"Finally!" Theo sighed with a grin plastered on his face as he dropped his bag by the front door of my beach house. My own small smirk played on my lips as he kicked off his shoes and jumped on the couch. His head lolled back to the edge of the suede couch, and he managed to close his eyes for a whole two seconds before he picked up the remote from the table in front of him and turned on the flat screen.

"Don't get too comfortable," I said, making my way into the kitchen. "We're going to have to head into town and buy some food."

I rummaged through the fridge, the walk-in pantry, and a couple of cabinets above the electric stove. All we had were stale almonds, a couple of boxes of tea, and a few spices to cook with. I grabbed two glass cups, turned on the faucet, let the water run for a moment, filled both glasses, and walked back to the main living room, careful not to spill as the floor shifted from tile to carpet.

Theo was sitting on the main couch facing the TV, but there was also another couch and chairs that filled the space in a semicircle. I handed him his drink before sitting beside him.

"Thanks," he said, not looking away from the screen. "Hey, how come there are barely any channels and no apps?" He flipped to a couple more blank stations before giving up and just turning the whole thing off.

"Because the whole point of this place is to escape and talk to people," I gestured to the layout of the room. Theo took a sip of his drink and grumbled.

"Come on," I said, lightly hitting his knee. "Let's go buy some food, make an awesome dinner, and get drunk on the beach."

Theo pouted. "Do we have to make dinner? We've been driving for hours, can't we just go out to eat?" When I didn't say anything, he tried again. "We just graduated, we should be celebrating, not working!" Theo turned to face me. Soft brown eyes looked at me eagerly. "Please? I promise I'll do all the cooking tomorrow."

I shook my head. I had a better shot at winning the lottery than expecting Theo to keep that promise, but I didn't try to hide the grin that played on my lips. As I said, "Deal."

"Yes!" Theo cheered, jumping up from the couch. I almost growled at him for nearly spilling his glass. "Oh, relax, nerd. It's only water." He clapped his hands onto my shoulders, giving them a quick massage before running to the front door to put his shoes back on. "Where should we go?!"

That was Theo for you. 

He constantly oscillated between being a couch potato and the voluntary troop leader for the next big adventure. I suppose it wouldn't be right to ruin his current spark. After the summer ended, I would be working for my parents, and Theo would be moving to the city for his internship. Theo had been my best friend since third grade, and my parents knew things were going to be different. That's why they gave us the beach house.

"There's this really nice restaurant I've been going to with my parents since it opened a few years back. You'd like it, they have rabbit stew." I offered, knowing very well what the answer would be. Every full moon, the first thing Theo does after he shifts is hunt and eat a rabbit, maybe two.

"Wait, what? Really?!" Theo's pupils grew so wide his brown irises were nearly non-existent. "Well then, what are we still doing here? Let's go!"

Just as Theo was bounding toward his car, a red four-wheeler with a soft top, perfect for beach trips, something orange caught my attention. It was as bright as the leaves during the changing of the season, with fur and very sharp claws. I sucked in a breath, and it seemed to get stuck somewhere between my throat and my lungs.

His cunning green eyes pierced mine before it jumped off the stone ledge separating my house from my neighbor's and, with a graceful saunter, turned toward the path that led to the beach.

For a moment, all I could do was watch his tail swish and twitch toward the sky as if it were listening to a song only he could hear. Then, Theo smashed his hand on the horn of his car, and it brought me back to reality. "Come on, Jonah! I'm hungry!"

With a shake of my head, I turned away from the cat and the beach and headed to the car. Theo was already blasting and singing Celine Dion's It's All Coming Back To Me Now as we pulled out of the driveway.

~*****~

Theo loved the rabbit stew. He ate it up too quickly and then complained when it was all gone. I gave him one of my skewers of chicken shish kabob, and we split the bill. After dinner, we drove around town, and I showed him some cool spots. We had a drive-in movie theater, three souvenir shops, a used book store (my favorite place to be), and a general store. There were also a couple of breweries, museums, and other small businesses scattered around town, but the main attraction was the beach. On full moons, some parts of the beach were rented out and off limits to the public, but usually everyone just ran along the coast until an Alpha told them to back off.

After we got back to the house, I started putting away the groceries we'd bought at the general store, and Theo only helped until he found the beer. His can opened with a classic snap as pressure was released, and my ears twitched at the sound. Theo tossed me a can when I wasn't looking, and I gave him a scowl as clutched it properly.

"Oh, would you relax?!" He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"No," I snapped. "If anything spills on this floor, my parents would have my head mounted on the wall, and you'd be watching that instead of the T.V. next summer."

"Your parents would still invite me back even if you were dead? Sweet. I knew they loved me better than you." Theo Grinned.

"Shut up," I glared at him and opened my drink, taking a long sip. 

Once the groceries were put away and our first drinks were finished, we both changed and headed toward the private entrance of the beach. The sun was setting and we both decided that our first night on vacation should be watching the last rays of light go down with our toes in the sand. Theo would probably then want to shift, which I wouldn't be opposed to doing either, since this was technically a "private" section of the beach reserved for my home and our closest neighbors. Nobody really enforced the privacy rule where we stayed, so lots of people plotted their beach towels and umbrellas in our section during the day, but at night, there would only be a few scattered campfires.

Our plans quickly changed soon after we had walked down the private beach stairs. Theo jutted his nose to the sky, his legs picking up speed. I could only assume he smelled something, or someone sweet. If it was a someone, that meant a Potential Mate was nearby. And to Theo, most likely his next hook-up. 

Having scientists for parents, I was very familiar with the different types of bonding pairs, and when we were in high school, Theo wouldn't shut up about his "mating mindset," as he called it.

He said, "If it's a Potential Bond, I'd never date them. Sure, they smell nice, but that's all they have going for them."

"I hope you don't feel the same way about a Fated Pair," I admonished as we walked down the hall toward history class.

"Probably." Theo shrugged, and my jaw dropped. 

Fated Pairs weren't like Potential Bonds. Our kind only encounters a handful of Fated Pairs in our lifetime. The attraction between the couple involved is much stronger, and most folk marry their first or second Fated Pair. "I bet you the sex is way better though."

"You can't be serious," I huffed and rolled my eyes. My hand curled against my side.

"I am." His brown eyes caught mine for a brief moment. "The only person who will ever have my heart is my Destiny Mate," Theo said with a firm head nod.

"You and me both, brother," I sighed, giving him a small shoulder bump. The only difference between Theo and me was that he had a choice. Omegas never had a choice. 

Theo looked down at my hand, grabbed it, and we walked right past our history class to go exploring instead.

~***~