My Taken Mate

Pack Links

Phoenix

If I knew how much fun messing with my friends would be through a mind link, I would've asked to join Cody's pack when we first met. 

"Nix, cut the shit! That's effin nasty bro!" shouts Grayson from his room.

Rolling her eyes as she continues to unpack her suit case, Jeanette asks, "What did you do now?"

"Linked him an image of Dr. Pimple Popper popping one of those monstrous zits that I remembered seeing on youtube." I laugh. I heard him waking from his room next to ours and knew it was the perfect time for an ambush.

"I swear, sometimes you guys act half your age."

She isn't wrong, we've been living together for the past four years. By this point we're more like brothers. It might take some time for her to get used to our sometimes adolescent ways, but she will. She's not used to living with a bunch of guys. In all her years in the system, the house we met in was the only one who cared for both boys and girls. After she was moved at fifteen, her last two houses were girls only. College was the same, rooming in the female dorms until graduation. The guys and I had our own house off campus thanks to Cody's parents.

Speaking of, they're pretty cool. I've met them before but officially becoming a member of their pack allowed me to see they really are the genuine people they appear to be. They welcomed us with no problems and found a place for each of us to belong. Jeanette is excited to be using her Early Education degree to teach second grade at the Elementary School here. 

I've never been too trusting when it comes to people of authority. They always seem to have hidden agendas and judge you before really getting to know you. Trevor and Harmony Hanes are different, accepting you as you are no matter where you come from.

Pack life will be an adjustment, most of our lives have been spent around humans since it's uncommon for werewolves to willingly give up their children. Jeanette and I were lucky enough to have each other when our first shift happened at twelve years old.

Imagine waking in a cold sweat, every muscle in your body aching with an intense need to be outside surrounded by nature. Jeanette was the one who helped me into the woods behind our foster home and stayed, even though she was afraid as I changed from a boy into a wolf. Thankfully the change brought with it an immense amount of knowledge and instinct. With it I was able to shift back before she ran for help. Once I changed I could smell she was like me and together we prepared for her shift which went much more smoothly than mine.

We spent the next few years learning everything we could and stayed in touch even though we were separated. She's been my family for a long time, which is why when she needed me at her lowest point, I was there.

A knock on our bedroom door shifts my attention and I move to answer it.

"Hey jack in the crack, I came by to see if you guys wanted to stop by the back to school bonfire they have here every year?" Cody asks still irritated with me for the song I got stuck in his head earlier.

Chuckling I say, "Aren't we a little old for a back to school bonfire?"

"It's not only for high schoolers, the college kids go too. It's pretty PG 13 for the most part but some guys pop a few beers. My little sis and her friends will be there, I just need to remind the punks around here who her brother is and where to keep their eyes, mouths, hands, and any other body part they don't want to lose." He says with a smirk.

In the four years I've known him, I've heard stories of his baby sis. Most of them had me clutching my stomach in laughter. Others had me sympathizing with him. I haven't had the chance to meet her, only saw a couple pictures of her when they were younger that Cody had in a scrapbook his mom made for him when he first went to college.