Lincoln

I woke up this morning and my anxiety was through the roof, I was pacing, my room was a mess, and my hair wasn’t falling the way I wanted it to. Everything has to be perfect today, Azura promised she’d come to school today, so I have to impress her with my goddess blessed looks and dazzling personality. Right? I continue to pace in and out of my closet trying to find the most impressive outfit I own when someone scares me.

“What the hell are you doing?” It was my younger sister, Clem, standing in the doorway taking a bite out of an apple.

“Can’t you see I’m trying to find an outfit that looks like I’m a nice and put together guy.” I announce with great confidence, and a bit of a smirk, if I’m being honest.

“Oh, really?” she glances to the left, then to the right then takes a bite out of her apple, she sighs and looks at me and says, “You’re doing a great job.” sarcastically encouraging me.

“Didn’t mom and dad teach you if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all?” I ask her.

“Yeah, I remember. Why do you think I don't talk to those oher beasts at school? I have nothing nice to say.” she says in a duh tone.

I turned around and groaned like someone who stubbed their toe, for one, I can never win against Clem in an argument, she has so much evidence and common sense that I can’t overpower, and secondly, I actually stubbed my toe. I turned to see her looking like she wanted to say something, so I asked her what was wrong with her.

“So… are you going to tell me or am I going to have to ask?” she asks.

“Clem, I don’t know what you are talking about. Can I have some type of hint?” I sigh in defeat.

She starts muttering things underneath her breath and I catch a few ‘idiots’ and a ‘typical’, but other than that, I don’t know what she’s saying.

“Who's the girl you’re trying to impress, doofus?” she asks aggressively.

I flinched, but caught myself and continued looking through my clothes.

“I’m not trying to impress a girl, Clem.” I chuckled.

“Okay, so this has nothing to do with the new girl, right?”

I froze. How in the world did she know? Who told her? Was it Jazzmine? She has a habit of just yelling out things when she’s angry.

“Jazzmine, wasn’t the one who told me.” she says knowingly.

If it wasn’t Jazz, it couldn’t have been anybody else because they can keep a secret longer than jazz. If not my close friends, then who?

My head shoots towards her, and I see her smiling smugly, like she’s playing chess and know that her opponent can’t beat her.

“Wondering who told me?” she smirks.

I nod, not trusting my voice to not crack.

She lifts up her right hand and points towards me, I turn around and I don’t see anyone there. Who the hell is she talking about? I turn back to face her and her finger is still pointed towards me, and the lightbulb goes off.

“What are you talking about? I never told you anything about Azura in the first place.” I asked her, I was becoming guarded.

“You told me, just now, with your reactions.” she says as if it were clear as day.

I stood there and thought about it, did my action really give me away?

“So Azura is her name?” she spoke again.

“Yeah, so don’t go near her, or else. And don’t tell mom or dad!” I warn her quickly.

She scoffs and walks towards the stairs, I run to my door and scream, “I’m serious, Clem!”

I see her wave me off and disappear down stairs. I sighed, knowing that Clem has a horrible habit of not listening to people, even our parents who are the current Alpha and Luna of the pack.

I turn back around to see that my room has been struck by a tornado of nerves and anxiety. Clothes are all over the place; the bed, the floor, my mirror.

Clem was right to be sarcastic, I’m totally not put together right now. I agree with her but she doesn’t have to know that.

What she doesn’t know, won’t help her.

I ultimately decide on a plain white tee, a blue plaid flannel, light washed jeans, and white sneakers. I’ll clean my room when I get back from school.

I head downstairs to see the gang on the couch, they see me and get up to head out.

I got into my car, a black on black BMW M8, and drove to school. The entire ride, I couldn't stop thinking about what Clem was going to do now that she knew I was interested in someone. I could only wonder how vast her imagination is, or how far she’ll go, because she’s gone far before, and it has landed her to the point of a house arrest.

She wasn’t allowed to leave the house for any reason, not even school, she was suspended. The scary thing is that to this day, I still have no idea what she did, all I know is that the family of the girl she was involved with, moved away, and didn’t even press charges, according to her.

I know somewhere deep in my heart that Clem is up to something, she’s too observant and has too many unknowns to not do nothing. I just hope it won’t affect my plans to get closer to Azura.

The beginning of school was as boring as it usually is, nothing out of the ordinary. Before I knew it, I was already heading to the field for gym. Being werewolf calls for more physical movement to prevent our wolves from becoming restless and anxious, therefore two hours of gym.

I head into the locker room and I get hoots and hollers from the other guys. I grew up with most of them and we play on the football team together, but I was only close to Cam and Alex.

“Did you see the new chick?”

“How could I not?”

I heard someone say from around the corner, I froze. Were they talking about Azura?

"What are they talking about my mate?" Marc growls menacingly

"I don’t know. Let’s listen and find out." I replied.

I lean up against the lockers while Cam and Alex walk up to me. I put a finger up to my mouth to tell them to stay quiet, they look at each other confused, then nod.

“I hate to admit it, but she’s a lot finer than most of the girls here.” one guy chuckles out.

I scoff, I could feel my blood starting to boil. I swear to the moon goddess, if they continue to talk about Azura, I’m going to be breaking someone’s leg.

“Oh really?” the other guy laughs, “So you’d do it?”

“I mean, is it obvious? Of course I would. Have you seen her? Anyone who says no is an idiot and a prude. She’s got got all the right proportions, and her curvy body just screams ‘bed mate’, don't you agree?”

I no longer had any control over my body, I whipped around the corner, grabbed the collar of the boy’s t-shirt, and started slowly raising his body off the ground.

When I took a good look at him, I recognized him, Jeffery Kalbimi. He’s what most would label as the playboy bully, who is rumored to have had his way with any and every girl he has ever approached.

