ASTRAIA

The waves crash against the shore as my bare feet pad against the sand, holding a basket against my stomach as I search for any washed-up shellfish. It’s been a while since our clan had some shells collected from the sea. Rumors spread of a strange shape floating out in the waters.

Since the sightings, any fishing or foraging had to be stopped, not wanting to draw the strange thing over to our home, it took a lot of convincing, but father relented and let me go, of course not alone. Resisting the urge to growl back at the two men who are roughhousing behind me.

“Are you two going to continue to play or help me? Y’all are being completely useless” A scoff is heard behind me before the sound of running feet,

Dodging to the side. I watch as water is thrown, hissing I glare back at Iason. He grins cheekily.

Slim muscular build, tan skin with raven black hair. Like all of my clan members.

His hazel eyes sparkle with mischief “Stop being so stuck up and have fun Astra, it’s not often we are allowed up here” rolling my eyes I prop my basket on my hip as I look at him, tail swaying in annoyance as my ears lower.

“Well thanks to me you are here now, so help me so papa can see we actually did as I asked. And we can come back here” Iason rolls his eyes, holding his basket as his mate Theo shakes his head.

“We can stop playing for now…but after we find enough you promise to play with us?” looking over at the other dark-haired male I sigh. He is slim and toned. No muscle in sight, which is normal for omegas. He tilts his head, shoulder length hair swaying as a breeze brushes it.

“You know Theo I thought you were the responsible one in the couple” Chuckling, he leans over and picks up a clam, tapping on the shell as it shuts close. Throwing it in the basket he scans for more, “I am”

“Suuurreeee” Rolling my eyes, I turn as I start scanning the sand.

“Come onnnnn, you gotta enjoy it!” sound of a basket being dropped, arms circle around my waist before I am picked up and swung, squealing. I’m pulled from the shore and into the water, falling in along with my capture.

I’m let go as soon as we hit the water, sounds of Iason laughing as Theo snickers in front of me as he holds his basket, “Iason!” I whine as my skirt gets soaked, along with my top. It’s going to take ages for the pelts to dry!!!

Grumbling, I splash him, He laughs and splashes me back as he gets up.

Growling, I get up as I get in a low stance, “Oh, you’re going down!” wasting no time, I run at him, arms circling his waist as I throw my body down, pulling him with me as we both fall in the water again.

Both of us laughed as we roughhouse, forgetting all about the shellfish. Theo soon joins us.

What feels like hours pass by as we dunk each other or splash one another before we tire each other out, pulling our panting bodies to the shore we flop down as the water slides over our limbs, caressing us with its kiss.

“We are so dead” I groan as I lie on my stomach, head on my arms as the sun warms my back. Hair plastered on the sides of my face and dipped into the sand.

“The sun isn’t that far down, we still have another three hours of sunlight” murmurs Theo as he gently cleans off Iason, dusting sand off his face and hair as he looks at his Moon-mate lovingly.

Smiling at the two, my heart aches. Analah shifts inside my mind as she purrs gently at me, reminding me of the time that will come when I meet my Moon-mate. “Yea, but the time we used to play could have been at least a basket or two of shells!”

Iason sighs nuzzling his Moon-mate before his head shifts turning towards me “True, but two baskets are more than enough for the clan. Remember it’s three of us, each of us coming with baskets full of shellfish, that’s six already as soon as we dropped it off, we would have forced to clean each one before the omegas take them for cooking, we wouldn’t be able to come back”

“Yea..” frowning I sat up, “Well we should at least get some, better then showing up with nothing” Iason sighs getting up as Theo follows. Finding our discarded baskets, we start to do what we were supposed to do hours ago.

It doesn’t take us long to find clams, mussels, and oysters each being thrown in after checking if they are alive, we even visit the shallow pools. Snatching up some fish that got caught in the high tide before it pulled back, we threw them in before making our way through the bushes and trees back to our clan.

Walking quietly, my ears twitch and flicker as I strain to pick up the sounds of the running and giggling of kits and the quiet murmurs of conversations from clan members, it doesn’t take long until I hear them.

A smile spreads across my face as I pick up my pace. Walking into the clearing, I smile as the betas and young males start preparing their catch for dinner, skinning and throwing the pelts into a pile before a few elders comes and takes them for washing, rushing around with baskets and bowls, clean and dirty water sloshing from the bowls and needles and daggers clinking inside the baskets.

A couple of kits run past, kicking a ball wrapped in old leather and stitched pelts. They giggle happily with each other.

Walking past, I duck into the cooking tent. Nodding at a clan mate who is chopping veggies. I walk to the back where the pots are at. Sitting down my basket, Theo and Iason follow as Iason starts to pout. “I hate this part” he grumbles as he plops down, in a chair, pulling his basket on his lap he pulls out a dagger before picking up a mussel and starts to scrape away any barnacles.

Theo follows his lead, and I too sit down and start the long and irritating task of removing the parasites.

“You all are late” Jumping I look up to see mama, arms crossed over Verity who is strapped to her chest in wraps as she slumbers quietly, Verity looks a lot like papa when she is asleep, wavy hair like mom but has papa black tint along with his warm brown eyes when they are open. She is a light brown, not as tanned as mama, papa, and I. Mama glares at the three of us, nose twitching as her green eyes turns into slits. She is a curvy short woman with a fiery attitude. With wavy brown locks “roughhousing really?!” I shrink in on myself “I told them not to...” she rolls her eyes sighing as she pinches her nose, her eyes closed.

“Θεά βοήθησέ με, εσείς οι τρεις κάνετε σαν kits!”

(Goddess help me you three are acting like kids)

“Is that a good phrase?” asked Iason, groaning. I shake my head, this idiot. “I sometimes forget the old language you know,” he jokes.

“Joking will not get you out of your punishments, you three will not be eating your catch. We already had to hunt later than usual since the sightings now this! Astra your father will be disappointed”

Frowning, Mother continues to glare at us “hurry now!” She stands watching as we clean the remainder of the shells before they are taken and given to the omegas for cooking.

“You three will eat on dried meat and fruit, no fresh catch for you” Whining, I get pushed out by mother as she kicks us out the tent.

“Thanks, a lot” I growl at the two, Iason shrugs “you played just as much as we did”