Keeper (Matefinder Next Generation Book 1) (2 page)

Then, my father said the unthinkable. “Maybe you should delay going off to college.” His posture, tight shoulders, sitting erect told me that he was going to stand firm.

My eyes widened, but my mother had my back before I could even protest.

“Kai, don’t you dare punish her for having visions! I will not stand for that.” She locked his gaze and her eyes went yellow.

Yes! Thank you, Mom! She knew what it was like to have this weird dream vision stuff. I shouldn’t have college taken away because of that.

He sighed but held her gaze, his own eyes turning the color of a sunflower. “How can we help her with this dream issue from two hours away?!” he roared, Alpha power oozing from his words and saturating our pack bonds. The air grew heavy, breathing became difficult, and I felt the urge to kneel.

My mother stood, crossing her arms over her chest, giving dad the stare down. “A phone! A car! Visits on the weekends.”

After a few more moments of intense staring, my father rolled his eyes, breaking away, leaving my mom short of breath and sweating.

“Fine,” he growled.

I knew they must have been having their own mate conversation in their heads.

Jax grinned.
‘Mom is such a badass.’

I nodded in agreement. That was a close one. One day I was sure Mom would make him kneel. She wasn’t much for pack politics and didn’t enjoy the job of being Alpha and having to worry about everyone. But I could see it in her eyes; she could dominate Dad if needed. Mentally anyway, physically was another story. Even though my mom had a black belt, ran a domestic violence shelter and women’s self-defense class studio that now had four locations, Dad was stronger.

I knew my dad was just worried about me so I stood, setting my Chai on the table, and walked over to him. He was watching me in a calculated way, like I was a bomb about to explode with crazy Matefinder powers. Maybe I was.

I placed both of my hands on his shoulders and leveled his gaze. “Jax and I will be fine, Dad. How many other college juniors do you know of that have a black belt in karate, can shoot five types of guns, and can shift into a werewolf and rip someone’s head off.”

My dad’s eyes lit up as he laughed but all too soon his face become serious. “You still sleep with a silver stake under your bed, too, right?”

I chuckled. “And that.” We had found an awkward peace with the vampires ever since they kidnapped my mom and tried to use her blood to procreate. But that peace might end one day and Dad wanted us prepared.

Jax flexed his left bicep. “I think you are forgetting the most dangerous thing in your arsenal, sister.”

We all laughed as mom squeezed Jax’s arm, feigning in freight.

As I looked around the table, I felt a little sad. I would miss these random five o’clock Chai sessions with my crazy family. But damn, I was ready for some freedom.

‘Hells yeah,’
Jax echoed my sentiments. The twin bond, sometimes he heard my loud thoughts even when I didn’t intend. I gave Jax a knowing smile.

“Twins,” my mom said, addressing us both in her favorite shared word. Why even give us separate names? “You might as well go get ready. Today is Devon’s annual remembrance.”

Jax and I frowned. Shit. I forgot. Poor Avery. Every year we gathered around her dad’s grave to tell stories and remember him. He died saving my mom’s life, and I shuddered thinking that if he hadn’t, Jax and I wouldn’t exist.

Leaning over, I gave my dad a quick kiss on the cheek. 
‘Don’t worry about me so much, Pops.’
I winked.

He sighed.
‘Not possible.’

*

After showering, I threw on an all-white Indian top over leggings. In India when honoring the dead, you wore white, not black. It felt more uplifting and Emma appreciated it, so now the whole pack wore white on Devon’s Remembrance Day. Jax and I scarfed breakfast and headed out the door to Avery’s house.

“I think mates are weird,” Jax stated randomly.

I chuckled. “Okay. What do you mean?” As much as we argued and messed with each other, he was my very best friend. We could talk about anything together.

He shrugged as we cut through the woods. “I mean, I’m happy dating Avery right now. We aren’t mates but we are happy. So one day I feel like you are going to touch me and get a vision, and I have to break up with Avery and marry a stranger. Because we’re mates.”

