Summer

Chapter 1

Summer’s POV

Oh my god I can’t believe it, has it already been 3 years since we graduated and been working at our dream job.  Every year by best friend Katie Waywood go out on the anniversary of our graduation to celebrate by having a few drinks and something to eat at our local.  Wow 3 years and I still love what I’m doing for a living.

Katie and I work together at the same elementary school, we have done everything together.  We first meet each other at school and were taking the same classes, we hit it off from day and been best friends ever since that day.  We ended up moving in together and that was the start of our beautiful friendship.

“Summer, are you ready?  We need to head down soon so we can get our table otherwise someone else will take it”, said Katie sounding as excited as I feel.  “Give me 5 min” I said. I was wearing my favorite dark blue skinny jeans that showed off all my curves with a silver spaghetti strap top and my 4 inch black heeled boots, I mean with my height of 5’10 I didn’t really need the extra high but it made my legs look like they go on for miles and the guys seem to like it.  Putting on the finishing touches to my makeup I grabbed my black shoulder bag with my phone, cash, and card in it and made my way out to the sitting room were Katie was having a pre drink while waiting for me.

“WOW Summer, you’re looking hot tonight” said Katie as she downed the rest of her drink then handed me mine.  “You don’t look so bad yourself” I said giggling.  

Katie was the same height as me but she was slightly more muscular/ well-built, but that’s because she is a werewolf. 

5 years earlier.

It was the night of her 21st birthday, she said “I don’t want to go out to celebrate my birthday, and I’ve got something I would like to share with you later tonight.”  I looked at her with a raised brow “oh yeah, what is it?”   “I’ll show you later but you must promise me that you won’t freak out and you will keep an open mind” she said anxiously “plus remember you are my best friend, my family and I would never hurt you.  Please remember that” Now I was starting to feel concern but I trusted her with my life like she trust me with hers.  “Alright, nothing you can or say with make me run away from you.  You are the only family I have, you are my sister my soul sister” I said with a grin.  Katie seemed to relax after I said that.

I ordered us a pizza with extra cheese, grabbed us a beers from the fridge and put on ‘Game of Thrones’ the complete series because that is our favorite program while we snuggled up under our blankets in our PJs. 

A couple hours into our ‘Game of Thrones’ marathon Katie paused it and turned to face me, she had a serious look on her face.  She took a big breath then exhaled “Summer, I’m a werewolf.”  As you can probably imagine I laughed my arse off “stop… really… that is just toooooo funny” I managed to get out through my fits of laughter.  When she didn’t say anything I looked into her eyes and I could see sadness, fear, hope, I didn’t like seeing those sorts of emotions on by friend, so I got myself under control to listen to what she wanted to tell me.  “Are you serious, can you like change into a wolf?”  Katie was moving her head up and down “yes and yes to both, and it’s shift not change into a wolf.”  I looked at her with huge eyes because obviously I’m in complete shock, but after a couple minutes of silence I remembered that this is by best friend, my sister, a grin started to spread across my face “O.M.G. this is soooo exciting.  You have to change I mean shift into your wolf like right now.  I mean what colour wolf are you? Can I pat you?”  I said in a rush jumping up and down but Katie caught it all.  “My coat is dark brown, yes I will shift for you and yes you can pat me” Katie said smiling obviously glad that I have taken the news so well. 

“Hurry up and shift will you, I want to see your wolf” I said moved to make more room for her.  What I saw next changed my life forever.

Katie stood and walked into her room, I was going to protest and tell her I wanted to watch her shift when she emerged in only her robe.  I raised one brow and asked “why the robe?”  “I have to be naked when I shift otherwise I’ll tear my clothes to shreds.”  “Right right, I gotch ya.  Well carry on, let’s see your wolf” I said with a grin.  Katie nodded her head and winked at me, then I saw dark brown hair, no it was fur sprouting all over her body.  Then she dropped down onto all fours and the sound of bones braking was next which made me feel a little bit queasy.  Her face started to grow in length into a snout and claws popped out of her fingers.

It all happen so fast that in least than 30 seconds there was a beautiful brown wolf with the greenest eyes staring back at me.

I was speechless seeing of my friend in her wolf form, she was beautiful.  “Katie.  You are beautiful.”  I said breathlessly, and she was.  “You are the most stunning creature I have ever seen.” I said dumbfounded. 

