Mates?

5

She finally stopped after about five more minutes. After she finished she leaned back against the bathtub and continued to breathe heavily.

"How long has this been going on?" I asked, concerned.

"A little over a week." She responded, still trying to level out her breathing.

"Why didn't you tell us?" I asked, slightly hurt that she's been dying without any of us noticing.

"Because I don't need you guys begging the villagers to save me." She responded.

"First of all, we wouldn't have to beg  them. Second of all, they wouldn't even be involved."

"Then what would be your plan?" She taunted.

"I  would save you."

For some reason she laughed really hard at this. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"Real funny Cole. You'd rather have that Natalie girl from Winter's pack." She responded.

Low self esteem. Another side effect from not having s*x. I moved closer to her and sat beside her.

"Joey, you're like my best friend. I'd rather have you than anyone else. I thought you already knew that." I smiled.

I leaned in closer to her... And kissed her. Surprisingly, she kissed back. I pulled away before I got too distracted.

"Joey, please let me help you." I begged.

She thought it over for a couple moments before responding.

"Fine... But under two conditions: One- A condom is involved. Two- My brother never finds out about this."

"Deal." I said without hesitation.

"We'll do it after dinner. They're probably wondering where we are." Joey said.

"Okay." We shook hands. I looked down and realized her shirt was soaked with blood. "You may wanna change that." I said, pointing to her shirt.

She looked down at her left side and now on closer examination, the blood was in patterns of diagonal lines.

"No, no, no, no, no!" She yelled.

"What?! What happened?!" I asked concerned.

"I had a little run in with a wolf last night before I met up with you guys."

"And you didn't tell us?!"

I moved to where I had my knees on either side of her. I quickly unbuttoned her button-up shirt and took it off. I looked at her wound immediately, ignoring what she was wearing underneath her shirt.

"Is it bad?" She asked.

It was really bad, her skin was dripping with blood. I looked back at her face and it was drenched in sweat. Two other side effects. One- excessive bleeding. Two- High Fever.

"You're gonna be fine, I promise, it's not that bad okay?" I lied. "You need to rest. I'll go tell Ash you weren't feeling good."

"Just don't tell him about our plan for later." She said quietly.

"I wouldn't dream of it." I said.

I scooped her up in my arms and walked her out of the bathroom.

"You don't have to carry me." She said.

"You have no clue how long I've dreamed of this Joey."

*Winter's POV*

Joey and Cole have been gone for awhile now. I wonder what happened... And why Joey was acting so weird. I want to go home... But I can't. Even if I managed to escape, Adam wouldn't let me in his pack a second time, especially if there was a raging vamp on my heels. I hope this dinner lasts forever because I'm scared to be alone with Ash again. Especially because ever since this dinner started he's been rubbing my thigh with his hand. Which, I'm only going to admit in my thoughts that it felt good. I would never say that out loud. I wasn't really hungry, especially from the scent of blood that I could smell from Cole and Alee's cups. I've gathered that the blond boy is Dustin and that him and Alee are dating.

"I'm going to go check on Joey. She should've been back by now. We probably won't be back, so don't wait up for us." Ash spoke up.

Everyone nodded their heads and Ash stood me up beside him and he stood up. He grabbed my hand as if I was a small child he was helping across the road. We walked down the hallway and stopped at the room directly across from his. He was about to knock when the door opened, revealing Cole.

"What are you doing in my sister's room?" Ash asked over-protectively.

Cole's eyes grew to the size of dimes. He stepped out and shut her door softly.

"Look, dude, it's not what you think." Cole said frantically.

"Stop lying. We both know you are. You're horrible at it. What are you hiding?" Ash said, almost bored.

"Fine. Just don't tell Joey I told you." Ash nodded warily. Cole looked both ways down the hallway before whispering a response. "She's dying Ash, she started coughing up blood, which she's been doing for over a week, then she made a comment about low self esteem, then, she started bleeding a lot from the wounds that she received last night from a wolf attack, while running a very high fever."

"All because she hasn't followed her instincts?" Ash asked, concerned. Cole nodded. "I know somebody who can-" Cole cut Ash off.

"No. We have an... arrangement." Cole said vaguely.

An arrangement of what?

"I'll kill you before you even lay a finger on my sister." He said, furious.

"Listen, I'm saving her whether you like it or not. It's her decision, not yours." Cole said, attempting to keep his cool. 

"If you hurt her-" Ash began, but was interrupted by Cole again.

"Hurt her?  I would never hurt her. Have you not realized the type people I go for? They all have some trait of Joey. Like Natalie, she had brown eyes, and a fearless attitude. What does Joey have? Brown eyes and a fearless attitude." Cole elaborated, he also seemed a little hurt.

"You'll only feel this way about her until you find your mate." Ash said coldly.

"If Joey has any sort of good feelings for me, I'll reject my mate in a heartbeat." Cole said.

