Ashley 1 Happy Birthday
"Hello love," his soft voice came from the bushes behind me.
"You don't have to hide you know." I giggled.
"Nobody is here but me." he said stepping out of the bushes and walking up to me. "Besides, I like surprising you." he smirked leaning in to kiss me.
"Ash!"
"Ashley!"
Next thing I knew I was on the floor of my bedroom looking at the ceiling. I sat up and growled seeing my obnoxious older brother standing over me. At seventeen he still acts like a child.
"Really Luke! Did you seriously have to push me off the bed?" I snapped glaring at him.
"Yes, yes I did." he laughed helping me up "Happy sweet 16 kiddo."
"My birthday? Right that's today." I realized. "Is dad here?"
"Uh, no, sorry Ash. He said he had important council business that had to be dealt with immediately." Luke said putting a hand on my shoulder.
"It's whatever; he'd probably just make my morning hell anyway." I replied shrugging.
"Well okay, do you wanna take arun to school today?" He asked.
"Totally." I replied "Now get out of my room I need to change." I said pushing him towards the hall.
"Okay, okay, but be ready soon or I'm going to leave you here." he chuckled closing the door on his way out.
I was looking for a pair of pants when I notice a picture frame on the floor by my bed. I walk over and pick it up. It was a picture of me, Luke, and our mom on Christmas two years ago. Luke's light brown hair was a mess and his hazel eyes showed pure joy as he held up a new XBox. I sat next to him marveling at the book my mom had gotten me "Twilight Breaking Dawn" it was the last book I needed to complete the series.
Mom sat behind us smiling. Our mother was a beautiful woman. She had golden brown hair and shining light brown eyes. Luke and dad thought we were weird for liking the Twilight books. They thought a cheesy love story with vampires and werewolves was ridiculous.
Dad believes that the authors interpretation of werewolves was stupid. I guess he had a point though. My father was Paul Drake the alpha of one of the most powerful werewolf packs in North America 'Silver Creek' and the werewolf gene was passed to me and Luke as well.
I started reading the Twilight books with mom when I was ten and it kind of became our thing. Luke used to say that it was like mom was trying to teach her clone to read since I looked so much like her.
Mom died last year on a trip up north. She was ambushed by a clan vampires. It was just her a Mary Ann, another wolf from out pack. They didn't even have a chance. Dad acted normal around other people, like nothing ever happened. But behind closed doors he became a different person. After mom died he fell off the deep end, started drinking and doing drugs. He becomes short tempered and violent when he's under the influence, and he's not sober often.
"Ashley hurry up." Luke yelled up the stairs snapping me out of my thoughts. I wiped the tears off my face. I hadn't even realized I'd been crying.
"I'll be down in a minute." I yelled back. I sat the picture on my nightstand and continued getting ready.
I walked down the stairs and into the living room. I didn't see Luke anywhere so I went to the kitchen, he wasn't there either.
"Luke?" I called for my brother.
"BOO!" someone yelled grabbing my shoulders. I screamed turning around to see Luke standing behind me laughing. I pushed him away glaring.
"You're a jerk!" I seethed crossing my arms.
"Oh come on I was just having a little fun." he said holding up his hands in surrender. I continued to glare at him.
"Okay I know your mad, but will this make up for it?" He asked holding out a wrapped box.
"Depends, is it another trick?" I asked raising an eyebrow at the gift.
"I guess you're just gonna have to find out." he replied smiling. I sighed and grabbed the present. I sat on the couch letting a smile slip onto my lips as I opened the package. I looked in the box and saw "Fantastic Beast And Where To Find Them 'the screenplay'". I turned my head towards Luke, who was still standing, shocked. I jumped up and hugged him.
"Thank you! thank you! thank you!" I squealed.
"No problem; you said that's what you wanted so I saved up some extra cash and got it for you." he said hugging me back. "So am I back in good graces?" he asked pulling away.
"Totally!" I replied putting the book on the coffee table.
"Okay let's go, we have less than an hour untill school starts." I announced walking towards the back door.
"Yes ma'am." Luke said sarcastically following me out to the back yard.
We crossed the yard and jumped the fence. The forest was just behind our house so it made in easy to stay hidden when we shifted.
Not that we needed to hide. Our whole pack lived in a gated community near the woods. There were only a few human families that lived there with our pack and they were mostly old couples. Even so we still had to be careful.
I felt the familiar cracking of bones as I shifted into my normal sized white wolf. Luke's dark brown wolf toward over me by at least a foot, from no fault of his own Luke was about the size of a very large dog when he was in wolf form.
We pranced around for a minute before heading into the woods. We ran around for a little while until we stopped at a clearing with a creak running through it and shifted back into humans. The creek that Luke and I loveing named Hangman's Trail after a book we read as kids, was my favorite place. The tall lush trees surrounding the grass like a protective wall, the large boulders placed randomly throughout the clearing were perfect for sun bathing, and my absolute favorite the wide crystal clear swimming creek that separated Hangmans Trail into 2 parts.
This was convenient for the perpouse of separating territory. For over a century Hangmans Creek seperated the Silver Creek Packs territory from the Smith Clans Territory. The Smith's and Silver Creek have long history of violence and hatred. For the last few decades there has been a sort of cease fire, no more violence, no more blood loss nit it is far from what most would call peace.
"Hey Luke do you ever think about what the Smith's are like." I ask laying down in the grass.
"From what I've seen at school they're not the most social crowd" Luke grumbled plopping down next to me.
"That doesn't mean they're bad Luke" I replied looking over at him. He gave me skeptical look but dropped the subject.
"Yeah Mr. Whinny quite doesn't mean bad" a voice taunted from across the creek. I sat up quickly as Luke shot to his feet defensively
"Oh calm yourself mutt, it's just me" the voice replied. A girl with long platinum blonde hair and ruby eyes was standing across the water. Victoria Smith eldest daughter of Malcom Smith patriarch of the Smith Clan.
"What are you doing here?" I snapped at her. She's the only vampire I have ever met and let's just say the experience hasn't been the best.
"I want to be here." she said rolling her eyes. "Plus I wanted to see how long it would take for someone to notice I was here."
"Get out of here now." Luke growled.
"I have every right to be here beyond this creektis my family's land and come on why do you guys hate me so much?" Victoria fake pouted.
"Last time we saw you you tried to kill us!" I yelled.
"Oh right I remember that." she laughed "fun times, but anyway I've got places to be so bye I guess." She cakled and then started walking in the opposite direction.
"God I hate her". I growled rising to my feet.
"Don't we all." Luke sighed.
"You know if this keeps up I may give up on my curiousity on vampirs" I said walking back towards our house.
"Why are they so fascinating to you anyway?" he chuckled looking at me weird.
"Because they are so different from us yet so similar, I mean you can't tell me you are not at interested ia their way of life" I replied.
"I'll admit I've had my questions but I'd rather not ask any of the vampires around here" Luke laughed.
"Yeah I guess not" I chuckled shaking my head.
"Come on we've gotta hurry if you dont wanna be late for school" Luke smiled before changing back into his wolf form and making his way home. I took one last look at Hangmans Trail before shifting and following my brother.