VIRGIN LOVERS
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
Kelly opened her eyes with a groan, the scent of dirt instantly making her alert. Sitting up, she released a gasp as her head began to throb. The last thing she remembered was sitting at her parents’ table, eating dinner. They had been talking about that latest mating call, and she’d pretty much ignored whatever they’d said. Her parents weren’t the heads of the pack, or even close to being the strongest, but they had always been gossips. When the pack elders got together once a year, everyone knew it was for them to find a destined mating pair. Kelly, for one, hated it. The moment the elders picked two people, always a man and a woman, the couple was sent off to some distant island somewhere for one year.
The couple in question never had any say in it, nor did they have any clue beforehand what was going on. Glancing around her all she saw was trees for quite some distance, and she really wasn’t having the best feeling about this right now.
Rubbing at her head, she sat up, and saw that her backpack was on the ground beside her. Reaching out for it, she unzipped the main part and saw all of her favorite things, her music player, e-reader, and notebooks.
She felt a twist in her stomach and prayed that this wasn’t what she thought it was.
There was a male opposite her, and she’d been so busy looking further around her that she hadn’t even paid attention to the ground.
“Oh, hell no,” she said, glaring at the guy, who suddenly sat up.
“What the fuck?” Drake asked.
Any kind of confusion vanished as Kelly got to her feet and stared at Drake. There was no way in this world that she would ever be mated to that asshole.
The moment he saw her, he shot to his feet, too. “What the fuck have you done now?” he asked.
“What have I done? This is totally on you. Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?”
“Babe, don’t mean to scare you, but I have nothing to do with this. Clearly you want this body enough to go and kidnap me.” Drake ran a hand down his body, rolling his hips as if that was a sensual move.
“Ugh! I think I just threw up in my mouth. Give me a second to actually give a fuck!” She didn’t want to keep on staring at him.
“Look, if this isn’t some sick joke from you, then where the hell are we?”
Kelly grabbed her bag after zipping it up, and placed it on her shoulder. Her stomach was turning, and she forced herself to calm down and face the asshole opposite her. She would neither confirm nor deny if Drake was a man. He was the most horrible shifter she had ever seen, and the biggest bully in the pack.
“What do you remember?” she asked.
“Simple, I was eating dinner.”
She froze, and looked at Drake. “So was I.”
“I bet it was a whole lot of food for you,” he said.
Comments about her weight again, but they slid right off her.
“What’s the matter, Drake? Can’t handle a woman with a few curves? Oh, that’s right, in order to be able to handle a woman, you must first be a man!” She really didn’t like him at all.
He was about to open his mouth when a cell phone began to ring. They stared at each other, and started patting down their clothes.
They must look a sight, standing out in the forest, patting down their clothing. She was panicking because right now she couldn’t be in the same breathing space as Drake. It just wasn’t possible.
Pulling out her cell phone, she pressed the accept button, and then clicked speaker.
“Mom, I need you to come and get me,” Kelly said.
“Yeah, can you ask my folks to come and pick me up? I seem to be in a bit of a bind right now,” Drake said.
“Oh, honey, haven’t you figured it out yet?” her mother asked.
“Figured what out? I’m in hell, Mom. Please, whatever lesson this is, I don’t like it. Please come and get me.”
“You’re on the island, my dear.”
Kelly froze and looked at Drake to see that he also understood. “That’s not possible. The island is for mated couples, Mom. Drake and I, we can’t stand each other.”
“That’s right. This has been a serious misunderstanding, and right now, we could really do with coming home,” Drake said.
“The elders called it—and even though we had our doubts, especially with how much you appear to dislike each other—the elders said that you two are the next mated pair, and as such that bond must be brought together. Now, Kelly, I’ve given you a rucksack full of the things to help you through. Please use it, and if you need anything else, call me. There will be regular packages sent your way of food and any necessities. We all hope you have a happy year, and a good mating.”
By the time the call was finished, Kelly felt tears well up in her eyes.
“This is horseshit.”
“I’ve always hated the elders,” Kelly said. “When I get home, I’m leaving the pack. This is the last damn straw.”
Drake paused and turned toward her. “You’d leave the pack?”
“Don’t you want to? We’ve both been kidnapped, thrown on an island, and if you remember the rules, we’re here for the next year. We can’t leave this island at all, unless one of us kills the other.”
The look on Drake’s face surprised her. He seemed to recoil from her the moment she mentioned death.
“Look, peaches, I may not like you a whole lot, but that doesn’t mean I want to kill you.”
“I don’t want to kill you either.”
“Could we phone the local search and rescue?” Drake said.
“It’s forbidden. We can’t call anyone outside of the main pack, Drake.”
“And if we do?” he asked, looking hopeful.
