Coffee & Kittens

Chapter 1

Rubin Stella Autumn
Rubin is a warrior (fighter/protector) in the Silva Reptilia Pack. This pack is neighboured closely by two other rival packs. Unfortunately the packs live so close together, they have to share the four human towns. Human towns/cities are dead mans land. No supernatural being can 'own' an area populated by humans. Ancient pact everyone's governed by blah blah blah. This is Rubin's maturity day. Basically, sixteen years after she was born and she and her wolf have peaked (fully matured) and she can now find her one and only soul mate...
Aaand.... ACTION
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
"Bleh" I stuck out my tongue and dragged a stupid piece of hair from it, "Delicious."
"Yup, truly the best treat." My best friend laughed from across the tiny table, and then started to complain about being tired. "Why~y did we stay up so laaate."
I was wondering why our drinks were taking so long, and was looking around the little coffee shop we were in, "Simple, you threw me a last minute party. So glad we didn't get free reign on the drink stash like your Dad let us on your party. If we had a hang over and had to get up as early as we did..."
Finally they brought us our caffeine! I think I purred but I wasn't too sure, the coffee smelled so good.
We hadn't been to this town before, Cassils I think was the name. Their only coffee shop was just a few chairs and tables scattered around, very boring looking kitchen, and almost no decorations.
"Ruby? Ruby, you listening?" Kenzie was questioning me with her chocolate eyed stare.
"Hmm? Oh yup." Then I registered what she had asked, "Uh wait, no. Nope."
She rolled her eyes and took a swig out of her to-go cup, "We should head back before someone from Inlustris trots in. This town is practically at their border."
"Dude, our border is practically at their border." I followed her and sipped at my French Vanilla Cappuccino. I had come to the conclusion that this place's coffee sucks. "Crepsills coffee is crap. Why did I let you decide to come here?"
"It's Cassils. And I agree, they put way too much creamer in mine. Its like hot watery milk." Kenzie's red locks bounced as she walked. She wore them down almost all the time.
I could feel my brown pony tail whipping back and forth. We walked in silence, my coffee chugged and in a trash can within minutes.

*Is it just me or are we being followed?* I whispered through our mind-link.
*It's Inlustris. I seen their Third back a few blocks.* She moved out of the middle of the side walk so we could walk side by side, instead of me following her a few feet back.
*Their Third, Third? Or teen Third?* I questioned.
She giggled a bit out loud, *So many T's. It was Tony, the teen third. Future Alpha must be in town too. Beta probably not far behind.*
Seeing a glass studio up ahead, I ran ahead like nothing as wrong yelling, "Zee! They have glass animals here!"
I was now standing at the shop, back turned to the road. But instead of looking through the glass, I was sneaking peeks towards the direction we'd come.
There were two guys who stopped a block down and were doing what I was doing. Facing a random shop, but looking at Kenzie and I. Kenzie was just walking by me so I turned glancing at the other side of the road, sure enough there was another guy. All of them were around our age, 15-16.
*You were right.* Kenzie and I walked in sync, I slipped in and out of mind speak, "Alpha and Third behind us, Beta is practically beside us on the other side."
Kenzie and I reached the town's end. I slipped off my back pack while we walked into the woods. After we walked for a bit I set the back pack down and pulled the tie out of my hair.
"Oo, I'm quaking at their stealth." Kenzie, I could see, was struggling not to laugh. We could hear the three boys thundering though the woods like they owned the place. I started to take off my navy blue sweatshirt and when Kenzie noticed, she looked like a fish out of water; her mouth gaping.
"What? I've shifted at the border more than a few times." I hinted at them having seen me before earning her slap my now bare arm, so I didn't argue, "Fine. Fine, I won't let them see anything."
I remembered all the border skirmishes I had had with these boys. We've fought plenty of times, not in the playful way either. Usually the battles end up in complete blood baths. Their borders, our borders, were close enough, that if two of us stood right on 'em I could boop their nose. Well I'd have to stretch out my arm and lean forward with out falling over, but I could boop their nose all the same. Still needed to try it though. I unzipped my almost empty backpack and stuffed my Captain America's sweat shirt in it. Soon my leggings followed, and when a twig snapped really close to where we were so I hurried to get out of my under garments and zipped up my bag. As I engaged the beginning of the shift, my wolf woke and let lose, out of control. Heat raked over my body and bones snapped and grew and shrunk, changed and moved. Muscles and veins twisted, changed, and shifted into place. My spine lengthened, sprouting a tail from my rear, and milliseconds before that my skull had changed.
Now wearing a soft coat of fur, I stood just slightly behind Kenzie with my head at her elbow. I stood in a wide stance and crouched so I would be ready to fight if the boys tried anything. The three boys would have definitely heard the cracking of bones from me shifting, and the shift couldn't have taken more than a half a minute. Kenzie now had my back pack on and was looking in the direction the boys were coming from.
I seen flashes of their clothing long before they found the clearing we were in.
"Oh," A boy, whom I knew was about our age, in the orange and red shirt glared at me with the standard coal black eyes of an Alpha, his milky blond hair was cut in a ski jump style, "You've strayed a little far from home, no?"
I just snorted and twitched my ear.
*Where's their Beta?* I asked Kenzie through our minds, through the pack link.
She didn't relay the question to the future Inlustris Alpha like I hoped. (Cole and Kenzie are both first born of Alphas, they take over for their pack when the current Alpha dies or gets too old)
"What do you want Cole?" Kenzie asked, tiredness still very evident in her voice.
"Nothing, nothing." Cole walked forward a few steps and crossed his arms over his chest making his muscles flex, "We're just making sure you don't stray into our territory."
Tony, the Inlustris Third, wearing a green shirt and jeans, stayed silent. But I seen his baby blue eyes flicker to the trees behind us.
In a quick movement I turned, lept, and tackled a black shirt hiding in a bush.
"Jeez you guys gotta learn we can be in the towns. Hassle us again and we will take the river back. God I swear...."*Boys...* Kenzie walked past me, headed towards our territory. I was crouching on the Inlustris Beta, Kai, whom I accidentally knocked out. He was awake a few seconds after I noticed Kenzie was still walking away. Both of those fingers on each hand were raised, and aimed at the boys. I growled at the Beta, who looked startled, jumped off him and trotted to catch up with my friend.

