Hating My Mate

Chapter Six

-Nova POV-  

I sit under the bleachers waiting for school to end. After what happened at the cafeteria, I knew I had to leave. If someone would have pissed me off again, I don’t think I would have been able to restrain my wolf. She, like me, is overprotective of our family. Especially with Stella not being able to fight.   

I lean my head back to the pole looking at the football field. Our kind is not allowed to participate in any sports activity in school after we get our wolves at sixteen. That’s when we get our supernatural strength, speed, and fast healing which sucks because I wish I could get this anger out right now.  

An hour and a half later, school finally ends. I walk over to my car where Stella is already waiting for me. Helix has football practice, since he is still sixteen, he can still play. I see Rose already driving away waving at me and I wave back.  

“Better?” Stella asks getting in the car.  

I nod and start the car but it won't start.  

“What the-”  

I try to start it again but it doesn’t.  

“Damn it!” I shout.  

I get out and pop the hood but if I’m honest, I know nothing of cars other than hot-wiring them. 

“f**k!” I keep shouting.  

Stella stands next to me.   

“Uhm didn’t you lie to dad about something like this.” She says.  

I give her a fake smile. “Yea, and this is what happens when you lie, karma's a b***h!”  

“You girls need help?” Harvey's voice comes from behind us.  

“Yes please.” I say turning around and am quickly irritated again.   

Dominic is standing right next to him giving me his annoyed stare.  

(This has been a s**t of a day.)  

“Wow, you could be a little more grateful that we are willing to help you.” Dominic says.  

“Ha, really? So you want me to kiss your ass like everyone else does. Not gonna happen.” I say crossing my arms.  

“Your attitude sucks!” He shouts.  

“Your arrogance sucks!” I shout.  

Stella pushes me away. “We are so grateful for your help Alpha and Harvey.”  

I roll my eyes. Dominic mumbles annoyed and I stand back while they both look at the car. After a few minutes, they find what’s wrong with it.  

“You, have a c***k on the battery. All the liquid is gone so it’s not going to start at all.” Dominic says.  

I look up and rub my hands down my face. (Just my luck.)  

“You’re going to have to tow it, I can give you guys a ride back.” He says but he doesn’t even look at me when he says it, he just looks at Stella and it pisses me off.  

“That would be nice. Thank you, Alpha.” She says sounding cute.  

I roll my eyes.   

“You can call me Dominic or Dom, as the guys do.” He says.  

(What. The. Fuck.)  

She smiles and nods.  

I close the hood of the car and lock it. Dominic goes over to his car, which is just one car away from mine, and opens the front passenger door for Stella like a gentleman.  

She smiles and gets in. He closes it and walks past me, glaring at me.  

(Asshole. I don’t need a man to open the door for me anyway.)  

I get in the back with Harvey who is all smiles. Dominic starts the car and starts to drive.  

He and Stella chat a storm while he drives, like they are the best of buddies, but I can’t help notice a bit of flirtiness between them. Just a hint.  

(Why does this bother me?) 

“So tomorrow you guys turn eighteen. How excited are you?” Harvey asks.  

I look at him and give him a flirty smile. “Why? Curious to see if you’ll be my mate.” I say in a flirty way. 

He chuckles. “If I was your mate, I'd be whipped.”  

I arch an eyebrow up. “Ooh, I like that. I’m all for kinky sex.”  

His eyes almost come out of his sockets but then he starts laughing.  

Stella groans in the front seat and Dominic... for some reason, his grip on the stirring wheel tightens.  

"Hey, even if I am not your mate, I'm all for it." Harvey says getting closer. 

I give him a flirty glance. "And if we did, what exactly would you do to me?" 

His eyes go wide and he is about to say something but is interrupted.  

"Do you really have to do this here?!" Dominic shouts.  

Harvey and I look at him and he looks pissed.  

"What? Why are you so uptight?" I ask annoyed. 

"I'm not." He says with an angry tone. 

"We are just flirting." Harvey says looking at him confused. 

"Yea, I know!" He shouts. 

We all stay quiet for the rest of the ride home. 

When we get to the packhouses, Stella and Harvey get out. Dominic is about to get out as well but I lean in and hold him back by the shoulder. He looks back at me surprised.  

(Why does he have to be so handsome?) I think as I look into his eyes. 

Moving those thoughts away, I narrow my eyes at him. "You know I don't care if you are Alpha or not, you try to get with my sis, and we'll have problems. Unless you are her mate, that's not happening."  

I pull my hand back but he grabs it and pulls me back close to him. With his other hand, he holds me tight by the chin and makes me meet his eyes., close enough that I can feel his breath on me and can see every detail of his deep blue eyes.  

“Cut the crap Nova! You don’t get to talk to me like that. If you want to be beta, you need to start falling in line and following the rules.” He says.  

“Just because you say so?” I ask with sarcasm.  

“Yea, just because I say so, and then there’s this other little thing... I am your Alpha.” He says.  

“No, you are not. Maximus is.” My tone is normal and showing him that I don’t care what he says.  

“Dammit Nova. You are so... mmmhhgg!” He growls frustrated. 

I leave my expression calm as he stares into my eyes. And then stares some more. He stares a bit too long and now it feels awkward but his grip won’t loosen.  

Something pops into my head, and without thinking it through, I do it. 

I lean forward and lick his nose thinking it's going to be funny and maybe piss him off. 

