Her Mates: Three and Some

NATASHA

By force of habit, I was up before the clock struck 4 am.

My sleep had been peaceful, and I’d woken up quite refreshed and ready to tackle any new set of troubles that would come my way.

I made my way over to the kitchen after showering and changing my shirt, my steps quickening when I heard sounds coming from in there.

Lucinda was there when I approached, cleaning the kitchen with a girl around my age. The girl was beautiful, a caramel-skinned beauty with curvy features and what seemed like a very outgoing persona. I watched her interaction with Lucinda. Something she had said had had the old woman in a fit of laughter and she giggled smugly, seemingly pleased with herself. Their warm moment broke when they noticed me.

“Miss Gayle, is there a problem? Was your bed not good enough? Why are you up so early, child?”

“Please, Lucinda, call me Gayle. I normally wake up at this time to do chores.” I explained to her with a smile, “And I came over to see how I could help.”

“No, no, child… the Luna will not be pleased if I let you—”

“Oh, come on Lucinda… she doesn’t have to know?” I implored, “Look, I’ve barely been a day here, and already, they have treated me way better than I have been treated for most parts of my life. The little I can do would be to pitch in to help whenever I can, don’t you think?”

She stared at me thoughtfully for a while, and then finally conceded. “Alright, Gayle. You can join Natasha in washing the dishes.”

I beamed at her in appreciation and joined the girl, who was eyeing me in interest. “Well, I’ll be damned, Gayle,” She smirked, handing me a well lathered glass mug to rinse, “I have only met you for one second, but I can already tell that we’d be best f*****g friends.”

I chuckled in amusement.

I liked her too.

As we washed the dishes, Natasha started chatting me up. “So, Gayle, what brings you to our neck of the woods?” she asked, winking at me.

I smiled. “Just passing through, I guess. I needed to get away from a weird past, and it wasn’t really safe to be out there as a new rogue.”

Natasha nodded. “I hear that. I know quite a lot about weird pasts, so I can understand your predicament pretty well.”

I raised an eyebrow in curiosity, noting the sadness in her wide brown eyes. “Want to talk about it?”

She scoffed in amusement, “That’s just the thing, there isn’t really much to talk about. I had parents who didn’t give a f**k, and I figured that I’d be better off with my grams, and so I asked to be transferred to this Pack, and my former Alpha agreed. End of story.”

“I see.” That was all I could say, but the girl with the raven-dark curly bob with bangs only chuckled heartily, “Now, why do you look like someone died? Life isn’t so bad here at Moon Peak, though I’d admit that their young bloods aren’t exactly open to newcomers. But at least, I have my wolf, so life’s pretty good for me.”

I laughed softly, even though I felt a pang of jealousy run through me.

I really couldn’t wait to get my wolf.

Maybe, I wouldn’t feel so alone after all when that happened because I'd have her. “Well, I can’t say I’ve had any werewolf transformations, but I can definitely relate to feeling like I don’t belong.”

Natasha nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I think that’s why we’ll get along so well. We’re both outsiders, looking for a place to belong.”

As we continued washing the dishes, we swapped stories about our pasts, though I kept mine as vague as possible, wanting to keep Steffan a distant memory as much as I could. We shared our hopes and dreams for the future. She told me she wanted to be a chef, and I told her that I was kind of into art.

By the time we were done clearing the huge pile of dishes, I felt like I had known Natasha for years.

“Well, that was fun,” She said, drying her hands on a towel. “We should do this again sometime.”

“Definitely,” I agreed. “Maybe you can show me around or something.”

Natasha grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me. I just hope you'll be able to catch up.”

I rolled my eyes playfully. “Don’t worry, Natasha… I may not have my wolf yet, but it’ll amaze you to know that I am actually not that helpless.”

Natasha laughed. “I believe you. You seem like you can handle yourself.”

As the tall, curvy girl walked away, it occurred to me that Lucinda had long left us alone, and I’d been too engrossed in our conversation to notice. A smile appeared on my face at that. For the first time in a long while, I was actually starting to feel more like myself,

It felt… nice.

And it felt pretty surprising that I’d been able to make a friend that quickly when back at Windy Harbor, I’d pretty much been the school outcast and the recluse.

“Gayle?”

I turned to see Luna Avery walking towards me, a worried look on her face, “I’d been searching all over for you, child. I thought that you’d either left or something had happened while we slept. You had me worried.”

Oh.

“That was far from my intention, Luna Avery,” I quickly apologized, “I’m a bit of an early bird, and I happened to meet Lucinda and Natasha when I finished up and came down. They were kind enough to let me stay here with them.” I explained.

“Oh, I see you met Natasha, great. That’s alright, Gayle… I’m glad you’re already settling in.” She closed the distance between us, her voice going down a bit. “You kept me up all night, Rhysette. Are you really sure it’s a good idea to go under the radar and hide from your stepfather? Don’t you think we should lure him out and just take him down and get it all over with so you can spend the rest of your youthful years actually enjoying life instead of continuing to live in fear?” She seemed genuinely worried and interested in my life, it was so touching to see.

