"MOTHER." I stopped her before my mind could be any further polluted with thoughts of Zak being my intended.
"Sorry, I'm spoiling your announcement, yet again. I just get so excited thinking about you loved up."
"Earlier today. I felt it. The call of the mate."
I heard a weird noise.
"Mum. Are you clapping?"
"Carry on, darling. Your dad's awake now. I'm putting you on speakerphone. It's Rex," I heard her whisper. "He's mated. I don't know. That's why I've woken you up. Now listen."
"You hit me in the face." Dad said to Mum.
"I was just waking you up."
"So it's nothing to do with me eating your last box of Jaffa Cakes then?"
"Hello, son calling." I yelled out.
"Go ahead, son, I'm listening." Dad told me.
"So, I need to talk to you about mating." I said. I was greeted with a silence.
"As in, when you meet your mate." I clarified.
"Oh thank fuck." He replied.
"So, I met a girl earlier this week, and nothing. I felt no attraction to her. Well, that's not strictly true, she was fit, but she was following me around like a lovesick puppy. Anyway, tonight she's with another guy and BOOM, my wolf cries that she's mine. But she's a human. Am I broken? Can you get me a doctor's appointment to get me fixed?"
"There'll be no doctor's appointments to get you fixed until you've had at least one set of cubs," my mum announced. "I'm not hearing a problem. What are you talking about?"
I scrubbed a hand through my hair. Much more of these two and I'd be pulling it out in clumps.
"Mum. I didn't fall for her at first sight. We're supposed to know straightaway."
"Don't be so stupid, Rex. Where did you get that nonsense from?"
That was it. I got a handful of my own hair and tugged until tears came to my eyes. It was the only way to keep me sane.
"You and Aunty Rose. You're always going on about when you met Dad and Uncle Clay."
"Well, that's because we talk shit to the other one, trying to make out our love is the strongest."
"What?"
"The first time I saw your father he was in wolf form and he was taking a dump in the woods. I'm not going to tell people that was how we met, am I? No, I say it was love at first sight and I just knew he was my mate. We actually both pinged at a dance two weeks later when there was a heatwave and we both went skinny dipping. But if anyone asks, he saw me across—"
I finished for her. "the room at the dance and you couldn't take your eyes off each other as you both just knew."
"Is that what you tell people?" Dad said. "I just liked your tits."
"Ditto, honey. Although when you lost the cub fat and they became pecs I liked it a lot more."
"So this is perfectly normal? That I liked the woman after I'd seen her several times?"
"Yes, son." Dad piped up. "You said yourself that she was acting like a lovesick puppy. That's why you didn't react to her then. Wolves like to be dominant. They don't want a woman throwing themselves at them until they've courted them and won them over. Then they can act like lovesick puppies."
There was another weird noise.
"That was your mother snorting if you were wondering. The lovesick stage tends to be on and off after many years together. Usually you have a spike of attentiveness from them near Christmas, birthdays, and when they're horny."
My ears were going to bleed.
"What about the fact my mate is human?"
"It's rare in Brighton that someone chooses outside the pack, but it happens a lot elsewhere. She must be a very healthy specimen. The humans chosen by us are usually very fertile, so expect her to get with cub easily. Oh this is so exciting. When can we meet her?"
"You can't. Because she's not mated back. We aren't together yet."
"Then why are you on the phone to us, son? Go get your woman for goodness' sake." Dad shouted.
"Oh, honey. I do love it when you're all forceful."
"We've gotta go, son. Good luck." Dad ended the call. Obviously Mum was now horny.
I'd forgotten I'd had the whole call on speakerphone. My friends sat around with their mouths dropped open and looking like they needed urgent therapy.
I opened yet another bottle of whisky and poured out shots.
"Let's get wasted." I announced.
It wasn't long afterwards that a knock came to the door, and Noah opened it to find Erica there. I looked behind her but of course there was no Freya. I would have to try to talk to her in the morning before she vacated her room.
"How did it go, babe?" Zak almost ran over to his new girlfriend.
"Okay, I guess. Freya decided to go home tonight. She's just on her way downstairs now."
"She's what?" I yelled and before any of them could stop me I was out of the room and heading for the stairwell.
But I was thwarted by vampiric speed yet again and I found myself pulled away from the rotating doors and pushed up against the window, watching as she was helped into the back of the car.
"You've no right to keep me here like this." I tried to say, but my mouth was smushed into the window so all I heard was, 'wovnowitetocpmfeheeeeliths'.
"Let her go. It's the middle of the night. Go talk to her tomorrow when you've both had some sleep." Noah pleaded. I let the fight go out of me and he let me slowly turn around. The guy needed to feed, his skin had paled more than usual, which meant…
I escaped him and managed to get myself into the revolving door, and then, the bastard sped it up. It whizzed round and I was like a hamster on a wheel, except this hamster had been drinking whisky all night. By the time Noah pulled me back out, I hit the floor so hard I saw stars. Then I realised I was actually seeing them. I was facing the window and the night sky, and the entrance to the hotel no longer had Freya in a car in front of it.
"Nooooooooo." I said again, but this time I didn't know if it was my inner wolf howling, or the fact I felt like hurling.
"Now can we finally go to bed?" Noah said loudly.
"I told you that the whole Stacey marriage was a cover up and those two were an item." I heard a woman say as she walked past.
"Do you promise I can go see her tomorrow and that you will help me to win my girl?"
"I promise."
"Oh why am I asking you? I don't want to win her in eight years' time. I'll ask Zak." I stopped. "Did I just say that out loud?" I checked with Noah.
"Yup. You are going to ask Zak for dating advice. I can't fucking wait. Breakfast tomorrow?" Noah laughed all the way back to our floor.
Freya
Drink finished, I brought my laptop to my bed and switched it on. Of course, I'd not used it all week so the bastard forced me to endure a Windows update before finally letting me access the internet. At first as I browsed, all I found were, unsurprisingly, mythological sites about werewolves and other paranormal creatures, and every one seemed to say something different. I was getting tired now and increasingly frustrated. Then I found a link to a membership site called Supernaturals Uncovered. There was a sign-up where you could get seven days free, so, feeling I had nothing to lose, I signed up. They'd promised not to sell on my details or spam me. In fact, the site looked very professional.