5

Hayden

I was on a cloud.

I was on a cloud, floating and drifting, feeling like air itself. My head was light and fuzzy, my heart was pounding, and my skin was warm. Dawn was asleep on my lap.

We had curled up on the sofa downstairs, turning off all the lights and bundling blankets on our laps. Dawn had checked on Sydney quickly on the way down, finding Ash building a fort for her sister. I had laughed at Ash's behaviour; since he discovered that Sydney was his mate, he felt inclined to give her anything she wanted. I couldn't blame him.

Downstairs, Dawn had been insisting on watching Twilight, claiming that she found Taylor Lautner immensely attractive. I had to rein in my wolf before he attacked the DVD, growling under my breath. So we settled on Van Helsing— ironic, really.

After about forty-five minutes, I'd noticed my mate yawning, with her eyelids occasionally drifting shut sleepily. I didn't move, driven crazy by the thought of Dawn sleeping on my shoulder, my hands in her hair, her nose on my neck. I waited patiently, trying to focus on the movie but finding it impossible with the soft breathing of the angel beside me posing as a distraction.

And finally, adorably, she fell asleep.

It was odd, I hadn't moved or touched her, for fear of waking her up, when she started to mumble under her breath. At first I thought it was my imagination, but then she got louder. I couldn't make out what she was saying— not even with my advanced hearing —but every time a murmur escaped her lips she would rub her cheek on my shoulder, trying to get impossibly closer to me.

I was over the moon. I thought that having her face buried in my neck was good enough, when suddenly her hands ghosted over my chest and wrapped around my waist. Her lips pressed against my collarbone as she pushed her face further into my flesh, and her legs draped over mine. She was curled up in my lap.

The movie ended; Dawn was still asleep. I wasn't going to move her. I'd give my right arm to have stayed in that position forever.

Mum shuffled in a few times, and when she noticed Dawn cuddled up on my lap, she would grin and dance around silently. Mum was a little excitable.

I was really enjoying myself, actually, playing with her dark brown hair, watching her chest fall and rise, when a loud ringing made us both jump. Dawn's eyes flew open and, shocked, she scuttled away from me as quick as she could, a fire raging in her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," she said, shielding her face, "I can't believe I did that— I never do that, I'm so sorry!"

I chuckled and pushed her chin up to face me, "It's okay. You don't need to be embarrassed. You were sleeping."

Despite the darkness of the room, I could still tell when her face bloomed red again. The ringing that had woken her up was still incessantly playing, and she scrambled to locate her phone. When she had, she held it up to her ear and asked, "Hello?"

"Oh yeah, she had a great time. I'm, uh, picking her up now. I'll be home soon. Yeah, see you in a minute."

She ended the call and jumped up from the sofa, wringing her hands together. "I have to go. My parents are back and I should be taking Sid home now," she explained.

My face fell but I quickly covered it up and made my way over to the entrance of the living room, shouting, "Ash!" up the stairs. Soon Ash and Sydney came wandering downstairs, wondering what I wanted.

"Sydney has to go home now," I told my brother.

His face crumpled. "But why?"

"Her parents are home and they're wondering where she is, Ash."

He looked crestfallen, "Can't she sleep over?"

I laughed. Ah, the beauty of the mate bond. Once you found your mate, you never wanted to leave them. "Sorry, Ash, but she can't. Dawn has to take her home now."

Dawn came up beside me with her coat on, slipping her phone into the pocket and holding out Sydney's coat to her. She then bent down and ruffled Ash's hair. "Don't worry, little guy, I'll bring her round again soon. And you'll still see her at school," she promised. He seemed to perk up and he released his hold on Sydney's hand.

"See you soon!" he yelled and hugged his mate tightly, before letting go and allowing Sydney to pull her coat on, which Dawn zipped up.

"Thanks for having us," she told me.

"No problem," I smiled, and pulled her into a hug, one that she didn't seem comfortable being in. When I pulled away, I noticed her bushing again; I resisted the urge to run my fingertips over her rosy cheeks.

"Bye, Jackie!" she called into the kitchen. Mum quickly came bustling out and hugged Dawn until my mate could barely breathe.

"You'd better be coming back to visit," Mum ordered. Dawn laughed and promised that she would, before she took Sydney's hand and pulled her out the door. I watched her stroll down the path with her sister happily skipping along beside her, then shut the door and turned to my mother.

"Pretty awesome, isn't she?" I grinned sheepishly.

"Perfect for you. You'd better take car of that girl, understand?" Mum replied, and I nodded solemnly. I would always take care of my Dawn, even if she didn't want me.

"Mum... About Sydney and Dawn..." I started, hoping she would catch my drift.

"I know, it's weird. It could be the Prophecy, but it might just be a coincidence. Who says the Prophecy is even true?" Mum said.

"Ash, are you absolutely sure that Sydney is your mate?" I questioned my little brother.

