Chapter 4. Ashleigh
The sound of a dry branch snapping echoed through the silent winter night. Startled, I jumped up and grabbed the stick I had been using as a walking cane.
"Who is there?" I yelled into the darkness as I held the branch out in front of me protectively.
"Relax, don't stress so much," Aspen said as he stretched his legs towards the fire.
I turned towards him. "Didn't you hear that? Someone is coming."
He put his hands behind his head as he made himself comfortable. "Yeah, no need to worry."
I snarled and poked his leg with my stick, earning an angry look from him. I was about to poke him again as I heard approaching footsteps so I decided that my stick had a better use than to poke a carefree Aspen with.
From the darkness, I saw a shadow appear, so I hid myself behind a tree as I watched the approaching figure. I tightened my grip on the stick and prepared myself for an attack.
With my breath held, I listened for the person making its way closer to our camp. The snow creaked and creaked and suddenly, silence. I slowly peeked from behind my tree.
"What are you doing?" a curious voice suddenly asked, almost making me jump out of my skin.
With a swift kick, I targeted the woman who was suddenly standing behind me as I buried my foot in her shin.
"Awww, man!" she howled, as she jumped up and down on one leg in pain.
I raised my stick and as I put some distance between us, I yelled. "Watch it, lady!"
She extended her arms towards me as she backed away from me. "Woah, relax. Am not here to hurt you."
"Lee-Lee! You’re finally here." I suddenly heard from behind me.
Aspen had gotten up and was now approaching the woman standing in front of me. A grin appeared on his handsome face as he pulled her into a tight hug. I heard her squeal as he happily kissed her cheek.
Mine. I heard my wolf jealously growl inside of me as Aspen hugged the girl. So they knew each other? Why was she touching him?
"What took you so long?" he inquired as he took the girl in a choke hold and ruffled his knuckles through her hair.
"Get off me!" she yelled as she squirmed herself free and stomped him against his arm. "Wasn't my fault, Aspen. A little Danny drama, as usual. They are only a couple of minutes behind."
He shook his head and scoffed. "Typical. But am glad you’re finally here."
The girl flashed her perfect white teeth and as if she only now noticed me, she took a step forward and studied me from head to toe. A shiver ran up my spine as her eyes travelled over my body and after she inspected me, our eyes met.
They were impossibly blue, piercing blue, glacier blue and another shiver shot through my body.
Mine.
I confusedly tilted my head as I heard my wolf stir again. I thought she meant Aspen, I mean, I felt the thrill when I was with him, the attraction, he drew me in. He called out to me. But when the girl cheekily winked at me, all thoughts of Aspen vanished from my mind as my wolf howled again.
Mine.
I held my hands up at both of them. "Woah, back up a bit here. Aspen, who is she?"
He smirked as he slung his arm over her shoulders for another hug. Again my wolf growled, but this time, I realised it wasn't because of him, it was because of her. He was touching her.
"Lee-Lee, this is my baby sister!"
What?
"Bro, stop calling me Lee-Lee! I’m only thirteen minutes younger than you!" she protested as she shrugged his arm away and slowly walked towards me. So, his sister, huh? Damn, that was one good-looking family.
"So who is this lovely lady?" she smiled as she stared directly into my eyes again. I felt myself heat up as she looked daringly at me, one eyebrow sexily raised. Remind me again how I managed to find two freakishly handsome people in the middle of nowhere?
"Hi, I’m Akira," I hastily introduced myself to the woman who was apparently Aspen's sister.
The palm of her hand was warm against my wrist as she greeted me the old way. "Ashleigh, but Ash is fine, instead of using Lee-Lee like this moron over here. "
"Ashleigh," I greeted her, forcing my voice to sound casual, like I hadn't just met my mate. I saw her raise an eyebrow at her full name so I quickly added: "I don't like pet names."
"Akira," she replied as she held my gaze, her thumb tickling the inside of my wrist. I quickly pulled my hand away and awkwardly dusted myself off. "You said more of you’re coming?"
Aspen nodded. "Yeah, our friend Danielle and her three lovers should arrive any..."
"Helloooo, my darlings!" a cheery voice trumpeted through the night.
"...Second now," Aspen muttered under his breath, as four more figures appeared from the night.
I softly groaned. Great, more people. Did this forest produce them?