I would reject Ash, but there is no doubt in my mind that he would kill me and my pack in cold blood. 

"Yeah, sure, just don't be too loud if she actually lets you." Ash said with an annoyed tone.

"I could say the same for you." Cole retorted, glancing between Ash and I.

"You almost walked in on us earlier. Give it another couple minutes and I would've been on top of her." He laughed.

I looked up at him confused.

"You don't even know what that  means?" Ash asked.

"No. What's it supposed to mean?" I asked confused.

Cole laughed really hard.

"Dude, you're going to have so much fun ruining that girl's innocence." Cole continued laughing.

"I guess I better get to it then." Ash said.

Ash smirked at me and walked into his room, dragging me with him.  He picked me up and sat me on the end of his bed. His hands were on either sides of me, our faces inches apart and his hot breath on my lips. We stared into each other's eyes for at least 10 seconds. He leaned in and connected our lips and I kissed back. It was the best feeling ever. I don't even now how to describe it. It was like my heart erupted and this moment was just the beginning of a new type of life. I knew it wasn't true because of how I really feel about this guy. I had gotten lost in the feeling and I didn't realize that he had pushed me onto the bed and he was on top of me, while we were still making out. I didn't know what to do. I loved how it felt, but I didn't love the person who was making me feel it. I pulled away before anything else could happen. I looked up at him cautiously. His eyes were black and his expression was unreadable. I looked back down, knowing he was mad at me. My dad would be disappointed in me for being submissive in that moment. Ash put his fingers under my chin and lifted my face up gently. His eyes were back to brown when I looked into them.

"It's okay Winter." He whispered.

"Y-You're not mad?"

"No. Why would I be?" He asked.

"Because when your eyes are black, you're mad at someone usually." I said quietly.

He chucked a small laugh and shook his head 'no'.  

"My eyes turn black when I'm feeling really strong emotions, like just now, I was feeling happiness." I nodded my head. That explained earlier then. He moved beside me and laid back. I laid back too. We just stared at the ceiling for awhile.

"How many kids do you want?" He asked out-of-nowhere.

I was taken by surprised and answered truthfully.

"None." I mentally slapped myself. I knew he wouldn't except that.

"Why?" He asked.

"Just never had any interest in children. I dropped one of the newborn wolves in our pack once and it got a minor concussion." I explained the true story of how I got banned from babysitting. He didn't really have a reaction. "Go ahead, laugh like everyone else does." I said quietly. He still didn't laugh which was surprising.

"You'll love being a mother, I know my mom did, and you remind me of her." He said rather sadly. I know I would have to have at least one child, because then he would have an heir, not like he would need it though. "Joey was more close to dad and I was more close to mom." He continued.

"What happened to your mom?" I asked reluctantly.

"She was murdered. By my father." He said with no emotion present on his face.

My eyes were probably the size of grapefruits at the moment. I could never imagine my father killing my mother. My father was the nicest man on this planet. By the way he talked about my mother, he missed her, a lot, but he said that sometimes he's glad she died because if she lived and I died, he would've missed out on the best thing that had ever happened to him.

"What happened to your father then?" I asked, knowing I was overstepping my boundaries. 

"The only thing you need to know about that is: I'm not the person you think I am. I'm more malicious and cruel than you think. Just know that everything I do to you, is for your own good." What the heck is that supposed to mean? I just nodded my head, not wanting to talk anymore about that subject based on his last answer. He smiled and moved his head closer to my neck. "Where do you want your mark to be?" He asked, his breath fanning my neck.

"Mark?" I asked, clueless about what he was speaking about. "What's a mark?"

"You don't know? Werewolves started the mark, you should know about it, it's a main part of werewolf culture. It's when mates decide to claim each other, no going back, no second thoughts, just love." 

"You mean a lover's bite?" I asked.

"Wolves say lover's bite, vampires say mark. Essentially, they're the same." He said as if my question was boring him.

"I never really paid attention when Tyran talked about the whole mating process, so I don't know much about it." I explained.

"Who's that?" He asked. "Tyran? Who is he?" I could tell he was jealous by his tone of voice.

"He was one of my best friends at Night-Water. He was the Alpha's son, Grant's twin. The one who said he didn't fight back because I told him not to."

"Who's Grant again?"

Okay, so he's terrible with names. I wanted to answer with 'my real mate', but I know that would end badly. 

"He's the one you argued with to take me here." I said.

"Oh yeah. Anyway, all you need to know is that I mark you whenever I want, and I pup you whenever I want."

"Pup?" I asked, confused as to what he meant.

"You really don't know what that means?" He asked. He sighed before responding with: "It means to get you pregnant, but I assure you, we won't have kids for awhile, only fun." He smirked.

"Oh." I replied.

"Lots and lots of fun." He continued.

I didn't like the fact that I had no choice in when everything happens. I looked down at my feet, a sad look on my face. I know I won't survive giving birth. There's no point in even hoping for it.

