Mate to a king

~ One Year before the start of the story ~

Family. Everyone has one whether they know them or not.

Mine, well sometimes I wish I don't know them altogether.

I absolutely adore my older Brother and sister. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for my parents.

Carlos, my Father, used to be the Royal Beta to the King and Queen of Werewolves, this all coming to a halt when he was accused of having committed treason through attempting to assassinate the King. The assassination attempt had supposedly been an elaborate plan, set out for years and years in advance, heck, even before I was born.

Having been banished for life, he stumbled upon my current pack's land and consequently meeting his mate, my mother. It seemed like quite a quiet way to end off the story of his life. Settling down with a beautiful wife, children, cottage on a welcoming pack’s grounds.

This lead to her giving birth to my sister, followed by my brother and then came me.

In two days I turn 18, the day most Werewolves are supposed to find their mates. I have always been looking forward to finding mine, the way a hopeless romantic dreams of their soulmate. The whole stereotype of the entrance down a grand, lavish staircase, with faces staring, mouth gaping straight at you in a beautiful dress. I would cherish and love them, heart and soul. The same way I would hope they would to me.

I had changed into my wolf form originally when I was fifthteen. An auburn coloured wolf, this colour, not to be mistaken for a reddish brown, is a pretty rare colour, I mean of course it is, this wouldn’t be a werewolf story without that fact now would it? The reason why I am this colour, well that is a story for another time.

For the days leading up to my Birthday, I am allowed to go around the pack visiting each pack members house for advice on the future. From what I heard, most people go around asking for help on things like recipes to cook and bake, or how to resolve arguments in a safe way that wouldn’t cause any further emotional scarring. This is a tradition that this pack does for anyone's birthday.

Each house is assigned to give advice on different aspects of an adult werewolfs life, depending on your gender and sexuality. We know from when we first transform about whether our mate is a male or female, it's a handy aspect really. They don’t send you to learn about misogynistic tasks, you just learn how to keep a house clean for a better life in general. We don’t all live in or before the 20th century.

It is not the most exciting tradition, but it is actually really helpful for setting us up on the right path for our futures. Along with securing a strong pack future of course. Something niggles at my brain often, over and over and over again. Convincing me I won’t find my mate as soon as the first full moon hits after my birthday, but I’ll be damned if I don’t meet them soon.

A majority of the advice given tends to follow along the lines of, ‘don’t let that mate of yours’ go hungry’ or ‘make sure you train at least 3 times a week to ensure you can protect you and your kids’ the latter was always favoured among the women over the men. At least that’s what my parents have told me they advised others on. Thankfully, most packs were accepting of everything and had no sexist incidents. I wouldn’t trade that for the world. Just as I wouldn’t trade the way that my life ended up either.