Game Mati Novels & Stories

When Matthew said he would investigate, I felt some relief. Then he shifted the mood completely. A game. I laughed harder than I expected. We sat there, controllers in hand, trash-talking like old times. Adrian was competitive. Matthew was worse. For those moments, the world stopped. No council. No ritual. No Luna mark. Just us. And for once, Adrian didn’t look like he was about to break. Matthew – POV Watching them like this reminded me why I protected them. They were strong. But strength wears down when carried alone.

𝗜𝘀𝗮𝗮𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀. 𝗜𝘀𝗮𝗮𝗰 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗮𝗯𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘀 𝘄

"...you will personally bury her in the foundations of your city." Matteo scoffed loudly from the doorway, his hand gripping his weapon. "We don't play games with faceless ghosts." The Chairman let out a low, deeply amused laugh. "Oh... you profoundly misunderstand the current state of the board, Matteo. You aren't deciding whether to play. You've already started the match." The holographic screen shifted violently, replacing the live feed with a real-time tracking map of the tristate area. Three distinct, crimson icons began to flash aggressively at opposite corners of the grid.

Winter's POV "Matthew, let's play a game!" I told him as he was about to lie down on the couch. His brows furrowed. "Game? What game?" "How about a staring game?" As soon as he heard what game I suggested, he frowned and sat on the couch. "Let's just sleep." "Come on, Matthew! That game is just so simple! Let's just do three rounds and the loser will have to do what the winner asks." "My right eye has an eyepatch, how can I even do a staring game?"

Milo is staring. “The ball game I saw back at the coven,” he says. “This is the same thing, isn’t it?” “You saw some people playing catch?” Wilder guesses. “Sort of. Not caught exactly. More like…magic volleyball.” “Yeah, we just call it catch, even though there’s no physical catching,” Wilder says. “And we do use that game to train kids in combat magic before they’re ready for actual battle scenarios. A lot of people do it for fun, or just as an exercise, like boxing, even once they’ve progressed to more advanced combat.”

Some of the wolves bore strange markings tattoos glowing from their fur, rings of flame around their eyes. “These were the Moon Matrons,” Oya said. “Chosen not by Alpha lineage, but by vision. By calling. By the moon herself.” I stepped closer. “Why were they destroyed?” She looked at me. “Because they couldn’t be controlled.” She told me the story over the next few hours, sitting close to the fire, her voice low but steady. The Moon Matrons, she explained, were once one of the three Pillars of the Shifter world alongside the Alpha Kings and the Seer Clans. Together, they kept balance.

“Well, one more to go Little Bit. Do you think you can handle that tomorrow? That will give us two full days to mess around with this fire. We need to figure it out. I still don’t totally understand what you are doing with the pentagram plants either, but I do know I feel better and you have never done anything bad to me…well except that time you beat my take down time…” “Oh and she beat you at capture the flag…” Sierra helpfully points out. “Do you remember the time she beat you at Martha’s eating all those pancakes.” Mateo laughs. “Fine I take it back, you beat me at everything and do it graciously, so I still trust you. Better?” He asks the six of us still hanging out.

He nodded, finger hovering over the trigger button on the tablet. “What are you—” “Five…” I whispered into the phone. Marcini’s voice rose. “Who the hell is this? And what sort of game are you up to?” “Four…” Giovanni turned toward the cars, brow furrowed. “Three…” They started shouting at the guards. “Two…” Matteo’s finger trembled over the button. “One.”

“Well, of course it wasn’t supposed to be free in the first place.” He laughed, “Washing a car isn’t so difficult you know...you make it sound like some assassination deal.” “Boss doesn’t like his car not properly washed and right now...it’s...” I lifted my arm enough to look into my wrist watch. “Ah, it’s one minute until twelve noon. Which game would be on by now? errm...” Yes, Mattia has a game he is especially engrossed to. More like addicted to ever since he came into the house. Like they said, you must know everything about your enemy to be able to kill them.

Mathew says searching for what I assume to be the game. William? Video games? I didn’t think someone with that personality knew how to have fun, like at all. “Found it,” Mathew says, plugging it in the socket, he switches on the game station before grabbing two game controllers, handing one to Milan who was excited to play video games. I sit back as I watch the two of them play video games ranging from Mortal Combat to FIFA games. My phone starts ringing again and I roll my eyes playfully thinking it was May again. I glance at the caller ID before answering.