The Mate Deal

Chapter 19

Matt had run for an hour in his wolf form, his shorts tied to his ankles, but then he shifted and ran the next hour in his basketball shorts.  The streets of Seattle were much busier than those of Oregon, so it was much harder here to find some empty sidewalks where he could think.

The cool air was nice and refreshing for him.  Even without a shirt on he was warm enough.

He could run miles without ever getting tired.  Matt had always been athletic, and being a wolf inside didn’t hurt that fact.

Stephanie was probably back in Renee’s house, he knew, but he was still worried in spite of that that she was found by her old pack.  He knew she could be killed for coming back, but he couldn’t have let Renee go after her earlier.  One human against a pack of werewolves?  Even if he’d gone along to protect her, she wouldn’t have been safe.

He made himself stop thinking for a few minutes, and just focused on running.  He didn’t know where he was, but he didn’t really care.  He could get directions back to the Kings’ later.

He was on a back street with just a few other people walking on the other side of the street.

But suddenly there was a guy about Matt’s age running next to him.  Matt looked over at him and saw a young man with skin much paler than his own and curly dark hair.  He wasn’t sweating or panting, and even Matt was doing both of those now.

But what grabbed his attention was the smell.  He wasn’t human.  He was another werewolf.

“You’re not from around here,” the man said as he ran.  It wasn’t a question, just an acknowledgement.

“No, I’m not.” Matt affirmed.

“So then, what brings you here?”

“Business,” Matt said after a moment’s thought.  He supposed that wasn’t too far off.  He was here to fulfill his end of a deal.  But also because of a friend.

“What sort of business?”

“Personal.  Now why are you being so skeptical?”

“Let’s just say I’m not very trusting,” he replied.

“Trust issues don’t make for a good werewolf.”

“Oh really?”

“No, see, this is coming from an Alpha here.  You have to trust people to have complete balance in life.  Especially if you’re a werewolf,” Matt added.  “You see, trust issues sort of get in the way of things, like when you find your mate.”  He noticed the guy tense up uncomfortably.  “Or if you are high in your pack’s… government.  Alpha or Omega.  Something like that.  You need to trust the others in your pack.”  Matt was trying to make it sound as simple as possible for him.

“Well,” the man shot back.  “I’m the Beta of the Moonshine pack, and I‘m doing just fine.  But thanks for the advice.”  However, it was obvious that he wasn’t at all grateful.

“Beta of Seattle’s main pack?  Impressive.  But isn’t he dead?”

“No.  That happened months ago.  Betas can be replaced you know.”

“I know.  But I’m guessing you aren’t Richard Hayne’s son.”  He was too pale to be related to Stephanie.

“David, no.  I do know him.  But my name is actually Tyson O’Connor.  You seem rather caught up about all things here in Seattle, but maybe you should go do some more research.”

Tyce.  This was Stephanie’s mate.  No wonder she rejected him.

Matt had known Tyce just a few minutes and he already disliked him.  He stopped running, and when Tyce noticed, he stopped as well.

“Oh, I know enough about you.”

“What do you know,” he asked.

“You go by Tyce.  You found your mate over a year and a half ago, but she rejected you, and so you lied to the whole pack and she was living in Oregon as a rogue for a while.  Really nice girl.  And I also know that for a few weeks now, I’ve been dying to do this.”  And then, Matt punched Tyson O’Connor in the face.

He had to admit, it felt pretty good.

“You know Stephanie,” Tyce asked weakly.

Matt wanted to bug this guy, so he said the first thing that came to his mind.  He knew if someone said this about Renee, he’d go insane.  But the golden rule didn’t apply here.

“I guess you could say that,” he began.  “Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Matthew Kinish.  I’m the Alpha of the Blue Moon pack in Oregon.  And I’m also Stephanie’s fiancé.”

Tyce looked shocked for a minute, but then lashed out at Matt, punching him in the face multiple times.  Matt fought back, and came up the winner, looking down at Tyce, bleeding on the ground.

“You stay away from her,” Tyce said.

“You know, that was so threatening through your wheezing and coughing, I just might dump her.”

“Matthew, I’m asking you as a fellow wolf, to walk away.”

“Why?  Are you going to tell me that she’s in love with a vampire too, so I’ll kick her out of my pack?”

Tyce looked hurt again.  “At least… tell her that it wasn’t me.  Please, Matthew.  It was her brother, David.  I didn’t know anything about it.”

“Yeah sure,” Matt hissed.  “I’ll be sure to tell her,” he said sarcastically as he turned to leave.

“You saw Tyce?  What happened?”

“A whole lot of nothing,” I sighed.

“Wait, what?  Did you talk?”

“Yeah, and he let me in the old pack house so I could get some clothes, and then I snuck away before he could talk to me.  But let me tell you.  It’s kind of creepy.  It was like no one’s been in my room since me the morning I was kicked out.  The door was still open and my bed was still unmade.”

“Still a mess like always?”

“Yes Ma’am,” I laughed.

“That is kind of creepy.”

“Yeah.  There’s no place like home,” I said sarcastically.

“So…” Renee said slowly, stretching out the word as long as a person can.  “What are we going to do about Matt?”

“Huh,” I asked.  It was kind of a random question.  “I don’t know.  We’ll figure something out, though.”

“I hope so.  Can you imagine how weird that would be if you two actually got married?”

“Yeah,” I laughed awkwardly.  “I guess it would be a little awkward.”

I heard footsteps outside, and walked over and looked out the window.  As I’d suspected, it was Matt.

“Renee, go let Matt in.  Besides, I want to sleep now.  It’s been a long day.”

“Alright,” My friend said, and I was extremely grateful.

[A/N: So, what do you think?  I really want more comments telling me what you guys think!  So tell me!  Vote, comment, fan, and read on when I post again.  I can’t believe I’m almost to chapter twenty!]