Appearing from the shadows, I saw a redhead followed by three more guys. Greattttt. If I wanted to be surrounded by more people, I would've brought people from home.
"This, this is Danny. She is a friend." Aspen introduced the girl who was by all means, way too cheery.
I extended my arm for a handshake but found myself in a full on hug. "Hiii, it is so nice to meet you. I’m Danielle, but you should call me Danny."
"Danielle, I don't really like usi..."
"Danny! I won't take no for an answer!" she sang, my head already hurting from all her happiness. How could one person be this happy?
"Oh, how rude of me! Boys, introduce yourself!" she chirped as she slapped her own forehead. She pointed towards the first male from the right and he stepped forward.
He gave me a steady handshake and I felt my hand disappear into his palm. He was massive.
"Regan," he curtly nodded, his voice incredibly low and calming. He had the same vibe as an oak tree and somehow, it didn't spook me as much as a guy as tall as a mountain should.
"My lover," Danielle, no, Danny, chirped in. I didn't like pet names, but I decided that I'd rather not have her tell me again. She was just too cheery, what if it rubbed off on me?
The second guy didn't make any attempts to come closer. Instead he just awkwardly waved at me as he nervously ran his hand through his hair. "H-Hi, hey, my name is JP and it is so lovely to meet you. D-D-Did you know that your brain is 80% water? N-N-Not specifically your brain, I mean, everyone's b-brain. I wasn't implying that your brain had more water than anyone else, n-no-not at all, I just meant that..."
"JP rambles when he is nervous." Danny interrupted him, as she gently rubbed his shoulder. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and patted his forehead dry as she told him to relax. The slender boy apparently named, JP let out a long sigh and pushed his glasses back up his nose.
"But between you and me? He is an incredible lover." Danny whispered loudly. Loud enough that everyone could hear, so not at all between her and me. So two lovers, huh?
Before I could ask more questions about her romantic situation, I was suddenly slapped on my back by the third guy in what I assumed was supposed to be a friendly introduction. To be honest, it felt more like someone trying to slap my heart out of my body.
"Oh, and that is Darren," the redhead happily said, unaware that I was wondering if I had an internal bleeding.
"Her lover as well," the shaggy, dark-haired guy grinned as I saw a twinkle of amusement flicker in his eyes.
So three lovers. No wonder she was this happy.
"Yeah, yeah, boys, meet Akira, Akira, these are the boys. Can we skip the chitchat and poke up this fire? I’m freezing!" Ashleigh suddenly chimed in as she waved away Danny's pleasantries and pulled out some logs from Regan's backpack.
This guy just walked around with firewood in his pack?
"I’m starving." Darren declared as he dropped his satchel down by the fire and somehow conjured a rack of dried meat. My mouth started to water from the dry smell alone.
As I had shared my rations with Aspen when he was still in his wolf form, I had run out of food much quicker as anticipated and I couldn't help but hope that they would share with me.
Darren started tearing up the meat and distributed it to his comrades who hungrily wolfed it down.
"Hey Akira, aren't you going to sit down with us?" he called in my direction as he threw a big strip of meat at me. I thanked my fast reflexes as I caught the meal thrown at me and happily sat down on my log as I devoured what turned out to be dried deer.
"Yo, Aspen! Haven't you been feeding her?" the raven-haired boy called Aspen sitting next to me.
I threw a stick at his head and interjected. "Him, feeding me? I have been feeding him for the past days!"
The crystal sound of a babbling brook found my ears and as I turned to find the source, I found myself staring at a beautiful face. Ashleigh. When she laughed, a cute set of dimples appeared in her cheeks and she it made her look a lot less stoic. Gorgeous.
"Oh my god, that is priceless! Akira, you’re my hero," she chuckled as she briefly touched my shoulder in appreciation. Her attention was quickly drawn back into the group conversation, but I kept staring at where she touched me. Was it even possible to fall under someone's spell just like that?
I silently chewed on my strip of meat as I watched the group all chatter away. They definitely seemed comfortable around each other. I wondered why I had found Aspen so far ahead of them and why nobody had come for him sooner.
Weren't they worried about him?
"Show me your leg!" I heard Danny call from the other side of the campfire as she pulled his leg from underneath his furs. He protested a little as she poked the rapidly fading scar on his body. I guess being a shifter does have its advantages.
