Ethan’s POV
Man, it was good to be home. He couldn’t wait to see his sister. They were only a year apart but they were usually inseparable. Jessica was smart as a whip and skipped first grade, so she was in the same grade as him. He missed her while he was gone and he couldn’t wait to hear all about the pack gossip since he was gone. What better way to get to know about what goes on in a pack than to talk to a shewolf? They always knew everything and what they didn’t know they could sniff it out in a New York minute.
His Mom said she went over to her new best friend's house to drop off some school work she had missed from being sick today. I hope her friend is OK. If Jessica was close with her then she had to be a good person. She had a sense about people and it never steered her wrong. Like when she told him to break up with Ashley because she was crazy. Not even two days after her telling him that, Ashley started to get clingy and possessive and would start fights over the smallest things with him. If he even smiled or said hello to another girl she would say he was cheating on her. It didn’t take long after that for him to break it off with her. He left for training the next day, so he hoped she moved on.
Jessica came in the front door and ran to our mom. “Mom, you won’t believe this. I’m going to be an Aunt!” Jessica exclaimed. Both of my parents shot to their feet and started after me. I was just standing there trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about.
“You have some explaining to do, young man. NOW!” My father’s voice boomed.
Jessica just laughed and said, “Calm down guys. I wasn’t talking about Ethan. My friend Beth. She’s pregnant with twins!” My parents and I all took a deep breath and fell back into our seats.
“Jessica honey. I’m not sure I like that you are friends with someone who is pregnant in high school. She seems to show a lack of good judgment if she’s pregnant.” My mother said.
Jess rolled her eyes and said, “Beth isn’t like that mom, I swear. She is a good girl. It isn’t her fault she got pregnant.”
My father said in exasperation, “I’m sure that is how she feels, sweetpea, but if she is pregnant I am pretty sure she knew what the consequences were for her actions before she had s*x with a boy. She did it anyway and that shows poor judgment. You aren’t allowed to hang out with her anymore.”
“What! Daddy no! I will not abandon my friend in need. You know nothing about her situation. It wasn’t her fault she was raped!” Jessica screamed. We were all shocked by her outburst, but what shocked us more was the circumstances around her friend's predicament. No one should have to go through something like that. It made my wolf Dex angry that someone would do something like that to a defenseless woman and wanted to rip their throats out. “There’s more too. I didn’t tell her this but I could smell wolf on her, but she is human. Her babies are wolf shifters and that means one of our kind did this to her.” Jessica started crying.
My mom went to Jessica and took her in her arms. “When she talked to you about this, Jessica, did she go into details about the man? We can’t let this stand. This wolf needs to be put down before they can do it to someone else.” My mother said, looking determinedly at my father.
“She said it was a tall man with a scar running down his face from his eye to his lip and into his beard and he had a limp. He ran away when he heard howling from dogs, and told her it wasn’t over.” Jessica hiccuped. Dad nodded to mom and she stood up with Jessica and took her upstairs to her room.
“I’ll put out some feelers to other Alphas to be on the lookout for a rogue or a pack member who fits that description. I’ll start with the packs in this and surrounding states. Let them know what’s going on. Hopefully, we will get some information. That poor girl. She must have been terrified and probably still is. We’ll have to reach out to her at some point. Those pups are going to need to be part of a pack when they are born. If not ours, someone else's or they won’t survive.” My father said. I nodded and agreed with him. It was our species' way of making sure we didn’t have an overabundance of rogue wolves. Rogues were notorious for being feral or close to it. Wolves are pack animals and require an Alpha to keep their animals from taking over their human counterparts.
We decided to call it a night and went upstairs to bed. I was tired from traveling today and could use the rest. I had planned on taking the whole weekend to recoup before starting school on Monday. Dex was still going crazy in my mind. Something was bothering him about this whole thing with Jessica’s friend. I’ll have her introduce me to her on Monday at school. Everyone could always use another friend, and who is better than the future Alpha of the pack. Maybe she might even have a mate in the pack. That would be better for her pups. Have a good male wolf influence for them. Having only a human mother would be hard for wolf pups, especially if she didn’t know much about wolf shifters.
It wasn’t like humans didn’t know about us. Shifters came out of hiding a century ago. Thank goodness for that. It’s going to be hard enough to explain to her about her pups without having to explain about what a shifter is. As I laid down in bed my mind kept running over everything Jessica had said. She is so excited about her friend being pregnant she even called herself their Aunt. That could only mean that her wolf accepted those pups as family. Our wolves are picky creatures when it comes to claiming family. She didn’t say a pack Aunt, she just said Aunt. As I drifted off to sleep, I vaguely heard Dex say ‘We’re gonna have pups’. I dreamed of babies crawling on the floor of my family’s living room while I held onto a brown-haired girl with a face that was blurry while smiling at the pups on the floor with pride.
Over the weekend, Ethan used his time to help his dad put out the feelers on the rogue. So far, nothing had come from it around their area and they were only in about half the state before they went to bed on Sunday. He never realized how many packs there were in their state alone. Then again, a lot of it was waiting for call backs from the Alphas.
It was Monday morning and he was running late because Jessica had decided it would be funny to put honey in his shampoo and it took him washing his hair at least six times to get the sticky mixture out. He should have known his sister would have done that to him. She always plays a prank on him on the first day of school. He thought he would have been exempt from it this year because it technically wasn’t the first day. Guess he was wrong on that one.
“Oh don’t be Mr. Grumpykins Ethan. It was only a little bit of honey. I thought I could help make you a little sweeter for school.” Jessica said while trying not to laugh and failing miserably at it. He could only roll his eyes at her. Dex, on the other hand, was laughing his wolfy ass off at his sister’s antics. Damn wolf was supposed to be on his side.
