Chained To Fate

Chapter 3

Easton Pov

    I was frustrated, tearing into my pancakes, cutting them into small bite-sized pieces, scraping the s**t out of the plate as I took my frustrations out on it. Another morning having to deal with that dickhead. I couldn’t wait until I was twenty and found my mate, then I’d be able to move out and never have to see him again. In our pack, werewolves stayed with their parents until they found their mates. When a werewolf turned twenty they finally had their wolf, and the ability to recognize another wolf as their wolf. Of course, it didn’t happen right away all the time, but when a wolf did find their mate the Alpha and Luna of the pack would issue them a house and they’d be able to move out and get married, moving in together. I didn’t care who the guy was, at this point, I just wanted to get my mate and be done with this lifestyle. “Easton, you’re going to kill your food if you keep that up.” My mother said as the front door closed. 

    I grumbled, ignoring her suffocating sugary tone as I continued to destroy my food. “You heard your mother, Easton. We don’t pay good money for you to throw a tantrum and destroy good plates.” My father said, his voice stern and laced with annoyance as I looked up in surprise. 

    “It’s just a damn plate,” I muttered, lowering my head again as I shoved the food into my mouth. I could feel my father bristle, his Beta pheromones flooding the kitchen as if I was a threat as my mother sighed loudly, walking out of the kitchen to fetch father whatever he had come back for. Normally I could avoid him, if I was lucky. 

    My father slammed his hand on the table, making me jump as I looked up into his eyes. “It’s not just a damn plate, Easton! It’s hard spent money on things that make your mother happy! She’s always babying you and you’ve gotten soft and spoiled. Those are her favorite plates, it’s not alright for you to just do whatever you want without any consequences. I swear, you act like you’re still in middle school, Easton! Grow up, you’re in college now!” He yelled at me. 

    I flinched, feeling the familiar tug in my stomach as the tears threatened to spill in the corners of my eyes, and gripped my fork and knife tightly in my hands. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scrape the plate,” I whispered, before he interrupted me. 

    “You should be more like your brother! Honor roll student all his life, top of his grades, a perfect athlete, even faster than the damn Alpha’s son! He doesn’t dress like a child begging for attention, he’s the captain of the college football team! Strive to be better! Strive to be Jared!” He yelled at me, his face red with anger. 

    “Now Tommy, that’s not fair at all. Easton is perfectly fine just how he is, he doesn’t need to be a creepy robot he’s perfect. And he doesn’t dress for attention, he has plenty of attention. He just likes to dress like this. Don’t be mean to Easton, he’s perfect how he is.” My mother said, a growl in her voice as she stood in the kitchen with her hands on her hips. She threw a towel and a black binder at my father and he caught them easily, using the towel to dry the sweat off of his body. Flawless muscular body, just like Jared, and all the other guys in the pack. Not like me, small muscles, less care for training. I was a disappointment to my father, and mom always treated me like a child. “You're going to make poor Easton cut himself again!” She said, glaring at him. 

    I stood up, not wanting to hear any more of this conversation. “Only children desperate for attention cut themselves! If he wants to prove to me he’s a grown-up he won’t do it again!” My father yelled at her, making me flinch. “He should be more like Jared!” He shouted as I grabbed my bag and mom’s stupid heart-drawn packed lunch and ran out of the house. I could still hear them bickering as I slammed the front door, placing my back against it as I took deep breaths, the tears slowly trickling down my cheeks. I pulled out my keys and started my car, nearly dropping my keys three times before I got it right, and screamed in frustration as I punched the steering wheel. Why was everything so hard? Be like Jared, be like Jared, why did everyone always tell me I needed to be like Jared? f**k Jared, that perfect prick with his perfect f*****g body and his perfect grades. I pulled out my phone as I started to drive to college, sending a quick text message as I nearly ran off the side of the road. I parked in my normal spot next to my friends who were all sitting at the picnic benches in front of the art building, my major. I watched them laughing and talking to each other as a few cheerleader girls walked by them giggling, making fun of their dark clothes and exotic makeup. I never was one for makeup, but I liked dark clothes. I pulled my beanie lower on my head as I stepped out of the car, turning to the side to hear Jared’s deep chuckle. I turned to see him leaning lazily against the hood of his car, Elizabeth, the Alpha's daughter, sitting behind him with a leg on either side of him as she ran her nasty f*****g long fingernails through his messy hair. I growled in annoyance, not even sure why I cared. 

    “Easton, you nearly hit me back there. Do I need to report you to the Alpha? If you’re not comfortable enough to drive yet, you shouldn’t have been allowed to get a license.” I jerked my head up in surprise, growling at the principal. Our pack was one of the biggest packs, and we resided inside a very large fenced-in plot of land, large enough for many houses and apartments, along with our own schools. Only Werewolves were allowed in here. He shook his head at me in sympathy as he sighed, patting my shoulder. “I know it’s hard, being the younger twin. Jared has everything riding on him, he’s the oldest and the one to succeed your parents. Though it’s not okay to just stop caring, Easton. Even if you’re not going to be the second in command, you can still try to be someone your parents are proud of. You should try to be more like Jared, Easton.” The principal said, making me grit my teeth in frustration as I pulled my shoulder out of his grasp. 

