by Tarrah Betts
Aspen was mine; she just didn’t know it yet.
In the end, I’d told her that I was busy and would have to think about it when I was finished working for the day, but she was still pretty upset with me. I think she was hoping that I’d say yes right away.
Her eyes were furious and glared daggers at me as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and stomped off. I could hear her muttering, “You’re such a friggin jerk, Roan” under her breath as she walked away.
She was good and ticked off at me, so much so that she wouldn’t even look at me when I got home from work that night. She had been watching tv when I walked in and took my work boots off at the back door, but quickly went into her room and slammed her bedroom door as soon as she heard me, to let me know that she was still upset, of course.
I laughed and went and knocked on her door.
I wasn’t particularly enjoying these temperamental, teenage induced, hormonal freak-outs that she’d been having recently. She was so much harder to reason with now.
Case in point, she refused to answer or acknowledge me when I knocked on her bedroom door, so I just opened it and walked right in. She was curled up on her side on top of her bed and listening to satellite radio on her computer.
“Roan? This is my room, you can’t just barge in here!” “I knocked. You didn’t answer. I came in. I want you to start your homework,” I said calmly as I turned the music down and walked out again.
She jumped up off her bed, wearing nothing but a tank top with no bra and tiny little booty shorts and slammed the door again. I hated how infuriating and defiant she was now that she was a teenager; it ticked me off to no end.
“If you slam this door one more time, little girl, I’m going to unscrew it from the door frame and you won’t have a door to slam anymore, you got me?” I said calmly as I shoved the door back open.
“I hate you, Roan. You’re nothing but a big mean jerk. You never let me do anything,” she wailed.
“Aspen, calm down. I said I’d think about it, okay?” I said trying to sound as reasonable and calm as possible.
“Someday I’m going to run away from this crappy little town for good and then I’ll never have to listen to you or your stupid rules ever again!” she screamed.
I tried to stay calm, because I’m supposed to be the adult here but I hated fighting with Aspen because she instinctively knew each and every single one of my buttons to push. And the threat of her running away from Spruce Hollow was one of my more serious buttons that tended to get me going every single time she pushed it.
However, the thing that she didn’t realize was that there was nowhere on this earth that she could go that I wouldn’t be able to find her.
“I don’t give a crap if you hate me. You’ll do exactly what I say, exactly when I say it. And if you ever, ever, run away, little girl, there is nowhere on this planet that you could hide that I wouldn’t find you. Do you understand me, Aspen?” My voice was icy and controlled as I refused to engage her in a screaming match that would only end with her crying and me seething with anger.
Honestly, some days I thought I was going to go insane from having a sixteen-year-old mate and being responsible for disciplining her. It’s hard being in a parenting role to your own predestined partner.
I’d known Aspen since she was six years old. I saw her for the first time at an outdoor public pool, in Riverside, the next town over from Spruce Hollow.
It was a sweltering hot August day and a couple of my pack brothers and I had decided to hop into the car and go hang out at the pool for the day. Ten years ago, we didn’t have a pool in Spruce Hollow, like we do now, so we drove over to the pool in Riverside to cool off for the afternoon but also to check out the girls in bikinis. I was sixteen years old and horny with my adolescent hormones raging.
I had been sitting there, sunning my rapidly growing muscular Were frame, when I noticed her.
It was hard not to.
She arrived with a large contingent of loud, running and squealing children as part of some sort of foster children outing. She was lagging behind the group and seemed to be off in her own little world, just bopping along and singing to herself with her waist length strawberry blond curls bouncing along behind her. She was this scrawny little thing in a pink one piece bathing suit that had “I’m a little sea monster” emblazoned on the front.
She gave me a shy smile and a little wave as she skipped by and surprisingly, my macho teenaged self actually smiled back. How could I not? She was adorable, as far as six year olds go.
My wolf sniffed the air as she passed by. “What did you do that for?” I asked.
“I smelled something good, something that belongs to us,” he replied cryptically. I sniffed again but she had already gone by and all I could smell was the overpowering scent of chlorine mixed with the scents of various humans.
Whatever my wolf had smelled was gone. Who knows, maybe he’d smelled the hot dog vendor that was parked on the other side of the chain link fence?
Either way, I kept noticing this curly haired little girl that afternoon; sitting on her towel, walking past me to get a drink at the fountain or jumping into the shallow end of the pool. And every time she would walk by, my wolf would sniff the air and rumble appreciatively deep in his chest.
“Cripes, would you stop that! Stop it with the sniffing and rumbling, already.”
“I am merely showing my appreciation.”
“Yeah, well you’re appreciating a little kid and it’s creeping me out. Stop it!”
But, I kept watching her all afternoon though. I felt like a total pervert but I couldn’t keep my eyes off her little heart shaped face.
There was this weird force that kept pulling my gaze back towards her direction over and over again. I would start off by watching a hot little brunette in a blue bikini, only to find my gaze straying to the shallow end of the pool, where this little head would pop up, breaking the surface of the water like a silky little seal.
