Mates?

6

"Grant?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"It's nice to see you again Winter." He smiled.

"How did you find us?" Ash asked.

"I was the best at tracking back at the pack. No matter how hard you tried to cover your tracks, it wasn't good enough."

He had his eyes glued on me.

"Does Adam know you're here? If not, he's gonna be furious you're here."

"I don't care about Adam. He probably hasn't even realized I'm gone." He scoffed.

"Tyran probably realized things are too quiet." I laughed.

"I think I made it pretty clear to Tyran that I don't wanna see him again." He said sadly.

"It's gonna be pretty hard to avoid someone you live with." I said.

"Not if I became a rogue. I'll never have to see either of them again." He looked at me and smiled.

My heart dropped.

"Please tell me you didn't." I said.

"I did, and I love it. I found an unoccupied den, camouflaged it, I even had a squirrel for breakfast, much better than our small rations." He said, smiling.

"You won't love it for long. People will fight you for what you have. You'll get injured. You'll have to fix it yourself." I said.

"I'm fine Winter. How about you? When are you expecting?" He asked.

I laughed while he kept a straight face.

"She just got here yesterday. She's not even marked yet, and she's not allowed to see you until she is." Ash interjected.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I did to one of your little vamps. She came at me first-" Grant started while talking to Ash.

Ash cut him off.

"What are you talking about?" Ash asked.

"Your vamp. They tried to drink from me and I attacked her." He explained.

"What'd she look like?" Ash asked, intrigued.

"Long, brown hair, brown eyes maybe. I'm not sure, it was dark." Grant said.

"Was she extremely weak?" Ash asked.

"Come to think of it, she was."

Ash gave him a glare.

"That's my sister. She almost died last night." Ash said sadly.

"What? I didn't hurt her that bad, I just needed to make sure Winter was okay. I heard her screaming and when no one else would help me, I panicked when she tried to drink from me. I promise, I didn't mean to hurt her that bad." Grant explained while running his fingers through his hair.

"It's fine I guess. She's not dead, but lets not talk about that situation at the moment." Ash said.

He's been in a good mood today, hopefully it stays this way, at least for today.

"I'm surprised you haven't marked her yet. By the person I seen yesterday, it seemed as if you would do it immediately. Why didn't you?" Grant said quizzically.

Really? He's supposed to be helping me, not hurting me!

"I was sort of working on it when you requested to see me." Ash spoke with an annoyed tone and through gritted teeth.

I turned to look at him from this surprising statement.

"I told you that you wouldn't be okay, Winter." Grant taunted.

"I'm fine Grant. I couldn't care less if he marked me." I lied.

"Really?" Ash asked arrogantly.

"I wouldn't care. It's not like it'll last that long. I'll be dead in a few months anyway." I said sadly.

"No. You'll be with me until you die, which will be a long time if my plan works as planned, which, it will." He said confidently.

"Why do you have your pack hidden?" Grant asked while looking around.

"First of all, it's not a pack. It's a camp. Camp Blood-Water. Second of all, its for privacy reasons. Not a lot of wolves like vampires." Ash explained in an irritated tone.

"Is it because you don't want other people to know about your parents? Or about that pack you massacred?" Grant asked voice that made it obviously he was judging Ash.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Ash said protectively.

"Does Winter even know about that? Does she know about all the people you've killed?"

"You need to leave. Now." Ash commanded.

"Okay." Grant said politely and walked out.

He didn't even say goodbye to me. Ash stood up and he grabbed my hand.

"I need to talk to Joey. I'll get Cole to give you some company." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "If he tries anything on you, scream as loud as you can. I would normally have Dustin or Alee do this, but they left for a Scavageing Week early this morning." He explained.

"Scavageing Week?" I asked, confused.

"It's where they go out and look for other vampires to join our pack."

I nodded my head. We walked down the corridor that led to the rooms and Ash stopped at the door right before the turn that led to his and Joey's room. He knocked on the door and Cole answered.

"Hey, man what's up?" Cole asked while smiling.

"I have to go talk to Joey about something important. Can you keep Winter company for awhile?"

"Sure man, she should be out of the shower by now, it's like 9:30." Cole said.

I don't wanna know how he knows that, but okay.