The closer they got to school, the more Dex started to calm down, from his laughing. As soon as they got to the parking lot of the school, though, Dex was on alert and pacing in his mind. ‘What’s up Dex? Do I need to be worried about something?’
‘You’ll see’ is all he said to me. I swear my wolf was given to me just to annoy me. First siding with my sister and now cryptic answers. Dex rolled his eyes at me and continued his pacing.
“So sis. When do I get to meet your friend? Do we have any classes with her?” He asked Jess.
“Umm, probably not until lunch. She said her mom was taking her to breakfast and to the mall for a gift. It’s her birthday today and since her mom has to work late tonight to make up for taking off on Friday. I guess they always have dinner and shopping on her birthday and her mother didn’t want to change that. I hope she likes the gift I got her.” Jess said.
“Why didn’t you say it was her birthday? Now I’m gonna feel bad that I didn’t get her anything either. What did you get her? Is it something I can tag on to?” He said to her.
“Sure you can. I just got her some body wash, bath bombs, and maybe an outfit or two for the babies. Nothing too BFFish.” Jessica said and laughed.
“Awesome. Thanks sis. Did you get a card? I want to sign it.” Ethan said. Jess nodded and handed him the envelope card. Thankfully, she hadn’t sealed it yet. He slipped the card out and signed his name on the inside with a birthday greeting. He then slipped a 50 dollar bill out of his wallet and put it in the card, then put it back in the envelope and sealed it. “There. Now I don’t feel so bad.”
He looked over at his sister and saw that she looked horrified. He couldn’t figure it out until he realized he had sealed the envelope. His sister was very anal about not sealing them because one time when she was little, our grandmother had sealed her birthday card and she had such a hard time opening it that she ended up ripping the card with the envelope and in turn ripping the hand drawn picture of a wolf our grandma had put in it. Since then, Jess has refused to seal an envelope or even open sealed envelopes. “Sorry sis. I didn’t even think about it.” He said sheepishly.
“I guess I can forgive you this once. Just don’t do it again.” Jess said. They got out of their car and headed into school.They went their separate ways to get to their lockers. Jess’s locker was by the office and his was in the middle. After he got to his locker, his Beta and best friend Eric came up to him.
“Dude. Why didn’t you call me this weekend? I thought we were gonna hang out,” Eric said.
“Sorry. I got caught up with some family stuff. What’s up?” Ethan replied.
“Not much. Have you heard about the new girl yet? Man, she is HOT! Though I heard she’s a total slut. There is a rumor going around that she’s pregnant. That’s why she had to switch schools and all. I guess Amber’s mom is a nurse at the doctor’s office and told her all about it.” Eric said without noticing how Ethan was clenching his jaw and fists trying not to hit his best friend.
He couldn’t believe the news was already out. That has to be a total breach of doctor patient confidentiality or something. That poor girl is going to walk into school and everyone is going to know all about her situation. Well, not all of it, but he doubted that would make any difference to her. “Eric. Don’t you have something better to do than gossip like a girl?” Ethan said to stop him, and to change the subject before he lashed out at him.
“I am not a girl. Not cool dude. Not cool.” Eric whined. At least it worked because he started talking to him about the sports teams they both followed and the girls he wanted to get with. He had a feeling today was going to be a very long day.
The bell signaling lunch finally rang. His wolf was unusually excited to meet Jess’s new friend. Which was odd for him, since he didn’t usually care about her friends. He shrugged his shoulders and hurried to the lunch room. He saw Jessica talking animatedly with a girl with long brown hair that fell in waves past her shoulders to about mid back. She was short to him and his six foot seven inch frame. Probably no more than five foot six. She had curves for days that he wanted to get his hands on. As he got closer to them, he picked up the most enticing scent of roses and vanilla. Dex was going crazy in his mind, howling. He couldn’t make out what he was saying. She turned around and he was lost in the depths of her sky-blue eyes.
When he made eye contact it all made sense what Dex was saying. She was his mate. He couldn’t believe it. He had found his mate. He kept walking towards them and stopped in front of her and just stared at her. She was so beautiful. She had the face of an angel. He snapped out of it when his sister snapped her fingers in front of his face and said, “Earth to Ethan! Hello! Anyone home in that huge head of yours or did you finally lose the last brain cell you had?”
“Sorry. Hi. I’m Jessica’s brother. Ethan.” He said. His mate just blushed and said hi.
“Ethan, this is my friend I was telling you about Beth.” Jessica said, and Ethan's brain finally caught up with everything. Jessica’s friend that was raped and pregnant was his mate. She was pregnant with another man’s pups. ‘Don’t even think about rejecting her. Those are our pups and she is our mate. Don’t do anything stupid’, Dex said to me. I was struck dumb for a minute by his words. Not once had I thought about rejecting his mate. He was just thinking about how he was going to be a dad.
Kind of ironic how his parents had gone crazy the other night when Jess had said she was going to be an Aunt and they thought it was because of him. Guess they’re right now. He had to laugh about that. He mindlinked his sister ‘You know how you came home on Friday all excited about being an Aunt?’
‘Yeah why?’
‘Well, I’m gonna be a dad. Beth is my mate’
‘What?! Oh my God! Ethan, are you serious?’
‘Yeah I am. God, she’s beautiful. I’m gonna be a dad.’
‘Wait until Mom and Dad hear about this. They’re gonna be grandparents. Guess we don’t have to worry about the pups being in a pack now. Cause they automatically became pack the moment you found her.’
‘Wow. I’m gonna be a Dad.’
‘Jeez Ethan. Snap out of it. You have to tell her she’s your mate. She knows all about us being wolf shifters’
He growled lowly and said “My mate.” Just as he was about to grab Beth to him, he heard a shriek behind Beth and looked to see Ashley standing there with a huge smile on her face. Oh s**t.