Keeper (Matefinder Next Generation Book 1) (3 page)

I groaned, sitting up. The entire pack watched me with curiosity and my dad backed up a few inches.

“I’m fine,” I said, but I felt so hot I wanted to take all of my clothes off and jump into the lake. Sweat was rolling down my face and my breathing was labored as I tried to orient myself again. My first vision. Wow. It kinda sucked. I wasn’t sure I liked this gig.

“She’s burning up,” Jax told my mom, who put her hand on my forehead and recoiled.

“This isn’t normal,” my mother told me.

Great. That makes me feel better.

My dad looked alarmed. He turned to address the pack. “Alright everyone, head to my house and start up the grills. I will meet you there in a bit.”

Max and Avery hung back as everyone departed.

I looked into Aunt Emma’s eyes. “I’m sorry I ruined Uncle Devon’s remembrance.”

She smiled. “You didn’t ruin it, sweetheart. You made it interesting. Devon loved interesting.” She winked at me and walked away with Tara and Chelsea.

Shit. This was getting crazy. I never thought these visions would be so debilitating. What if I got one when I was driving or in the middle of a sparring session or something?

My dad reached down and helped me up. “What happened?” he commanded.

I chewed my lip and recounted the vision to him but left out the part that the guy was shirtless and insanely sexy.

At this point, I was pretty much hoping he
was
my mate because … God damn.

“Help me,” my mom said, replaying the dream guy’s words to me.

“No location? No name? I always got that in my visions,” my mom offered.

I glared at her and shot back, “Guess I’m not as talented as you.” My whole life I had to endure people telling me stories of how amazing my mother was and how she matched them up with their mate and it was so great. I know she didn’t mean to, but it made me feel pressured at being as good of a Matefinder as she was.

She rolled her eyes, dismissing my attitude. “That’s not what I meant. Come on, let’s go see the witches. I don’t want to wait one more second. We need to figure this out.”

My dad and Max simultaneously bristled. “Why do we have to involve them? This is a wolf matter. The Matefinder is for werewolves only,” my father stated and Max nodded his head in agreement.

Dad didn’t exactly like witches. He hated the fact that we all smelled like them and sort of chose to ignore that we were half witch. Uncle Max didn’t care for witches either, but the majority of his hate was reserved for vampires, even the nice ones, which is about all that was left after the race war. My mother simply growled, glaring at Max and my dad.

“Good idea,” Jax said, standing up and getting a snarl from my dad for agreeing with Mom. I snickered. “But one thing first.” Jax ran off into Emma’s house and came out with a handful of lemon squares.

Men. The real way to their heart was through their stomach.

Mom, Jax, and I pulled up to the coven’s house, which was only a short twenty minute drive from the mountain. Once we were sure no one had followed us, we exited the car. I loved the coven house. It was an amazing grand blue and white Victorian with the biggest wrap-around porch you ever saw. So many protective spells surrounded it; the second you crossed the entrance, you felt a blanket of safety saturate your being.

As we were walking up to the house, my mom pulled my hand and I turned to face her.

“You know I don’t expect you to follow my path. You will find mates however it works for you. You’re a unique, independent woman, and I raised you to do things your own way.” She was staring at me with those intense blue eyes, and dammit, she always knew the right thing to say to make me feel better.

“I know, Mom.” I pulled her in for a tight hug.

Jaxon called out to us from the porch. “What about me? You raised me to be a unique, independent woman, too.”

We both chuckled. Jax was such an ass; the guy could never be taken seriously. Like EVER.

Mom and I joined him on the porch, and after knocking we were met by our coven leader, Gretchen. She was a healing witch and she adored Jax and me. A woman in her sixties with long, silvery hair and green eyes, she wore a bohemian dress and flower crown that made her look like she just stepped out of a Grateful Dead concert. Gretchen had a shit ton of magical power. Head of the coven basically meant ‘Don’t eff with me.’

“My babies!” she crooned, pulling Jax and me in for a hug. We chuckled at her term ‘babies.’

“You do realize we are twenty years old, right, Gretch?” Jax peppered her with his favorite pet name.

She hugged my mom and ushered us inside. “Nope, you will always be my babies.”

My mom looked around the room a little sad but then smiled. Seeing the witches always reminded her of Sylvia, the old coven leader who sacrificed herself to save my mom. Her picture hung on the wall. She had long red hair and vibrant green eyes. My mom said she still visits her in her dreams.

My mom awkwardly cleared her throat. “We have an issue.”

Gretchen sat erect, eyes flashing silver. “Tell me.” Her tone was ominous. Scary.

“Jesus, Mom. Way to freak everyone out. It’s not an issue, per se, it’s a puzzle.” I tried to lighten the mood.

