Chapter Three (1/2): 18th Birthday

Thalia Aphrodite Williams

I open my eyes abruptly when I heard that voice.

I think I heard that sweet voice before.

But what did he say? Mate? I think I heard him say mate in the end. Even though it's almost a whisper, I think I heard it right.

Or, am I just hallucinating?

Maybe thinking too much about my mate made my brain to produce things like that.

I shake my head and decided to just ignore that voice. I smiled at my mom as she and the other pack members greet me happy birthdays again. I thank them all and I put the cake on the table to hug my mom.

"Thanks, mom." I told her and she kissed my forehead.

"My baby is finally 18. You're growing so fast. Now, you can finally meet your mate and then the next thing I know, you already have a pup with your mate. Why are you growing so fast, baby?" She asked, with an expression of happy but sad.

18th birthday. One of the most awaited birthday of werewolves. It's not just about being an adult and being finally free to do legally what we were just seeing that the adults only do. Or taking over on positions that was of your parents. But, it is the moment where werewolves can finally recognize their mates.

Mates. They are the person that the Moon Goddess gave to us as a gift. They are the person that all of us, werewolves, cherishes and love for the rest of our life. Mates can be recognize when they feel this magical pull and when their eyes met each other, their eyes will glow with color based on their position. Gold, silver, bronze, and white. Gold for the Alphas. Silver for the Beta. Bronze for the Gamma and the Delta. And white for the Warriors and Omegas.

Moon Goddess gave mates to us werewolves as a gift because of a successful ritual for her made by an ancient family of werewolves thousands and thousands of years ago. The ritual is hard and complicated, if something went wrong or if the Moon Goddess didn't like it, the price will be their life. That's why no one dared to do the ritual until that certain family did it. And a very beautiful gift were given to the werewolf's race. Mates. And as an exchange of the beautiful gift the Moon Goddess gave, we should do all we can to love her gift.

"Mom, don't think like that. I've never met my mate yet. And, I don't think I will have a pup as soon as I'll see my mate, I want to finish school first." I said to reassure her. My mom is so dramatic.

"You can never tell that, baby. I tell you, as soon as you will see your mate you will undergo on heat and that heat is so hard to resist by the female but harder to resist by the males around you. That's the reason your sister was made" she said. I rolled my eyes as she already told us so many times about that. I turned and asked her something that I'm curious about.

"You told us so many times about that. But what about me?" I asked and she froze. She eyed me carefully and I frowned. Is there something wrong on my question? She seems like she saw a ghost.

"W-what do y-you mean?" She said, stuttering.

"Well, how about me? Did you plan to have me as soon as you and dad met?" I asked and she swallowed. I noticed that her shoulders relaxed as soon as I cleared my question.

"Y-yeah, of course. W-we planned to h-have you at that t-time" she said and removed my hug from her as she picked the cake and went inside the kitchen. I followed her. She sliced the cake and place it on the plates. She calls the kids and gave them each a slice of cake. I also notice that the cake is not the only food there but many. The foods there are enough to feed all pack members inside the pack house. She grabbed two plates of the dishes there and went out of the kitchen and to the dining hall. I grab two plates too and do what she did. I saw almost all the pack members already there, sitting and talking. The omegas placed the other foods at the table and I noticed the alpha descending from the stairs. Alpha Brandon. The pack members he passes by greets him and he nods back to them. Alpha Brandon is a very respective alpha. Him and his father. The alphas before them were very cruel and evil that they enslaved and kill innocent pack members that disobeys them. That was dark times, I tell you.

Alpha Brandon saw me and smiled. Me and Alpha Brandon are close, he is like a brother to me and I am like a sister to him. He's 10 years older than me. We started getting close when he once save me from the rouges that attacks the pack when I was 8 years old. Since then, he is like the big brother I never had.

"Good morning, Alpha" I said as he got closer to me.

"Happy birthday, Ro. What's your plan for today?" He asked

"Thank you for the greetings, Alpha. I don't think I have anything planned for the morning but Christina practically ordered me to go clubbing with her tonight" I said and he raised an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me, you're just going to stay at your room the whole day? This is a special day, you should enjoy it." He said

"Well...the Peters isn't here and Christina is running an errand for her parents at the city so... I think I'll just go have fun with the kids and spend time with my mom and sister. I promise I'm not just going to stay in my room" I said as the other pack members started to eat. Beta Malcolm called Alpha Brandon to eat but the Alpha just shrugged him off and nodded at him to just continue eating.

"No, I won't allow that. You will go with me at the city. We will watch a movie and then bowling. I won't allow you to just spend you're special day here. I know that you will just sit in your bedroom, reading all day." He said, sternly. Leaving no room for arguments. I sighed. Well... that will be fun, I guess.

We started eating with the other pack members. We all chat happily while eating. After eating, the kids want me to play with them and we played for the next 2 hours. The next thing we know, it's already lunch time.

As we went inside the pack house, I saw the Alpha came out from his office and descend down the stairs. His eyes are on me. I stop walking.

"Let's go. We will have lunch on the city." He said and I ushered to the kids to go to the dining hall already.

"Alright, Alpha. I'll just tell mom." I said and turned. Ready to go upstairs to my mom's room.

"No need. I already told her that you will go with me on the city." He said and put his left arm on my back. Pushing me gently towards the garage . The two warriors that will accompany us are there, waiting inside the black Cadillac we will use. I open the left back sit of the Cadillac and sit there.

"So, what movie would you like to watch?" Alpha Brandon asked and I turned to him.

"I don't know, maybe an action movie?" I said and he looked at me with wide eyes.

"When did you start liking that kind of movie, may I ask? If I remember correctly, you're a hopeless romantic, Ro." He said with a raised eyebrow, questioning me. I rolled my eyes.

"For your information, Alpha Brandon, I'm not a hopeless romantic. I just like seeing how a story started with something sad and then end with happiness." I said, sassily at him. He just chuckled.

"For your information too, Ms. Williams, that's just the same. Hopeless romantics are very fascinated and wants to always daydream about happy endings. Which you always do. Imagining your self and your mate, all the time." He said and chuckled even more. I shrugged.

"Whatever. All female werewolves daydream about that." I said and I turned to look outside. Trees are the only thing we can see as we travel from the pack to the city. Our pack is far away from the civilization as to protect the safety of our pack from the werewolf hunters and other things that can harm us. Actually, all packs of werewolves are the same.

We need to keep away our home from the humans as to not cause an uproar about our existence to the non-magical creatures. We do mingle with humans on our school but we keep our home away from them because they can easily notice weird things especially if a werewolf didn't control his/her anger. Because if were angry or let's say when we didn't control our wolves from shifting then, we are doomed.

Magical creatures already have a battle with each other, we don't need the humans to add up to that battle.

"Speaking of mates, did you already smelled something weird on the pack house? Almost all pack members are there in the pack house, surely you must've smelled your mate if he's there" he asked as he finally recovered from laughing at me.

"The only weird smell I smelled is the stinks of the sweating warriors earlier. And your feet, too." I said and wrinkled my nose as I turned my eyes to his feet, eyeing it with disgust.

"Hey! My feet doesn't stink! I already put a foot powder on it. It smells nice!" He said defensively and he actually removed his shoes to smell it. Yuck.

"Tss.. put your shoes back on. I don't want to die just yet" I said and he said incoherent words as he cursed at me. It doesn't smell actually. I just said that to rile him up.

I smirked and hide my laughter as to not made him mad even more than now. We can't afford to have a mad Alpha in the city.