Fated Mates (A reverse harem romance)

I was part of a pack. We weren't strong or big but we were close. We chose to hide amongst the humans, when it happened. The news was everywhere before we knew it. We didn't know who told the world but the world knew. They knew that what went bump in the night was not a figment of their imagination. They knew that shifters, vampires, witches and all other manors of creatures were real. That's when it started. The hunting. Human against supernatural. Neighbour against neighbour. When I was at school we read the poem "First they came…" by Martin Niemöller. Never had it held so much meaning for me. Still my family hid in the shadows. The government soon met with the leaders of each faction and a treaty was signed. Not before tens of thousands across the world died on both sides.  There were still those in the human community that believed that all supernatural should be forced into camps. For their safety and the safety of the humans. They were ignored as the peace grew. A council was built to police the supernatural made up of representatives of each faction. Prisons were built to house those that were deemed dangerous by both sides.  Each faction of course had their own ways of dealing with conflicts and as long as it did not spill over into the human world, these ways were ignored. The council also trained peacekeepers who were brought in to try and settle conflict the human way. By talking and negotiation.  All was calm, peaceful. But then people started to notice my family. Female shifters are rare and so it is common for one to take many mates. My mother had four mates. Me and my three brothers claimed that all but Sam, the strongest of our fathers, were our uncles. Still people talked. Shifter mainly lived in large packs on the fringe of human society. We lived in a house on a nice suburban street. White picket fence, backyard, tree house.  I was the youngest of my siblings. Me being sixteen and one of my older brothers Dean who was seventeen went to the local High school. I had a 'gift'. I say 'gift' loosely. I had an eidetic memory. Everything I ever saw, read, heard, was at my fingertips, always. It truly was a gift as a child. It put me two grades ahead in school, matching my brother. It did not however, give me friends.  People stayed away from the freak. Even though my brother was popular, I was invisible. I didn't mind. I liked it that way. That made me a freak in my families mind. Shifters had a pack mentality. Our inner beasts sought others. Their company, their companionship, their touch. My wolf was happy with me. We were close. We shared an inner dialogue about the world around us.  We were lost in one of these inner dialogues when we came home one day. Dean was at football practice. I walked into the house and it was quiet. Too quiet. Too still. And then I smelt it. It wasn't the usual smell of cooking meat and vegetables. It was metallic. It was potent. I ran towards it to find my mother and father's body sprawled around the living area. There was the body of a human with a gun in his hand near Sam's body. Sam had obviously tried to fight back but there must have been too many.  My hands shook as they slipped into the front of my jeans and retrieved my phone. I rang Clark and Mike, my two oldest brothers. I told them what I had come home too and told them I was going back to school to catch Dean before he came home to this. I was calm. Too calm. My wolf was raging inside but I was numb. I walked back to school and stood on the edge of the field. It didn't take Dean long to notice me and jog over.  "What's up little one?" he said with his brows knitted together. He could sense something was wrong. "Whatever it is you need to calm down. I can see your wolf." he added turning me away from the field. My eyes must have shifted but I was still numb to it all.  "They're dead. Mum and dad's." I said looking straight into his eyes.  "You're not making sense. What do you mean they're dead?"  As the words left his mouth we heard tires screeching. Dean turned to see Clark and Mike run towards us. It was obvious they had been to the house as they grew closer. I could smell the stench of death on them. They looked from me to Dean.  "We called the council. They are sending a team to investigate. They didn't know we were a shifter pack this far removed from the larger packs so there are a lot of questions. For now though, you two are moving in with us." Clark the eldest said. I just nodded and took a step towards their jeep when Dean's hand went around my arm.  "They're dead!" he croaked out, searching my face. I looked into his fear filled eyes and nodded. His hand let go of my arm as he fell to his knees and wept. I walked to the jeep and jumped in the back seat. There were two large bags in the boot. Apparently my brother had thought ahead and packed bags for me and Dean.  Soon all three of my brothers silently got in the jeep and we set off. We drove in silence to their apartment. It wasn't much but it had three rooms. My brother tried to give me his room but I declined. I pointed out that I was the smallest and so I should take the couch. I got out my books and started to do my homework.  Flashes of our parents kept coming into my mind. Their bodies, faces, the lifelessness of their eyes. I pushed past it and kept working. "How can you just sit and do homework right now?" Dean said. I didn't notice that he had come and sat next to me.  