"Okay, thanks man, I owe you one." Ash said before turning back to me. "Remember what I said babygirl." He smiled then walked away before I could respond.

I hated the name babygirl. It made me wanna eat rat poison.

"Would you like to come in?" Cole asked, gesturing to his room.

"Sure." I whispered.

I walked in reluctantly, thinking about what Ash said. He shut the door and walked over to his bed and sat down.

"What'd you do that was so bad to get you a babysitter?" He asked.

I thought it over for a moment.

"He just doesn't trust that I won't try to get away." I whispered again.

"Would you? Try to get away?"

"I would have nowhere to go." I continued whispering.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" He started solemnly.

I cut him off.

"It's fine... But how do you know about that?" I asked.

"Most people know about 'the girl who escaped death.' Ash probably didn't know because he lives under a rock and he doesn't listen when I speak." He explained.

"Can we not talk about Ash right now?" I asked, longing for a break from him.

"It's only been a day and you're already sick of him? He hasn't marked you yet, so you can still reject him if you want." Cole said. "Don't tell him I said that." He quickly added.

"I just don't want him to hurt me." I whispered.

He looked down at me sadly.

"I know." He said.

"I'm scared." I said.

"I would be too. Ash isn't big on self-control."

"He gave me all these rules and I'm terrified that if I slip up or say the wrong thing he may take the consequences too far." I admitted.

"You're afraid he may force you into something." He said more like a statement than a question.

"Yeah. Sometimes I wish he would just mark me and get me pregnant so it'll all be over." I said.

"It won't be over after you give birth. He'll have more than one pup with you." He warned.

"Most female wolves die from giving birth."

He realized what I had meant in my previous statement and he looked sorry for me.

"Does Ash know?"

"Yes. But I don't think he cares."

"He cares. I promise."

I looked down at my feet.

"Do you ever wish you could change the past?" I asked.

"No. Do you?"

"Here lately I have been."

"What would you change?" He asked.

"When my pack was attacked, I would have stayed with my dad. I would have died with him." I admitted. "I miss him everyday."

"I would too."

"Can we change the subject?" I asked, needing a break from this.

"Sure. What do you wanna talk about?"

"I don't know much about vampires." I stated curiously. "Even though one is my mate."

"Well, to start off, vampires drink blood."

"Uh, that's like common knowledge."

"Okay, well we have to have s*x to function correctly." He said like it was obvious.

"I forgot about that."

I could feel my hands shaking and my mind racing.

"You're a virgin, aren't you?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"You should be proud. It's rare to find one." He said.

"Probably won't be one for long." I mumbled sadly.

There was a knock on Cole's door. He answered it.

"I'm back." Ash said. I walked out of Cole's room and beside Ash. They stared at each other like they were talking, but they weren't. Out of nowhere Ash speaks. "I'll take care of it." He said and looked at me.

"Okay. Good talking to you Winter." Cole said.

His voice seemed strained as if he was regretting something. Ash grabbed my hand and began walking. He walked to his room and pulled me inside. He shut and locked the door behind us.

"Sorry for leaving you like that. I just had to talk to Joey about something... But I guess you had a nice conversation with Cole about how scared you are of me." He smiled. "There's something you should know about the main five vampires here: they don't keep secrets, we all have a mind link so all of them just heard your conversation with Cole."

"I'm sorry."

That's all I could say. What else was there to say? He cradled my face in his hands.

"Don't apologize. It won't do any good now. I've already thought of your punishment." He smiled.

"W-What are you going to do to me?" I asked nervously.

He took a step toward me and I took a step back. This process went on until I was pinned against the footboard once more.

"I think you'll find out soon." He smirked and pushed me back on his bed.

He hovered over me and stared into my eyes. He inched closer and closer to me. When our lips crashed together, it was like the world was in perfect harmony. He broke the kids and started kissing down my jawline and my neck. Maybe this wouldn't be that bad. He took off my shirt and continued kissing my body. He continued until he lingered over the right side of my hip. He looked up at me and smiled. When he smiled I had noticed his fangs were larger than usual, but I had noticed it too late. He had already sank his teeth into my hip. It didn't feel good like the rest of his bites, this one hurt. I yelped like a little puppy with a thorn in its paw. I tried to shake him free, but it was useless. He wasn't sucking my blood though. In fact, he pulled out his fangs and there was no blood. I suddenly felt very weak and tired.

