Sydney

"Meg, you in position?" I asked through the pink walkie-talkie that Megan's seven-year-old sister reluctantly let them borrow.

"Yep Girly. You?" Megan asked back moments later, her voice crackling over the walkie-talkies' weak connection.

"Yeah, give me a second to double-check the gear," I answered briefly before turning to the black garbage bag that sat beside me on the forest ground. Shuffling the items in the bag around, I searched for the slingshot and counted up the fifteen balloons we packed.

Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I glanced at the time then checked for any calls from my mom.

"Syd, you ready yet Girly?"

Shoving my phone back into my back pocket, I retrieved the walkie-talkie off the dirt ground and held the black button on the side down before talking into it once again. "Yeah yeah. Are you?"

"Yep," Meg said popping the 'p'.

"Have you called and checked to make sure Em's at the car and ready for us?"

"That I have my young Padawan," Megan mocked. If I was standing beside Meg I could already see her cocky smile and her recently dyed, manicured purple eyebrow raised.

"How does the lacrosse field look?"

Meg had concocted this plan declaring it a necessity on our senior year to-do list.

Emily and I were hesitant of Meg's general distaste for the series of jerks on the lacrosse team until she pleaded for revenge after the destruction of a theater set that she and a few other thespians worked diligently on. Apparently, it had been the lacrosse team's hook-up spot until it was unceremoniously knocked over and damaged beyond repair. With a shimmer of tears that only our thespian friend could summon, Emily and I couldn't deny her.

The plan was to shoot off as many water balloons, which were filled with vinegar instead of water. Originally paint was discussed as a means of a liquid medium, but Emily said they weren't out to damage school property and to just use something clear.

Following that was a little friendly competition at Meg's house, where we deemed me the most savy balloon launcher.

With Meg as the sadistic lookout in the stands, I was supposed to fire off as many sticky balloons as possible until someone caught on. After that, Meg and I would take off running to the car in the school's parking lot where Emily would be waiting for us in the car.

I sat on the forest ground that spooned the lacrosse field.

If I get caught in the forest at least I won't 'technically' be on school grounds.

Shaking off the negativity, I reaffirmed my belief that we weren't going to get caught...or at least planning not to. Nerves were starting to bite at me and I was beginning to second guess about this whole plan.

No, no. Come on Sydney do something spontaneous for once in your life. It's not like you will get in any serious trouble.

"Okay, my Padawan. Are you ready?"

"I was born ready," I answered her with a facade of renewed confidence.

Meg's chuckle broke through crackly. "Alright. Get off as many shots as you can before I call you and tell you to run as fast as that little ass of yours will let you, okay?"

"Yeah yeah, let's get this show on the road already," I said before I lost my nerve.

I placed the walkie-talkie on the ground and picked up the large slingshot.

Meg chuckled once more through the walkie-talkie then talked to herself trying to compose herself. "Okay, okay. It's time to get down to business, put on your serious face Meg." Meg said to herself, making me giggle. "Okay. I got this. Now, I'll count down from five."

"Mum hmm."

"Alright, now counting for liftoff," She said in an imitation deep voice. "Five...Four...Three...Two...ONE!"

Slipping my index figure through the pull ring attached to the carrier of the slingshot, where the balloon sat, I pulled it as far as I could back, aiming in the air where I hoped it'd be best.

I released the balloon sending it catapulting into the air.

FLUKE

For a moment nothing happened.

Then there was a small POP noise followed by, "What the fuck is this!?"

I could faintly make out people looking at the source of the cry in concern. Before I could think I started firing off more balloons.

I had fired off seven more before Meg's voice broke through the walkie-talkie on the ground.

"Code RED! The players have spotted me! Run! I repeat run as fast as you fucking can!" Meg yelled with a hyena-like laugh, that momentarily made me question my friend's sanity.

I sighed and shook my head in humored disapproval at the fact that Meg loved the act of life. She liked the adrenaline rush. The only thing Meg liked better is when she can do something wrong and get away with it.

Throwing the equipment into the bag, I tossed the duffel onto my back. Turning towards the direction of the parking lot I began a light jog deeper into the forest in the direction of the school.

My feet took me deeper into the thick greenery as the stars started to twinkle above. It was an angelic moment that stole my breath away. My family had always been connected and happy in the wild.

At least we were.

Continuing forward I leaped over fallen limbs of rotten trees and some small boulders and silently thanked myself for starting to workout over the past summer.

Noises started to pick up behind me so I tilted my head back towards the commotion.

"Sydney!" Meg hollered out.

I craned my head and caught sight of my bright purple-haired friend. Meg too was leaping and jumping, much more frantically than I had ever seen her move. Glancing further behind Meg I saw why. Not far behind her was three rather large lacrosse boys.

