Mates?

2

*Winter's POV*

I woke up in the pack infirmary.

"Hello? Anyone there?" I asked, my voice raspy from just waking up.

I felt someone grab my hand.

"I'm here Winter." Grant whispered in my ear.

I felt pain shoot up my leg.

"It hurts Grant." I said helplessly.

"I know, but we have to take you home. You need crutches... Or I can carry you." He said, smirking.

"I like the second option better." I said, smiling.

He scooped me up in his arms, making sure not to hurt my knee or ankle, which, I noticed for the first time I had a brace on both. I wrapped my arms around his neck. He leaned down a little and kissed me passionately. I kissed back. We ended up both pulling away at the same time.

"What happened?" He finally asked while walking up the makeshift stairs to the entrance of the infirmary.

"I don't want to talk about that right now." I said while burying my face in his chest.

I could feel when he got outside from the cold air pickling at my skin. I also noticed I was wearing an oversized shirt that wasn't mine. Grant stopped suddenly and we heard someone yelling.

"I am Ash Jenkins and I'm looking for a girl by the name of Winter Jones!" He yelled.

It was the same guy from last night. My grip tightened on Grant. The town's wolves fell silent. I'm assuming that it's dawn by the chattering that followed after. Dawn was the best time for marketers and shoppers to get their goods.

"Why is he looking for you?" Grant whispered.

Almost immediately after he said that his breathing hitched.

"Well that was easier than I thought." Ash said and I could hear his footsteps as he walked over. I loosened my grip on Grant. I knew I was was doomed. I felt another pair of arms grab me.

"Let go of her." Ash said sternly.

"I'm not letting you take my mate." Grant shot back.

Ash started laughing again.

"Your  mate? I'm pretty sure you're mistaken." He said in between laughter. "Because she's mine." He said with the seriousness back in his voice.

"What's the problem here?" I heard Adam's voice say over all the chatter.

I heard a female voice respond.

"Your wolf over there won't let go of my brother's mate and I assure you that we will kill every last one of you until we get her." The female said.

"Thanks Joey." Ash said in a monotonic voice.

"None of that will be needed. We'll give her to you, no trouble." Adam said.

I knew it. I knew he hated me.

"What?!" Grant and Tyran said in unison.

Tyran must've come out of the den with Adam when they heard the arguing.

"Boys." Adam said in a scolding tone. "It's better for all of us."

Even though Adam was their older brother, he acted like their father.

"I'm glad we've come to an agreement." Joey said.

"No. I'm not letting you take her." Grant refused.

I decided to finally tell him to back down. I lifted my head to look him in the eyes.

"Grant please. I'll be fine." I begged.

"But he'll hurt you..." Grant said with worried eyes.

"Let me go with him. I don't want you to get hurt." I begged again.

"But you're my mate..." Grant said, confused.

He kissed me but I didn't kiss back. I needed this to be easier for him. I needed him to hate me. He pulled away. He looked heartbroken. His bottom lip was quivering, he looked like he was about to cry.

"I'm not your mate." I said.

It hurt me so much to say those words. He chose his next few words carefully.

"You don't have to claim me as your mate, but we are your family, Tyran and I." Grant said with the confidence back in his voice.

"When I was thirteen I was a rogue." I heard gasps from behind me. It wasn't from the pack villagers, they already know my story. It was from the vampires. "As far as I'm concerned, nothing's changed. I am a rogue. I have no family."

I resisted the urge to cry from the look in Grant's eyes.

"Just let the worthless wolf go. They'll figure out how terrible she is and they'll throw her back out." Adam reasoned. "Then she'll be a rogue like she wants to be."

I had to pretend like Adam's words didn't hurt. All of a sudden, Grant collapsed. I looked up and seen Tyran with a knife.

"Take him to the infirmary!" Adam yelled.

It took everything in me not to breakdown. Tyran looked shocked.

"I-I did this." He whispered.

"You did the right thing Tyran." Adam said.

I couldn't look. I buried my face in the grass. I didn't cry. I can't cry. I can't show my weak side. I can't.

"Joey, run back to the pack and tell them it worked. There will be no attack today. Tell them I've found my mate." Ash whispered.

I still have no clue what this guy looks like. I looked forward and seen the village wolves either giving me sympathetic looks or giving me a smirk. Most people here either loved me or hated me. I felt two strong arms wrap around me and lift me up off the ground. I looked at the person who picked me up. It was the most attractive person I have ever laid eyes on. His chocolate brown eyes stared into mine. His beautiful black hair fell around his face. How am I ever going to be able to resist him?

"Who are you?" I whispered, barely audible, I could barely even hear myself.

"I'm Ash. Your mate." He said, smiling.

God, his smile was beautiful. His eyes trailed to my neck.

"Guess I bit harder than I thought." He said sadly before turning back to the others.

I turned my head to look at them. One was a guy with a tan color hair and the other was a girl with very light blonde hair.

"Where's Cole?" Ash said, almost annoyed.

"He went with Joey." The blonde-haired girl said. Her voice was polite and innocent.

"Why?" Ash asked.

"Ash it's pretty obvious Cole has a huge crush on your big sister." The tan-haired boy answered.

Before Ash could respond Adam butted into the conversation.

"Look, I know my brother wasn't too happy about giving up Winter, but I was hoping we could be allies." Adam said nervously.

Ash scrunched up his nose.

