Chapter 2

Ace POV

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.

"That's it! I am done with the short jokes! I will show you fucking short!" she shrieked before stomping inside.

"I would run if I were you."

"Nah. I'm good," I said when the bedroom door burst open. Tyson snorted, and I got a whiff of Drake's scent.

"Fuck! That's fucking cheating, Lana!" I screamed when Drake climbed out the window.

"Sorry, bro. Gotta dish out some ass-kicking," he growled, and I jumped off the roof, Drake hot on my heels, as I tried to run away from him.

"Better run, Ace!" Lana called out laughing, just as I got tackled. We wrestled before Tate came running over, also helping Drake pin me down. I saw Tyson jump off the roof, laughing, before seeing a pissed-off Lana stalking toward me in her midget fury. Tate and Drake were still trying to pin me down.

"Ha! Not so cocky now?" she said.

"You fucking cheated! Had to get your mates to get me because you’re too piss weak," I spat at her before tossing Drake off. She jumped on my back like a spider monkey before biting my shoulder blade. I growled at her, trying to toss her off.

"You fucking bit me!"

"Bloody pin him!" Lana screamed at her mates as they laughed at her clinging to me. I reached over my head, grabbing her shirt before pulling her over my shoulder and throwing her to the ground. She growled at me, getting up.

"Instead of laughing, how about you help?" I yelled at Tyson, who was just watching me getting attacked by the three of them. Hearing a war cry, I turned to look at all my nieces and nephews charging out of the house. Oh, fuck!

"Get him, kids!" Lana told them, and I ran off.

"Oh, shit!" Tyson said when he saw them running at him as well.

We both took off for the trees, knowing they couldn't enter without their parents.

"No fair," I heard Rayan call out when we went to their out-of-bounds area.

"Come on. We can go around back," Tyson said, and we trudged through the forest, heading to the back of the property.

I could just make out the swings and back area of the house as we stepped out of the trees, when I got a whiff of something that perked my wolf up.

"Fuck! Something smells good," I told Tyson, and he sniffed the air.

"Mhm. What is that?" he asked, and I shrugged. My mouth was watering at the scent. I could see my mother putting up party decorations, before Lucy skipped down the steps with some fairy lights in her hands and some lanterns.

"Mate!" both Tyson and I said at the same time, making me look at him. He growled at me, and I growled back.

"No! Mine!" he snapped at me.

"Like fuck! I saw her first!" I told him, shoving him. He shoved me back.

"Oi! What's going on?" my mother yelled at us as I punched him. Distracting me enough that Tyson's fist connected with my face. I tackled him, and my mother shrieked.

"Hey! Buttfaces," Lucy called out to us, and both of us looked over at her. Lucy had been raised alongside us, she was our brother's step-daughter and was twelve. I couldn’t believe our luck. Not only were we paired with the same girl, we now had to wait years before she would recognize us. Supposing she even could, her being a hybrid mutation without a wolf.

"Can you help me hang these lights?" she asked, completely oblivious that she was our mate or would be one day.

"I'll help!" I told her, shoving Tyson back on the ground.

"No! I fucking will!" Tyson said, shoving me back and knocking me over.

"What's going on? Stop! You will scare the kids!" Ryker said, storming down the steps toward us as I swung at Tyson.

"What has gotten into you? Why are you fighting?" he asked.

"We were mucking around," Tyson said, wiping his bleeding lip.

"Doesn't look like it!" he snapped at us. I dropped my arm on Tyson's shoulder, jerking him toward me before slapping his chest.

"We good. Right, bro?"

He slapped mine harder. "Never better," he said.

"Good! I need one of you to help me get the lights up there," Lucy said, pointing to the railing along the awning.

Tyson walked over to her, grabbing her and placing her on his shoulders. I growled at him, and Ryker looked at me, giving me a look of what-the-fuck-is-going-on. I shook my head, walked over, and passed the lights up to Lucy as she clipped them onto the awning.

“What's wrong with you two morons?” she asked.