family?”

“Didn't know either. I was an orphan, they took me in as a kid.” That gets him to back off. I guess he doesn't want me to start breaking down all of my trauma when we're basically strangers and I don't fault him for that.

“What's it like? Turning to a wolf?” I ask to steer the conversation back to a safer route. Matt lights up and grins.

“Amazing. Takes up some energy so we're always starving but as wolf I feel stronger. We always have better senses than humans but as a wolf it's even better. But a lot of stuff is easier with hands”, he raises the remote to demonstrate. Longing tugs at my heart listening to him talk about it. I knew wolves were stronger, Jason and Nicolas never failed to make sure that I remember their power. Even Carolina reminded me about her power over me.

The door opened and Sera walked in, alone. She still looked tense but still smiled at us, making long eye contact with Matt. They were probably talking about me, I realized when I remembered that they were related and could communicate silently even in human form. Then she sat on the armchair next to me.

“I'm really sorry about Oscar. He's always worried about the safety of the pack, especially cause you're living with us.” So this was their home. I wondered who lived here, besides Matt, Sera and presumably Hanna. Was this Oscars home too, I hope I didn't drive him out of here.

“It's fine”, I say.

“It's not, but he'll come around.” They both seemed to assume I'd be living here for some time.

“He's not related to you, is he?” Oscar and his height and black hair didn't seem to fit any of the other siblings. Even though Matt didn't look like the twins I noticed the same smile and similar faces.

“No, you've met us all. He's my mate”, Sera explained. That surprised me, he looked much older than Sera. My face betrays me because she laughs.

“He's a bit older, yes. I'm 23 and he's 31 but it works well for us”, she says before tilting her head and looking at me, “how old are you?”

“20.”

“Hmm, not that much younger than Daniel then. He's 22, one of the youngest alphas around.” She says. I wondered how he ended up as alpha when he was so young but before I get a chance to ask the door opens again, and Daniel walks in.