Just a Wolf

Amelia

My wolf and I linger a little longer than we should running through the woods, enormously enjoying our birthday gift to ourselves. By the time we get back to my room, nudging the side door open with our wolf nose and padding down the stairs, it is nearly time for the Ball to begin. I shift back to my human form and begin to get ready. I really don’t have time to take a shower and then have to blow dry my hair, so I try to make do with just mopping myself off with a wet washcloth, putting on some fresh deodorant, a tiny bit of blush and mascara, and wiggling into my ball gown.

I inspect myself in the mirror for a moment to make sure that everything is in order. “You look beautiful as always,” my wolf tells me, but of course she would say that. She’s biased. I run the brush through my dark blond hair one last time, make sure the mascara isn’t smudged around my light blue eyes, and heft up my strapless bra into a better position under my royal blue sleeveless gown. I nod. It’ll do.

I shove my feet into high heels, grab my clipboard, and rush back up the stairs to the ballroom.

Oh dear, some guests have already arrived, and I should have been here before that. I hope Michael isn’t annoyed. But I realize he isn’t here either, so I think I’m safe. I start moving around, making sure that nobody seems lost or confused.

Whatever the kitchen is making smells wonderful. I had approved the menu, but I can’t quite identify what this smell is. Is it the dessert? Or a main dish? I can’t tell, it is like a combination of peppermint hot chocolate and the smell of the beach on a warm summer day. It smells so good. It’s making me hungry, and triggering a strange longing.

I try to shake it off when I see Alpha Kanen and Beta Malcolm arrive and take their places on the dais. I linger in the middle of the room on the side, clipboard clutched to my chest, a pen in my hand, ready to check the lists if needed, or help with anything, staying alert to everything that is happening. I hear through the entryway a clamor of voices, and realize that the Dark Woods Pack must be arriving. I hope they found their rooms satisfactory.

I see them all cluster into the ballroom at the back. Gamma Michael is with them, he must have escorted them down from their rooms. I wait to see whether he is going to want me to do anything specific. He starts directing them to tables, covered with the properly fitting green tablecloths, I note to myself. I expect my wolf to snicker at my humor, but she seems strangely excited and unsettled. I suppose it’s still just the aftereffects of our wonderful run this afternoon.

The smell from the kitchen is growing stronger, a delightful aroma like the most delicious thing ever, wafting around past my nose. I glance up at the dais, where Kanen and Malcolm have their heads together, speaking quietly. I know Kanen will need to greet Alpha Ross, so I’m not surprised when he stands up and starts coming down off the dais.

But I’m alarmed when I see the expression on his face. He has been so depressed the last couple of months, poor thing, so sad that Sandra left him when she found her fated mate. It has been awful to see him suffering, just crushed under the weight of his grief. And it has been very touchy to try to stay out of his way while he storms around, horrifically grouchy, finding fault with everything and everybody. He is intimidating enough already, with his shocking blond hair flowing down to his shoulders, almost white it is so pale, and his piercing blue eyes, and his muscles for miles. He looks like a Viking God. And when this godlike creature is in a bad mood you basically expect him to start hurling thunderbolts.

So my heart starts pounding when I see a fierce expression come onto his face, and his blue eyes are filled with an intense emotion, probably fury, and he starts storming straight towards me.

Oh. My. God. Am I in trouble? Does he know I snuck out for a birthday run? Does he know I was late getting to the Ball? I have scarcely ever had two words from him, I didn’t know he ever even knew who I was before. I clutch my clipboard in terror, and have the sudden awareness that the delicious scent from the kitchen is a thousand times stronger, swirling in the air as he draws closer, filling my nose and my heart with hunger and desire, and I don’t know what is happening.

Kanen strides over to me, and just as he reaches me, his blue eyes filled with a terrible and wonderful expression, I hear him growling one word. The word that every wolf, beginning on their 18th birthday, dreams of hearing. The word that means that your destiny has arrived, that the gods have smiled on you, that you have found the one person who you were born to be with, your fated mate.

I hear him growl, as I inhale the delicious smell and stare into his eyes, and his voice is filled with a ferocious tone of utter astonishment and aggression as he says, “Mate!”

What?

But then he brushes past me, his eyes locked on someone behind me, his arm touching me and moving me aside as he passes. I swivel around, and see him reach a young woman standing with the Dark Woods Pack, probably in her early twenties, with long dark hair tumbling down her back, who is staring at him with the same expression that I just saw in his eyes. He reaches her in one more step, buries his nose into her hair, inhales audibly against her neck, and repeats, “Mate!”

I hear her say it back to him. “Mate!” she gasps, and in another moment they are in each other’s arms, clutching each other, locked in a passionate embrace.

There is a moment of thunderous silence in the ballroom, followed by an outburst of thunderous applause. Oh my god! Our Alpha has found his mate!

And I, ridiculously, thought for just a moment that he was coming for me, striding straight towards me with that expression on his face. I just happened to be standing right in front of her.

I wait to hear my wolf laugh at me for my stupid mistake, but instead she is frantic inside my head, and she is saying “Mate! Mate! Mate!”

What?

“No, it wasn’t me,” I tell her silently, shocked that she somehow also made the same error. She thought so too? I wouldn’t have thought that my wolf could be deceived like that.

I realize that the delicious aroma seems stronger than ever, and it is so disorienting to be smelling it right after I had that jolt of mistakenly thinking that I had found my mate. I feel almost dizzy with the scent and with my confusion, and with my wolf bouncing around in my mind, lost in chaotic emotions, still saying “Mate!”

I want to be happy for my Alpha as I watch his new joy, everyone clustering around the new couple to offer congratulations. But the room is swirling as the dizziness starts to overcome me, and the scent is stronger than ever, to the point that nothing else exists. I feel myself starting to lose balance, starting to fall.

Suddenly strong arms wrap around me from behind, holding me up, and somebody is whispering into my ear, “Mate!”