One of the three boys immediately snatched my eye. He was leading in the front at an alarmingly fast speed. His eyes were locked solely on me.

My eyes skimmed him over as his eyes-which color I couldn't identify over the distance-proceeded to reciprocate the action. His brown-black hair dampened with sweat that trickled down the sides of his handsome dark face.

Before I could look him over anymore, my shoulder clipped into a tree. I stumbled as sharp pain followed with a burning sensation trailed closely behind. A yelp of pain tore through my throat, but rightening myself, I knew I needed to pick up the pace.

"Hurry up!" I yelled at my friend.

Great! The one time we go out of our way to do something pure idiotic and we're going to get caught. I should've backed out when I had a bad feeling about this.

Thankfully, the forest started to clear up, and a little ways away I could distantly make out Emily rapping her fingers on the driving wheel of her black Lexus.

She was clearly singing her heart out since she was snapping her head around. When Emily's eyes finally opened, they fell on me and became wide saucers. She quickly turned the car on and started fumbling around to clear the seats for us to hop into.

I launched off the curb of the parking lot and yanked open the door, sliding into the car before tossing the slingshot equipment into the back seat.

"Hurry! Start driving towards her!" I yelled beating the dashboard impatiently.

"What?!" Emily asked looking at me wide-eyed.

"Roll down the back window, drive towards her, and have her jump in! She won't make it otherwise!" I was becoming frantic with the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Emmery asked no other questions.

Megan, with her purple hair thrown in a messy bun and outfit consisting of some uncomfortably tight black, ripped jeans and a tank, had just reached the parking lot and the lacrosse players were still hot on her tail.

We drove towards her and I hollered out the window, "Jump through the window!"

Without a second thought Meg dove right in.

"Now drive!" I started to yell as the boys were now five feet away from the car shouting at us.

Seeing Meg's legs flail out the window I stuck my hand out and tried help pushing her further into the back seat. The car flew into reverse as the players approached too close to comfort and were yelling at us.

Megan finished crawling through the window and was now laughing up a storm and flipping the players off as we exited the parking lot and they gave up the chase.

"Fuck that kinda hurt!" Megan rubbed her stomach.

When we finally made it out of the parking lot and started down the road towards our homes, I slid my hand down to grab my phone.

Panic ticked when my hand came across nothing and I immediately looked down to my empty pocket.

☽✣☾

Jay

"Alright team, bring it in," I called out to the team.

I looked around the field and glanced over the stands. Tonight felt different and I wasn't sure why. It wasn't a good different or bad different, but I just knew that there was going to be a change.

I don't like change.

"So do you know what you're going to say?" My best friend and beta, Terrence, asked drifting up to my side while stretching his arms as the other plays meandered into our radius.

I turned to my beta with a stern nod, "Yep, it's our senior year and I want us to end on a solid note, no bullshitting."

The players of the lacrosse team flooded over to us, creating a semi-circle around to listen.

"Okay team, today we need to start getting our head in the game. Granted if your head hasn't been in the game since pre-conditioning then I'd highly suggest you considered either upping your game or getting the hell off our field. Now last year we didn't win States, hell we didn't even qualify for state. This year, it's many of our's last year here...or hopefully all of us anyways."

"Jess," Someone covered up with a cough.

Other guys snickered while Jess looked insulted people thought that he was going to fail this year.

"Guys," Coach warned from a few steps behind me.

"Yeah guys," Jess said giving everyone a piercing look.

"Anyways, we need to get our heads in the game. This is our last year here and we want it to go out with a bang. So if you're not dedicated to this team then it'd be in your best interest to go take off your jersey and walk off this field now." No one moved. "Alright, now let's get ready to practice and start what's going to be the best year in Mountaineer history!"

A small sense of pride rushed over me despite how cliche my speech might have been. Either way, it seemed to boost some of my teammates' morals as they broke into cheers and paired together to practice catching and throwing the ball with the rackets.

I had begun to work up a slight sheen of sweat when about twenty minutes into practice I heard Colby cry out.

"What the fuck is this?!"

Looking over at him I saw his skin shined in the high powered lights of the field.

At first glance, I thought it was nothing more than sweat, but as I approached my nostrils flared and a burning sensation made my eyes water.

Vinegar.

My lips institutional curled in distaste over the assault on my sensitive nose.

"What the hell is going on here?" The coach approached the small group surrounding Colby.

When he was no more than twenty feet away from Colby and the small group of us surrounding Colby, I saw the Coach visibly flinch at the smell permeating off of the human.

The Coach was an averagely respected packmate in my father's pack.

Soon to be mine.