I frowned. “Well, shit, Debbie Downer, when you put it that way it sounds awful.”

He shrugged again. “I’m just saying it’s weird.”

I nodded. “It is a little weird when you put it like that. But remember Dad was dating Aunt Sadie for like five years before Mom. I’m sure they were happy, but–”

“They weren’t mates.” He ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch as we trekked through the thick woods leading from our property to Aunt Emma’s.

“Yeah. I’m sure one day when you meet your mate you will take back those words.” I elbowed him.

“Maybe if she’s hotter than Avery.” He grinned, wagging his eyebrows and showcasing his undeniable charm and male pigness.

I laughed, elbowing him in the ribs. “You pig. That’s not possible.”

As we approached Avery’s house, we saw that she was already outside. She was wearing a short white sun dress and her long deep-red hair fell down across her shoulders in silky waves. She was tall and slender with fair skin, green eyes, and a light smattering of freckles. My bestie was drop dead gorgeous. Hearing our approach, she turned to face us.

“Hey, babe,” Jax greeted her, reaching out and giving her a kiss on the forehead.

She smiled and broke away from Jax to hug me. I inhaled; she smelled like lemon and lavender, like my best friend.

“How’re you doing?” I asked her. It was hard for Avery during this time. She didn’t remember her dad, only had stories, pictures, and a handful of videos to go by. But her mom, her mom had lost her mate. This day always threw Aunt Emma into a funk. To clear the funk, she stayed up all night baking.

She shrugged. “Fine, but mom is a bit depressing.”

I decided to change the subject. “I had that dream again, about the guy.”

Avery gave me a coy smile. “The hottie?”

Before I could answer, the sound of crunching gravel made us all turn. “Hottie? Talking about me?” Mason asked, then flashed us a dimple-filled grin.

We all laughed. Mason looked like he could be Jax and my brother instead of our cousin. Tall, caramel skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes.

“You wish,” I shot back as he gave me a fist bump and snuck a kiss on Avery’s cheek.

He and Jax started pushing each other and wrestling on the ground. Guys were so weird. Why did they always feel the need to show off?

I leaned into Avery. “Jax thinks the dream guy is my mate,” I whispered.

Her perfectly manicured eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise. Out of all the possible things she and I had thought of, we never thought he could be
my
mate.

“He said so in front of my dad!” I added.

Avery shook her head, her long red hair settling on her shoulders. “That’s Jax. Diarrhea of the mouth. But he might be right.”

Shit. What the hell were best friends for? She shouldn’t be agreeing with Jax. Dream guy was human and I was twenty years old. He couldn’t be my mate. I didn’t think I was ready, even if he was.

“So, what are you going to do?” Avery whispered.

I shrugged. “We’re going to see the witches.”

Before she could answer, I heard Aunt Emma.

“Hi, kids. Thanks for coming.” Aunt Emma came out onto the front porch and greeted us. You wanna talk about weird? Emma only looked about twenty-five years old; her and Avery could be twins. She wasn’t my real aunt. That would make Avery and Jax cousins. Gross. But close enough, her and my mom were there for each other through thick and thin. The whole pack was like one big, happy family. We had each other’s back through everything.

Her red pixie haircut and green eyes were so Avery but her normally vibrant features looked dull and sad. It must be awful living on forever without your mate. Raising your child without them. I couldn’t imagine.

“Hey, Aunt Emma, did you make those lemon squares for after?” Jax asked her, smoothing his hair from his wrestling match with Mason, and practically drooling at the thought of her amazing lemon squares.

Emma gave him a sly smile. “Of course I did. I know they’re your favorite.” She winked at him.

Emma motioned us to follow her and we all walked to the backyard where Uncle Devon’s gravestone was. My parents weren’t there yet but Uncle Max, Aunt Tara, and their sixteen-year-old daughter Chelsea was.

