"I'm sorry brother,

I'm sorry I let ya' down.

Well these days your fine,

No these days ya' tend to lie."

Imagine Dragons, Amsterdam

My mouth was agape, my heart thudding in my chest as I stared at the man; he was close- so close that I could hear his tiny breaths of surprise. I was staring at him, as his thundering gaze seemed to study me carefully. I felt like a deer in headlights, to surprised to move or either frozen with too much fear.

"C-can I take a picture?" I suddenly said after the silence that had draped over us disappeared at the sound of my voice, "with the car, of course." I whispered.

The man smiled, before nodding at my request. I handed him my iPhone, "The button," I said, touching his hand as I pointed to the camera's button, "is right there." I told him, before scraping his finger. I felt the strange spark of electricity travel through my entire body as I scraped his bare skin.

Goosebumps traveled up my arms, but not because of the snow that was beginning to pelt my hair, but because of the man being so close to me.

"You like cars?" He asked, his voice a low, husky tone that made my mouth drop in surprise. How could someone be so drop-dead gorgeous, and have a voice to match?

I shook my head, "Not really, I just- I'm a fan of this one." I told him, before lightly patting it with the palm of my hand, before turning back to him.

"Smile." The man told me, before snapping the picture. I smiled with a blush alit on my cheeks.

I ran towards the man, looking up at his hands to see the photo. There I was, in my brother's leather jacket zipped to my chin, and my hair sprawling in every direction. My tights from yesterday were damp from the snow. My nose was bright red from the weather, but my cheeks that were a violent scarlet, wasn't because of the cold, but because of him.

"Thanks," I said, grabbing my iPhone, "I'm Silvere by the way." I told him, taking my hand out for him to shake.

He looked at my shaking freckled hand, before lifting his eyebrows up. "I'm Talon Grey," He said, taking my hand sturdily, "but just call me Grey." He finished. I stared at his hand, the tingling of sparks catching me in his hold, and I didn't want to let go, not soon and not ever.

"Are you- I mean, you don't happen to be..?" I let the question hang out of my mouth as he nodded- he had clearly recognized me as his mate.

"I'm a werewolf, and I'm aware this is territory that I've never been across." He didn't let go of my hand, his grin dropping as he stared me in the eyes, "You don't happen to know whom it belongs to, do you?" He asked, his eyes lingering on my face.

I nodded my head at Grey, "It's my brother's, well, technically it's ours until he mates, but yeah, you are on pack territory." I casted a look to Cal, who was looking on from the store, watching the scene between me and Grey unfold, "and to tell you the truth, I don't think your supposed to, or welcomed to be here."

"I think I'll be welcomed enough, I mean after all, my mate is here." He said, staring me directly in the eyes; I blushed violently, before casting my eyes to my feet.

"It'll probably be best if I go check out, and go home to my brother. I-"

He cut me off, "You wouldn't mind showing me to your home would you? Your brother is Alpha, correct?" He added. I casted my eyes down to our hands, they were still clasped together.

I nodded to Grey, "Sure, but my bike." He dropped my palm, the cold feeling of winter's weather curling back into my fingers instead of his warmth.

"I can put it in the back seat, it'll have to squeeze." He told me, before walking to my bike and picking it up easily with one of his hands.

My heart beat sped up at the sight of him, and I closed my eyes- this man was my mate- I was sure of it. But Simon, he'll go mad when I arrive in his car. I ran into the store, running up to the cash register and watching Grey push my bike into his back seat without struggle.

"It'll be fifteen dollars and twenty-two cents, Silvere." I heard Cal call to me, I nodded, letting my eyes wonder back to the cashier instead of the mysterious Grey. I fumbled with my brother's wallet, and handed him a twenty-dollar bill.

"Just, just keep the change." I said, grabbing my groceries before running to the car. I was to excited to be in a car alone with this man, but then again, when I was looking at Grey, he would be nonchalantly staring right back at me.

*

"Take this turn," I pointed to the next right, and watched as my home came into view.

Grey glanced at me, chuckling happily, before letting his beautiful car squeak at the quick turn on the dirt road. I grimaced, "I can't imagine that this road is doing any good for your car." I said, shifting in my seat, surprisingly I was comfortable in the car- unlike when I was in the truck with Simon, I'd feel suffocated and just poke out my face in the window to feel the cool air on my face.

"It isn't, but I don't mind the view." He looked at me.

"It is beautiful out here, isn't it." I replied coolly, grasping the chair's leather seating.

He chuckled deeply, "Oh, I wasn't talking about that."