"What's the depressed look for?" He asked as if he was annoyed by it.

"Do you know how dangerous it is for female wolves to give birth?"

"Dangerous?" He asked, laughing like I had just said a really funny joke.

"Most females don't survive. That's why there's not a lot of our kind left. They have one child and die from child birth. In my bloodline, none of the females have survived. They had a daughter, which later died of the same thing. It's destined to happen to me." I said solemnly. As if he cared if I survived. As long as he has an heir, he doesn't care what happens to me. "But it's fine. It's bound to happen someday. Why not for a good reason?" I said, trying to sound happy.

"Don't talk about yourself as if I don't care if you die. I may not even have pups in this lifetime. I mean, I'll be alive for over a dozen more, and for each one, I'll have a mate." He said.

"You have more than one mate?" I asked.

"Yeah. One for each lifetime. This is only my first lifetime, so you're my first mate."

Oh, lucky me. Note my sarcasm.

"Is it that way for every vampire?"

"Yeah, unless your mated to another vampire. In that case, you're with them for eternity. Joey had a mate. He was a wolf. We went to his pack and he had been killed for treason. Even though, it wasn't really treason, he had only snuck out to see his mate. That's why Joey's so distant, she doesn't want to get hurt like that again. She almost died tonight because she was scared to open up to anyone else. Thank god she actually let Cole in."

I can't believe he told me about Joey without her knowing. I mean, I'm basically a complete stranger. He has been staring at my neck like a maniac and he's been inching closer too. Right now, his nose is almost touching my neck.

"Are you hungry?" I asked in a shaky breath.

"No. I want to mark you."

"Oh."

"I know you're not ready, but my instincts are screaming at me to do it."

I'm scared, like really scared. I'm even more scared than when we were in the forest.

"How about we just go to sleep?" He asked out of the blue.

"Yeah. That seems like a good idea." I complied, my voice wavering a bit.

He got up and turned off the light. He came back over and laid down beside me. When I woke up the next morning, I was surprised to see that I had entangled my legs with his and wrapped my arms around his stomach. My head rested on his chest. I guess Tyran and dad were right when they said I had a habit of cuddling the pillow in my sleep. I looked up and he was already awake and staring at me. His hair was a mess, but it was hot. Did I really just think that?

"It's about time you woke up." His voice was raspy from just waking up, and it was beautiful.

Winter! Stop thinking stupid stuff!

"Sorry, I sleep pretty late." I apologized with my cheeks red from embarrassment.

"It's fine. I just woke up like two minutes ago anyway." He explained.

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"Well, for one, last time I woke up a girl, which was Joey, she literally threw a rock at my head. For two, I love watching you sleep. I never really understood when people said that in movies, but now I do."

"Movies?" I asked. I had no idea what that was.

"You don't know what movies are? They're like books but visual." He explained.

"So it takes days to watch them?" I asked.

"No. It's shortened down to a couple hours at most." He replied while holding back a laugh. "If you didn't have movies then how did you stay entertained?" He asked.

"Other wolves."

"I thought you were a virgin?"

I laughed a little because that's not what I meant.

"I am, that's no where near what I meant. We would go running around the woods racing each other, sit and talk, and if you wanted to be alone you could go to the lake. I was actually racing a friend when you found me."

"We both know Grant wasn't just a friend. We all seen you two by the lake." He said. "Not gonna lie, it made me jealous." He whispered.

"Did you know about me and you at the lake?" I asked.

"About you being my mate? Yeah. I knew when I first laid eyes on you." He smiled.

"Did you hear what we were talking about?" I asked.

I hope he didn't. That would've been weird.

"Mhm." He hummed in response and smirked.

"That's so embarrassing."

"Not really. I just think it's amazing how you seduced two brothers."

"I wasn't trying to."

"I know. If I wasn't included in the story, I would be rooting for Grant. He's like the underdog and he knows when to stand his ground, but he doesn't know who to trust. Tyran's a coward. He literally surrendered within two seconds, just because you told him to. It was stupid." He laughed. There was a knock at the door and I jumped. "Come in." Ash said.

It was Ace.

"I'm here to check on Winter's leg." He said.

"She's fine." Ash said.

"Okay, in that case, there's someone here for you." Ace said.

"Tell them to meet me in my office in about ten minutes."

Ace nodded and shut the door. Ash sat up and stretched.

"I put some new clothes in the bathroom last night. You can go change. Come out when you're finished and we'll go down together." He said sweetly.

I did as he said and we walked down to his office together. We were a little early so we went ahead and sat down. He sat in a chair behind a large desk and I sat on his lap like before. He kissed me softly and I kissed back. We didn't even hear the door open. What stopped the kiss was someone clearing their throat. We both stopped and looked over. Ash and I both gasped at the same time. I never thought I would see this person again, but here he is.