"W-What did you do to me?" I said while a tear fell down my face from the pain.

Ash crawled back up toward my face.

"I didn't mean to hurt you." He said while wiping the tear away. "You're mine forever now. I marked you."

Those words were the last ones I heard before I fell asleep. When I woke up again my whole body hurt. I couldn't hold back tears any longer. I let them fall because everything hurt. I heard someone yelling.

"You marked her?!?!?!" The voice belonged to Joey.

It was obvious they were right outside the door.

"Yeah... She'll probably hate me forever now won't she?" Ash asked.

This made me confused. He marked me because I went behind his back, but yet he cares what I think of him. With the rules he has, it doesn't matter what I think of him.

"I know I would." Joey said in a judgemental tone.

"What do I say when she wakes up?" Ash asked nervously.

"First of all, apologize." Joey said in a tone that made it seem obvious.

"Will you go with me to check on her?" Ash asked.

I was hoping hat Joey would say 'yes'. I don't wanna be alone with him.

"Of course. I wanna see you fail miserably." Joey said.

I hadn't realized that I had still been crying. I couldn't stop. The doorknob started to jiggle and when it opened Ash walked by my side and Joey walked to the foot of the bed. Ash attempted to wipe away my tears, but they kept coming.

"I didn't know that it would hurt you this bad." He said.

"That's a lie. We both know mom almost died from it." Joey said.

People can die from being marked?

"That was mom Joey, Winter is stronger than she was at that point." Ash said. He turned to look at Joey.

"Okay. Whatever you say little brother." Joey sighed.

He turned back to me.

"It should stop hurting in a couple hours." He said while stroking my cheek. "Is there anyway to make the pain stop faster?" He asked Joey even though he was still staring at me.

"If you actually paid attention whenever Aunt Irene talked you would know." She said, frustrated.

"I got tired of hearing her speak, that's why I snapped her neck, plus you've been through this before." Ash immediately regretted his words, I wasn't sure if it was because he just told me that he had killed his aunt in front of me, or because he brought up Joey's dead mate.

"Thank you, Ash, for reminding me of what took years to get over." Joey said while her eyes teared up.

"I'm sorry Joey."

"Don't lie to me. We both know you're not. You're just like dad." She said angrily and slammed his door while walking out.

He stayed silent for a few moments before turning back to me and rubbing my leg. 

"I'm sorry Winter." He whispered. "For everything. I've been selfish for so long and I promised myself that when I found my mate I would stop... but I haven't. I could blame it on the mate's pull, but that wouldn't be fully truthful. The truth is, I'm not strong enough to fight these urges. I let them get the best of me and it hurts everyone I care about. In all honesty, it's not even Joey's fault that Xavier died."

When I heard "Xavier" I shot straight up in his bed.  

"What pack was he from?" I asked firmly.

"Pack Wind-Leaf." I whispered sadly, but knowingly.

"You killed my dad?" I felt the hot and angry tears fall.

"Winter, I didn't know you were his daughter until Cole told me." He said, as if it made anything better.

"How did you know he had a daughter?" I managed to say through my sobs.

"Because he begged to keep his life so he could protect you."

"And you're the one who attacked me?" I asked with tears filling my eyes.

"Yes." He said emtionlessly.

I wouldn't look at him. I couldn't look at him. My wolf side was raving with anger and hatred. While I, the human side, was crushed my all the memories hitting me at once.

"I'm getting this mark off of me. No matter what it takes. And when I get it off, I'll reject you in a heartbeat, no matter the consequences. I hate you." I said with determination in my voice, which was led my years of pent up anger.

Ash looked heartbroken. A tear fell down his face as well as mine. For different reasons, obviously. I had lost all will to care. I let my wolf side take over. The next thing I knew, I had Ash cornered and mauled. He didn't put up a fight. After he was well beaten, I jumped out the window, not caring about the pain in my hind leg when I ran, or when I landed. I ran through the woods like there was no tomorrow. It felt good to have the wind in my fur again. For the first time in a long time, I felt free, truly free. All I have to do is get this mark off and I'll have a brand new future ahead of me. Only problem? I've never heard of a way to remove a mark.