I blushed deeply, before averting all of my attention to my home; I could already imagine the screaming of Simon when he'd smell Grey on the property- he'd probably tear down doors just to get his hands around his neck, but sadly, I think Grey would be able to take Sim in a fight.

"Who's leather jacket is that, anyways?" Grey asked, his eyebrows hitching up; a tone of jealously spike into his voice, making me pull my jacket closer. "I-I mean," He stuttered lightly, and I knew at once that he wasn't really used to talking to girls. "You're my mate, if we hadn't made that clear, but- I just, I don't want you smelling like another man." He fumbled with his hair, pushing it out of his golden eyes before smiling lightly.

"It was my father's, now it's my brother's." I told him, before running to the door with my grocery bag, and opening the unlocked door.

I could hear Simon's feet thundering on the kitchen floor, as he ran to me to the door; I looked up at him with wide eyes, his own flickering with streams of dangerous black. He gulped, bending over me like Death itself, "Why do I smell an Alpha on you?" He asked, then he pressed his nose into the top of my hair, "why is it all over you, Silvere?"

I shifted on my feet, unsure of what to say as he kept his tone low and dangerous; it was never a good thing for him to keep quiet, especially when he was naturally a loud person.

"I-I-" I began, but not before I felt a hard stomach on my back.

A second growl released into the air, this one happening to be an even deeper, dangerous, and meaningful growl than my brother's. Grey was behind me, his hand suddenly placed on my shoulders.

"Care to introduce me, Silvere?" Grey asked, lowly.

"Well, aren't you acquainted quite nicely, Silv!" Simon spat back, grabbing me by the elbows, and yanking me behind him. Grey growled at the action, as he took a heavy step towards my brother.

Grey snarled, "Silvere is my mate, boy, hand her back over before you regret it." He threatened, the vein in his neck beginning to show, I place my hands on Simon as I tried to run back into the middle of the two men that were bound to destroy the house when the decided to let chaos of fighting go.

"Mate?!" My brother asked, turning around to me, "Mate?!" He roared, grabbing my shoulders and pushing me to the staircase. "Go to your room- right now, Silvere."  He turned back to Grey, his eyes angry, "and you, come back in five years when she's twenty-one and done with college."

Grey crossed his arms as he watched me stand on the bottom stair, "She's my mate-"

Simon cut him off, "She's my sister. Get out of my territory unless you want to never see her again." he threatened. "Silvere, I didn't say 'go to you room' for the fun of it, stop standing and go." I froze, unsure of what to do until Simon's voice rose, "Go!"

I jolted at his voice, and turned to look at Grey one last time.

"Don't go!" Grey called over Simon's raging voice. "You can't order her around! Where is your father, he's in charge of her, not you." He said, crossing his arms as he glared at my brother with his golden eyes turning a beady black.

"Our father is dead, get out." Simon shouted, his hands beginning to ball into fists.

Grey paused for a moment, before biting his lip, and shifting on his heels, "I'm not leaving without her." He said, "I've tried not to be overbearing to her, since she is so young; I could've shoved her into my car and drove her outside of the pack lines, just to take her on the side of the road and mark her. But I didn't." Grey told Simon, as lowly as he could, thinking I was out of ear-shot. "and I suggest if you want to keep it that way, you may as well let me stay in your territory for the time being."

Simon's roar echoed off of the wall; his hands curled around Grey's black shirt, before pushing him into the wall. Simon's arms flexed as he lifted Grey off of the ground with his own strength, "You stay here? You are right, she is young, maybe you should go back to your pack and keep yourself satisfied with some other girl, and not my sister." He threatened.

Grey growled at the advancements of Simon, before grabbing his hands that held his shirt, and jolted him backwards, not enough to hurt him, but to warn him to stand back. "I don't know how you run things around here, but I'm not going to try to forget about my mate by sleeping with another woman." He snarled.

I could feel the pulsing anger come off of Simon, and it wasn't because of me mates with Grey, but the fact that Grey wasn't like Simon. He wasn't going to try to forget me hopelessly by sleeping with others, like my brother has tried. And that made him furious.

"Silvere." Simon whispered, before looking to me with black eyes, "I want you upstairs in your room, and don't come down until you stop hearing the howling."

My throat tightened as I stared wide-eyed at both of the men, before Grey flashed a devious smile that made my spine shiver.

"Oh, so the mutt wants to play does he?" He accused, before watching Simon walk outside, and following behind him to the front yard.