“Actually, Luna Avery, I think this is the best plan, and the safest too.” I explained to her. “If I manage to stay under the radar until I turn eighteen, he’ll have no hold over me, and most importantly, no one else will get hurt.” I sighed deeply, “Look, I know you want what’s best for me, but for now, this is what I want, for no one to get hurt. Let’s do this my way, please, Luna Avery.”

She stared at me for a while, and then she finally conceded, “Very well. We will do things your way. For now. But if we catch even a whiff of him, we’re abandoning your brilliant plan and taking him down.”

It was fine by me.

“Come with me, child.” She gently tugged at my arm, pulling me along with her.

“Uhm, where are we going?” I asked, curious.

“Well, you start school tomorrow, Gayle… and you have no clothes or supplies for that. We’re going shopping to get you those things. She clapped excitedly, and I groaned inwardly.

It was so obvious she was a shopping freak.

Gosh, under her clutches, I’m pretty sure, I was going to come back with the whole shop, if not more, I could just tell.

I trailed after the Luna as we made our way through the Pack house, mostly stuck in awe as the daylight allowed me to see everything I missed last night clearly.

Just as we got to the huge hall that would take us out to the foyer and then the front porch of the Packhouse, Luna Avery’s phone rang and she stopped in her tracks to answer it, “Hey, Martha, what’s up?”

I stood there, twiddling my thumbs and staring at the ceiling absentmindedly while she spoke, not really knowing what else to do, but I noticed her getting agitated by the minute.

“Wait, what?!” She seemed pretty distressed by something the other person on the line said.

Before my mind could even start formulating speculations as to what their conversation was about, I caught the twins from the corner of my eye, descending the grand stairs. They were dressed to the nines in completely different ensembles, each one of them looking fantabulously hot.

Yes, I just coined the word and no you totally cannot ask me what it means.

Though if you really wanted to know, I guess it had something to do with the likes of fantastic and fabulous.

It was actually way easy to tell them apart than I had anticipated this time, though I guess it had something to do with the fact that as usual, Gunner ignored me completely, nose deep in his phone.

But Shade… boy oh Shade, he just looked like he wanted to try me today too, if the condescending smirk on his face was anything to go by.

I think their mother saw them as well, for she signed for them to come over to us even as she continued to listen to whoever had called her.

I took my gaze off the boys once they started to approach us, pretending to have much more important things to stare at on my sandals, which had surprisingly managed to survive the past few days in the woods, totally hating the fact that my heart rate had picked up drastically.

I could feel Shade’s heated gaze fixating on me, boring holes into the top of my head, but I fought the urge to look up at him, not wanting to give him that satisfaction.

Luna Avery let out a loud, dramatic gasp, throwing away all of my plans and forcing me to look up at her in concern.

I had just been here for one night, but I just had this gut feeling that something was seriously wrong, judging by the fact that her normally pleasant features had morphed into a very serious one.

“No! Tell me he didn’t, Martha, tell me he didn’t. When was that, just now?”

Whoever Martha was said something, and Luna Avery was silent for a while, listening, “Okay, you know what, don’t do anything, wait for me, I’m coming over right now, wait right there, Martha, you hear me?”

When she hung up, her expression was still serious. “Sorry about that, guys,” She apologized, her gaze mostly on her children, “I’ve got to go see Martha urgently, but I promised Gayle here that I would take her shopping for clothes and school stuff. You two will do it instead on my behalf.”

The horror that filled each of our eyes seemed to be a common sentiment that united us in that moment, the implication of what she wanted them to do registering on all of us.

“That’s quite okay, Luna Avery, I could wait for you to come back—”

“No, Gayle,” She smiled softly at me, her gaze hardening when it shifted to the boys, “These two here were terrible jerks yesterday at dinner, at the very least, they owe you this moment. Besides, I think this would be a wonderful time for you all to get to know each other better. So, it’s settled.”

“But mum, you know we’re supposed to be at Garett’s party—” Shane grumbled bitterly, shooting me a dirty look, but he was also cut off, “Garett’s party doesn’t start until a good three and half hours later, Shane. The way I see it, the quicker you help Gayle out, the sooner you can finish and even be on your merry way. You could even take her along with you,”

“Don’t push it, mum,” He gritted his teeth.

“Great, so it’s settled. I’ll see you all soon. I’ve got to go. Make sure you have fun, Gayle, and if these two are mean, or rude to you in any way, just let me know, I’ll deal with them the only way I know best.” She muttered hurriedly, her green eyes shining in mischief.

And then she was gone.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Gunner asked, looking at me with uninterest. It was the first time he had addressed me directly without being confronted. “Let’s get this over and done with.” He walked away, a seething Shade following closely at his heels.

With a deep sigh, I trailed after them.

Gods, what had Luna Avery done?