    “f**k you, f**k all of you!” I shouted at him, getting back in my car and backing out. I could see my friends wiping their heads to look at me, confusion in their eyes as they watched me pulling away. I watched Jared jump up off of his car and Elizabeth fall to the ground with a curse as he ran to the principal, grabbing his shirt collar. I rolled my eyes at him as I drove off. How stupid, trying to act like a hero. He’d never be my hero again. 

    I felt my phone go off and I pulled it out, parking at a close-by supermarket to read the text message. ‘Hey, babe. I’m up, come on over.’ The text said. I sighed in relief, texting back a quick I’ll be there in a few hours as I backed out of the parking spot and started driving again. Yeah, I was probably going to get in trouble for ditching school...again...but I didn’t give a f**k. I was tired of everything, nothing made sense anymore. My father hated me, and my mother was a suffocating annoyance, but it had all been bearable before. Jared would stand there and hold my hand, taking our mom’s crap and sticking up for me when our father tore into me. He was my hero, and then suddenly he wasn’t there anymore. He stopped standing by my side, sticking up for me, and started treating me like crap like everyone else. Well, f**k him. f**k all of them, I didn’t need any of them. 

    It was a few hours of a drive to get to the fence, and I parked in my usual spot at the old abandoned gas station that caught fire about ten years ago and was abandoned instead of fixed. There’s been plans to demolish it and build something new, but no one in the pack could come to an agreement about what to put there so the motion kept getting pushed aside for a later date, until it stopped being brought up. I didn’t mind, it gave me a parking spot to leave my car at where people weren’t going to notice the second in command’s son’s car sitting there for days at a time. There was a hole in the fence back here, underneath the large willow tree that sat leaning against the wall. They didn’t keep checking it and over the years as it grew it created a hole in the wall, the large body of the tree ripping into the fence. I ended up plying off a few extra boards and covering the spot with vines, so in case someone inspected it they wouldn’t notice without actually touching it and moving the vines, and if they did discover it, they would have assumed the vines were grown over time and the tree damaged the fence. 

    I slipped under the vines and pulled the bike propped up against the outside of the fence out from behind the bush, slinging my leg over the side and pedaling away from the fence. There weren’t any rogues in this state, Alpha John and his father had taken care of them, so we had a fairly lax pack that didn’t do much watching or caution, so I could slip in and out fairly easily. It’s not like I was someone important, like Jared. The firstborns of the first, second, and third command are watched like hawks, but we second-borns were invisible. I raced down the overgrown hill, the grass outside the fence was our property as well but we never cared for it much, and it tended to grow wild before someone complained. Though I wasn’t sure if they complained because of the grass being high, or because they wanted to watch a bunch of shirtless overly muscular men come out here and start mowing it all. More than once I’ve seen crowds of women sitting in folding chairs with coolers filled with drinks and fans that sprayed water in case the men decided to stop and get thirsty, or want to be cooled down. It was ridiculous, the way women behaved, but I couldn’t blame them. I didn’t come out here to mow the grass with the rest of them, I tended to stand here and stare at the men too. I’ve always been attracted to men, it wasn’t weird or uncommon, there were plenty of same-gender relationships inside the fence. No one had any problems with me being gay. Well...no one but my father. 

    I could feel the familiar burning in my legs as I pedaled away from our property and to the city, parking the bike in an alley and hiding it behind a dumpster. It’s always been here when I got back for it, so I wasn’t worried about it being stolen. I walked out of the alley and grabbed a taxi, sliding into the seat and giving them my destination. It was another thirty minutes before I was taken to the edge of town, to the mountains. There were various trails up the mountain for those adventurous enough to risk it, but it was rumored to be haunted, those who went up never came down, and after a while, it was abandoned. Well, for humans, that is. I waved at the taxi driver that was trying to convince me not to climb up the hill, watching as he did the sign of the cross and prayed for me, before driving away. I groaned, wondering if I should start exercising more, and started up the main trail. My phone buzzed in my pocket as I stopped to pull out a bottle of water, gulping it, before pulling out my phone. ‘Are you here yet?’ The text said. 

    I texted back: ‘Five minutes,’ and shoved the phone and the water bottle back in my bag, before hiking up the last few minutes to the cave. It was hidden behind a thick gathering of bushes, and I brushed them aside and walked into the cave, pulling out my phone to set off the flashlight, before venturing inside. I walked for a good three or four minutes before I felt strong arms wrap around me from behind and jumped, blushing a little bit at the chuckle in my ear. 

    “Took you long enough, Easton.” The silky smooth voice said in my ear, before nipping at the bottom of my earlobe. 

    I blushed, pushing him off of me as I continued to walk forward towards the growing light of a fire. “It’s not easy getting here, you know. My legs are dying.” I said with a sigh, sitting down on the couch he had leaning against the side of the cave.

    He sat down beside me and I put my phone back in my pocket, studying him. Hayden had shoulder-length black hair that he kept pulled back in a ponytail, his eyes a light green like mine. He smirked at me, grinning a wide grin that showed off his elongated teeth as he chuckled a silky laugh, his lips closing as he bit his bottom lip, his eyelids lowering as he smiled at me. I could feel the lust coming from him as he slid his hand up my leg, already turning me to face him. “Your legs will be dying, you mean.” He whispered, leaning over and pressing his lips against mine.