I took a deep breath and braced myself as I forced my eyes to meet Anton’s now light grey eyes. They really did look almost white when they were their normal color and I couldn’t help but to think of them as beautiful. I groaned at the thought and Anton gave me a curious look.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts of any naughtiness and then I opened my mouth to ask him about…well…hm…what was it exactly I wanted to know? I had no clue what to ask so I just slowly closed my mouth again and stared stupidly at Anton’s amused face.

Should I ask about the submissive-part? Did I really want to know?

Should I ask about what it really meant to be mates? Would I even want to know about that?

I had no idea.

Maybe I needed to ask about how they were going to keep me and Kate here without anybody noticing…

Yeah, I should ask that.

"Eeh…you know I was kind of wondering how you plan on keeping me and Kate here without raising any suspicion?" I finally asked. I knew that my foster dad probably wouldn’t notice us being gone and all, but at least somebody had to wonder about us, right?

Now that I really thought about it I wasn’t quite sure about that though…

Suddenly a picture of Matt and Regina flew through my mind and I felt a spark of hope. At least they would‘ve had to notice me being gone. They could have already phoned the cops and sent out a search party or something. Yeah, of course they had! They were my friends after all.

I think that Anton noticed my change of mood because he huffed and shrugged his shoulders.

"There really aren’t that many people who come by here so I’m not really that worried about somebody noticing. By the way, even if someone were to ask for you to be handed back they would have to climb over our dead bodies first. We’re not letting you go now when we have finally found you Ash." He said in a matter of fact- voice. I gave him an irritated eye but I didn’t say anything.

Were this 'mate- thing' really that important to them? I mean couldn’t they just take somebody else? Maybe somebody willing to be their mate? A girl for example…or a boy…I really didn’t care as long as it weren’t me.

"Why is it so important to you? This 'mate- thing' I mean?" I asked tiredly. I figured I could at least try to understand why they would just take a random guy at a closed store and tell him they’re willing to die for him.

Because you know, that isn’t healthy at all.

Anton studied my face, searching for any signs of mocking but when I stayed dead serious he sighed and shifted into a bit more comfortable position above me. Mind you, he still didn’t move his stupid ass so I could get up…

"Well…it’s hard to explain to a human…but then again I guess you can feel some of it too…" He started. He brought his hand up towards my bare chest and slowly touched two fingers against my skin. I shivered as a small bolt of pleasure shot up along my spine when he began to make a trail with his fingers, down to the middle of my stomach and then slowly up again.

I tore my eyes away from his hand as he became quiet and I gazed up at his thoughtful expression. His bright eyes met mine and he smiled slightly as he continued to trail the outlines of my abs. I tried to ignore the burning feeling along my skin as he touched me because I knew that if I asked him to stop he would probably just do something worse. I also knew that if I let him know that he could affect me like this it wouldn’t help me in the slightest when I decided to convince them that I, most definitely, weren’t their mate…

"You’re really stubborn aren’t you Ash?" Anton smiled at me again and I rolled my eyes at him in response.

Of course I was, he should know that by now.

"Well where was I? Yeah right, we were talking about mates. Well as I said before, it’s hard to explain but I guess you humans would define a mate as someone’s “other half”, so to say. You know like your…soul mate, I guess you could call it that." He seemed to contemplate the word for a while before he continued.

"All werewolves are born with a mate, a person who will, in time, become your greatest priority. When you find him or her you will put everything aside and you will do anything, be anything, to make this single person happy. You will gladly lay down your life for your mate because you will love him or her with all your heart." Anton paused and gave me a quick glance to see if I were following. I made sure to nod as to tell him that I understood and he gave me a small smile before he continued.

"Most werewolves’ finds their mate around their eighteenth birthday but sometimes it happens before or even after that." He said and I gave him a confused eye.

"But how do you know if a person is your mate? Can’t you…I don’t know…maybe…make a mistake?" I said trying to not seem too obvious with my question. Anton gave me a smirk telling me that he knew exactly what I was aiming at.

"No Ash, that’s impossible. If your mate is near you will definitely know for sure." He said shaking his head in amusement.

"But how would you know?" I prompted and Anton sighed loudly.

"Because of this." He answered as he suddenly leaned down and buried his face against the side of my neck. I tensed immediately as he nuzzled his nose in the crook between my neck and shoulder. Anton inhaled deeply through his nose and I could hear him growl slightly as he tightened his hold on me. I shifted uncomfortably under him and suddenly I felt something hot against the base of my neck. Anton let out a slight groan and I could feel my eyes widen as I realized what he was doing. He was licking at my skin like a freaking cat!

