The Mate Keeper : Everlee's Beginning

Chapter 1 - Everlee

8 years later

I wake up from yet another nightmare. I see her fight to save my life and I watch her die. I feels like every night since my mother's death, I have relived it. I know that isn't true. I have had some nights that weren't bad, but when I am hurting this much it's hard to remember the good ones. I feel like I lost everything the day my mother lost her life to save mine. I don't know how long I sat there crying holding my mothers hands willing her to wake up and tell me everything was going to be okay. Eventually, my fathers found us there in that alley. Me clinging to mom, with tears running down my face, and the love of their life cold and lifeless. To say they were devastated to lose their mate is an understatement.

My fathers called in the shifter police to help them clean up what happened, and took me home to clean me up. I watched the water in the shower run red, then pink, and finally clear as the tears still falling down my face. I stepped out of the shower got dressed to find my brothers in me bedroom waiting for me. I spent that night in the arms of my brothers and for a little while I felt loved and safe again. The next day I eventually had to tell the story of what happened to the shifter police and my family. After I finished my story it was like my family couldn't even look me in the eye anymore. No one put their arms out to hold me, and no one told me "It's going to be okay princess", and in that moment I knew they blamed me. I couldn't even blame them, because I blamed me.

We had a nice ceremony for mom, where all the pack came to honor their fallen Luna. My best friend Catrina and her mom came but neither of them said a word to me. They just told my fathers and brothers how sorry they were for their loss. Catrina hugged both of my brothers tight and acted like I didn't even exist. I never felt so alone before and I wondered if no one would love me anymore for something I never wanted to happen. A few weeks after the funeral, Catrina's mother came to visit. after she left, I could hear my fathers and brothers arguing but I didn't have it in me to leave my room and hear them say how much they didn't love me anymore. I was spiraling and no one seemed to notice or care. The boys didn't come hold me, and mom wasn't there to tuck me in and run her fingers through my hair or kiss my forehead goodnight. Even Daddy stopped coming to say goodnight. That is when the nightmares started. Two days later my fathers told me they made the decision to send me away to an academy for girls half way across the country. They claimed they didn't know how to raise a girl to be a proper girl, but I think it's because they don't love me and blame me for mom.

They packed me up and sent me to live in Adams boarding school for shifting girls several states away. The school wasn't bad place. All the teachers and staff there were very nice, but it felt wrong to away from my family especially my brothers. We were triplets, how could being away from each other be right. My fathers and brothers kept in touch when they could. I got letters once a week from my fathers and brothers and they called me when it was my turn for phone time once a month. Not to mention they were constantly sending me gifts and money. When I got old enough for a cell phone fathers sent me the latest phone and told me it was mine to be able to contact them when ever I wanted. I got texts and some times even pictures from my brothers and fathers, but not as many as I would like. We kept phones calls to Sunday nights because father said as alpha he was hard to set aside more than one day for phone time. I wish he didn't pick Sunday nights because it just reminded me that I was no longer there for Sunday night family dinner. I tried to make a social media account but after adding my brothers it hurt to watch them with our old friends being able to live their life at home happy. I avoided social media like the plague after. I kept my Instagram for my new friends and family I made at Adams.

Remember how I said they spoiled me with gifts because I thought they might have been feeling guilty for sending their only daughter away? The best they ever gave me was by far the apartment I am currently staying in that isn't far from Adams academy. I moved my best friend Taylor in with me and have been living here for the past two years, ever since they mailed me the keys and address for my sixteenth birthday. Taylor is the best thing to have happened to me since I got here. I was in a bad place when I got here at Adams. A lot of people tried to make friends with me, but I was just so lost and sad that eventually they gave up. Not Taylor Henderson though. No my spunky, amazing, best friend in this whole wide world wouldn't let me push her away. She just kept pushing back till I caved and we became best friends and I love her for it. Even her family has accepted me as one of their own. Holidays and summers Tay and I travel to spend time with her family. My fathers and brothers used to come here for Christmas to spend one or two days with their estranged daughter but we put an end to it the year I turned sixteen because it just wasn't worth the hassle of travel for them. Especially since I could just spend it with Tay's family.

Yesterday I got a letter from my fathers to tell me they were happy to pay for me to continue my education out here. Adams also had a college, and they felt I should go to college in Adams. Little did they know, I already applied for Anderson college near home. I'm eighteen now, I don't need my family to make choices for me. I no longer have to be the family burden. I miss my brothers. I miss sneaking into their bed at night when I was scared, I miss running through the woods together and playing hide and seek. I even miss their taunts. Triplets shouldn't ever be separated, yet that didn't stop my fathers from separating us. I thought I was so loved when I was little, but I know know I wasn't enough for them. Without my mother there they didn't have to love me. My fathers didn't hesitate to send me away. I can even count on my fingers the amount of times I've seen them since. They didn't even have me come home for summers. They had me do the summer programs at Adams so I could stay there. Like I said, I was just their little burden runt.

As a pack animal it really hurt, to be abandoned by my family and pack. Which is why I was so bad off when I first arrived at Adams. Thanks to Tay though, I made friends, and got an extended family who didn't think I was a burden or hate me for something that wasn't my fault. Tay's mom and dad helped me get therapy and helped me to realize my moms death wasn't my fault no matter who blamed me for it. That it was just a freak thing and one little girl couldn't have stopped it from happening. I am truly going to miss everyone I met since coming to Adams when I go to my new school next week, but I made my choice and I am so ready to move on with my life. The best part about Anderson college? Ethan and Evan opted to go there. After all it's practically sitting on our packs lands and with Ethan being the next alpha it was really the only choice they would have made. Even though I am sure my brothers won't be happy to see me there, but I decided that's where I wanted to go. I want to be close to home again, my old pack, and even if they don't want me there, my brothers. I know they might be mad at first , but we are triplets, and after all they get over their surprise of seeing me, they will be my protective brothers who I love and love me again.

Besides, I could use the extra protection of having my brothers around. Mostly I can take care of myself. After all I have taking every fighting class and self defense course I could get my hands on since moving out here. But, I have a huge secret, a secret that needs protecting. A secret that only my best friend Tay knows about. When I was sixteen I developed a rare gift. A gift that in our society is well sought out. People have killed for my gift and have kept people like me locked away. I am a mate keeper. Or also known as a mate finder. With a simple touch I can see who someone's mate is. Some times if I am close to the person I don't even have to touch them. I just see it. So now, I am all signed up for Anderson shifter college and so excited to see my brothers again. They would help keep me safe, I just know it. We can't put our past behind us and move forward. I know we can. I can't wait for our big reunion. Maybe I'll even find my own mate/mates. As I finish packing up my extensive shoe collection and the rest of my small apartment I can't help thinking that these next few weeks couldn't go by fast enough.