I looked up and could see the reflection of the glow of my eyes in his own. He lent back slightly at the sight. "It is better than sitting here seeing the images over and over." I gritted out. My voice hardly sounded human.  "I didn't think. Are you okay?" he said, visibly wincing at the realization. They knew about my memory but they didn't think about what it did to me.  "As long as I don't think, I'm fine." I said, going back to work. I completed everything and then noticed the sun was coming up. Everyone had gone to bed at some point. I stared out the window to the street below. It was a clear night and I could start to see people getting ready for the day ahead.  Mike's door opened and he rubbed his hand through his bedraggled hair as he came to stand beside me. "We need to up your training. If Sam couldn't stop them, the hunters are better than we thought we need to make sure you are safe." he squeezed my shoulder and I turned to him.  "I know." I said turning back to the window. My family had always trained me to fight. It was part of the shifter life. But as I got older they laid off a bit. When the peace was settled between the humans and the supernatural we felt safe. We didn't see the point in daily training. We grew complacent and it had just cost us everything.  With that Mike banged in Clark and Dean's rooms. "Rise and shine princesses. Training in ten minutes." Mike went back to his room and I rummaged through the bag of clothes they brought for me and found my sweatpants, vest top, sports bra and underwear. I went to the bathroom and quickly changed coming back out to my bothers looking half asleep pushing furniture out of the way.  We couldn't train in a gym, it was too public, we were too brutal. We used to train at night in our parents yard but here would have to do. "You all remember the rules." Clark said pacing across the room. "No shifting, no fatal blows. You fight until your partner submits. Winner stays on."  As usual Clark went first against Mike. I watched as they fought. Taking in the posture, their tells for coming moves, how they shifted their feet. My mind recalled my training from before. It was clear they had never stopped training. They were better, faster. After some time Mike submitted and then it was Dean's turn. Dean had become stronger due to his football training but he was slow. It didn't take long for Clark to over power him.  I stepped closer. I stood and watched as he paced waiting for me to strike. I was waiting too. I knew better than to lunge at a stronger opponent. Clark smiled at me, he knew I would wait all day if needed. Then he stroke. His fist came towards my head, I dodged sideways and stroke his unprotected side. He stumbled back laughing slightly. "I should have known you wouldn't forget little one. But you need to build up your strength to make your blows count."  With that he came again this time with a gut shot. I tried to side step again but was too slow and took it to the side. I was winded but still standing so I used the opportunity to strike at the back on his leg with my foot. He stumbled but that was all. He came again fast. I dodged two potential hits before taking one to the leg. It caused me to fall to the ground so I swiped out with my leg knocking Clark on his ass. I didn't hesitate to pounce on top of him. My small hands would not fit around his tree trunk of a neck so I used my forearm to pin him to the ground. He pulled at me and scratches at me trying to get me to let up but I wouldn't. Flashes of my parents started to come back into my mind. Their faces from smiling and laughing to being so still. I didn't realize that I was pushing down harder until I felt my brothers on my back. They pulled at me, tugging me back to reality and off of Clark. Clark coughed and sat up. He looked pissed but I was still trying to fight back the memories. He could see it in my eyes. My wolf was close.  He got up off the floor and came over grabbing my shoulders. "Enough!" be bellowed trying to force my wolf to submit to him. My wolf snarled she did not want to submit. She wanted to kill someone, anyone. I fought her for dominance making her retreat. We had always been on the same page. Always so in sync until yesterday and now I felt like I was fighting myself. Soon my eyes stopped glowing and my brothers grip on me relaxed.  "That's enough for today get ready for school." and with that Clark walked back to his room and me and Dean did as we were told and started to get ready. Whilst I showered quickly I thought about the spar I had just had with my brothers and Clark's command. I had suspected over the last few years that I had become stronger, that my wolf had become more dominant, but I never expected to be able to resist one of Clark's commands so easily.  Sam, who I am sure was my biological father due to our eyes being very similar, was dominant. He used to be the alpha of a pack. We were never told how Sam lost his standing as alpha but he had obviously passed on some of those traits onto me. I quickly dried and got dressed, as I walked out of the bathroom Dean ran in cursing under his breath about how women take so long. I walked over to the sofa and shoved all of my work back into my bag.  Today would be a hard day. I had a short convocation with my wolf about staying calm and not giving away what me and Dean were. We were not ashamed but I had lived my whole life pretending to be human, I was not ready to let go of that illusion. "Little one." Dean cautioned and I realized that he was waiting for me to join him. I quickly zipped up my backpack and ran out of the apartment.