"Strength is all in the mind," his grandfather told him. "It doesn't matter how you look at the end of the day, or who you are. Strength comes from within.""How will I know that I am strong then?" he asked him. His grandfather was so much taller than him. He never felt like he was growing at all with his grandfather standing next to him."You will know you are strong when you must use that strength," he said. "And it is only then that you will be able to realize just how much of that strength you have.""Shiro, are you even listening to me?!" Tammy snapped him out of his thoughts. They were at lunch at the time."You were talking about how worried you were about your finals tomorrow," Shiro said. He had been distracted quite a lot lately. But he would not let his mind grow stagnant like it wanted to. He had to stay sharp."No, Shiro," Tammy pointed at him. "I'm worried about you and your tests tomorrow.""It would be best that you worry about yourself, Tammy," Shiro shook his head. "
"Shiro!" Geo's voice came in his head. He sounded alarmed. "Where are you? I can't find you anywhere!""Something came up," he told him, still running for home. "Grab my back pack from the bench by the forest. It has my keys in it.""What happened?""I'll tell you after school," he said. "I'm heading home early for the day."He broke of communications with him after that. His mind was too shocked at what had just happened. And the pain from leaving his mate like that was rippling through him. He used it to fuel himself to run faster.It wasn't until he got onto their territory that he noticed a familiar scent. If it were any other circumstance, he would be happy to find her here. At the moment, though, all he wished was to hide in the deepest hole that he could make.She still found him, though. Hiroko was always good at knowing when something was wrong. She ran right next to him, not saying a word to him. He knew that she could smell the scent that Jett had left all over him. He knew
Oh, how he wanted to punch something.No, not something. He wanted to punch himself."Why are you back up here again?" Bree asked. "What happened?""I'm a fucking idiot," he paced on the roof again. "That's what happened.""What happened?" Alex climbed up there with them. "Did his girlfriend come over?"It looked like Blake was climbing up as well. Great. He might as well just have a damn party on the roof at this point!"No," he rubbed his face, his body moving faster than before as he walked back and forth along the peak of the roof."What did I miss?" Blake asked."Jett found his mate," Alex said. "Long story short; it's Shiro, he was supposed to talk to him today about it; and now it seems he's fucked up.""Wait," Blake looked shocked. "No one told me that he found his mate! When was this?!""Why are you all up here?!" Jett snapped at them all. He was already losing his mind, and all of his friends were too busy celebrating the mate that had just ran from him."I mean," Blake poin
"Okay," Bree said. "The last people we need to ask is Manny and his wife.""Can we please just figure this out already?" Jett hit his head against the dash of the car. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with all of this. He just wanted to call the number and get it over with already."I mean," Blake said from the back seat. "We already know they're going to want to go. Both of them love parties!""We need to know for sure," Bree argued. "This is the first party we've ever gotten invited to from the Reverence Pack, and I'm not going to mess this up!""Oh, come on, Bree," Alex rolled his eyes. "You know Jett was the only one invited. They're just trying to be polite and tell him that he could bring us along.""Can't we just give them a rough estimate and leave it at that?" Jett asked."You are so cute when you pout," Bree ruffled his hair. It reminded him of when they were both just siblings rather than leaders. "Look Jett, I know you so desperately want to talk to him again, but t
"Hey, Grandpa?" He walked along the sidewalk of the long empty streets."Yes, Shiro?" he watched him curiously as Shiro balanced himself on the small stone wall that they had been walking beside."What's it like to find your mate?""It's indescribable bliss," he smiled at him. "Finding your mate is finding the other half of your soul. Not only do they complete you, but they bring you happiness and peace for the rest of your days.""Do you think I'll find mine?" he stopped and sat down on the wall, looking at his grandfather with excitement."Of course, you will Shiro," his grandfather chuckled and put a hand on his small shoulders. "You are a Wang. And the Spirit of the Moon blesses our family with mates right when they are of age.""What do you think they will be like?""That's a good question," he said. "The Spirit of the Moon doesn't like telling her secrets when it comes to that.""But I didn't ask the moon," Shiro huffed. "I asked you, Grandpa.""Well," the tall man laughed again
"So," Alex leaned in from the back seat. They had decided to share cars for the drive up there. "How do you think the foods going to be?""If I can eat anything at the moment," Jett said. He was nervous. This was possibly the only chance he got to actually trying to talk to Shiro about all of this."Why are you so worried?" Alex asked. "You got his number at least. Now he's a simple phone call away."That was nice to think about. He wasn't expecting Shiro would give him his personal number on that invitation. He had no idea that he even had a phone. He never looked at it any time that he had seen him. He sent him a few texts at least and had gotten some replies, though. That made him happy."I'm worried because I don't know what he's going to say," Jett sighed. "This little party is where he plans on telling me why he wanted to hide this from me.""I still can't believe he takes care of the Luna duties for that pack," Bree shook her head. "A kid shouldn't have to deal with all of that
The garden was one of the places that Shiro had always loved to go explore in when he was a kid. His grandfather taught him how to care for each of the plants that they had. He loved to learn everything he could. It was amazing to him back then just how much knowledge there was in the world, even about the things that he could not see. And learning it from his grandfather made it all the more special.He wished he could ask him about what to do now. He wished he could ask someone for advice at the moment. There was nothing that could calm his heart or his thoughts and he absolutely hated it. He had learned to control so many things of himself; to be able to hide and distract. But he could not control himself with that scent in the air and the sound of him walking closer. He could not control the worry that he had about this situation. He still didn't know what he was going to say."This is a lovely garden," Jett was the first to speak, his voice low and calm. Shiro wished that he coul
"Jimmy," Geo stage whispered. "This is the worst place to talk about this, and the worst time to talk about it.""You won't let me talk to you anywhere else!" the boy cried. He always was a crier. Usually, it was Geo who had wiped those tears from his eyes and comforted him. Jimmy always came running to him when he was upset.Could Geo do the same, though? No. Even when they were together, he always had to be the strong one that took care of him and deal with all of his drama when he had a thousand other things on his plate. He hadn't even realized just how bad their relationship had been until they broke it off."There's nothing left to talk about, Jimmy," Geo told him. The tiny man was giving him the infamous doe eyes that he had used on him countless times. "It's already been said.""I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry," he cried. "I didn't mean to try and push you away. I just...""You don't want to be here," Geo finished for him. "I get it. But I'm not going to mark you an