My Mate?

Chapter 1

Fighting them off wasn't the best plan give their size versus ours. Even with all seven of us, they were fully matured males. We had fought them off often enough though. Almost every occurrence ended with them backing away but with at least one of us, if not many of us, suffering physical consequences. Broken bones, bruising, all that fun stuff. Being werewolves, we healed. At least mostly. After so many beat downs, there are some wounds that cause lasting pain.

So, for further protection, we started altering our appearance, and smell. Victoria liked chemistry and had concocted this smelly perfume of sorts. It helped keep them away, and just about everyone else for that matter.

Since we had to do what we could for clothes, we started finding cheaper, baggier clothes to wear. Again, making us look grungy along with the 'odor'. We also did everything we could to never be alone. We would always be together or at least two at a time. We never let Nina and Amara be without at least one of the older ones either.

Over the summer, we had made several trips to the next town over, Star Falls. Since Xena turned eighteen, we had been trying to get her around other wolves as much as possible. Our hope was that she would find her mate. Maybe he could help rekindle what was stolen. The only way to do that safely was to get out before our keepers woke up, get to town, and get her cleaned up so she wouldn't ward off anyone with our 'perfume'.

A month before school started, we lucked out. Xena found her mate and thank the fucking Goddess, he was from another pack and had decided to instantly take her back with him. We all assumed she had told him a bit about what had happened, because our link was broken pretty quickly. That only happens when the wolf has joined another pack or gone lone. Since the attack, Xena never wanted to be alone, much less a lone wolf.

It was just the six of us now. Every morning we would all get up, get ugly, and get out the door. We couldn't chance looking or smelling okay for school either. The three had caught us in the morning or directly after school too many times to chance that again. Since we were never alone anymore, we had stayed safe. But there was no reason to chance anything every again.

Us four older girls would escort Nina and Amara to school, if we could, we'd try not to downgrade their looks or smell. It all depended on the morning. Surrounding them with our scent was enough to ward unwanted attention anyway while we were at home.

Then Victoria, Mandy, Marie, and I would head to the high school to begin our torturous adventure.

When our parents died, others would always show their support and try to talk to us. Offering condolences, telling us they were there to support us. After a few years and especially after we developed our defense mechanisms, they all stayed away. Our classmates though, seemed to think that we were just being emotional and pitiful. We would get bullied by many of the girls, avoided by the boys.

My favorite time of the day, and I say that with as much sarcasm as possible, was lunch. The money that was given to Emma and the three was to be for all of our expenses. Since we only got $100 each, that didn't exactly cover lunches. Most of the time, we made sure that Nina and Amara had money for lunch. That meant that the rest of us really didn't eat much. We'd take turns getting a meal and basically share it between us all. No one really paid attention, or if they did, they didn't think anything of it.

Some of the more plastic females started to make fun of us for it and continued as the years went on. Calling us names or accusing us of having eating disorders. While they were doing that, all the boys we used to spend time with would sit off to the side and laugh.

There had been a few occasions where the queen bee herself, Laurel, would take it a step further. I don't know why she hated me so much, but whenever she decided to push, I was always her target. One instance would stick with me forever. Not just because of what Laurel did, but because of what else happened.

It was right after our senior year started. The four of us were at lunch, sharing a sandwich and just talking about our schoolwork. We finished eating the little bit we had, and I was about to get up and care for our tray when Laurel came up behind me and dumped an entire carton of milk on my head. Don't ask me where the teachers were, I have no clue.

"Poor, sad little orphan girl. Too mopey about her situation to even care for herself right. Maybe a milk bath will make you all better." I sat there, stunned.

She and her little posse laughed and laughed. I looked up and straight ahead at one point to see two people who, once upon a time, we two of my best friends. They were just looking at me, laughing. No empathy, no sympathy. Xander and Taylor.

A few of the other boys who sat with them gave a look of disgust. I couldn't tell if it was aimed at me or at Laurel, but they shielded it quickly. I will always remember Xander and Taylor laughing at me though. I had grown up with them, played with them, trained with them. They were my best friends besides Victoria.

Until they weren't.

Laurel had sauntered over to Xander and sat on his lap, all while they all finished laughing. Those two had been together for a while. I only knew that because every time she had picked on me, she had gone to him afterward. I guess she must have thought that if I would try to stand up for myself, her being with him would protect her.

I wouldn't try though. It wasn't worth my time. I needed to conserve energy and thoughts for self-preservation. Not on Barbie.

Since Xena had left, taking our numbers down by one, the rest of us had spent more time in our own training circle. Every day after school, we would pick up the other girls, then walk out past town to a small, sequestered clearing beyond the trees. It was the spot that dad took mom and I to train. I don't think anyone else even knew about it. Besides being a good training ground, there were lots bushes with edible berries and wildlife around. We hunted for food out there as part of our training. It was free and kept us as healthy as possible.

Our self-taught training wasn't perfect. Every now and then we'd try to sneak a peek at what the boys were learning, but with our ludicrous scent and all, we couldn't get close enough to actually make out much. So, we went off of the knowledge we had from years ago. Things our parents had taught us.

Thankfully, dad was a great teacher. Although I didn't have any advanced knowledge, what he did leave me was enough to help us with self-defense. It was at least enough to give Nina and Amara a good knowledge base. They had been so young when all of our parents died. They didn't even have time to start really learning anything before it was all taken away.

That was how the first few months of the school year went. It was getting close to the end of October, which meant that both my and Victoria's birthdays were coming up. I couldn't decide if I was possibly excited about it or anxious.

The anxiety came from the fact that if I were to find my mate, I'd likely leave this shit hole. But that means I'd leave my girls. The only way around that would be if I could convince my mate that all the things happening were real.

We had tried to get meetings with the Alpha, Luna, and Beta for years. We were turned away each time, just told that we needed to talk to Emma. For years, I had been experiencing pains on a sometimes near daily basis. I thought that it was trauma from the beatings I'd suffered from the three, but even the damn doctors didn't do much to help. The pain was always in my head and my injuries were always healed before I got to the hospital.

The three were smart enough not to leave marks that wouldn't heal fast. I don't know if that was lucky or not.