I walked towards her with my hand extended out, she sniffed my hand then rubbed her face and head on it then she started to rub her body along my legs.  I lost my balance and fell over on my arse, I was laughing when Katie the wolf licked my face with her big wet tongue. “Yuck Katie, that is so gross.  Stop kissing me.” I said laughing.  Once she stopped attacking with her slobbery tongue she laid down beside me on the floor while I scratched behind her ear.

“This is supposed to be your birthday but you have given me this gift.  Thank you for trusting me, your secret is safe with me, I will take it to the grave” I said with a smile.  “Now go shift back so we can talk” I said while I placed her robe in her mouth.  Katie trotted off to her room, she came out 5 minutes later back in her PJs she was wearing earlier and sat on the couch.  I came out with a couple bottles of beer, placed them on the coffee table and sat next to Katie.  We both took a swig of our beers.

“So does this mean your whole families are werewolves?”  “Yeah.  My father is the Alpha and mum is our pack Luna.  My brother Gabriel is the future Alpha and his best friend James is the future Beta when Gabriel takes the Alpha position.  Xavier and Troy are Scouts, they are responsible for warning the pack of dangerous territory outside our lands.  And Ethan are Hunters, they are exceptionally skilled at tracing and hunting down prey.”

“And what about you, what position do you hold in the pack?”  I asked, engrossed in everything Katie was saying.

Katie’s mouth formed into a huge smile and it was bright and happy “As a female wolf we take care of the pups.” Katie said excitedly.  “That is why I studied to be a preschool teacher, I want to be able to provide them with the best start in life when it comes to their education.  The little pups can’t go to normal schools because they can control their shifting at such a young age, not until they reach around 7 years old are they able to control their wolf.”

“Wow that must be hard.  Have has the pack educated the pups before they can go to public schools?”

“The female wolves do their best and the internet helps a lot.  I am hoping to build a classroom for the pack to be able to teach them in a proper school environment like how the humans do it, the pups would benefit from it greatly.”

“That is fantastic, I know how much you love working with children, you are great with the kids at work” I said feeling pride in my best friend.  “And when you eventually get around to all this and you need help you can always hire me, I would love it.”

Katie smiled “I would love that do, but humans aren’t supposed to know about werewolves.  I would just have to convince my dad to let me hire you.”  Katie said laughing

“Man I love my job.” Katie said with a smile on her face.

“So is that all you role is in the pack?” I asked   

Katie sigh “no, because I am the Alphas only daughter and have not found my true mate I could be mated to a neighboring pack member to form an alliance with that pack.”

I gasped “Excuse me, what do you mean mated to a neighboring pack member, do you mean like arranged marriage s**t?  Actually, firstly, what is a true mate?”

“Long story short they are the other half of your soul.  There is no one who can compare to your true mate, you will love him with your whole heart, and he is your one true love.”  She said this with such love and hope in your eyes I couldn’t help but think what that would feel like having a soul mate.  How romantic.

“What about this mating thing to a neighboring pack member?” I said with one brow raised

“To form alliances with other packs the best way to do this is mate a member from each pack, this is usually done between the children to the alphas of each pack.  If one of the alphas does not have children then I would have to mate with that alpha.” Katie looked so miserable saying all that.

“That is so sad.  How could you parents agree to something like this?”

 “I know my parents don’t want to force this on me, they want me to find my true mate to find happiness like my parents have.  But if a neighboring pack wants to go to war, the only way to prevent a war could be a mating between both packs.  I know I would prefer and mating over the death of innocents, even if it is at my expense”

 “That is so sad and depressing at the same time. I’m so sorry this is something you could possibly have to go through.”  With a half-smile I reached over and gave her a hug.  “Don’t you worry about a thing, I’ll will always be here to support you.”  I squeeze her hand to reassure her.

“Thanks Summer, I know I can always count on you.  Oh one more thing, don’t forget you can’t tell anyone that you know I’m a werewolf, not even my family.  It’s kind of a big secret and they will be pissed if they found out I told you.” Smiling I said “OK.”

“Come on lets carry on with our ‘Game of Thrones’ marathon” I said as I picked up my beer and the remote and pressed play.