When we reached the road to the town closest to Silva Reptilia territory, Kenzie helped me into the backpack, and I'm still on all fours and furry, she quickly took her clothes off, put everything in the backpack, and shifted. Her bones cracked, muscles tore and twisted. Soon she was standing with me on all fours. Kenzie's white fur glistened like the scarce, fresh snow, red designs danced across her face, legs and back. The same firetruck red as her hair when she was in human form.
*Rubin! You knocked out their Beta! Their Beta for Pete's sake!* She scolded me, her tail lashing.
*Sorry, I didn't know that there was a root where his head landed!* I started to runaway, *Besides he was only out for like a second.*
As we ran, the trees were beginning to thin out a while later. Soon I stopped and shifted. The white wolf burst out from the bushes behind me and changed back to a human form as well.
As I was pulling on my clothes, something tackled me. I don't know if it what was attacking but I instinctively shifted again into my wolf and battered at the thing until we hit the ground. I quickly evaluated it was a wolf as I got up and snarled at it.
*Holy Ruby!* A familiar voice echoed in my head, *Remind me not to sneak up on you!*
*Dax?*  I asked, tilting my head at the dark brown wolf. Darker, nearly black, spots were flecked all over his back. I charged and head butted him right in the chest, *Those were my favorite leggings! Now you've gone and torn them...*
He stumbled backward at the force of my hit and landed 'oh so gracefully' on his rear.
I stared at the heap of my ripped leggings, under wear, and bra. My sweatshirt was a few feet away, I hadn't put it on so it was still in one piece. It was navy blue and over sized. It had the lines that wrapped around my upper torso/arms and the star in the middle like Captian America's suit in The Winter Soldier. Shifting back, I slipped it on and stared down. It was long enough I could walk through the town. But if I ran, fell, or bent over, there would be a full view to anyone near. "F*** you Dax. Give me your damn pants."
Daxter came out from behind a tree in his white tee and teddy bear boxers and handed me his jeans. No belt. Great.
"Sorry Ruby. Thought you'd recognize me a bit sooner than your impulse to batter my head." I looked up at him as I pulled on his jeans. Whoa, did I ever batter his head. Dax had a bad cut right on the line of his jaw, and bruises were starting to form already.
"You deserve it." I threw my back pack on and put my hair back up in a pony tail, "I don't like being startled."
He laughed and turned in the direction of the town. This town was the closest to our territory.
Kenzie walked beside me while Dax lead the way back to town.
"Why are you out here anyway? I thought you were helping the pups training today?" Kenzie asked Daxter.
He shrugged, "I thought I was too. Until your dad promoted me to messenger boy for the day. He needs you back at the house. Didn't say what it was about, but my best guess is because the Inlustris are trying to make another move on the clearing by the river."
With that news, we all picked up the pace. A grin spread across my face and all I could think was that I would get my rematch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sucky first chapter but... Whatever.
Big thanks to anyone who took the time to read this.
Now the romance between Rubin and Kye doesnt start for another few chapters (sorry) but I want to build a base first. Also he needs to have a sixteenth birthday to hit maturity to find out he is mates with Rubin.
When there is a *star in place of "quotation marks that means ths characters are talking between a mindlink. Mind links can be established within a close proximity to one another, or if a character is within their packs territory they can mind speak with any pack member if they are also withing the packs borders.
Comment if thats confuzing or not...
Thanks LoveInsanity for the awesome cover!

.