The front door banged against the wall. Quick footsteps came down the hall. Something was wrong.
I jumped to my feet when the door to the living room opened and my younger brother appeared in the doorway. But he didn't look alarmed. He was grinning as he ran at me, arms wide, and then we were crashing to the floor together. I groaned.
He grabbed me, full of excitement. "It worked!"
"Get the hell off me," I replied, covering my ears.
He rolled away and pulled his legs up to his chest with gleeful laughter.
I stared at him, then patted his shoulder. "Well, good for you. Are you gonna be like this all the time from now on? You look ridiculous. Did you get her number?"
"I gave her mine."
"What if she doesn't call you, dumbass?"
"Don't worry," he said with a dismissive wave. "She will."
"I hope you're right." I got up and held out my hand to pull him up too. "You wanna go for a run tonight?"
He nodded quickly. "Full moon, right?"
"Yep."
It wasn't that we needed the full moon to shift into our wolf form, but . . . let's just say it was highly recommended. Not shifting during a full moon was a similar feeling to having a full bladder. I could hold it in for a while and face the consequences later, but it would feel better if I did it right away. The discomfort was not worth it.
Thankfully, all I needed to do was walk out into my backyard. Luck had been upon Trae and me when we found this place. We wanted to live close to the woods in this area since no other pack or lone wolf had claimed it as their territory, so when we found a house for a reasonable price right at the edge of it, we had no problem overlooking the fact that it was a downright dump. With both of our skills combined, we had managed to turn it into an acceptable home. I would gladly leave it behind tonight, though.
A hunt was long overdue.
— · —
The first thing I noticed when we stepped outside was the thick blanket of clouds covering the moon. Going for a run was leagues better when the sky was clear, even if I could see quite well in the dark regardless. The presence of the moon brought a sense of heightened clarity to the woods.
Trae gazed up beside me, squinting at the dark clouds above us. Then, he shrugged. "Alright, see you in a few," he said before running off to find a place to shift.
I sighed and left to do the same. It was not as easy as it sounded.
One time I'd been forced to sit through one of the Twilight Saga movies by an ex-girlfriend who was a big fan, and I had to admit I envied the werewolves in that movie. It only took them a second to go from man to wolf, and all they had to worry about was ripping their clothes.
If I could have chosen whether I wanted to be a werewolf or not, I would have said no. Sure, I could see in the dark and I could hear and smell better than any normal human ever could, but that's where the perks ended. Our bodies weren't built to shift skin, muscle, and bones into a completely different size and shape. It was hell.
The exact length of it varied, and I didn't know which was worse: having to sit through five to ten minutes of excruciating pain once a week or more, or putting it off and forcing myself to endure the itching and the restlessness until I no longer could, which resulted in a rushed shift. I liked to call that the condensed version of hell, and I avoided it at all costs because the pain was so bad it made you want to kill yourself. I couldn't risk that when I was at an inconvenient place anyway. Especially at work. No one would react positively to seeing hairs grow out of my skin as I prepared their food.
After I'd successfully shifted to my wolf form, I lowered myself to the ground with a sigh and laid my head on my paws. The aching in my limbs slowly faded as I waited. Trae usually took a little longer than me; his pain threshold was lower. I had teased him about it when we were younger, but now I said nothing and waited until he was done, even if the way he reacted to my teasing was endearing.
When I finally heard rustling behind me, I knew what he was trying to do. And I knew he would fail. I would've smiled if I were in my human form.
I waited until the very last moment before I leaped up and caught him in the act of jumping on top of me. I crashed into him, and he slid across the earth with a startled noise. I didn't know why he was surprised. He should've known I would've heard him coming. My ears were my best friend.
He bucked upward, throwing an excessive amount of dirt in the air in the process, but I pinned him to the ground. He whined dejectedly in response.
Many of our fights ended like this, with him on the ground. He was by no means helpless, but I had a few inches and a few pounds on him and two extra years of experience. He had to learn how to fight smarter.
But that's what these play fights were for. I got off and moved back, and he wasted no time scrambling up. The guy was fast, at least.
Seconds later, we were rolling around in the dirt, snapping at each other, huffing and snarling with effort. We kept going until our stomachs growled. It was all part of the process. First we wrestled, then we ran and hunted, and then we fell asleep from the exhaustion beneath the moon. That routine had been bestowed upon us by our parents, ingrained like an instinct.
Every time I found something—an animal or an unfamiliar scent, paw print, or sound—I turned around to get my father's attention, only to stare at an empty forest. Every time, it was a slap in the face. He wasn't there.
