The Mate Deal

Chapter 4

It was one of those days soon after the deal was made where I was at school.  Matt was back at the pack house, doing whatever it is soon to be alphas do.

It was just a week before his birthday, which meant that we had been doing this for almost two weeks, and no one has caught on.  Or at least to our knowledge.

I hadn’t told anyone, for obvious reasons.  One day in between classes, Renee caught up to me and asked if I wanted to go get some lunch.  Me, not having anuthing better to do, said yes, and we got in my car and drove to a subway.

“So, I have to ask.  Are you avoiding me?”

I looked over at her.  I didn’t know how to answer that.  “What do you mean?  Why would you think that?”

“Oh, no reason.  I just thought maybe you were, because every time I ask you to do something, you say you’re busy.”

“Oh, no.  trust me, there’s something else completely.”  I hated not being able to tell her.  Renee and I had known each other since high school.  When I got my scholarship, she decided to come here to Oregon as well.  She had known Tyce, and she knew an embellished story as to why I was disowned.  She didn’t know anything about werewolves.

“Then what?  Steph, you tell me everything, but lately you’ve barely spoken to me!”

I frowned deeper, feeling guilty.  “Trust me, it’s nothing really.”

“Come on!  You can tell me anything!”

I looked over at her while I drove.  “Okay, fine.  I met a guy.”

The look on Renee’s face showed enthusiasm.  “So why didn’t you ever tell me?”

I sighed.  “It’s not that.  We have a…”  I thought for a minute, trying to come up with the right word.  “A deal.”

She frowned, disappointed by my lack of details.  “Stephanie Anne Haynes!  Have you gone into prostitution?”

I blushed. “No!  Ew!  Nothing like that!”

“Then what?  Friends with benefits?”

I nodded.  “I guess you could say that.”

“Okay then.  Tell me about him.”

There were two ways I could go about this.  I could finally tell her the whole truth, including what I am, or I could lie and pretend Matt and I really are a thing.

I went with the latter.  “He’s really pretty cute.  His name’s Matt.  We met a few weeks ago at that first showing of S and S.  We went out for ice cream, and hung out a while after that.”

“Aw!  You haven’t dated since Tyce.”

“I never dated Tyce.”  I also wanted to point out that I’m not dating Matt, but decided against confusing her.  Confusion leads to curiostity, and you know what they say.  Curiosity killed the cat.  (not that I mind a few kittens biting the dust.)

“I know, but after the thing with him happened, you’ve been avoiding guys altogether.”

“No I haven’t,” I protested.

“Yeah, sure,” she said in that accusing, sarcastic tone that gets on everybody’s nerves.

“What?  It’s true!  I talk to guys all the time!”

“But that’s nothing romantic.”

“Should it be?  Ray, we are in college!  We’re supposed to mess around!  It’s what we came here for.”

Maybe that wasn’t exactly true.  Renee is not the mess around type.  She’s always been a bit of a goodie-goodie.  Her most rebelious moment was when she dyed her hair a dark brown from the honey blonde it had been in eleventh grade.

“Steph, why are you getting so defensive?”

I sighed.  “I never dated Tyce.  Let’s just leave it at that.”

And so we did.  And right then we pulled into the parking lot of subway.

Matt sat back and turned on the TV, thinking about how great his life was.  He finally could sit back and relax.  All his problems were taken care of.

But what will happen when you find your real mate, a voice in his mind bothered him.  What then?

But Matt didn’t know the answer to that.  By the time that happens, I’ll be Alpha.  I only have a week left.

But a lot can happen in a week.

[A/N: Hey, sorry for the slow upload.  And sorry that it’s so short.  I’m working on making it longer, I really am.  It’s just that I just finished another book,  and I’ve had this camp thing, and I’ve been waiting to get my laptop back from school because when I write on my home computer it gives my parents an excuse to read this, and would you want your parents reading this?  I didn’t think so!  I’ve just had a lot going on, you know?

Well, vote and comment, and hang on until the next chapter!  Oh, and so if you hadn’t noticed, and if I haven’t already explained, anytime it’s in first person, it’ll be Stephanie’s point of view.  Matt has third person.  I was looking for a way to make it different from some other books.]