The Wrong Mate

Chapter 1 Darrin

Darrin- Kindergarten

“This is stupid,” Brady whined while they walked to school. Darrin’s mom dropped them off and offered to take the boys to class for their first day, but they both declined the offer. They knew where their classroom was and who their teacher would be. She was a member of the pack, anyway. 

“I don’t want to go either,” Darrin said. The boys were used to playing with one another at their houses while their moms did whatever grownups do. Now, they were armed with big backpacks, a box of crayons in each, large pencils, and an empty folder. They were allowed to bring one snack each, and that was it. School was only until lunchtime, anyway.

“Why do we have to go to school? We don’t need it to run a werewolf pack.”

“My dad says reading will be important when I’m older.” Darrin always listened to his father. Everett Jackson was the Alpha of the Diamond Sky pack, and he was preparing Darrin to become the next Alpha when he was of age.

“I still think this is stupid,” Brady grumbled. Brady Thompson was going to be Darrin’s Beta, like his father was Darrin’s father’s Beta. It ran in the family, and both families always had the one male heir to take the father’s place.

The boys settled into their classroom, and were shown to their seats. Brady was put in the front of the classroom in the orange group, while Darrin was placed in the back table with the blue group. Each table had four little desks with each student’s name on it. Darrin couldn’t read the name of the one next to his, but waited while the other two students across the table came in. Both were obviously human. He could smell it on them. It wasn’t bad, he just didn’t have as much experience around humans. 

He watched them sit down and mimicked their movements. They put their backpacks on their chairs. So did he. They looked around the classroom. So did he.

The girl across from him had freckles on her nose, and long brown hair in two braids down the sides of her head. She looked nice, for a girl, but he didn’t need any friends that were girls. 

He looked around the room, taking in all of the activities the teacher would have them do. Sure, Brady didn’t want to go to school, but secretly, Darrin did. He wanted to learn things and see what the world was like outside of the werewolf pack. He wanted to travel to everywhere. He knew what was in store for him when he was older. He would inherit the pack from his father.

The idea scared him.

“Excuse me, I have to pull my chair out,” a soft voice distracted him from the letters running across the top of the walls. Another girl. He turned and saw her darker skin, different from most other girls he knew, and the braids in her hair. She wore a purple corduroy dress with a long sleeve striped shirt underneath. He looked down and saw her shiny black shoes with white, frilly socks underneath.

Her head tilted forward and she whispered low, “Alpha boy, your foot is blocking my chair.” How did she know who he was?

He moved his foot and watched her sit. “How do you know me?”

She eyed the two kids sitting across from them. Neither paid attention to them. “I just moved to Diamond Sky with my mom and dad. I saw you with your dad when my parents joined the pack.”

How had he missed her? She stood out so well with her big, bright green eyes. Like a cat. Not only that…she didn’t actually look like most members of their pack. 

“I’m Charlotte,” she smiled at him. She held a hand out to him to shake. Weird for someone their age. She held her hand out for a while before he considered shaking it. “My daddy says you hold your hand out whenever you meet someone and shake their hand. It’s polite.”

“I’m Darrin,” he took her hand. It was soft and warm, just like her. Charlotte was nice—for a girl. In fact, she may have been the first girl he ever talked to who wasn’t family. 

“Nice to meet you, Darrin,” she smiled and bent over to her backpack, pulling out her metal lunch box and thermos. “My mom made me hot chocolate to have at snack time. I can share with you if you want.”

“That’s okay, my mom made me peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

“Oh, I love those!”

“Yeah?” he smiled, “me too. They’re my favorite.”

The girl across from Brady smiled at Charlotte and leaned over the table with her hand out. Brady felt like growling at the girl. He didn’t have his wolf yet, but he had seen his dad do it enough he just wanted to do it to scare the girl away from his new friend. “Hi Charlotte, I’m Rose.”

Rose had long brown hair and a cute face like Charlotte’s. Just not as cute. He watched Charlotte shake Rose’s hand and move back into her seat. “I haven’t made friends with a human before,” Charlotte whispered to Darrin. 

“Me either,” he said. “Where did you move from, Charlotte?”

“Chicago.”

“Where’s that?”

“Pretty far away. Mom and dad said they wanted to get out of the city, so we came here and your dad let us join the pack.”

Kindergarten started after the teacher clapped her hands joyfully and read them all books. Darrin listened with the occasional look over at Charlotte. Some of those times, she was looking over at him too.

They were on the small playground while Darrin and Brady joined a group playing tag. Darrin and Brady had to run slower for the most part since the human lids couldn’t keep up with them. 

Darrin ran to a far corner and found Charlotte with Rose, giggling about something. 

His interest was no longer running with the boys he played with but whatever Charlotte found so funny. 

Before he made it over to the girls, a hand came down on his back. “Tag! You’re it!” Brady laughed. Darrin grinned and chased after Brady. He was already faster than him so it wasn’t difficult to catch him. When he did, however, it was time to go back inside.

When Darrin got home that afternoon, his mother had made him lunch and let him go outside to play. 

That’s when he saw her. Again.

Charlotte.

Across the street. They were the neighbors that just moved in.

He walked over to Charlotte in the front of her house with her mom. Darrin made his way over, and asked about Charlotte coming over to play. 

“I didn’t know you lived by me,” Darrin said, passing her the basketball in front of the hoop by his garage.

“I told you I saw you with your dad,” she bounced the ball.

“You can’t do that! That’s double dribbling!”

“Who’s gonna stop me?” She laughed.

Darrin chased her while she ran with the ball. “That’s traveling! You can’t do that either!”

He chased her around until they were called for dinner time.

“Who was the boy you were playing with at school?” She asked.

His eyes narrowed on her. “Brady. Why?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “He seems nice.”

At five years old, Darrin had never wanted to hurt his best friend until that very moment. “Yeah, well, he’s my friend. You have Rose and I have Brady.”

“Girls can have boys as friends!” Charlotte argued.

“Yeah, I’ll be your friend. You don’t need Brady.”

“Why not?” She challenged.

“Because….just because!” He didn’t know why, but was certain he didn’t want to share Charlotte with Brady.

“What if I like Brady more?”

This made him angry. “Fine! Be friends with him then!” He stormed off toward his house when he heard her giggling behind him. He turned and glared at her. “What’s so funny.”

“You should see your face.” She laughed. “You’re funny when you get mad.”

“Thanks Charlotte I’ll remember that I look funny when I’m the Alpha.” He smirked when he said it. 

She giggled, “I like you, Darrin. You’re funny.”

Charlotte slowed her laugh as Brady walked toward her. He bent down and picked a dandelion from his parents’ yard and gave it to her. “I like when you laugh,” he handed her the dandelion. “Here, make a wish.”

She smiled and took it. Closing her eyes, she blew all the little tiny parts off the weed and they watched them float into the air. 

“What did you wish for,” he asked.

“I can’t tell you!”

“You can tell me anything Charlotte I won’t tell anyone.”

She looked like she was considering his words. “I wished you and me would be friends forever.”