Mated to the Wizard

4 - Spiderman T-shirt

"That fucking bastard." I mutter under my breath, stroking the place his lips touched mine and where his fingers caressed my cheek. Then he disappeared.

I feel like I'm constantly talking to a brick wall. He doesn't want this mate bond, yet he won't let me reject him or vice versa. And then to top off the confusion, he tries to kiss me but then disappears in a second. I don't understand it. I don't know what to do with myself. Mates are something I grew up with knowledge of. When you find a mate you find the other half of your soul. It's like you start your life from the point when you learn their scent. But I can't start my life with a brick wall. Not unless it's purple. And Everest is definitely not purple.

"Ave! Lunch!" Dad yells up the stairs. I swallow and fix my hair behind my ear.

"All is fine. Everything is all good." I whisper to myself as a mini pep talk before leaving the room. My legs feel heavy as I walk down the stairs, gripping the banister as I go. When I reach the kitchen, everyone is sitting around the table next to the window, Cameron and Charlie are flicking spaghetti at each other while Shane laughs at them and Sophie glares, staring down at the plate in front of her like it's a serial killer. Mum is desperately trying to get her to eat something and dad is still trying to fix himself a plate of pasta.

"Morning." I greet, this being the first time I've seen them today.

"Afternoon." Dad replies, setting his plate down in front of me and turning to get another one. I grumble a 'thank you' and twirl my fork in the spaghetti.

"Your father and I have a pack meeting to go after lunch, can you and Shane babysit until we get back." Mum asks distractedly, shoving another forkful of food towards Sophie's closed mouth. "You know, it gives you super powers, right? You'll shift into your wolf faster if you eat it." she mutters to her under her breath. Sophie takes the fork and places it in her mouth at this point, the concept of her wolf obviously close on her mind.

"Are you paying us?" Shane asks. I tsk at him. "What? I'm broke!"

"You have all that money from last Christmas, and savings from the phase when you wanted to go to university." I point out.

"Well, that's not going to get me far in life." he retorts.

"You have a job, don't you?"

"Oh come on, until dad finally hands over the Alpha position, all I have to go on is that lame assistant job at the hospital. That barely pays for lunch on my break!"

"You eat like a horse, there's no wonder." Mum butts in. I chuckle at him as his face turns to annoyance. "We pay for your food at home, and water and heating and electricity, oh, and the Wi-Fi. So you can do this one job for us."

Don't get me wrong; having a big family is amazing. For my four other siblings and I, life is pretty great. Our parents are perfectly happy, mated werewolves, we can afford to live in our own house away from the hustle of the pack house, and I'm not going to lie – being the offspring of the Alpha and Luna of one of the largest packs in America has its perks.

But when my-oh-so-amazing parents leave my one older brother and I to babysit for the afternoon, life seems to be fading into darkness pretty quick. Especially with Sophie's puke stinking away on my shirt already. Seems she had some bad food at her play date yesterday, and now I have a sick child and a ruined shirt to look after.

"You better put that vase down, Cameron, because I swear to the clouds above that if you break it-" smash. "You broke it." My brother, Shane, sighs in annoyance. "Mum is gonna fucking kill me."