Claribelle's Mate

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Claribelle's POV

I woke up abruptly to a little body crawling on top of me. I rolled over and blinked sleepily, seeing my youngest brother, Michael above me. He grinned happily down at me, waiting for my response to him waking me up.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and dragged him under the covers with me, snuggling him against my chest and pretending to go back to sleep while he struggled.

"Belle!" he whined, laughing. "Let me go and get up!"

It took all I had not to laugh along with him. Instead, I rolled over, taking him with me and snuggling further under the covers. He kicked and struggled, trying to get out of the prison of my arms while I pretended to snore.

"Belle!" he laughed, rolling to face me and poking my cheek. "C'mon, Belle," he pleaded. "Breakfast is ready!"

At the mention of breakfast I released him, making him giggle. He bounced up and down on my bed as I sat up and glanced at the clock on my stand. Eight in the morning.

"Let's go get some breakfast, yeah?" I asked Michael and he jumped off my bed, nodding enthusiastically. He grabbed my hand and dragged me downstairs, still in my pajamas of short black shorts and a pink tank top.

It was summer so I wore as little as possible to bed. I couldn't sleep in my underwear like I wanted to because Michael and my sister, Mariella like to burst into my room in the mornings like Michael did today. I didn't mind, though. Michael is the youngest at nine and he was very close to me.

I was the only one of us four kids that got my mom's vampire gene. Michael, Mariella and Jason got my dad's werewolf gene. If I didn't have my mom and the coven, it'd be really lonely, but the vampires are awesome and I never feel alone, even living in a werewolf pack.

We live with the pack because my dad is the beta while his brother, my Uncle Eli, is the alpha. My mom and I go to Fangs, a vampire club owned by the leader of our coven, every Tuesday and Friday to see the coven and catch up. Occasionally some of the pack will go with us and occasionally some of the coven will come to the pack house to see us.
Together, the pack and coven coexist as one big family. I know that it's not like that everywhere and I know how much my mom and dad went through to make it happen, but I rarely leave the pack or coven's territories, so I have never seen the aggression between the two species for myself.

Everyone was in the kitchen filling their plates. Uncle Eli and Aunt Alice were laughing at something my mom said to them while their kids, Max (my best friend), Maddie and Brett were fighting over some bacon. It looked like Max was winning, and he already had a giant pile on his plate. Mariella already had her food and was sitting at the table, chowing down. Jason was currently filling his plate with some scrambled eggs and I didn't see my dad anywhere yet.
I decided to swoop in on the bacon argument before the pigs hogged it all. I stepped up next to Max but before I could say anything, he snatched the bacon from Julie's hand and smiled at me. "I saved you some bacon," he told me.

I grinned. "My hero," I sang, kissing his cheek.

Laughing, he handed me a plate and put half of his bacon on it. I finished filling my plate and took a seat next to Max and smiled at my mom when she placed a goblet of blood in front of me.

We eat regular food, but we still need blood. We don't like drinking fresh blood, so Jerome sends us some that he gets from blood banks for the club. I normally have some with every meal. I didn't need more than that unless I was injured or had been without for a while.

I was never without blood, but sometimes I got injured while training with the pack or coven. My mom made sure that I could defend myself, as grandpa had done with her, and I had to train with the pack and coven. I loved every second of it.