Claribelle's Mate

Chapter 1

"What are you doing today?" I asked Max.

"Running patrol right after breakfast," he responded, shoveling food in his mouth. "You can join me if you want, but other than that I'm free for the rest of the day."

"I'll join you for patrol," I told him, sipping from my goblet. I enjoyed running, and running with Max in wolf form was always fun. We were vigilant at the borders, but we still enjoyed playing around at the same time.

He grinned at my response. "Sounds like a plan! What do you want to do after?" he asked.

I shrugged, not really knowing. Max was a year older than me at eighteen and I'd graduated a couple weeks ago, but still sat at seventeen. There wasn't a whole lot we could do by way of clubs unless we went to Fangs, but they were super protective of me, so it wasn't the best place to party.

"Go see a movie?" I suggested.

He made a face, shaking his head. "There's nothing but chick flicks playing this week."

I rolled my eyes. He loves chick flicks, but I knew I would never be able to get him to admit it. He was a sucker for love. I knew because we had talks about finding our mates often. We both wondered when we'd find that one person that was supposed to love us forever. Most werewolves meet them when they turn sixteen, but vampires don't really have a specific age, due to how long we live.

I watched as my dad strolled into the kitchen, his eyes immediately finding my mom before he smiled, walked over and wrapped his arms lovingly around her. She smiled up at him and he leaned down slowly to kiss her. A pang of envy went through me. I wanted a love like that. I wanted to find my mate and love him as much as my parents loved each other.

"What about going to Fangs?" Max asked.

I shook my head. "It's ladies night at Fangs and I don't want guys hitting on me and getting killed by Jerome," I told him.

Max nodded in understanding. The coven, like I said earlier, is super protective of me. Fangs is the only vampire club in the state so covens from all over come when it's open and any of the guys that hit on me get threatened by vampires from my coven and if they do it again the threats become promises. Max has seen it and knows why I want to avoid it.

"Fine, we can go to a movie," he told me, groaning.

I laughed, pumping a fist in the air in victory. "We can figure out what we want to see when we get in from patrol."

"You joining Max on patrol?" my dad asked, raising an eyebrow at us as he put his and mom's plates on the table before pulling out my mom's chair.

I nodded, raising an eyebrow at him. I knew what he was thinking and was just waiting for him to say something.

"Try not to distract him, eh?"

I glared at him while my mom laughed. "They'll be fine, Jackson," she assured him. "You know they're careful, even when they're terrorizing each other."

He grunted, rolling his eyes. He knew that we messed around a lot when we were on patrol and I also knew that it made him nervous because he didn't want someone sneaking up on us and possibly hurting one of us.

"You know you don't have to worry, Dad," I told him. "Even when we're screwing around, we take patrol serious. Nobody will get through the lines, or hurt us, I promise."

He nodded, still not enthused, and my mom rubbed his back, a small smile on her face.

I tried not to smile at the way his expression smoothed out with the touch of her hand and got up to take care of my plate. "Max, I'm going to get changed and I'll meet you out back, okay?" I asked.

He only nodded, too busy shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth to actually answer me. I rolled my eyes before running back upstairs to my room. Boys are like bottomless pits when it comes to food.

I stripped quickly in my room, knowing that Max wouldn't take long to finish off his breakfast. I grabbed a comfortable pair of black spandex pants and changed into a black tank top before running back downstairs. The pants would be warm for summer, but they'd also help protect my legs while I ran.

Max was waiting for me in wolf form in the back yard. He made a very intimidating, yet beautiful wolf. His fur was a dark black, but if you looked closely, you could see a brindle brown that weaved its way through. His eyes stayed a soft brown unless his wolf became angry, then they'd either darken or turn completely black. Black meant that his wolf had completely taken over, dark just meant his wolf wanted to take over.

I grinned at him and scratched behind his ears, making him wag his tail before he bumped my stomach with his head and took off towards the woods. I grinned, following after him.

~~~*~~~Author's Note~~~*~~~

So there's chapter 1! What do you guys think?

This chapter was mostly to introduce everyone and give you a general feel of her life with the pack. Don't worry, this book actually picks up pretty fast :)

I hope you guys enjoyed it! I posted early, but I forgot to ask you guys what day of the week you want me to update!

Any preferences?

Thanks for reading guys!

~Haley~