I probably watched her clandestinely for two hours or more before I finally got up the nerve and walked over to where she was swimming and sat down by the side of the pool. When she popped her head up out of the water this time, she looked me directly in the eyes and gave me a cheeky little grin.
And I nearly threw up. She had my mate’s eyes!
I would know those beautiful green cat eyes anywhere; I just never expected them to be in a six year old face!
I was sick to my stomach. Here I was, sixteen years old and my mate’s eyes belonged to a little girl. There must be some mistake, there had to be! I sat there, stunned, and watched her swimming around the shallow end of the pool, until she got out and ran over to the water fountain again. This was my chance and although I wasn’t proud of my plan, I got up and followed her.
I found her, straining on her little tippy toes to reach the water fountain. She wasn’t quite tall enough to reach very well, so I cleared my throat and said, “Do you want me to pick you up?” and she looked me up and down, with the cool appraisal of a seasoned detective, until she decided that I was a safe person and then nodded her curly little head enthusiastically.
Her bathing suit was soaking wet from the pool, so I held her far away from my body, like a smelly bag of garbage or a wet dog. I felt weird enough about picking her up, I didn’t want her any closer than she had to be.
I put her back down once she had drank her fill and she looked at me shyly and said “Thank you”. I felt like a weirdo but I had to know more before she took off back towards the pool and I missed my chance entirely.
I quickly asked her how old she was and she proudly held up five fingers. “You’re five?” She looked at her fingers and then popped up one more. “Oh, I forgot, I just had my birthday,” she giggled shyly.
Then she asked, “How old are you?” as she danced and bopped around in the way that six year olds do. “Much too old for you,” I replied teasingly. She cocked her head at me, not really understanding my answer.
I plied her for as much information as I could get out of her before she ran off. But it was pretty easy because she was so friendly with me. Much too friendly for a little girl speaking to a complete stranger.
She told me pretty much enough information that had I been some sort of pedophile looking to kidnap her, I would have had all the information I needed to go looking for her later on. Her name was Aspen Greystone. Her Mommy and Daddy were in heaven. She lived in a foster home. She was in the first grade and went to Morningside Elementary school. She liked dogs and her favorite color was pink.
The concept of stranger danger certainly seemed to be completely lost on her; I could have picked her up and walked right out of the pool area with her, if I wanted to. That worried me because if she would innocently tell me everything about her, chances are she’d tell any other random stranger out there too.
I kneeled down, to her level, and smiled at her. “Nice to meet you Aspen Greystone, my name is Roan Sabre,” I said as I reached out to shake her little hand. She shot me a gamine grin and as my bigger hand clasped her little one, I was immediately struck by a painless electric current extending from our clasped hands, right up my entire arm. The scenes of our future life together sped through my consciousness and I watched them play out in fast forward hyperspeed in my head until she let go of my hand and it abruptly stopped.
If I was looking for a sign that she was truly my mate, that was certainly it.
There was no more doubt in my mind after that happened. This was my mate…and she was six years old?
How in the hell had that happened?
Aspen zipped back towards the pool and I walked back over to my buddies and sat down, completely dazed. I told them what had happened and we all sat on our towels and watched her like a hawk for the rest of the afternoon, speculating on what could have gone wrong.
The topic of mates was a very serious one among Weres and no one poked fun or made jokes about the situation. This was no laughing matter to any of us.
I called the Alpha on Griff’s, cell phone and made him aware of the situation. He was just as surprised as I was to hear about my mate but in true Alpha fashion, told me not to worry because he would figure it out. I relayed him the information little Aspen had told me and he hung up with the promise that he would start making phone calls.
When the group of foster kids was rounded up a few hours later and it was time for them to leave, I phased in the parking lot and followed Aspen home like a crazed stalker.
I didn’t want to let her out of my sight.
What if I couldn’t find her again or what if something happened to her? She was my mate and I was supposed to care for and protect her, whether she was six years old or twenty-six.
It took the pack eight months of wrangling in the legal system and calling in favors from our contacts, until we got Aspen to Spruce Hollow.
I was an emotional wreck the entire time, as I was still a teenager and not really equipped with enough life experiences to help me deal with something of this magnitude.
Even so, I still couldn’t resist the biological urge to protect my mate and I spent most of my time ditching my high school classes and obsessively following Aspen around in my wolf form.
I’d follow her to elementary school in the mornings and wait around and watch for her on the playground at recess and lunch. Then I’d wait until her mass of strawberry blond curls made an appearance in the rush of students bursting though the front door of the school at dismissal time.
Aspen usually walked home from school with her older foster sister but sometimes she walked alone.
I didn’t like that.
She was too vulnerable and unprotected when she walked home alone. Anything could have happened to her on that short walk home. She could be abducted or she could be hit and killed by a drunk driver or something.