He sent me a dirty look and folded his arms across his chest. "Of course I am. I'm not stupid."

I took a deep breath and pursed my lips, my thoughts racing. Could the Prophecy have some truth behind it? "I'm going to go for a run," I informed Mum.

"Off you go, then," she said, pulling Ash into the kitchen to have a snack. I headed out the front door and jogged into the woods, then undressed quickly and folded my clothes into a heap. After a brief moment of pain, cracking and shuddering, I adjusted to the change in height as I dropped on my paws and slipped my clothes in between my teeth. Sure, I was pretty damn tall in my wolf form, but at least a few inches away from being my usual height. I sprinted into the woods, analysing the smells around me; in wolf form, my vision was black and white, but I could see smells in colour. It was pretty weird, actually, but you got used to it.

In my family, you first shifted at ten years old- quite young, really. Every family shifted at different ages, depending on their ancestors.

The story went that in 1665, the Bubonic Plague came around. Everyone thought it came from the rats in the sewers, but really it was a disease that nearby wolves were spreading. It didn't really affect other wolves, but when it was contracted by a human, it killed them slowly and painfully. However, it only killed them if they weren't compatible with wolf DNA, which the majority of the population weren't, but some were. Anybody who contracted the disease and was compatible with the wolf DNA shifted almost as soon as they got it, which decided what age any future family members would shift.

Although, if a young child was compatible, they would usually die when they first shifted, because their systems weren't developed enough. The Hunter family— my family —was one of the only Shifter families to shift at such a young age. Some families had their first shift at thirty- it was completely random, all dependent on how old their ancestor was when they contracted the disease.

Eventually, Shifters spread out all over the globe, settling in all countries. We had Shifter friends nearby, but they didn't shift to wolves, they shifted to bears. That was the confusing part- soon after the Plague, another disease went around, one caused by bears. But if someone wasn't compatible with bear DNA, the disease would go unnoticed and they would carry on with their lives, healthy and fine. If you were compatible, then, just like wolves, you would shift into a bear almost as soon as the disease made contact with your DNA. Actually, my best friend was part of the Shifter family nearby- Dylan had been close to me for almost our whole lives. Unlike wolves, Bear Shifters kept together as families, whereas we teamed up with other families and formed packs. It was in our nature. My dad, as the strongest, was the Alpha— meaning that when I turned eighteen, I would take his place. It was making me really nervous.

I turned my mind to Dawn to soothe my worrying thoughts of taking over as Alpha. We inherited all the traits of the wolf, including, inevitably, mates. Our wolves chose them for us and let us know when we had found our perfect match. And mine, of course, was Dawn. I didn't know when I would tell her about me being a werewolf, but it would be soon. I didn't know how long I could go without her by my side.

As I ran, I laughed to myself about how much my mother hated me calling myself a werewolf. She preferred the technical term for us, Wolf Shifters— because she was human, she couldn't bear the thought of her husband being one of the werewolves featured in teen fantasy books and movies.

Suddenly, a bear broke through the trees ahead of me, to my right, and skidded to a halt in my path. I stopped immediately, narrowing my eyes at Dylan. He pawed the ground and swung his left to the left, communicating that he wanted to race the to Pack Village to the west of us. I pawed the ground as well and we lined up next to each other, counted to three, then with a howl and a snarl, we both bolted through the trees.

Obviously I arrived at the tree line bordering the Pack Village first. Dylan snarled behind me, the sound slightly muffled by the clothes he carried in in mouth, and I winked at him. Both of us shifted behind trees and dressed, meeting up behind the foliage lining the Pack Village.

"Will I ever be able to actually go into the Pack Village?" Dylan pondered as we watched people stroll through the makeshift streets.

"Maybe one day, man. When people know you're coming."

"They'll always be scared of me."

I looked at him, seeing the sadness in his eyes. "They're not scared of you, Dyl... They're just wary."

He shook his head and huffed, "Damn that bloody Prophecy."

"Tell me about it," I laughed. Dawn's face came shooting into my mind. "Dyl... I— I found her. And I think the Prophecy might be... real," I said quietly.

His eyes snapped to me and searched my own, looking for a sign to tell him I was joking. "You're serious? You found your mate?"

I nodded. "So did Ash. It's funny, because we live so close to them, yet we never even noticed that they were there."

"Where do they live?" he asked.

"Across the street."

"Both of them?"

I cringed. "Thats the thing, Dyl. They're sisters."

My best friend's mouth fell open, doubting my words. "No way."

"Yup."

"H-how? I don't... Do you think...?"

"I really don't know. I mean, nobody takes the Prophecy seriously. It's so...unrealistic. Maybe there's just a hint of truth to it? It could be a coincidence," I reasoned.

Dylan shook his head firmly. "Look at us, Denny, we're half human, half animal. There are no coincidences."