I wondered how that would play out, but I couldn't keep my eyes off of Ashleigh for long. She just drew me in and like a moth to a flame, I couldn't resist her.
Her raven-black hairs flowed over her shoulders like a dark waterfall and her blue eyes were made from the bluest of all the blues. Her ears moved up and down as she chewed on her strip of meat and the way she moved was vaguely cat-like. She was utterly spellbinding.
I realised I had been staring at her non-stop, so I quickly tore my eyes away from her. Instead, I stared at the dancing flames of the bonfire and the multiple people that were apparently camping with us. At least, judging from the tent that JP was trying to set up and Darren who seemed to have half a kitchen stowed away in his satchel. He had quite a bad boy attitude, but that just disappeared into thin air as he was happily shining up his pots and pans. Somehow, he must've figured this was the perfect time to set it all up. He seemed so happy with his cooking ware, I didn't have the heart to tell him we were moving camp tomorrow.
A bit further, Ashleigh was pulling out furs from her pack as she and Aspen seemed to be setting up a tent as well. Great, now I didn't need to share my tent with the clingy wolf anymore.
I realised I was low key creeping on Ashleigh, but I just couldn't tear my eyes away from her. She was just so utterly stunning. The way the muscles of her back rippled under her shirt every time she bent down and her tight...
No! Bad Akira. You can look but you can't touch. I stared at the beautiful woman as she turned a couple of branches handily into a simple frame.
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud voice. "You showed her your wolf? Are you crazy? You know how dangerous that is!" I heard Ashleigh from across the campsite yell at her brother, who was sheepishly grinning at her. He nonchalantly scratched the back of his head as he awkwardly waved at me.
She followed his gaze, slapped him over the head with a "Why would you do such a thing?" and barged in my direction. With her finger pointed angrily at me and rage blazing in her eyes, she stomped towards me. I involuntarily took a step back, my wolf flinching inside me as we witnessed our mate approach us with such furiosity.
"You! What did you do to my brother that he would show you his wolf?" she yelled at me, her finger jabbing harshly into my collarbone.
"Oi, you’re hurting me!" I called back as I slapped her hand away.
"I will do so much more than just hurt you," she growled as she brought her face impossibly close to mine. Her eyes had darkened in anger as they bore deep into mine. Damn, she was scary.
Mine. My wolf growled inside of me, not liking being threatened by our mate one bit. And drawing from my wolf's strength, I found the courage to push Ashleigh away from me. My hands only barely grazed her shoulders, but the effect was instant.
“You’re so dea... Oh..." Ashleigh stopped dead in her tracks as we touched. As our wolves touched.
A voice, besides my own, filled my very being as I suddenly heard what was unmistakably my soulmate's.
Hi. Ashleigh's wolf whispered as she reached out to the wolf in my chest. And while I stood in the cold winter's night with snowflakes decorating my skin, an unrivalled warmth engulfed me as I exchanged my very first words with my mate.
Mine. My wolf happily yipped back, repeating the only word she seemed to know.
I finally dared look back up in Ashleigh's eyes and found all the darkness gone. The dark circles around her eyes had made way for a beautiful sparkle. Her pink lips were no longer shouting profanities at me and her slender hands were no longer used to attack me. Her whole demeanour had changed from endless rage to utterly bewildered.
A gust of wind caught my hairs as they tangled them in front of our faces. A soft finger grazed over my cheek as Ashleigh pushed the lost strands of hair behind my ear. Her eyes flickered happily as a smile curled up one of the corners of her lips. I leant closer to her, a whiff of wild strawberry catching my nose. Wild strawberries, here, in the middle of winter?
"Hi," she now whispered, our faces so close our noses almost touched.
"Hi," I murmured back, our hands falling down from her shoulders, our fingers intertwined before they reached the height of our hips. As she was only slightly taller, she had to bend her head down towards me as her glacier blue eyes pierced into mine. The wind got hold of my hair again, but this time she wrapped my dark strands around the beautiful woman in front of me, where they got lost in her own sea of black hairs.
"I’m sorry, I didn't realise..." she started her apology, but I quickly cut her off.
"It's fine," I whispered, drawing my wolf to the surface so she could revel in the presence of her mate.