I already didn’t tolerate this guy because he’s a misogynistic sexist, who thinks women aren’t supposed to do anything beside being a wife. Anyone who has heard of his rants, that land him in detention by the way, can tell that he doesn’t see women as anything other than dolls that men can manipulate.

“What the hell, man?! What’s your damage?” he chokes out. A crowd is now forming around me and jeffery up against the lockers.

I now realize that Marc’s aura is seeping out of me. I have to control him if I don’t want anyone to know that she is my mate.

I take a deep breath in, then out, “Listen to me, and listen to me good,” I take deep breaths because if not, Marc will attack this guy till there is nothing left of him, “You will stop talking about women like they are nothing but dolls that you control!” I growl out trying to hold reign over Marc.

“What’s got your panties in a bunch, dude? And, mysogy- what? I control women? So what? Isn’t that what they're for? Bed matting?”

I glare at him, my eyes squinting more, eyebrows furrowing closer, Marc rising to the surface at a deathly rate.

“You should watch what you say and respect women, because without them, none of us men are here.” I pushed him against the lockers again before letting him down then walked off.

What I really wanted to say was: ‘Don’t ever let me hear you speaking so disgustingly perverted towards my mate again, because if I hear it, I’d let Marc rip you to shreds.’

“So, why didn’t you?” Marc interjects.

“I-” I began but Marc spoke over.

“I swear to the goddess, if you say something stupid like: ‘Nobody's supposed to know she is my mate,’ I’m going to ignore you for another eight years.

I stood silent.

“Hmph. That’s what I thought.” he puffs triumphantly.

When we get to the field, we sit on the first layer of bleachers waiting for Coach to come and give us directions. Cam and Alex still haven’t said a word.

“So… when are you planning on putting your plan into motion?” Cam asks cautiously.

I glance at him confused, “What are you talking about, what plan?”

“Ya’know, the plan to eventually tell everyone that you have a mate?” he whispered the last part.

I glanced at the field, Cam was like an angel disguised as the devil. He looks calm, warm, and approachable, but when you get to know him, he’s the one who is 100% honest with you, no matter how much it may hurt.

“I haven’t thought that far. I mean, I just found her yesterday, I have to get closer to her to even have an idea of where to start.”

He responds with a hum but he doesn’t ask anymore questions.

After a moment of silence, he begins to speak, “I have your back.” I look over at him to see a faint smirk on his face, I wrap my arm over his shoulder, Alex does the same, and we laugh a bit before I stopped when I saw Azura.

She was wearing a light green sweater, that was obviously too big for her, black athletic leggings that hugged her body, and maroon boots. Her ivory hair flowed down her back just like water does to a cascade.

I swear, I could stare at her all day and never get bored. I’d just find more things about her to fall in love with.

Whoa big guy, you just said the l-word. Marc points out, amazed.

Yeah, I know, I said it. So what?

The l-word, Lincoln, isn’t a word to be used lightly. It has meaning and if used wrong, it can hurt people, understand?

So why are you telling me this?

Don’t say the l-word to our mate, if you don’t mean it, is what i’m trying to hint at, you bum!

So I can only say it if I mean it?

Ugh, yes, it’s a rule we as men should follow. Just like no means no. It really means no.

Okay, fine. I won’t use the “l-word” lightly, are you happy?

Quite!

Not too long after, Coach did attendance and gave instructions for today’s class time to finish a mile around the track. I completed the mile in six minutes along with some other guys from the football team and we began to head towards the coach.

Alex bumps into me and I look at him weird because I thought he was just trying to be annoying, but then I saw him pointing so I looked in the direction he was pointing to see that Azura was currently speaking with the coach.

Why was he talking to her?

The other guys flocked around the coach shouting some stuff about football and teams, but the coach was frozen, just staring at Azura as she walked away.

I can’t help but wonder what she said to him for him to freeze up like that.

After some more shouting, Coach just told us to play how we wanted as long as it was clean. We play for about 20 minutes before I notice my most dangerous opponent is headed straight to Azura, Clem.

“Clem! What are you doing? You said you wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“She doesn’t know? Oh, now this is golden.” she literally stopped walking up the bleachers to look directly at me with a mocking smirk. That’s when I realized, I just gave her more information to use against me.

“Clem!” I groan out

“Shuddap, you’re so annoying. Just watch.” she groans.

After those words Clem puts up a wall to our link and I’m left without any other options then to “watch” what’s going to happen.

For the next half hour I was too worried about Clem having an “accidental” slip of the tongue to even focus on the game we were trying to have. I just didn’t want her to be the one to tell Azura that there are werewolves in the world, and hey, that’s she’s surrounded by them because she’s literally the only human on this territory. Suddenly, I see Clem staring down the field, glaring back and forth, as if looking for her murder target. She then makes a b-line to the commentary booth and Coach is trying to grab her attention to tell her to stop, but Clem has an authority complex, which causes her to deliberately ignore anyone who is trying to use their power over her.

When she miraculously gets into the very much locked commentary booth, the speakers turn and she begins to speak.

“Hey, I understand that all of you are nosy, judgemental, and annoying people, but you really should mind your own damn business. I don’t care that she is from Cresent, the attack has been over for years and people still have their panties in a bunch over it. She, herself, did not hurt us, so why hurt her?”

With that she walks out of the box with her signature smirk and looks directly at Azura, whose eyes look like they are sparkling with admiration.

Clem glances towards me with her smirk and then winks at me, and it was at that moment, I realized that Clem wasn’t going to tell Azura anything about me, she just wanted to rub it in my face that she is going to have her trust and hangout with her before me.

Honestly, classic Clem.