“You risk getting a punishment. Torture, maiming.” She glanced down at his dick. “That could be removed.”
He cupped his dick, and shook his head. “Fuck!”
“Yeah, I know. We better find the house that we’re going to be staying at,” she said, pulling both straps on her shoulders. This was the last thing she wanted to be doing for the next year.
****
Drake kept chancing glances over at Kelly. They had been walking in one direction for over an hour now, and neither of them had spoken. Right now, he really didn’t want silence.
“So, the elders picked us two as the next mated pair,” he said. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
“What do you think it means?”
“That we’re, like, destined to be together.”
“The elders clearly have it wrong or they misread whatever mystical crap they read. You and I, we’re not a mated pair, never have been, never will be.”
He gritted his teeth and said nothing for a few more steps. “Have the elders ever got it wrong?”
This made Kelly pause, and turn to him. He saw her swallow and shake her head. “No. They’ve never gotten it wrong.”
“You said that death will release us from here.”
“It will.”
“Has that ever happened before?” he asked. He didn’t want to kill her. It was the last thing he wanted to do. Right now, he really wished he’d paid attention in Mating 101.
As it was, he’d been too busy sleeping to even give a damn. All of the pack had to go to these damn classes, and he for one hated them. Of course, Kelly had been at every single one, but they had been born together, on the same day, at exactly the same time. They shared a birthday, and the pack throughout the whole of their lives had tried to throw them together.
Even his friends had been telling him since he turned eighteen that there was a chance that he would be thrown together with Kelly in a mating ritual. Unless he killed her, the next year he was going to be really close to her.
Damn it.
Cricking his neck, he swung his arms back and forth.
“From what we’ve been told death has never happened before.”
“Well, what happens? I don’t think every mating pair is all that fond of the decision. Look at us.”
“Then I guess they’re under the assumption that closeness makes the heart grow fonder. I really don’t know,” she said. “I don’t have a clue what is going on to be honest. I … only know what I’ve been told or what I’ve been forced to read. Didn’t you pay attention to anything?”
“It was mating, and I considered it a pretty easy process. Put one into the other, have a bit of fun, and ta-da, mated.”
“Wow, you really think it’s all about sex.” She shook her head.
“That’s what mating is.”
“No, that’s half of the process. You can have sex with anyone. Mating is something different.”
“Enlighten me then, bright eyes,” he said, folding his arms.
“It’s about finding your loved one, Drake. The other half of yourself. The very soul that you’ve been searching for. It’s a connection, not just physical. It’s chemical, and everything. This isn’t a joke. This isn’t even a little bit funny. This is for life. When a couple in a pack mates, it’s for life. There are a lot of couples that would kill for this very thing right now. Some couples are torn apart by the elders’ decision.” She sighed. “No one has ever come away from the island, and not been a mated pair.”
With that, she walked on ahead. After a few feet she paused and glanced back at him. “Found it.”
Her golden hair seemed to catch the light just at that moment, the blue of her eyes sparkling even as she looked sad. An urge started deep inside Drake, telling him that he didn’t want to be the cause of her sadness. Despite all the things he didn’t like about Kelly, her smile he absolutely loved. This made him hesitate even as Kelly moved on ahead. There were some things that he’d kept to himself that he didn’t want Kelly to know.
Right now, he watched as her ass moved, heading toward the house. The jeans she wore molded to every curve, making him ache in all the right ways. For years he had kept the way he felt a secret because this animosity between them was his own doing. Years of name calling and all the other shit he’d done had pretty much guaranteed that he was going to hell because this mating was never going to work.
His father had warned him many times to not be a dick. He’d not listened, and he’d been a big dick, hating on this girl because he was tired of being pushed toward her.
Now the elders had taken matters into their own hands, and he was with her.
Forcing himself to follow, he entered the cottage, and already scented his family. “They were here,” he said.
“Play me.” She held up a video tape that was straight out of the eighties. She pushed it into the video player, and they stood back, watching as their parents came into view.
His mother and father were sitting together looking happy.
“I know you’re both probably thing we’re all crazy. You’ve hated each other for so long, but the elders do not lie. Drake, Kelly, you’re destined to be together, and for the next year, we hope that you will both work hard to give this a chance.” This was from his parents.
“Kelly, honey, I know right now you’re probably wanting to run, to get as far away from him as you can. The elders spoke. All four of us questioned their decision, but they were absolute. The stars, the signs, everything they read twice over, and it was pointed at the two of you. You’re meant to be together. I hope your stubbornness won’t get in the way of that.”
“You’re stubborn,” he said, whispering in her ear.
“Shut up.”
The tape just ended, and they both stared at it.
Great.
No advice at all.