"No, I need to say this... I can't believe I didn't even feel your wolf," Ashleigh muttered, a pained look appearing in her eyes as she realised she was this close to attacking her own mate.
I grimly chuckled. "Having your wolf locked up for twenty-one years will do that to one."
A sad smile made its way to her lips as her fingers briefly touched my cheek again. "You were born in the West," she stated.
"I was," I confirmed, my skin heating up underneath the light touch of her fingertips.
"I’m sorry."
"Don't be... I've never known anything else. Until a couple of days ago, I didn't even know there were wolves out there who can shift without the..." I slammed my mouth shut as I wondered if I could reveal the existence of the Winter Stone. Mate or no mate, she was still a stranger to me.
"...Who can shift without the Wolf's Relic," she finished my sentence, her eyes never leaving mine.
"The Wolf's Relic?"
"Or as you like to call it, your precious Winter Stone."
I cocked my head to the side. "You know about that?"
"Everyone knows about that."
I raised my eyebrows. I always thought our Winter Stone was a relatively well-kept secret.
"Let's not talk about that now. I think we have much, much more interesting things we can discuss," Ashleigh huskily whispered, her lips so close to mine, I could almost taste the wild strawberries.
Just a little bit closer...
"Ashleigh! Don't scare the poor girl away on our first night!" A loud voice suddenly called from across the campsite. Disappointed, we broke apart as I angrily stared at the culprit. Danny. Grr, I'd get her back for this.
I turned back to Ashleigh, but the moment had passed. She threw me an odd look, grazed her soft fingers over my cheek once more and turned on her heels. I admired the swing of her hips as she made her way back to her brother, who seemed utterly confused by the tent frame.
Instead of kissing my mate, I'd just settle for observing her every move. She pointed at a branch and gave instructions to a completely clueless Aspen. That boy couldn't set up a tent if his life depended on it.
With every passing moment, I could see Ashleigh's frustration grow as Aspen's efforts seemed to make their frame less and less sturdy. At last, with a sigh, the frame gave in as their whole tent sank to the ground.
"Oh-oooh..." I heard Aspen gasp as he slowly backed away from a fuming Ashleigh.
“You’re so dead," Ashleigh growled, her body tensing right before she launched at him. He dropped the furs that had been wrapped around his waist and with his manhood out and about, he sprinted away from his sister.
It truly was an odd sight. One naked man running through the snowy trees followed by a mad woman chasing him with a stick.
I glanced at the rest of the group, who seemed to be done setting up camp. They had all gathered back around the fire, but they seemed unfazed. Danny was giggling as Darren was probably whispering sweet nothings in her ear, Regan didn't even blink at the unusual spectacle and JP was still as nervous as when he arrived.
I approached them with my arms stretched out in astonishment. "Really? None of you is going to comment on that?" I blurted as I pointed towards a giggling, dancing Aspen and an utterly offended Ashleigh who was shouting all sorts of profanities at him.
JP glanced up from behind his glasses and shrugged. "L-L-Looks like a regular thing to me."
Darren looked up, snorted at the sight and went straight back to whispering in Danny's ear, who frankly wouldn't even have noticed if a Yeti appeared in front of her.
"Regan? Any thoughts on the matter?" I sarcastically asked, wondering what kind of people I had found myself in the midst of. If this wasn't weird, I didn't know what was.
Regan adjusted his seat and added. "Ash and Aspen always get into fights. This one doesn't even crack their top five of craziness."
I pulled up an eyebrow. "Really? So what other things have they done?"
"T-T-The time Ashleigh burned off his eyebrows was p-pretty funny."
The tall man nodded. "Or when Aspen tied Ash's hair to a tree in her sleep."
I scratched my head. "That doesn't sound so bad?"
"Oh, but then he threw a whole bucket of water over her. And when she tried to run after him, the tree took a big chunk of her hair. It took months to regrow." Darren chimed in.
"Ouch, that sounds painful."
Regan nodded again. He was a big nodder. "Yes, Ash was livid. We had to tell Aspen to knock it down a peg."
"So the fights were over?" I asked, simpleton that I was.
Danny tore herself away from Darren. "Oh dear heavens, no, that was only the beginning. We call it The First Great War."
"Hmm..." I hummed in disbelief. Surely, it couldn't have been that bad?
