Veiled Moon Shadow

Claire

Claire POV

“That’s not fair”, I yelled at my father as he told me to stay home with Emma. “She’s sound asleep now, her mates made sure to use their bonds on her to knock her ass out”. Father ran his palm down his face, “Please don’t remind me of why the boys are capable of getting your fifteen-year-old sister to fall asleep”. “Well, it’s true, she’s probably in there having fantasies about the four of them”, “She’s got four mates waiting for her to turn eighteen while I am trapped here babysitting a girl old enough to take care of herself”. “I should be out with my friends and looking for my mate, or mates.”

I knew that I had pushed him too far and could practically see fire coming off of him as he stepped toward me, his beta, Tristan, pushing out his beta energy to try and calm everyone in the room. My comments about Emma and her mates had irritated my brothers and our father while making the other four males' hearts race as they were clearly fighting the idea of their mate fantasizing about them despite being too young. Admittedly, my outburst was a little cruel, and crude. With these four, Emma was a little bit like those underage celebrities whose parents let them put out an oversexed persona that was wildly inappropriate for their young age, just to get attention, even from males. And the not-uncommon tendency for males to watch attractive females for when they would be of legal age. However, Emma did not do it on purpose and was almost painfully oblivious to her effect on males, and her mates.

It is a little more disgusting in the world of basics because they didn’t have the moon goddess assigning destined mates in a manner that didn’t always make sense to us. When basics are attracted to young females it is completely within their control. Unlike basics, shifters and weres have the added problem of being part animal, and animals have always had different rules about mating than humans. Werewolves and shifters do have human forms, but we are, at our core, animals and the animal world is vastly different from the basic human world. A lot of animals will mate before their bodies have even reached full, physical maturity, but a lot of animals typically have significantly shorter lifespans than humans, especially when compared to those that are part of the supernatural world. We have evolved of course, just as every other living being on the planet has evolved. In the human and supernatural world, we recognize that our human sides are not fully developed until we are in our late teens, and our brains are not fully developed until we are in our twenties.

Pure, true, wolves have little consideration for age, appearance, or sometimes whether they are related to their mates. In this way, we are closer to our human side. We no longer approve of mating relationships within close family relationships, we are often vain, sometimes more than basics, and age for us is complicated. While we rarely care about the age difference between true mates, particularly since some of us can live for centuries, and a select few species are nearly immortal, we do share the same opinion of basics, everyone is underage until they reach the age of eighteen.

Most shifters cannot recognize their true mates until their eighteenth birthday, but Emma being Emma is of course different in this regard. Not only was she able to scent out what everyone believes to be her true mates the moment she met them at only four years of age, they were able to scent her as well when not one of them had yet turned eighteen. Of course, contributing to the issue is her lack of a wolf or any wolf traits to protect her. Additionally, she is small for a wolf child. Emma may grow a little bit more since she is still a kid, but at fifteen years old it probably won’t be much more, and she is only five foot three, when most female wolves her age are at least five foot seven. And though she is curvy, those curves are on a delicate frame. As a result, everyone treats her like she is the most fragile of glass.

Maybe not everyone. The young, unmated females in the pack were not happy with Emma’s presence because she stole attention from them without effort. Some of the females, mostly the few that had remained friends with Emma since our parents first began dating, left her alone and even tried to protect her, but others would try to bully her. A handful of males had tried bullying her, in order to impress the shewolves they were involved with, but that was quickly squashed by my brothers and their friends. Not to mention that most males were either secretly in love with Emma, or wanted to be in good graces with the triplet princes who clearly wanted her protected so they too did all they could to keep any bullying to a minimum.

Thankfully, I am older than Emma and think of my brothers’ friends as my “bonus” brothers or I too would be jealous of my sister. She’s gorgeous, and smarter than anyone else in the pack, including the king and queen, and with few exceptions, she seems to compel people to love her and want to protect her. Her intelligence is why she was home when she was supposed to be away at school until she was eighteen. Emma had accomplished the amazing achievement of graduating simultaneously from high school and college at the tender age of fifteen. While she had graduated from a top university and was technically now a doctor, or at least has her medical degree, she was too young to practice and couldn’t find a medical program to accept her for a residency program. Additionally, I get the sense that there is something wrong with her that she is not being open about. She seemed anxious and frightened when she first returned home. I adore my sister and will rip out the throats of anyone that harms her, but I am almost twenty years old and am being forced to stay at home while my brothers are out running in the snow and my friends are having a wild time at a party. It's not fair.

So, here I am attempting to argue with our father, the alpha, wanting to go out with other wolves my age, nineteen. “Watch your tone and words young lady or you will be staying in with your sister for more than just tonight”, my father growled to me in a tone that was far tamer than it would have been if his beta had not calmed the room. I really owe that beta a lot, this isn’t the first time he’s calmed my father in dealing with me. When I was younger I had a crush on him until he found his true mate, it took him a while since she was located in another pack.

After everyone leaves, I try to settle down and follow my father’s instructions, but unlike usual, he didn’t give them as an alpha command, so I do not feel compelled to stay in despite my wishes. Some of my friends are having a party in town tonight and some of the male townie basics are hot, as a nineteen-year-old she-wolf I have desires just like the guys. After about an hour of texts and videos from my friends at the party, I can’t take it anymore and sneak out. I arranged to meet an Uber at the gate so as not to raise suspicions if anyone saw my car. Not before checking in on Emma to make sure she is still asleep.

Of course, she is still asleep, after her mates knocked her out. I am a little jealous that she has someone who has that effect on her, but she’s not going to get the opportunity to sow her oats with anyone other than those four, and that I am not jealous of. I want to find my mate or mates, but she wolves should get to experience just as much as the males. The idea that she wolves need to save themselves for their destined mates is sexist and antiquated and I will not be beholden to it. Either everyone must abstain, or they need to accept that even females can have fun, and I do enjoy s*x. Besides, werewolves and shifters are s****l creatures, and it is only natural for us to seek s****l pleasure and satisfaction. Unlike full, pure, and natural wolves, shifters often have s*x with more than just one mate, at least until we find our fated mate, then it is usually over for us. Once we have found our fated mates we lose any interest in any others, and fall in line with pure wolves as typically monogamous beings. To the point that many refuse to find a new mate if their first mate dies, or leaves them. I plan on enjoying myself before I settle down with one mate and fully intend to find a hot basic, or a shifter if they are at the party, and get my freak on.