Mates (bxb) Book one of the Mates series

2

~chapter two~

(Ash's pov)

"Fetch!" Royce yelled as he chucked the base ball across the yard. I ran after it, my paws pounding the bright green grass, and the wind running threw my white fur. I scooped the ball into my mouth and ran back over to Royce. I let him take the ball out of my mouth and he snickered at me. "Eww, Ash! You drooled all over it!"

I just snorted and trotted away, waiting for him to throw the ball again. I don't know if it was the wolf in me, or I just like to do it, but I loved playing fetch. Then, I heard my moms voice call from the back porch. "Boys! Lunch is ready!" Royce dropped the ball and ran toward the house with me trotting by his side. As I came up to mom, she bent over and whispered into my ear, "Ash, we have a guest so you'll have to stay in wolf form for now sweetie."

I blinked and trotted into the house, wanting to see who our guest was. It was my principle and I froze. After a moment, I slowly made my way toward Royce with my ears down, and my tail tucked between my back legs. Royce seemed to be just as surprised as me as; he didn't even look at the pizza roles that our mom had made for us.

"Hello, Royce." Our principle, Mr Moors smiled and added, "don't worry, no one is in trouble or anything, I just came to stop by and say hello to your mother. What's a friend if I don't stop by to say hi every once in a while?"

Royce shrugged and I fallowed him as he walked over to the stove to grab as many pizza roles as his his plate could hold, and sat at the table. I sat next to his feet and Royce reached down under the table, presenting to me a hot pizza role. I snatched it carefully from his hand and I barely chewed it before swallowing, I laid my head in his lap, waiting for my next piece.

"Would you like something to drink, Rob?" Mom asked as she stepped into the kitchen. It felt weird to hear my mom call my principle by his first name; by hey, they've been friends since like the first grade! Just then, I heard the front door slam shut and my dad came stopping in complaining about people and dirty eating habits. Dad was a manager of a restaurant that his best friend, Markus, owned, called the 'Rough House'. I often wondered what kind of name that was for a restaurant, but who was I to complain?

I quickly swallowed the last pizza role Royce gave me and went to lay my head in dad's lap as he sat at the table. He began to stroke my fur as he started to complain about how people need to learn table manors. I closed my eyes in contentment as everyone chattered around me. After a while, a Mr Moors had to leave and I was safe to trot upstairs to my room and shift. It never hurt, but it was always weird to hear my bones crack and pop. I sighed as I stretched and walked over to my closet to grab cloths. I ended up deciding on a pair of blue skinny jeans, and a white t-shirt with a black jacket.

After running down the stairs and almost falling, I rejoined my family in the kitchen. I saw Royce about to take a bit of a peanut butter cookie, and I quickly reached out and snatched the cookie out of his hand; or tried to. He had a firm gip on it, and it ended up snapping in half. I quickly stuffed my half into my mouth and chuckled as I saw my brother's glare, making some crumbs fly out of my mouth.

"Manors, Ash! Manors!" My father shouted and I blinked at him.

After swallowing the cookie I said, "sorry, dad. Thanks for the half of a cookie, Royce."

"Dog." Royce muttered, then smirked and dogged the pot holder our mom just threw at him.

"What have I told you about calling your brother a dog?!" She yipped and I hid a grin behind my hand, pretending I was rubbing my nose.

"Oh, come on, mom, you know it just a joke. I don't really mean it." Royce protested.

"I don't like it." Mom snapped, then turned back to the soup she was making for dad.

"Come on, Royce." I smiled at my brother as he looked at me. "I want to beat you at Mortal Combat!"

"Oh, your on!" Royce yelled and we both ran to the den to play the game. Two wins and thirteen loses latter, we became bored of the game and I suggested we go into town and bye some ice cream. Royce agreed and we got some money from mom before borrowing dad's car and ridding into town. The day was really nice, sunny and warm with a slight breeze. Summer was right around the corner. It was June first today and school would be out in a week and my birthday was in ten days. I was really excited.

We stopped at tasty twist and I ordered a hot fugue Sunday, while Royce simply got a chocolate shake. We sat at a picnic table under the shade of a tree not too far from the car, and ate in silents for a while until Royce said, "so what do you want to do this summer, brother?"

I licked my lips and said, "well, what if we go to Cedar Point?"

Royce smiled and said "ok, but I don't think our allowance is up that high yet." That made me burst into laughter.

"No, I don't think it is ether." I took another few bits of my ice cream and then a thought struck me. "Hey what about Marisa? You two are dating, what are you planing to do with her?" I wiggled my eyebrows at him, only to stop as his face fell and he pushed his shake away as if it didn't look good anymore. "Oh, no! Don't tell me..."

Royce nodded his head as he bit his lip. "Ya, just last Tuesday. She said there wasn't a 'spark' between us anymore."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll never understand girls." Royce nodded in reply and I sighed, my ice cream also not looking as good as it did a minute ago. After throwing it away, I said, "come on, let's go back home. I think I may take a nap."

Royce nodded, and we climbed back into the car to go home.


(Ulric's pov)

"Wait, we're moving?!" I jump up from my seat, and stared at my father.

"We found unclaimed land to the south that's a lot bigger then what we have now. It's already set up, Ulric. Once we get the pack fully moved, this will no longer be our territory for I've already given the River pack permission to take it by the next full moon. So we have a mouth to move."

"A month?!" I scream. "Our you f***ing crazy?! We have to move one hundred and twenty werewolfs and all there things down south in a month?!"

My father just gave me a glare, then said, "it's been decided. I've already given everyone the order to be fully packed and ready to move in the next three days. Furniture is to stay because I've already bought a fully furnished mansion and several dozen homes, also fully furnished. It's a total of a hundred and twenty acres."

My mouth falls open as I stare at my father. "Where?"

"Charlotte, Michigan." He stated plainly and I shook my head.

"Is there even that much forest down there?" I asked quietly.

My father glanced at me and handed me a map. "It's not all forest. Some of it is fields, but now that I bought it, the farmers are to leave and we can set up some of are own to grow food for the pack so we don't have to wast money for food in stores. There are many deer and other game to hunt and feed our pack. Other then the few humans now living around our territory, we are safe. There are already a wolf pack or two there, but the animals won't bother us if we don't bother them."

I sighed and nodded. Charlotte... Why did that ring a bell? "father? What's up with that place? I've never heard of that much land not being claimed by werewolfs or even... Vampires!"

My father raised an eyebrow at me, then said, "if your talking about the Full Moon pack that lived there sixteen years ago, then yes, there were werewolfs there."

Then I remembered what had happened there. The Full Moon pack, once the strongest living pack, was whipped out in a vampire raid to kill werewolfs for the land; but soon after that, the vampires just suddenly left, leaving what remained of the pack to separate and take refuge in other packs. We had one of the Full Moon wolfs in our own pack by the name of Boris. I had ran into him a few times and he was startling huge, like a frickin' gaint!

Sighing, I stood and said, "Better get packed to then."

My father looked at me with narrowed blue eyes, black hair hanging just over his left eye. "Have you found you mate yet?"

Sighing again, I head toward the stairs. "If I had, father, everyone would know."