Some Characters and Ideas borrowed but the Storyline is Mine. NO COPYING!

Chapter Eleven – Mate

I woke in the early hours of the morning when it was still twilight outside, curled up to an unfamiliar body. Whoever it was had their arms wrapped around me and I realised that they were naked along with me. I froze and the person must have felt it because they stroked my hair. 'How are you feeling?' a familiar voice asked. I spun round.

'You!' I exclaimed as I blushed and tried to cur into a ball. It was n other than Clay.

He chuckled and I glared, red faced, up at him to which he just smiled his dazzling smile at me. His mood then changes to be more serious and he asked 'Do you feel better?'

I took a minute to think about that and I found that I no longer felt so cold and my hands didn't hurt much from where I punched that tree. I nodded and enquired 'Where am I?'

'My room. After you fell asleep your shaking died down. You didn't warm up much so I brought you to sleep in here in case you went into shock again. Can you remember what happened?'

I started to relax into his warmth but then I tensed as I remembered the horrible events that took place the night before. 'I remember Raze… and Lucian. God, it was awful! Lucian… he… he changed. I was trapped but I got away.' I was starting to tremble again so Clay hugged me against him tightly and I continued. 'I got away and I ran. Then you came; knocked me over, pinned me to the floor. Then you… kissed me. I tasted blood and something happened… There was this thing inside me! What did you do?' I rapidly said in a panicked voice, somehow not converting into Japanese.

'Shhh… it's ok' he soothed. 'I would never hurt you. You don't need to be afraid.' He continued to stroke my hair comfortingly.

'What did you do to me?' I asked again after I finally calmed down.

He looked at me with an expression of soft wonder on his face. 'With Lycans, only a mated pair can run their beasts through each other like that.' He smiled. 'And you are my mate.'

'Huh?'

'My mate. When Lycans find their mate, they stay together for life. And you're mine.'

'You mean… like a boyfriend?'

'Um… sort of. But for life.'

I eyed him sceptically. 'Are you joking?' I asked but by the serious look on his face, I could tell he was not. 'Why does my life have to be so strange? I groaned. 'Anyway – we only met two days ago. How can you be so sure?'

'I just am. You know it as well, deep down. We have a connection.'

I thought back to the moment when I met him and remembered how I couldn't take my eyes off him; how he distracted me with only a smile. I blushed and turned away from his smiling face, burying my head into the warm curve of his shoulder. Clay embraced me and raised my head so that I met his eyes.

'I know that this is a lot of information, but I assure you, what I say is true.'

I looked into his eyes, trying to detect any lies. I found none. I was unsure of what to say so I slowly nodded my head. Clay smiled that wonderful, heart-warming smile of his and hugged me close to him. He ran his fingers soothingly through my hair until I relaxed and we drifted off to sleep, wrapped in each others arms.

Could he really be my mate? He made me feel safe and at home, which were difficult emotions for me to feel in a time like this. I thought about this as sleep washed over me. Maybe he was; but how could I be sure?

I woke again with the sun shining through the window. I must have moved because Clay stirred behind me. 'Morning' he groaned and then traced his fingers lightly down my skin. It made me squirm and I yipped girlishly.

'Stop it!' I laughed.

'Want to get some food?'

'Hmmm… ok.' Clay grinned and picked me up. He carried me over to the door; both of us were still naked! 'Clay, don't we need to get dressed?' I asked as I motioned to our state of undress.

'Why?' he asked with a puzzled face, to which I replied 'Why not?' with a baffled face of my own.

'What's the point? Nobody round here cares, anyway.'

'Huh?'

'If no one who lives here cares whether we are dressed or not, then why bother?' I was too puzzled to answer and when I didn't reply, Clay took it as a sign of approval and continued to carry me to the kitchen. I was too confused to protest. In the kitchen he put me on a chair and then set about making pancakes. Jason came in and sat down so Clay made some for him as well. I couldn't keep a straight face; here Clay and I were naked and Jason didn't seem to care. He didn't even seem to register it. I decided to try and ignore it and watched Clay move around the kitchen and prepared the food. By the time he brought a big plate of them over to the table I was starving! He then brought the maple syrup with a plate of ham over and sat next to me. It took us only five minutes to finish the whole plate between us and believe mw, it was no small plate.

'How come I'm eating so much? I always ate more than normal people but never as much as this.'

'Even though you are Furione and have a higher metabolic system than humans, now you are Lycan too so the metabolic rate goes up even more.' Jason answered.

I thought about it. 'Makes sense, I guess…'

Clay went to get another lot of pancakes which we ate. 'What do you want to do today?' he asked.

'What can I do? I've got to stay here haven't I?' I replied sarcastically.

'True. Have you unpacked your stuff yet?'

'No, not yet…' I had sort of been trying to put it off.

'Then let's do that. I'll help. Jason, are you going to help?'

'Can't, sorry. I'm on shopping duty.'

'Have fun.' Clay exclaimed as he grabbed my hand and dragged me upstairs to my room.

We spent around four hours unpacking my things and finding places for them to go – stopping to get food half way through. After that we sat on the climbed onto the bed, pulled the curtains back because I thought it looked cool and told eachother more about ourselves.

Apparently had been turned when he was very young. Most of his life had been spent out on the Bayou near Syracuse living as a feral wolf child and hunting his own food until Lucian found him and brought him to Stonehaven. Clay had to relearn how to behave by human standards as he had not done so for so long and didn't have much contact with humans. He never fully adopted those standards because he thought himself as more Lycan than human.

Sometimes he could be quite rash and quick to anger as he loved to get his own way. He was Lucian's top bodyguard; Raze was his second. Clay would do mostly anything to protect Lucian and he trained with Raze often as they were the best fighters in the pack.

We then decided to share a bath because there was nothing better to do. Clay never hinted to having sex. He would probably wait until I was ready. It was a relief because even though I was now 20 years old, I had never had a relationship with anyone before; I was still a virgin. We found a lighter to light the candles – I couldn't control fire yet – and we talked some more.

After the bath I sat on my bed in- front of Clay as he brushed my hair and we then pulled the curtains back again and slept. Alcide had probably told him that I liked it and found it relaxing.