My Enemy, My Mate

Chapter 6

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"You awake darling?" Mum whispered as she opened my bedroom door, "It's your birthday!" she cheered.

Dad and Paul followed behind her as she walked into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. Paul flicked the light on on his way in nearly blinding me with their brightness so early in the morning.

"Urgh! Paul!" I groan at the fire of a thousand suns suddenly shining in my face.

"Do you want your presents?" Dad asks placing a few neatly wrapped presents on my bedside table.

"I also made you your favorite cinnamon and banana milkshake for breakfast!" Mum chimes in as she shoves the glass into my hands. This is a lot so early in the morning. What even is the time?! I glance at my phone beside me, 7:00AM.

"Why are you up so early?" I moan, "It's a Saturday!"

"It's not just any Saturday Peanut! It's your seventeenth birthday!" Dad answers too chirpily.

"Anything can happen on your seventeenth birthday!" Mum adds.

"Here, open this present first, Willow." Paul interrupts, passing me the smallest of the presents. I was happy for this new topic. Paul knew all too well the pressure put on the Alpha family to find their mate. I really do hope he finds his soon - not that he is suffering while living the single, future Alpha lifestyle.

I unwrapped the pink wrapping to find a small, pale blue jewelry box. I open the box and inside is the most beautiful and delicate silver chain with a tiny round coin hanging from it. I picked up the coin and looked at it closely. It had a small flower engraved on it. I looked up at my Mum with a puzzled look on my face.

"A violet is your birth month flower." Mum explained. "I thought it would go with your dress for tonight perfectly." She smiles warmly.

"I love it." I say as I wrap my arms around my mother. "It is beautiful."

"This one next!" Dad exclaims and hands me the long present wrapped in green wrapping.

I rip off the paper and find a fishing pole inside. I cant say I'm surprised of my father.

"Thanks Dad." I say as Paul puts the fishing pole on my desk so it doesn't poke anyones eye out.

"I thought we could do some more fishing trips together. You used to like them when you were a kid!" Dad continues.

"That sounds great!" I smile. I haven't been able to spend much time with my Dad since he was the Alpha - some time fishing together would be nice.

Paul hands me the large box beside him with a large grin on his face. I am suspicious.

I unwrap the first layer of yellow wrapping paper to find another layer of pink paper. I unwrap that layer and find a box. I rip the tape off the box and open it up. Inside is stuffed with packing foam. Pulling the foam pieces out, I find another smaller box. I groan. I knew it would be something like this. I open the smaller box and finally find my present. A gift card to the sports store in the human town.

"Thanks Paul." I smile while he elbows Dad for appreciation of his wrapping.

"You have been saying your sneakers for PE are getting a little worse for wear, so I thought it is time to upgrade!" Paul says, looking mightily proud of himself.

"That's very thoughtful Paul." Mum compliments him. Paul is chuffed.

Dad kisses me on the head before he walks out of my room.

"Happy birthday Peanut." He adds with a smile. Paul follows behind him.

"Have a shower and I'll be up soon to start working on your hair for the party!" Mum chimes as she follows the boys with arms full of wrapping paper, boxes and packaging foam.

As I finish up in the bathroom and head back to my room, I hear Aria and mum deciding what they are going to do with my hair.

"Here she is the birthday girl!" Aira excitedly speaks and wraps her arms around me as I walk back into my room. She almost suffocates me with her hug.

"Let's get started." Mum sings with pleasure.

Aria starts to unpack her dress from her bag and hangs it up in my wardrobe alongside my dress.

"You two are going to look absolutely stunning." Mum adds while smiling at the thought of us all dressed up.

Mum rushes out of the room and quickly returns with a hair dryer, curler and a whole bunch of beauty products that I have yet to learn about.

"We can't get ready without music!" Aria says as she pulls my speaker out of the draw and connects her phone via bluetooth. "I've even made a 'Willows seventeenth birthday' playlist!" She giggles.

Mum grabs my hand to lead me to my desk. I sit down as she begins to run her hands through my hair. I could watch her as she worked through the mirror positioned above my desk.

"I still can't believe that my baby girl is turning seventeen." She reminisces as she gently brushes my hair.

"So we had some thoughts..." Aria begins, "For makeup: we thought we could do silver eyeshadow to bring out the colour of your deep brown eyes and it would match your dress too." Aria says as she runs her fingers down my dress admiring her selection. "Obviously with some lovely thick lashes and a natural coloured lip." She continues.

"And for your hair, we thought loose curls in a low bun with some tendrils hanging down would look great." Mum adds.

"So what do you think?" Aria asks as she plugs in the hair curler, she knew I wouldn't argue.

"Sounds great!" I exclaim, earning overly excited expressions from both my Mum and Aria.

Aria continues to sing along to 'Party in the USA' by Miley Cyrus. Dancing around my bedroom.

As mum starts to section my hair ready to curl Aria gets the makeup prepared.

After what felt like hours of Aria and mum running around my room getting me ready, we were finally finished. I have to admit, it wasn't the worst thing being pampered all day.

"You two have 20 minutes until you must get changed. I'll be back in a few minutes to see the finished product." Mum adds as she leaves my room.

"Thank you Mum." I say in appreciation.

Aria comes to sit beside me on my bed.

"Are you ready for tonight?" She questions. "This could be it, the night you find your mate." She adds with excitement.

I start to feel a weird sensation in my stomach almost like butterflies at the thought of potentially meeting him.

"Willow, you okay?" Aria asks as she waves her hand in front of my face.

"Yeah, sorry, just lost in thought." I answer, my voice shaking from nerves. Aria smiles knowingly. Aria turned seventeen a few months ago but is yet to find her mate. Surprisingly, she is cool about it though. She says it means she can travel the world to find him.

"Okay, we should probably start getting changed." Aria adds and walks over to our dresses.

We both take our dresses from the coat hangers and lay them on the bed. Aria collects our shoes from inside of my wardrobe and places them on the floor near the door. As we get changed, mum knocks on the door.

"You two, ready?" she asks from the other side of the door.

"Just a minute!" we call as we slip into our shoes.

As I open the door, mum's eyes widen and soften.

"You both look stunning" she sighs, patting a tissue against her eye so it doesn't run her makeup.

"You ready for your big night?" Dad asks as he races up the stairs.

He grabs my hand and leads me down the stairs. Once we reach the bottom of the stairs, he turns to give me a kiss on the forehead.

"Tonight is your night." He adds as he walks away from Aria and I.

We walk to the back door ready to go out to the back yard where Mum and Dad have set up a large tent for the party. You could see the hanging lights and balloons from inside the house. Mum had really out done herself this time. I could see the crowd of people waiting inside the tent and my stomach flipped. Thats a lot of people. Even Shay is nervous. I'm not sure if her nervousness is adding to mine but I can feel every part of me sweat. Mum looks at me supportively as her and Aria head out the door.

Right, let's get this over with.