*

I stared at my brother, he was completely unharmed, save the long rip down his arm that wouldn't stop bleeding. "You- you idiot." I whispered to him, trying not to cry as I squeezed a wet rag over the sink, "h-he could've k-killed you." I finished, pushing the rag deep into his arm.

I watched him squirm uncomfortably underneath the cloth, but I didn't move it. For the last two hours, I had been stuck in my room, covering my ears with my hands to block out the barks and growls from my brother and my mate. They had been fighting, leaving me in my room to hear their fight, not knowing which  was winning or which was losing.

"He didn't, though." Simon said, looking up at me with his grey eyes, his lips chapped from being in the cold.

"Where is he, anyways?" I asked, taking off the rag and grabbing a dry towel. I dabbed his wound lightly as Simon shifted his feet. He sat on my toilet, the lid down as I worked on the jagged claw mark.

"He's a Lycan." He whispered, blurting out the fact like it was something that ought to be excepted.

I froze, before putting down my rag, and staring my brother back in the eyes, our grey pupils mirroring each-other in the bathroom's dim lights. "A Lycan?" I asked, feeling my breath cut at the thought.

"He's not like us, and he isn't like others." Simon said, before taking the rag away from the counter, and pressing it back onto his bleeding arm. "I don't want you to get hurt, Silvere." He added in a low tone. "A Lycan.... We're just Shifters, we have a wolf, a separate wolf in our mind, and then our human mind. That man is a wolf. There isn't any division in his brain other than being a wolf- his human mind and wolf is fused together, and I don't know which one is more dominant."

 I bit my lip, before pulling the rag away from him, "I don't care if he's a Lycan." I told him, though the fear in my eyes were apparent. Lycans were dangerous, more than the ordinary Weres, they aren't only capable of extreme strength, but their minds, they don't make since. They aren't just human one moment, then wolf the next, like us, Shifters, but one thing all the time. Wolf, or human.

"He's an Alpha Lycan, don't you recognize his name, Talon Grey? Alpha of FangDynasty-  in Italy." Simon said, before grabbing my shoulders and looking me dead in the eyes.

I laughed bitterly, "Then why is he in America, if he's from Italy- why is he in Lawrence, Oklahoma on top of that. Population of 800 something lost souls." I finished, before shrugging off his strong grasp, and taking a bandage out of the bottom of the sink.

I wrapped it carefully around Simon, watching him twist from the pain, "And if he is so much stronger than you, why did you only end up with a scratch then a gravestone?" I asked him.

"He wouldn't touch me, he kept on telling me he didn't want to hurt me."  Simon replied, letting out a growl of hurt as I tightened the bandage at his words. "I don't know why he's in Oklahoma, but my guess would be that he could sense you, you are on the brink of shifting, and you were destined to be an Alpha's mate anyways. You probably were calling out for him, without you even realizing it."

"So what am I going to do?" I asked, tying the bandage into a knot, and patting it lightly as the wound was completely patched.

Simon grimaced, "You're sixteen, I still have legal guardianship over you. You aren't going out of the country with a Lycan Alpha." My throat tightened at his response.

"But," He added, before the waterworks began, "after we were done duking it out, we came to an agreement." He put a hand through his silver-blond hair, and smiled sadly at me, "I realize you're growing up, and maybe a bit to fast, but I'm not going to take you away from your mate. I don't want to lose you, Silv." He gulped, and I watched as his eyes glazed over, "I never realized how dependent I am on you, not until now. I mean, look at you, growing up overnight. One day your four, running to me with your arms wide, trying to put flowers in my hair; now your sixteen, running away from me and into a Lycan's that stomps flowers for fun." He said.

I gulped, pushing my hair behind my ear, and studied him carefully. I've never realized how much of a boy he really was, even at twenty-one, he was still boyish in his face, and his crooked smile still pouted like a toddler's.

"I'm letting him stay on the territory, but only when you want him too. You aren't going to Italy with him, but when you're eighteen, I promise you can do what you want." I smiled, suddenly wrapping my arms around my brother into a warm embrace.

"And," He whispered in my ear, "if he ever hurts one single hair on your head, tell me, and I'll kill him."

Author's Note:

Quick update, I know. Kind of a speedy end; I really like where this book is headed. I don't really want this book to become into the usual werewolf book, where Silvere turns into the Damsel in Distress, weak and usually submissive, and falls in love blindly, and Grey becomes a big-headed idiot, I mean he's going to be protective and territorial over her, but he is really going to push not to rush her into anything.

Also, SimonXWinter relationship, more coming! A lot of you guys like where they are headed too, so :D. And don't worry about lack of action in this chapter, and romance, it'll pick up speed in a few pages.