"What the hell Anton! Stop that!" I shrieked as his tongue once again made contact with my sensitive skin and I tried to force him away from me. He chuckled against my neck as my struggling didn’t help me one bit and I growled angrily at him.

I should not have done that.

Suddenly Anton’s face was inches from mine and a deep rumbling could be heard from his chest as he bared his teeth at me and his eyes flashed to a darker color. My eyes widened as I yelped and recoiled from him. I pushed myself deeper down against the bed as I avoided his eyes. Without meaning to I had shifted my face to the side which ended up leaving my neck bare to him and I could feel Anton relaxing against me once again.

"You learn quickly Ash but you should remember not to anger my wolf like that. He’s big on respect and discipline and even though he’s usually calm he can get irritated if you downright challenge him like you did just now." Anton’s voice was firm but not angry so I dared a glance up at him and breathed a sigh of relief as I saw his bright eyes once again.

"How the hell did I anger him? I wasn’t challenging him or anything I was just trying to stop you from licking my neck like a stupid cat." I whined in annoyance. Anton laughed at my irritated voice before he shrugged and answered:

"Well you growled at him and like I said, he’s big on respect. If you growl like that towards a dominant wolf he will take it as a challenge to his position and when you do it towards a dominant Alpha wolf he will most definitely not take it in a good way."

He shrugged at my irritated face and I had to bite my lip so I wouldn’t blurt out how stupid that sounded. I mean he was the one sitting on top of me and he’s the one talking about respect? Hmpf, yeah that made complete sense.

"Well back to the topic. What I meant to show you, before I got a little carried away, was that all werewolves have the ability to find their mates by scent. If you were to come across your mate your wolf will tell you immediately because the smell will be almost consuming. That was what I meant when I said that it’s impossible for you to make a mistake when it comes to who your mate is." Anton smiled at my tired gaze and I cursed under my breath.

Well that’s just great! Looks like I really am their stupid mate…

No I wouldn’t accept that! I just wanted to forget about wolves and this stupid mate-thing but of course I was cleverer though, than to just blurt out that I wouldn’t accept this, so I just sighed and said:

"Fine, I get it. Can you get off me now?"

Anton gave me a half pleased, half irritated gaze before he finally did as I requested and climbed out of the bed. I breathed a sigh of relief and rolled out of the bed too, coming to stand at the side of the bed, watching as Anton walked up to Alex and punched his shoulder rather hard. Alex stirred and growled under his breath as he pried his eyes open. He fixed his gaze first on Anton looming over him and then at me standing a few steps away.

"Did I miss something?" He said in a raspy and sleepy voice and I could feel my heart flutter at the sound. God he was attractive.

"Yeah, you dickhead, you can bet you did! Somebody has been knocking on that door for an eternity and you’re acting like freaking sleeping beauty over there! Who the hell sleeps that deep? Aren’t you supposed to be the big bad wolf and not a meek kitten?!" I couldn’t help myself as I raged over the fact that I had had to wake up early and he got to sleep.

I could see Adam waking up because of my screaming but I didn’t really care. If I had to be up, so did he.

Alex eyes focused solely on me and he frowned at my angry face.

"Why didn’t you just open the door?" Alex said in a confused voice and if I had been any closer I would have hit him.

"You don’t think I’ve tried that you stupid idiot?! The door is locked for fuck sake!" I growled at him and I’m pretty sure my eyes were shooting daggers at him by now. Alex gave me a calm look as he simply got up from the bed, reached inside the bedside table and pulled out a small key. He shot me a wicked grin before he walked up to the door and unlocked it, flinging it wide open.

He hadn’t even opened the door fully as a blur of brown curly hair shot past him and threw itself at me. I fell backwards by the force because I was too stunned to react and I ended up crashing to the floor with a small and angry-looking Kate on top of me.

"What the hell are you doing?" I groaned as I looked down at the small girl in my lap. She gave me an angry glare and punched me on the chest as hard as she could (witch wasn’t really that hard…).

"That’s for ignoring me you jackass!" Kate shouted at me in a high- pitched voice and I could see the brothers cringing from the sound. High sounds probably weren’t that nice when you had increased hearing…

Hah, I guess being a wolf weren’t all sunshine and roses huh? Somehow seeing them bothered made my mood brighter and I couldn’t help but grin at their pained faces.

That’s what you get for kidnapping nice people.