His eyes go wide and this is when I realize how much of a bad idea that was. 

(Why the f**k don't I think things through? This is even more awkward now!) 

We stare at each other. He lets me go and continues to stare at me.  

"You are weird." He whispers to himself but his eyes say something else. 

I groan internally.  

"Yea... well, you've been warned." I say crossing my arms. 

His face goes back to that of his ogre self. He backs up and leaves the car and then waits for me to get out. Once I do, he locks it and walks away without looking at me.   

"Thanks for the ride, your grace." I say mockingly and he growls but doesn't look back. 

(Salty much... goddess I’m such a brat.) I chuckle to myself and head to the second-pack house.  

When I get to my room, I call dad and tell him about the car. He said that he’ll take care of it. I then lie on my bed hugging a pillow.   

“Tomorrow is my birthday.” I say deep in thought.   

I kind of want to start celebrating it now. I take my phone out and dial Jet’s number.  

“Hello?”  

“Hey, you have plans tonight?” I ask.  

“I was heading to the beach, want to come?” He asks.  

I smile. “Yes, please. But, could you pick me up? My car is dead.”  

“Yea, sure.”  

I tell him to pick me up at a small convenience store because I can’t tell him to pick me up here. How would I explain all this?  

I tell my parents that I’ll be sleeping in to get a head start for tomorrow and then I wait till it’s dark. I sneak out into the woods and I shift. I take my clothes in my mouth and head into town. It’s not too far from the packhouse so I get there in five minutes with my wolf speed.  

Once I get there, I change back into my clothes and wait.   

Jet comes right on time.  

“Hey, Nova.” He says rolling his window down.  

“Hey.” I give him a big smile and get in his car.  

He starts to drive and we talk for a bit. It takes us thirty to forty minutes to get to our spot at the beach.  

When we get there, there’s a bonfire roaring in the middle of three well-placed tree stumps. We have this secret spot at the bottom of a cliff.  

“EY! Nova’s here!” They all cheer as if they haven't seen me for weeks. Roby, Cleo, John, Andy, and Ruth. All of them are friends from my old school.  

Ruth, a tall slender girl with her hair shaved on the right and long blue hair on the left walks over to me and puts her arm around my shoulder. She has a nose piercing and bright blue eyes.  

“A little birdy told me tomorrow is your birthday.” She says walking me over to everyone who is there.  

“What? How do you know that?” I ask confused.  

She looks at Jet.  

“Guilty.” He says smiling.  

“Here, this is your gift.” She hands me a bottle of vodka.  

“Oh baby, come to mama.” I take it and give her a big hug while she laughs.  

I spend most of the night with my good friends. They are all humans but they don’t judge me, I don’t feel pressure to be anything other than what I am. And we always have fun.  

At the end of the night two of them are making out, the rest are drunk wobbling around and I am just tipsy. I drank half of the bottle but that still won’t get me drunk.  

“Hey.” Jet comes over and puts his arm around me.  

 “You want to have some fun.” He whispers in my ear.   

I smile and nod. He takes my hand and walks over to the rocky walls of the bottom of the cliff. We keep walking until we are behind it and can’t see any of the others.  

I put my arms around him and kiss him hungrily. His hands quickly start roaming my body, they slide to my back to the inside of the pants and land on my ass. He squeezes and I moan but there’s a problem. The closer it has gotten to my birthday, the more I have thought about my mate.  

What if I meet him tomorrow? It could happen. I would feel guilty knowing that there is a possibility that I will find my mate tomorrow. The more I think about it, the more wrong this feels.  

I pull back and sigh.  

“Not feeling it tonight?” He asks.  

I nod.  

He smiles. “Ok, let’s get back.”  

(He’s always been so sweet.)  

When we come back, everyone is drunk face flat on the ground.   

“Party’s over I guess.” Jet says and I laugh nodding.  

He gives me a smile. “I’ll take you back.”  

I get back home at around one and quickly fall asleep. The next morning, Stella wakes me up jumping on my bed. She used to do that all the time when we were little.   

I groan. “Stop.”  

“You do know that we are already late for school, right.” She says.  

“What?” I get up and look at my phone.  

“How come you didn’t wake me up sooner.” I ask confused but I don’t feel any urgency to get up. She always wakes up early.  

“I woke up late too because I couldn’t sleep last night, I’m too nervous.” She says.  

(The mate thing.)  

I quickly get ready with a dark blue short romper and a cropped leather jacket. I look for my high heels sandals but I am in a rush and can’t find them so I put some white sneakers on and say “f**k it, this will have to do.”  

Mom takes us to school since I don’t have my car back yet. Stella doesn’t have one because she is terrified of driving and dad said that Helix has to wait until he’s sixteen like I had to. When mom drops us off, I can see Stella is super nervous.  

“You know, we might not find our mates yet.” I say trying to calm her down. 

“I know and honestly I hope we don’t... I’m not ready yet.” She says.   

Helix walks past us, he walks with his eyes half-closed and mumbling something incoherent then goes inside. He is not a morning person.  

After Stella calms down, we quickly make it inside and that’s when the scent hits my nose.  

I stop.   

“Oh shit.” I say.  

“What!” Stella asks panicking.  

I feel like I can’t breathe. I really didn't think that it would actually happen.  

“I think... I think I can smell my mate's scent.” I say. 

Her eyes open wide. “Oh. MY. GODDESS.”