"No way. You're lucky no blood was spilled today. Let's keep it that way." Ash threatened. "We also stick together. We believe in 'all for one and one for all.' What you showed here today was definitely not what we believe in, even if you did obey my command. Tell the bloodied wolf that I wish him luck with recovery. He's the only right-minded one here."

Adam looked hurt. I heard Tyran's voice behind us, which made Ash spin around quickly.

"I did it for her." Tyran said sadly while looking at me. "I did it because she told me not to fight back if something like this happened. I just wanted my best friend to be safe." He looked down, eyes brimming with tears.

Ash walked closer to him.

"She'll have to adjust to our lifestyle but I'm sure she'll be just fine once she does." Ash said.

"What do you mean adjust?" Tyran asked timidly. It was obvious he didn't want to make him angry.

"We don't exactly function the way you do. We are a little more old-fashioned in our beliefs." Ash said.

"You mean you still believe in submission? That the female has to submit to the male and do anything and everything he says? You're not equal?" Panic was rising in Tyran's voice.

I didn't like this either. I will not be told what to do and give up free will.

"What'd I miss?" Natalie said happily while walking up to all the commotion, and breaking me away from my thoughts.

Natalie is my female best friend at this pack. She left to try to recruit rogues for our pack, since our numbers are dwindling by the day from people lacking to find their mates. I haven't seen her in six months. She had an accent because she had grown up in a place known as Australia. She has long blonde hair because she wasn't born a wolf, she was turned, so her hair is a natural color. She has big brown eyes and chubby cheeks.

She ran up to me and completely ignored Ash and Tyran.

"Sorry I missed your birthday yesterday." She apologized.

"It's all good." I said, giving her a high five.

"Don't  touch her." Ash hissed.

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow, completely unfazed.

"Who do you think you are?" Natalie asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Sweetie, I'm Ash Jenkins, very  powerful vampire, which also happens to be Winter's mate."

Natalie laughed in response before looking at me with an expression that had pride written all over it.

"I'm impressed, mates with a vamp. That's gonna be some freakishly good sex." Natalie joked.

"Is that all you think about?" I said while laughing.

"Mostly. You'd understand if you weren't a virgin."

Ash smirked down at me.

"Even better. It'll be amazing if it's your first time, you probably won't be able to walk for a whole week-"

Natalie cut him off by sticking her Katana to his neck.

"Don't you ever touch her without her permission because I won't hesitate to kill you." She threatened.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm a lot stronger than you."

Natalie laughed.

"You wish bloodsucker."

The scene playing put above me was broken by some guy running up and pulling Natalie back, making her drop her Katana. The guy fell back on his backside and peeked his head around to look at Natalie. Surprisingly, she didn't react, but I could tell she was silently planning out her next move in her head.

"Wait- Are you the Natalie Ramirez?" The guy asked.

"Yes." She responded coldly.

I could feel Ash's body tense at her name. The guy started to lightly kiss her neck. He had his arm around her stomach so she couldn't escape. A involuntary growl left my mouth.

Natalie smiled devilishly like she had a plan. She mouth the words 'just watch' to me. She turned and forcefully pushed him on the ground and wrapped her hands around his neck, choking him.

"Ooh, kinky." He said, unfazed.

He smiled at her and flipped them both around to where he was on top.

"You're actually pretty cute." Natalie commented.

"You're really hot... And sexy... And did I mention hot?" He said breathily. "Too bad we aren't mates." He continued.

"She's only seventeen feel free to take her too. She's as worthless as Winter." Adam said.

I felt Ash's grip tighten on me.

"Go ahead. Take me. They'll have one less good fighter." She said while staring at the man.

"I definitely want you to come back with me." He said.

"You can come back Cole. Winter is our main priority right now." The girl that had told Adam about why Ash was here had spoken again. I'm pretty sure Ash had said her name, but I don't remember. I'm pretty terrible with names.

I turned to see a girl with brown hair that had tiny braids on the right side. She was standing behind Ash. Her hair came down to her elbows and she had chubby cheeks that resembled Natalie's. She had brown eyes and long eyelashes, identical to Ash's.

"Fine. I'll come back later." The one I'm assuming is Cole said and he got off of Natalie.

The girl behind Ash turned toward me.

"Hey, I'm Joey, Ash's big sister." The girl said.

"Hello. I'm Winter." I said timidly.

"And you're mine." Ash cut in with a fierce tone.

This was the first time his anger was directed toward me. I looked up at him and I seen that his eyes weren't the chocolatey brown they once were. They were completely black. I hated when he said I was 'his' I am not something to own. I am a human being. Well, werewolf, but not the point, I still will not let him own me. No. Matter. What. Yeah, this whole 'submission' thing isn't going to go over well. I wanted to fight back, but I didn't want to get my pack killed by them defending me. So, I stayed silent.

"We should go." The blonde-haired girl said.

Ash's eyes we're still black and he was still angry at me. I kept a blank expression while staring into his eyes.

"No." His tone was stern. It was like he was going to hurt me because I didn't respond.

Joey took a step forward and put a hand on Ash's shoulder, breaking his focus.

"Ash, we are leaving, we need to get her to the village healer for her leg. You want her to walk soon..." Joey's voice dropped to a low whisper. "And be capable of other... activities  without pain, right?" She finished.

I realized what she meant. I had forgotten about a vampire's constant need for s****l activities. I was screwed, deeply screwed, with no way out.

"As soon as possible." Ash replied.

Yep, no getting out of this one.