Jax pointed at me. “Anya has been dreaming of some hot guy who we think is her mate. Issue is, that he is human and she literally gets burning hot thinking about him. Today she had a vision while awake and he asked for help.”

‘You freaking traitor!’
I shot at him.

‘I’m protecting you,’
he reminded me.

Jesus! He couldn’t have worded that better?

Gretchen stood deadly still. Her eyes went silver as she began to pace the carpet. Silver meant she was in the witch zone and shit was about to go down.

“Are you sure he’s human?” Gretchen finally asked me. Her hazy silver eyes were hypnotic.

“Pretty sure. He is not a vampire, witch, or werewolf. I just know,” I confidently told her.

She nodded, accepting that. “Did he seem hot in any of the dreams? Temperature wise, not looks wise.” She grinned.

Oh my God, how embarrassing!

“Yes, he was dripping sweat in the last one.” My cheeks were red. Kill me now.

“You didn’t say that!” my mom scolded.

Gretchen rubbed her chin. “Interesting.”

Jax mirrored Gretchen with the chin rubbing. I might as well get my all-season pass to freakville now because something was definitely wrong with me.

“I have a theory,” Gretchen finally stated and we all leaned forward in our seats, rapt with attention.

She sighed and locked her silver eyes right on me. “First, that this boy
is
your mate. Old legend says the Matefinder doesn’t begin to get a vision of other mated couples UNTIL she finds her mate.”

The air whooshed out of me. My mate? Hottie dream guy could be my mate? Holy shit, was I ready for that? I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. Mom caught me smiling and smiled as well. Jax, however, was scowling.

“Secondly,” Gretchen went on, “because of your close mate connection you are feeling what he feels. The heat. Something is wrong with him. He is in trouble.”

Well, shit. Add that to my plate, why don’t you? Could he really be my mate? I mean, my whole life my parents drilled into us how amazing and life-changing it was to meet your mate and how secure and loved up you felt, but now that Gretchen had said it, I was just nervous and didn’t want it to be true.

“How am I supposed to find this guy? And how the hell can a human be my mate?” I asked.

Gretchen’s eyes blazed silver then, her voice deadpan. “He will find you. Fate will lead him to you. Mates are meant to be, no matter what.”

Goosebumps broke out on my arms. Okay … like I said, shit just got real.

*

The entire ride home, I was quiet. Jax and my mom listened to the radio while I tried not to freak the hell out. I may have found my mate, and by the way, he was human and hotter than the sun … and in trouble and lost. Shit.

‘You okay?’

Our twin bond was going haywire. I knew Jax was picking up on my erratic feelings. Twenty years of nothing and then bam! Dreams, fevers, awake visions. I wasn’t used to this like my mom was.

I swallowed hard.
‘I dunno,’
I replied honestly.

He nodded in the front seat and that was that. Jax may have diarrhea of the mouth, but he knew when to shut up and let me think. Twin perk.

Mom, Jax, and I all agreed not to tell dad yet that this guy might be my mate. He would only freak, and Gretchen’s theory wasn’t 100% yet.

After getting home and convincing my dad I was fine and that the witches were looking into it, Jax, Mason, Avery, and I decided to plan a trip to downtown Portland tonight to go out.

Avery sat at the edge of my bed while I got ready. I was sitting cross legged in front of the full length mirror brushing some mascara and lip gloss on.

“So, the witches think he could be your mate, too?”

Avery and I shared everything with each other. I wouldn’t keep my fears from her like I did everyone else.

I set the make-up down and faced her. “What if he is my mate? My mate, Avery! That’s huge. I’m only twenty! It feels serious and amazing and weird at the same time. And then, what if that jumpstarts my Matefinding gift and all of a sudden you and I are hanging out and BAM! I get a vision of your mate and you break up with Jax and he hates me and ...” Tears welled in my eyes as Avery crossed the space to scoop me into a hug.

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down there, crazy girl.” She stroked my hair as I laughed, the tension easing a little.

“I’m freaking out,” I confessed.

Avery smiled. “I can see that. Don’t freak out. If he is your mate, awesome. He sounds hot and you’re single. You don’t need to take up knitting next week. If you start getting mated pair visions then that’s awesome as well because that’s your gift. Your amazing gift that brings couples together so they can be happy and have kids.”

I sighed. Avery was right. My gift, it’s everything to my people.

“What if he’s not real?” Maybe that’s what I was really freaking out about. Dreaming of someone for two months straight you start to memorize the lines of their face, the way they stand. What if it was some cruel universal joke, the dream gods screwing with me?

Avery sighed. “Call it women’s intuition or whatever, but I think he’s real.”

I nodded. Thank God for best friends. Avery was like my own personal therapist.

“Thank you,” I told her.

