Wanted (Book #2)

Chapter 4: Mate

Mother walks to open the door, eighteen little white ninjas flipping and tumbling inside. They had their body outfits on and coloured contacts out. I quickly see mother taking hers out, so I take out mine. The door is quickly closed and locked again as each person takes their place in a circle around Jason, posed and ready to attack if something happens. Mother trusts us enough to know we can handle ourselves in moments like these, and that makes us feel independent, plus the nurse was in the room so she could attend any injuries. The nurse walked behind me and started to look at the cuts along my arm and back from the glass, the pain completely forgotten about in the walk here.

Jason looks around him in utter surprise when eighteen people start going through our usual warm up routine, a simple tree pose then turns into the firefly pose, then the forearm stand scorpion, but we bend our legs until our feet reach our heads. They all flip upwards and stand calmly, waiting for a response, and I can't help but smile.

"What?" Jason whispers, probably to himself but we all heard it clearly. Mother wedges herself into the circle, and begins to unravel her face. My siblings follow her actions, revealing their faces and sharp features.

"These are the last White Warriors. Your mate is my firstborn, first to leave the nest, but she isn't of age. You see, when a White Warrior is being trained, she or he isn't allowed to stop training or leave their parents until they reach their eighteenth year. When they do hit that year, they are completely ready to face the world, alone, and I can't let you take her just yet. Which means no mating for two years, but you may visit her, but you can't mate with her." Mother explains calmly. Jason takes it in quietly, going tense when she said he couldn't take me in any way.

"I know that after she has seen you, she will go into the alluring heat, but you need to control yourself when this happens. You are an Alpha, I know this will be difficult to do, but the reward is great. That is, if she actually wants you." Mother says, giving me a glance. I look at her, unsure. I don't know this man, or anything about him. Was he kind? Was he loving, a good ruler? Abusive?

Oh, who am I kidding? No one could abuse me without being abused back.

But I still didn't like the thought of suddenly going away with a stranger. Mother was giving me two years to get to know him, a reasonable amount of time, but was it really enough? And it seemed she was fine giving me away, maybe because it was for the best. Keeping the lineage going was an important thought that has been pushed into our heads for quite some time, and having such a safe home made it seem easy.

It was not easy.

Jason gives me a possessive glance and growls at the thought of me rejecting him, but I stand my ground and step up to the plate of being the eldest.

"Two years is the time you have to woo me, if you fail I may or may not reject you. The choice is yours to make, but now we all must go and have pack dinner. You are welcome to join in since you will be staying the night, Alpha Jason." I say, straightening my back and trying to look as mature as I can. Jason growls harder and starts to walk forward, but Mother puts out a hand.

"Don't even think about kissing her. You and I both know what that would do. Come on now." She urges and unlocks the door. My siblings file out happily, smiling and chasing each other to the dinning room without a care. I decide to leave Jason behind, becoming my sixteen and free self again, chasing Gwyn as she tags along lastly. Grandmother always said she felt some odd aura from her, but we never knew what it meant. Yes, she somehow kept finding herself in strange situations, like the roof of the school building with her lunch, or the old house mother lived in with only her underwear on, but she was still my sister and we all loved her dearly.

A hand grabs my wrist when I skip into the air with my sister, pulling me against a hard back and holding me in place. I struggle momentarily before warm breath heats my cheeks and a shiver runs through my limbs, Jason's mouth gently trailing my neck. He is yanked backwards suddenly and I spin around, wondering who my saviour was, only to be Skah.

"Leave her alone. Mother said you have two years, not two minutes. Get your times correct, dude." He says, then points his finger right in his face before storming off, my hand in his grip. I smile and follow him as he brings me to the full dining room, sitting me down next to him and giving a protective brotherly glare to everyone in the room. I smile at his actions and watch as Jason walks into the room, making everyone quiet down instantly and stare at him, the strange man who kidnapped me. I was really tempted to randomly shout out 'Hail Hitler' or some other random thing to break the silence, but that would hit the cruel scale at a ten and a half. I instead stay in my seat and give a thumbs up when he sits down, making the crowd smile at him after they see I'm not in a hating mood. His followers take seats next to him and look around, eyeing the women in the room like creeps.

Where is Maria?

Our whole family somehow shoves into the table together, smiling and watching me as our food is brought over.

"So?" Roka asks with a smirk.

"So what? I may or may not like him. He did kidnap me." I reply.

"Yeah, but Father kidnapped mother, and look what happened then." Vanora remarks, smiling dreamily as she goes over the story. Her and Wira are always writing stories and making them up, you can't watch a movie without them inserting themselves and acting it out during the night.

The dinner is finished quickly, looks coming from mother to hurry up. I could feel Jason's eyes on me the whole time but avoided eye contact as much as possible. When our plates were clear mother ushered us outside and into the moonlit snow covered world, still in our outfits and leaving clouds of breath as we followed mother into the woods without a word. She takes us deep, but not too far, then spins at us.

"Because of Bianca's absence, we shall go tree jumping." She says and raises her hands. We actually liked tree jumping, madly spinning, twirling, and jumping from branch to branch like monkeys. Mother lunges into the air, jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk until she swings on a branch and perches. She gestures with her head and we follow, laughing and screaming with playfulness as we chase each other with limber movements, the adrenaline flowing in our veins as we avoid hitting objects along the way. The feelings gave you excitement and the feeling of freedom as you climbed, watching each other and calculating each other's movements so you don't crash.

I laugh and jump to another tree, climbing to the top and seeing the waning Gibson moon looming overhead, lighting our landscape. I smile and Hotah appears next to me, looking up as well.

"The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to." He says silently. I turn to him and my smile fails slightly, wrapping an arm around him and squeezing him. He always was the nature boy, and the poetry reader. He was the sensitive caring kind, and so many girls awed when he walked by and adjusted his guitar strap. I'm sure hundreds would love to steal his innocence, but mother didn't allow us to give it to anybody but our mate.

Time's up, come home. Mother says and we both sigh at once. Hotah and I slowly climb down and take off for home, coming across the front door open and waiting for us. We all file in and mother waits on the couch for us, to send us to bed and watch our new guest.

Sweet dreams, Jason.