I was pretty certain the reason Coach did this, coaching the team and being an acting gym teacher for Red Mountain high school, was, one to keep an eye on all the younger packmates, but more so to do what he loved. Knock me and the younger wolves around with a supposed reason.

The feeling of semi-hatred was very mutual.

"Some fucking idiot threw a water balloon at me!" Colby yelled pointing to the wet marks on him.

"Colby, it clearly isn't a wat-" The Coach abruptly stopped.

I stopped scanning the area for the jokester and turned my attention to a now livid Coach. Sprawled across Coach's shirt was torn pieces of blue rubber and his white shirt was now wet with the stench of vinegar.

He balled up his fists and his face turned from red to purple.

His explosion never came as an avalanche of what I counted to be about five more vinegar balloons came hurtling down on the team before someone on the team called out, "Hey! There's someone in the forest!"

Motion in the crowd on the bleachers caught my eye. The small group of people littered across the stands were either watching the team's first practice of the season or just out here socializing. My predatory eye caught the movement of a solo girl. The purple-haired girl stood up and started down the bleachers talking into something in her hand while watching the chaos play out on the field.

"Hey you!" I called out to the girl.

Her head snapped up and her eyes locked with mine.

Prey.

She was caught in my sights.

It seemed she knew this too as the purple-haired girl took off barreling towards the forest.

Out of the corner of my eye, my attention was drawn to a silhouette of someone in the forest going deeper into the thick vegetation.

I took off after the purple-haired girl and her partner mentally reminded myself to slow down slightly, as not to raise suspension of my inhuman speed.

Purple, as I decided to dub the one girl, broke the tree line into the forest trailing after her little friend.

"Sydney!" Purple called forward to her partner.

Mate! Jay's wolf growled.

The purple-haired girl? I asked him back, almost nervously.

No. Sydney... My wolf said dreamily.

If I could physically see him, I could imagine my wolf would have a lopsided grin with his tongue hanging out.

The girl, Sydney, looked over her shoulder towards her friend then fell back in my direction.

My heart stuttered when my eyes rested on Sydney's lightly freckled face. Even from this distance, I could see her beautiful dark green eyes and her honey light hair whipping behind her. When her eyes were locked on mine I felt fused to her, unable to look away.

The jostle of her when she hit the tree raised the hairs on the back of my neck

My wolf let out an internal growl at the sight of her being hurt.

"Hurry up!" Sydney yelled.

Damn, her voice was even stunning...Wait, no. No it is not.

The luxurious green forest started to dissolve into the school parking lot.

Sydney tossed her big bag into the back seat of a black car and then jump into the passenger's seat.

"Hurry! Start driving towards her!" I heard with my overly sensitive ears.

"What?!" The driver asked looking at honey hair Sydney like she had grown another head.

"Roll down the back window, drive towards her, and have her jump in! She won't make it otherwise!"

Purple, me, and my two teammates that were strides behind me finally broke the forest line and were now in the parking lot.

Sydney and her friend drove over to purple hair. She popped her blonde head out the window and yelled frantically to her friend, "Jump through the window!"

Purple dove right in without a second thought.

Now I really started to pick up the pace. An urge to talk to her and become friends with her washed over me and was drenching every pour in my body. My wolf wanted to shift and chase after her.

Does she not know who we are? It came as a whine from my wolf.

I don't even know her so why the hell would she know us?

We DO know her, and she should know us...We're her mate. Her partner. My wolf tried to reason.

Well, she doesn't smell wolf.

"Now drive!" Sydney started to yell as the boys and I were mere feet away from the car.

Sydney and Purple's frizzy-haired friend started reversing the car at lightning speed.

"Stop!" I roared, throat vibrating as my voice radiated with power.

I wasn't yelling because I was angry about the stupid 'water' balloons. Well, I'm a little pissed about that. I just wanted to understand. She was my mate and she was running from me, going against every instinct a wolf should have.

But I don't even know her, I shouldn't give a damn. Shouldn't but I do.

One of the lacrosse players yelled, "Get the fuck out of the car!"

"What the hell's wrong with you?" The other teammate of mine bellowed.

I bit back my possessive and angry growl towards the two and ignored them. Instead, I choose to watch as the girls drove off, their laughter floating in the air.

After a moment some more team members came trickling through the forest and up alongside me and the other two.

"Did you catch them!?" Colby hollered.

"No," I said bitterly.

"Jay! I found this in the forest," Terrence said handing me a phone.

A small grin reached my lips when Sydney's scent swirled into my nose, welcoming.

What better way to learn about your mate then from their phone?

Through your MATE is a better way. My wolf replied hastily.

My wolf was well aware that it was either this or nothing.

All in time.

☽✣☾

EDITED JUNE 17 2020