She smiled holding my gaze and I noticed her dominance had been increasing lately. She definitely took after her father, not her submissive mother.

A knock on the door interrupted us.

“Come in!” I yelled.

Jax entered, looking suave in dark denim and a bright red polo.

“It’s a good thing werewolves can’t get diabetes because I think I just ate 600 lemon squares.” Jax held his belly as Mason walked in behind him. Mason’s hair was gelled back and he looked handsome as well.

“Dude, in two weeks we will be living in downtown Portland without any annoying parents,” Mason declared.

“Hells yeah.” Jax high-fived him.

A loud throat clearing made Mason’s face go red and we all turned to see my father standing in the doorway.

Shit. Mason inspected the fibers of the carpet as Jaxon busied himself with the make-up on my table. I chuckled.

“What’s up, Pops?”

My dad glared at Mason and Jax a little longer than usual but then spoke to me. “Be careful tonight. I just got off the phone with the Alpha council. Some weird stuff is going on. Seems to have a pattern.”

I stood and my wolf rose to the surface. I knew my eyes would be pulsing yellow. “What stuff?”

My father’s hand came out in a gesture that was supposed to settle me. “Just a few wolf kidnappings. It could be random.”

Damn, it happened before. I guess I wasn’t surprised. People who either hated us or were curious, or wanted to show a friend. A couple times a year we heard about these reports. Mostly in small towns with smaller, weak packs.

I nodded. “I will protect everyone,” I said, purposefully trying to ruffle Jax’s feathers.

“Excuse me?” Jax stood to his full height and faced off with me. I grinned, rolling my shoulders to relax them as my brother’s eyes met mine.

‘Challenge,’
my wolf declared as I continued to stare.

Jax set his jaw and stared harder.

“Here they go again,” Avery groaned.

“Jaxon, it’s okay that I am more dominant than you. Girl power,”
I teased.

Jax’s upper lip broke out in sweat. “I am your protector. I’m stronger than you,” Jax said aloud.

My father’s voice boomed around us. “Physical strength means nothing with a weak mind.”

Jax growled, stepping closer to me; we were nearly nose to nose. I wanted to look down so god damn bad. My legs felt like jelly, sweat beaded my upper lip. You thought Zumba was a good workout? Try staring down a dominant werewolf for a full minute. My heart was jackknifing in my chest, and I swear I was going to pass out, but Jaxon groaned and finally broke his gaze, looking down at my chin.

“Yes!” I jumped up.

Mason stood. “Sixty-eight seconds. That’s a record.”

Jaxon looked at me and grinned. “Longer this time. Admit it, you almost looked down.”

I smirked. “Almost.”

Avery gave me a fist bump and ignored Jax’s glare. Then we all headed outside.

Before we reached my car, my dad pulled me aside as the others piled into Jax and my White Land Rover.

“Do you really think it’s smart to go gallivanting around downtown the same day you had your first vision?” He placed his hands on my shoulders and stared in my eyes. Gallivanting? Well, he was making his age obvious. My dad was over 200 years old.

“Pops,” I held his gaze and he smiled at the term of endearment, “I’m twenty years old, I’m a werewolf, and Jax is a psycho, smaller, overprotective version of you. I will be fine.”

He chuckled then and I broke his gaze because dammit, it was getting hard to hold. Sweat beaded my upper lip. That mofo was super dominant and I was way too tired from my stare down with Jaxon to even hold his gaze for more than five seconds.

“I love you, Anya. Be safe,” he said in Hindi as I smiled and kissed his cheek.

*

Portland’s motto was ‘Keep Portland weird,’ and I might mention recreational marijuana was legal. What more could you ask for in a place to call home? So going to the city to have some fun was just what the doctor ordered after this shit storm of a day. After the one and a half hour drive into downtown, it was pitch dark out and we had all decided to go to Pixels. It was a bar that had all of the old arcade video games and more importantly it was werewolf owned by a pack member.

“I think it sucks that we can’t get drunk or high,” Mason bitched as we parked the car and fed the meter.

We chuckled. He was always on and on about this stupid topic. Werewolves metabolized too fast so it was really damn near impossible to get messed up.

“Not true,” Jax stated.

We all looked at him skeptically as we walked down 8
th
Ave.

“Mom told me that there is this stuff called witches’ wine. It gets you messed up on one glass. It’s illegal because it’s so good and it works on werewolves!” Jax said excitedly.

Mason stopped walking, mouth hanging open. “How long have you been withholding this information?”

Jax laughed. “Dude, it’s like near impossible to get, illegal and all that.”

We were almost at the entrance and I could hear the music blaring through the front door.

Mason was still in shock. I could see his mind calculating how to get his hands on the witches’ wine.