Chelsea came over to sit with us while Emma greeted Max and Tara. “Did she make the lemon things?” she whispered to Avery as my mom and dad approached.

Avery nodded to Chelsea, smiling. These lemon squares were seriously like werewolf crack; we devoured them. She made hundreds every year, every holiday.

‘Hurry up, it’s starting,’
my dad sent to the pack. The fact that he could speak into all of our minds simultaneously was pretty freaky but also very convenient.

Over a hundred of our pack mates began to trickle in through the trees, and walked over to crowd around the grave. That wasn’t the entire pack, but it was the only ones who knew Devon before. Max, my father’s best friend and third in command handed my dad a beer and they clinked glasses and started chugging. That was their manly way of remembering Devon without hugging and crying, I guess.

My dad stood on a large boulder next to the headstone and looked down on all of us.

“Today we gather to remember a great man! A hero, an amazing husband, loving father, and a damn good friend.” My father’s voice carried far.

Emma was already tearing up.

“I made Devon a promise before I died. I promised him that his daughter would grow up in a better world.” All eyes landed on Avery where she sat next to us and the pack nodded their heads in respect. My father continued. “A world where vampires didn’t rule. A world where werewolves were fertile and prosperous. A world in which the races could live in peace.”

The pack cried out in agreement. The past twenty years was all that I had ever known. A world where vampires were scarcely seen and used government run programs to get donated blood. Where witches kept off the radar because they weren’t known about and werewolves were mostly tolerated. It was a peaceful existence, tense at times but peaceful. But the past few years, I had seen a change within the relationship between the humans and werewolves. We were asked to take the marks, the tattoo, in an effort to show we weren’t hiding, that we could be trusted. We were scowled at more in public, spit on sometimes, and called names. The generation that hailed us heroes for saving them from bloodsucking vampires, was gone or too old to care. Now it was a new generation rising up and they didn’t seem to see us in the same light. Our population, once small, was now large and growing, and it was threatening to the humans. Still, things were okay; we were maintaining a peace.

My father continued. “Let’s start by telling stories then we can eat and dance and be happy. That’s what Devon would want,” my dad’s voice boomed, carrying around to all of us.

“Here, here!” everyone shouted.

Uncle Max stood on the boulder. “I remember the first time Devon learned that a female werewolf with similar markings to his had been spotted in Utah.”

Aunt Emma chuckled as a smile lit up her face. Werewolf mates recognized each other because they had exact opposite markings to each other. Hearing of a werewolf with similar markings was exciting.

“He was a mess! He couldn’t figure out what to wear, what to say …”

All of a sudden a weird feeling settled over me. Max’s voice became muffled and my ears were ringing. I couldn’t focus on what he was saying, and shaking my head to clear the noise didn’t help. My vision was blurring and I blinked rapidly as my body started warming up. The fever. In the middle of the day? Then it happened. I was sucked into my first vision. My mother had prepared me for this moment my whole life. What it would feel like, and not to panic, but I was still alarmed. I had no control. Dreams while sleeping were one thing, but a vision in the middle of the day while you were trying to stand upright was scary as hell.

Gone from Emma’s backyard, I now saw my dream guy. But this scene was different from my repeating dream. He was lying in bed, tossing and turning, and it was as if I was standing in the room with him. Shirtless, skin coated in sweat, he continued to thrash. Jesus Christ, he was ripped! Can someone have a ten pack? Is that possible? Suddenly, he bolted awake, sitting up and panting. He looked right at me with an electrifying gaze.

“Somebody help me. What’s happening to me?”

Our eyes locked for a second and my heart hammered in my chest, but then he looked down at his shaking hands.

Stepping closer, I reached out to touch him, to say something, anything to ease his anxiety, but I was pulled out of the vision so fast that nausea slammed into me and I found myself lying in the grass, my head on Jax’s lap. My father, eyes yellow, hovered over me.

“Give her room,” my mom scolded him.