Hell, I didn’t know. Humans were so much more fragile than Weres. All I knew was that I had to guard and protect her and it didn’t matter to me that it took up all my time and therefore took me away from Spruce Hollow and the pack.
There was no way I could leave her, alone and undefended.
I changed a lot in those eight months. I was no longer a regular teen, like the rest of my young pack brothers. Their biggest worries revolved around having fun, meeting girls and getting their drivers license, while I obsessively worried about my mate, her safety and our future together.
It even affected my personality and changed me into a really serious kid who was mature beyond his years. Of course, this was also ultimately what helped me in securing the position of pack Beta at only nineteen years old.
Finally, the Alpha managed to have Aspen placed with a female Were who’d recently lost her mate prematurely.
Her name was Valerie and she was completely heartbroken with the loss of her husband. It was a perfect match for both Aspen and Valerie, as they both needed someone to love.
I was so relieved; I finally had my mate somewhere secure, where I could keep a close eye on her until she matured enough to actually become my mate.
That was 10 years ago and Aspen had moved on from the sweet, little, curly haired silky seal in a pink bathing suit to a hormonal, moody, amusing, mischievous ball of teenaged angst and budding sexuality.
She drove me crazy in almost every way you can possibly drive a person crazy.
Take tonight, for example. After our door slamming, threat hurling, yelling fight, I wanted to go back into her room, rip those tiny little shorts off her butt and throw them into the damn garbage, then throw her over my knee and spank her for being such a little brat.
Of course, the pleasure I would have received out of that would have been twofold.
I’m sure I would have had to go to my room and jerk off afterwards, but I was willing to take that risk.
Being close to Aspen did strange things to my body and my thoughts and that’s precisely why I constantly had a girlfriend. To keep my mind occupied and my hands off of her.
I tried to stay away from Aspen as much as possible now that she was a teenager, while still steering her life and choices but I still found it difficult to resist her. I tried to stay in phase most of the time when I was around her now because she and my wolf were absolutely mad about each other. She had him wrapped around her little finger like a piece of silly string.
Cripes, lately she’d even had him playing fetch in the yard, like a dog.
I was not a DOG. I was a male Were. A ferocious, predatory beast! Not a dog that chased sticks then brought them back and dropped them at your feet like a good boy.
It was humiliating, but my wolf didn’t mind at all. He just rolled over to get his belly rubbed. He didn’t care that she was a rebellious teenager right now. He just wanted to be around her.
Chapter 4
***
There were six of us out tonight and we were happy to see one another. As Were brothers, not only were we pack members but we were family as well. I considered these men my brothers as much as I would consider a full biological sibling, my brother.
The bond was so strong that I would take a bullet for one of them in a second and they, me.
Of course, I would be pretty pissed and would have to kill the fucker who shot me though.
The mood between us tonight was jovial and light. We traded barbs back and forth from the moment I sat down, like just brothers were supposed to do.
Caver was in fine form tonight, the sarcastic bastard. Caver was five years younger than me and was a scrappy little smartass. Whenever Caver was around, a fight was bound to follow at some point.
He was full of piss and vinegar and had never met a fight he didn’t back down from. Sometimes I thought that he enjoyed coming out with us, not for the socializing or the women but for the physical release of the fist-fights that invariably seemed to follow him around.
Physically, he looked like he could be my actual biological brother with dark hair and blue eyes. His hair was longer than mine though and his eye
s were a darker shade of blue, but anyone making a quick cursory glance wouldn’t have noticed the minor differences between us.
Griff called him a pretty boy and I thought that was an understatement because the women absolutely loved Caver and he loved them right back. He had to scrape them off with a stick most days.
Oh, who was I kidding, the more the merrier in Caver’s eyes. Threesomes, Foursomes, married women, strippers; Caver was a man who experienced it all.
He was a confident lady’s man who always had several women on the go at the same time. He was one Were that certainly wasn’t hoping to meet his mate any time soon; it would ruin all his fun.
It was funny that Caver, Griff and I were best friends, because while Caver and I looked alike, our personalities were very different.
Griff, on the other hand, looked nothing like me, with shoulder length blond hair and grey eyes, yet our personalities were very much the same with both of us being more serious types with a strong sense of duty to the pack.
Between the two of them, there was no one else on this earth that I trusted more.
Tonight, we painted quite a sight. Six muscular, full-grown male Weres crammed into the large corner booth at the back of the bar. It was the great strategic spot, one that allowed us a little privacy but still had a perfect vantage point from which to watch the girls on the dance floor.
We sat there so often that it was kind of “unofficially” our booth.
We were a rowdy, loud bunch as I poured myself a beer from the first pitcher and we all clinked glasses while Caver let out a short, barking howl. It was a full moon and we were jovial and full of anticipation for the night’s hunt with the rest of the pack later on.
Laughing at Caver’s antics and enjoying the brotherhood that my pack mates and I shared, I finally started to relax and let go of my earlier argument with Aspen.