I didn't like to think of him, but I couldn't help it. He was hard to forget about. He had always been such a huge part of my life. It had been several years since he'd stopped being a part of it, but it was just as painful now to think that he was never coming back.
— · —
At the end of the night, our bellies were full, our eyelids were drooping, and we fell asleep about a mile away from home. The first few months after we'd moved here, we always made sure to return to our beds, no matter how tired we were—we didn't want to risk anyone finding us. But it turned out this place was even more perfect than I'd imagined. People rarely came here, if ever. We were usually woken up in the morning by sunlight or chattering birds
This time, it was a phone. Ringing.
I shot up, which had Trae tumbling around in a mess of naked limbs before he looked at me in confusion. I lifted a finger and tilted my head to listen, but the ringing was gone again. I couldn't smell anything, either.
"What?" Trae asked.
"I thought I heard a phone," I muttered.
I hoped I was wrong. Seeing two naked guys cuddling up to each other in the middle of the woods was . . . frowned upon, to say the least.
When I heard it again, faint but unmistakable, I exclaimed, "There!"
Trae got up and said, "Oh, that's mine."
"Since when do you have that ringtone?"
"I've always had that ringtone, but I have a different one for family and friends. They're usually the only people who call me. It's probably just a scammer—no, wait, I think it might be Mae!"
"Who's Mae?"
"My soulmate."
"Ah—wait, Trae and Mae? Seriously?"
"Yeah, isn't that weird?"
I wrinkled my nose. "Very weird. Now go get that phone before I smash it against a tree, because that ringtone is stupid. Really, Trae? Super Mario?"
"Hey, don't hate on Mario," he called over his shoulder as he sped off to find his phone.
When I caught up with him, he had already returned Mae's call, and she was telling him about some book that had made her cry. She sounded quite passionate about it, too. Why on earth would she call him on a Saturday morning to tell him about a fucking book? Had that been his opening line? "Hey, girl, are you a book? Because I'd like to, uh . . . read you?"
Yeah, this is why I never used pick-up lines.
It always worked out for him, though. Maybe it was the dark skin and green eyes. If I had a dollar every time I heard a girl mention his eyes, I'd be rich. Shaking my head, I left him to find my clothes and returned to the house to jump in the shower.
As hot water rained down on me, the back of my leg suddenly started to sting. I hissed and contorted my body to find a scratch on the back of my thigh.
Son of a bitch. I guess Trae had gotten me after all.
It was just a scratch, but I was disappointed in myself for not noticing it before, or I could have licked it clean. Now it was covered in dirt. Great.
After I got all the mud out and prayed it wouldn't get infected, I walked into the living room and found Trae still on the phone. He wasn't even talking. Not that he ever did, because he hated talking on the phone, but he was just sitting there, listening with a faint smile on his lips.
Honestly, I envied him. I wanted to meet my mate too. I'd had relationships in the past, but they never lasted. They weren't meant to last.
It was not uncommon for a werewolf to find their soulmate, but not every werewolf was lucky enough, and I was craving it—that sense of belonging, having someone to turn to. Someone who'd be with me forever.
There wasn't much logic to how soulmates were chosen. It could be anyone, and people believed there were multiple potential soulmates all over the world. Some said it was a personality thing, some said it was Mother Nature Herself who made the choice for us, but no one really knew the truth. No one knew for certain whether She existed at all.
Dad claimed he hadn't been given a soulmate, but I think Momma was supposed to be her. Maybe there was no need to bring them together because they had known each other since they were kids, and Dad had fallen in love with her anyway. She was his friend's younger sister, which might sound like it could have made things awkward, but our uncle had never had a problem with it. He said, "I always knew Ned would be good to her."
Now that Dad was no longer with us, Momma had moved in with her brother and helped us find our own place with the money we got from the old house because we were "grown-up boys who don't need their momma no more." She had a point, of course—we were in our twenties and it was time for us to start our own pack—but I really missed them. Both of them.
With a sigh, I pulled myself out of my memories and called my brother's name to get his attention.
His eyes fluttered open. "Sorry, please excuse me for a moment—yeah?"
"Do you want chicken tonight?" I asked. "I'm craving chicken."
"Sure."
"I'll go out now, then."
"Okay, have fun," he told me before returning to his conversation with Mae like his life depended on it. She was more important than me, apparently. He put his head against the headrest of his chair and muttered, "Sorry, that was my brother."
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my jacket, then left the house.
Maybe I could find my own mate and some chicken.