"Oh y-yes. It was a b-bad year. It involved a l-l-lot of angry bees, more burned off eyeb-b-brows, and one time, a m-moose."
I threw another look at the twisted twins and found Aspen now hidden high up in a tree, while Ashleigh seemed to be furiously hacking it down, slivers of wood flying everywhere. What a weird bunch. How did I get involved with them again?
Oh right, wolf in pain, sadness, yada yada.
At least she was making tinder. I could grab it, run away from these crazy people and start my own campfire again.
"Just ignore them. They will calm down soon," Regan advised as he went back building a miniature house out of moss and sticks.
"You sure we don't need to go and... I don't know, help?"
Darren laughed. "Oh no, I made the mistake once of interfering in one of their fights. They both came after me instead. Aspen threw an axe at my head."
"Oookay..." Staying away from them, it is. I gave my log-chair another shove and decided to let the kids play.
"Sooo... How do you all know crazy twins?"
Darren and Danny finally pulled apart.
"I have known the twins basically from birth. They were my neighbours. They burned down my house once. It was interesting," Regan casually said, like people going around and burning down houses was a regular thing.
"Alrrrrighty?" I think...
"I met Ashleigh a long time ago. She tried to cut off my ponytail, so I hit her and we have been best friends ever since!" Danny chirped in, and again, I wondered about the sanity of the group.
Darren grinned as he folded his arms behinds his head. "I met them both when I started going out with Danny. I thought they were kind of weird in the beginning, but you get used to it real quick. Don't worry about it," he reassured me.
Well, if Darren could get used to it, so could I, right? I turned to JP who seemed oddly quiet, even for his part. "How did you meet the twisted twins?"
A smile broke through on his face. "I-I wasn't a very p-popular kid... I g-got bullied a lot. A l-lot. A-Aspen and Ashleigh got rid of my b-b-bullies. I never really had much f-friends in my entire l-life. B-But now I have a family."
He smiled as Danny kissed him tenderly on his cheek and wrapped her arms around him.
“You’re all my family," JP added, his stutter oddly gone.
A warm and comfortable feeling fell over our little group and although they all seemed crazy, I got a brief glimpse of why they all stuck together.
"Aaaaarrrggghhh!"
A scream echoed through the night as Ashleigh finally managed to take down the tree, and Aspen with it. With a loud crash, the tree smacked into the frozen ground and the naked man tumbled out onto the branches
"Oww, oww, owww, needles in my butt. Needles in my butt!"
A laugh clear as water accompanied the screaming and I felt the wolf inside me stir. An intense longing filled my chest as I looked at the female figure hitting her brother with a fan of branches.
I shook my head in dismay as I decided to just listen to the group and let them cool off.
"Hi guys," Aspen cheerily said as he ran back to the group, scattering pine needles everywhere he went.
"Here, pants," Regan rumbled as he threw a set of khaki coloured pants towards the crazy boy. For the first time in days, I actually saw Aspen with pants on. What a change!
Not a moment later, Ashleigh re-entered the camp and with a wink, sat down next to me. My wolf suddenly wide-awake as she briefly brushed against my leg. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to talk to her. I needed to talk to her. I mean, for god's sake, she was my mate!
"So... Ehhmmm..." I started, losing my nerve as her crystal blue eyes found mine.
"Yes?"
"Errghmmm..." I coughed, choking on my own spittle.
She patted me on my back and the moment she touched me, I felt the wolf inside me run rampant as she tried to jump out of my body.
"Better?"
"Eghhmmm... Yeahh..." I squeaked, already mortified that I was embarrassing myself in front of her. But then I remembered she had been spanking her brother with a tree not even five minutes ago and I reasoned she was probably used to something.
Come on, Akira! I reprimanded myself. I wasn't going to turn into a lovestruck fawn. No, play it cool. You got this, girl.
"So you and your brother don't get along, huh?" I smiled, hoping I sounded casual and breezy.
She tilted her head as she looked at me. "What do you mean? We are super close," she said, looking utterly confused at me for even assuming otherwise.
"I... Ehmm... Nevermind."
"Mmkay," she grinned, as she chewed down on another piece of meat. She still had a lost twig of pine stuck in her long hairs, but it made her even more beautiful.
I felt my lips curl up in a smile, as I studied her features. Was this really my mate? Was this beautiful piece of art really meant for me?