“Get back here, you little brat!” I yelled, chasing after her. She rushed down the stairs, and Ace grabbed her before darting off with her, laughing.
“Were you in on it?” I asked him through the link while I was trying to find them.
“No. But, it was pretty funny. We are out back,” he said, and I followed her scent toward the back patio. Stepping out, Lucy was giggling, hiding behind Ace and using him as a shield.
I growled at her, and she growled back, baring her teeth at me.
“Eyes closed, Luce. Gotta shift,” Ace told her, and she turned around, covering her eyes with her hands while he stripped off before dumping his clothes in the bag.
He shifted quickly into his black wolf, which seemed to be a family trait among the men in the family. All our wolves were black. It would be interesting to see if Rayans would be black when he was older or if he would be snow-white like his mother.
I grabbed the bag. “You can open your eyes now,” I told her, and she turned around. Ace’s wolf Atticus nudged her with his nose, telling her to climb on him. And she did, pulling on his fur to climb on his back.
“Hang on tight. I will catch up,” I told her, and she nodded, gripping his fur. I watched as they darted off into the trees. I stripped off before feeling a hand slap my ass, making me jump.
“Need some sun on that bum, bro,” Damian said, coming out the back door and leaning on the railing, watching his daughter Amelia who was on the swings talking to a pack wolf. She is fifteen now. I shifted. Suddenly, Damian growled, making me snap my head to Amelia, who was walking off toward the forest with the boy she was talking to.
“Over my dead fucking body! Is she going off with that twerp!” Damian snapped before storming down the steps after his daughter. I chuckled before running off across the yard, heading for the trees.
Chapter two
Ace
The next day
I was so fucking hungover! My head was pounding as I rolled on my side. Today was our seventeenth birthday, and Arial had decided to get us shitfaced a day early. Man, was I paying for it this morning.
I groaned, forcing myself up before running my hands over my face. Tyson also got up in the bed across from me.
“My mouth tastes like a fucking ashtray,” he grumbled.
I got up, heading for the bathroom, making sure Lucy didn’t cling-wrap the toilet bowl last night. No cling wrap. I quickly peed before heading back to the room.
“Want one?” Tyson asked, cracking the window open and sitting on the windowsill. I took the packet, lighting one before climbing out the window and sitting on the roof and leaning against the wall under the window.
“Fuck! My head is pounding!” I told him.
“I don’t feel too bad. Surprisingly.”
I could smell the BBQ going and looked at Tyson.
“What time is it?” I asked him, and he popped his head in the window, grabbing his phone from beside his bed.
“One o’clock.”
“Fuck! I was supposed to meet up with Melana this morning.”
“What if she isn’t your mate?” he asked, and I shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter. She will do till I find her,” I told him. “You still seeing that blonde bitch, Tara?”
“Nah, too much of a cling-on. Fucking asked me to mark her as my chosen mate! Like I would give up a fated mate for a chosen one,” he said, shaking his head.
I finished my smoke before flicking it, only to hear someone cuss. Lana walked out into the driveway.
“Fucking ass. You just flicked that on my head!” she said, looking up at me on the roof.
“My bad. Hard to see a midget from up here,” I called back.