Seven Mates for Seven Brothers

The One Way NOT to Find Your Mate

There is very little in life that surprised me by the time I turned eighteen. That's what you get when you grow up in a multi-cultural house hold. It's not even just my family who lives in that house. There are like twelve whole families that are housed in the pack house.

Yep you read that right. I grew up around a bunch of werewolves. My dad and older brothers are all children of the moon. Not my mom though, or me. Nope, we got the other gene. The really weird one. But that will be more important later. No need to worry your pretty little heads about how Reese is the weird one in her family.

Let's start Monday, March 15 otherwise known as my birthday. It was a sunny day in Texas, and luckily, I wasn't in school.

Per tradition, my Mom and her mom convinced my dad not to make me go to school that day so we could go shopping in Austin. We were eating birthday brunch at Roadside Café and laughing at how my three older brothers had complained about not getting to skip school on their birthdays. I was the epitome of southern charm when I snorted over my migas after my mom did a spot on impression of my oldest brother Ian.

"But why does Reese get to skip school. You never let us do that!" She whined. Grams and I both cracked up. Mom shot a smirk at me when our waiter let his eyes roam over me, and not in a way my father would approve of.

"Ooo, Reese, he's cute. Your mom and I can make ourselves scarse if you want to... get to know him better." Grams winked at me.

My Grams was a very unique person. A tiny little Irish woman who came to America after WWII as a War Bride, she was the definition of spit fire. Her dark auburn hair that manifested in both my mom and I was streaked with grey, but despite being 87, the woman acted younger than I was. She had the ability to go on for hours and hours without needing a break, which I'm pretty sure came from the herbs she took instead of western medicine.

"Grams, I think I'll hold off on the whole 'getting to know him' thing for awhile if you don't mind. Plus Dad would kill me if I didn't at least try to find a mate before looking at other options." I jumped as steaming hot chocolate hit my lips.

"Careful sweetheart. That mate of yours won't like it if your lips are burned off," Mom teased.

"Mom," I gasped exasperated. As the only one in my family without a mate I took most of the teasing. "Okay, Satan's Waterfall is calling, so I'm gonna take care of some business." I excused myself. My mom rolled her eyes, she hated what I called my period, but covertly passed me a pad from her bag. She knew I always forgot my girly stuff.

The restaurant was crowded, so much so that as I walked past tables to the bathroom, I couldn't help but bump into people. Most ignored me, and a couple shot me annoyed looks, but one gave me a very different reaction.

I was soooo close to the bathroom, only a few feet away, and I bumped into a guy sitting by himself. He was a very good looking guy; all dark hair and blue eyes. He even had a sexy scruff thing going on that certainly didn't diminish his appeal.

When I knocked into him two things happened. First I felt my body light up like fireworks were going off inside of me. Second, I tripped and dropped my pad onto the floor. In front of everyone.

"I am so sorry," I said. The guy stood up quickly, his stance alert and predatory.

"It's no problem at all miss." I looked up and what I saw should have seemed like a surprise, but it wasn't. His eyes were blue, the bluest I'd ever seen, but they were shot with silver, the mark of an Alpha. I'd found my mate.

"Okay, we can talk in like two minutes sweetie, but right now I have some lady's business to tend to in there," I gestured to the bathroom, "and it's sort of an emergency. So can you wait?" He nodded, his wolf obviously not wanting to let me out of his sight.

Smiling gratefully I scooped up my pad and ran into the restroom. After locking the door I leaned up against the sink and sighed. It was just my luck. Of course I'd meet the love of my life while on my fucking period.