Forbidden Mate

Chapter 1 “Elaina we are going to be late!” I jerk up out of bed as my bestfriend Marissa rushes into my room. We have training every morning at the packhouse. Somehow I am always racing the clock. I rush around and throw my dirty blonde hair up in a pony tail and slip into shorts and a t-shirt as we rush out the door. “You know tomorrow is your eighteenth birthday and-” Marissa says with a grin. “don’t remind me” I cut Marissa off with a sigh. “Oh come on aren’t you excited to find your mate?” I have thought about this for a long time now. There is always so much anticipation and it is all anyone can talk about. “My luck my mate will reject me at first sight” I respond with a laugh. She continues rambling about how happy she was when she and Daryn found each other. Finally we reach the packhouse and split off into our groups for warm-ups. We all gather around into our pairs for combat training. Ben has always been my partner. We have known each other for as long as I can remember. He is the Omega’s son. Tall brown hair hazel eyes and built like a god. “Rough night I see” He says with a smirk. I reach up at my hair nervously and look down at my quickly thrown together outfit. “Oh shut up” I shove him backwards. Training comminces and goes as usual. The whole time I just can’t stop thinking about how good Ben looks. Even my competitive nature can’t keep me focused. We have always been close friends and I have never been able to work up the courage to tell him how I felt. I realize I am gawking at him when Marissa notices and shoots me a smirk. Once training is over Marissa insists on walking me home. “So Ben” she says barely containing her laughter. I turn bright red. “what about him?” Marissa rolls her eyes “Oh come on Alaina you are so into him…maybe he will be your mate” she says with a shrug. ‘Oh I hope’ I can’t stop myself from thinking. I may not seem interested in finding my mate, but I don’t want to face the fact that it might not be Ben. We reach my house where she leaves me at the door and I head upstairs to take a shower and change. My mom steps into my room with a big smile stretched across her face and she sits on the end of my bed. I already know what this is about. I roll my eyes “what is it?” I look at her solemnly. “Oh nothing I just came to see if you were ready for your birthday tomorrow” she states as she wraps me in her arms. “What if I don’t have a mate?” I ask with a frown. “Oh sweetie don’t say things like that. The Moon Goodess would never do such a thing. Everyone has their mate.” I look at her blankly. She goes on and tells me the story of when she first laid eyes on my father for the hundredth time and leaves me with a kiss on the head. I fall back onto my pillows and try to imagine it all. I have always been such an independent girl maybe out of fear of rejection. I have heard the mate rejection stories and how badly it wounds your wolf. Jasmine my wolf wrenches at the thought and quickly tries to dismiss it. She is so excited she can barely hold it in. I switch my train of thought and think about my patrol shift the next night. I finally pull my self up in bed and send Marissa a text. Alaina: Hey. do you want to stay at my house tonight? Marissa: Absolutely! I will be over in twenty minutes. I sigh and fall back on my pillow. At least when we show up to training tomorrow Marissa will be with me just incase. My stomach turns as I reimagine again the disappointment I will feel if Ben isn’t my mate. I doze off and a few short minutes later Marissa comes through my door. She begins talking about what she thinks my mate will look like and how we will meet. “Can I tell you something?” I ask her sheepishly. “Of course. Anything you tell me you know stays between us.” she says leaning in. “I am going to be so disappointed tomorrow if I find out it isn’t Ben. He turned eighteen two months ago and hasn’t found his mate so I keep holding out hope” I blurt out and drop my head into my hands. Marissa leans over and wraps me in a hug “You never know it could be him! If not it’ll be his loss anyways” she says with a wink. We both laugh and talk about it for the next few hours. Eventually I get tired and we lay down to head to bed. The next morning I wake up to an overly excited Marissa rummaging through my closet. “We have to pick the most perfect outfit!” she is practically squealing. I roll over with a groan and my stomach knots with the same thoughts as the night before. Marissa drapes herself over me and begs me to get up and get ready. “Come on we are having lunch with Ben today” she says with a chuckle. At that I leapt out of bed and proceeded to the mirror sitting on my vanity table. I take a seat infront of it and begin brushing my nappy dirty blonde hair. Marissa pulls out a curling iron out of her bag “we are going all out today” she says. I feel like a doll I sit in the chair as she curls little delicate ringlets around my face and combs them out to let them fall more naturally. She pulls out her makeup bag and gets to work on my face. By the time she is finished I am even surprised. She stepped back with such pride “oh you look absolutely fantastic” she says as she pulls the sundress she picked from my closet off of the bed. She holds it up infront of me and tells me to go put it on. I grab it and sleuth into the bathroom. I look at myself in the mirror also extremely impressed. I have never been one to put on makeup and fix my hair so it was a crazy sight. I felt barely recognizable. I slide my oversized t-shirt off and slip the dress on over my head. I flatten it out with my hands and turn to the side observing my stomach. I lean onto the counter with my head in my hands trying to calm the butterflies that are swarming my stomach. Marissa knocks softly at the door “come out and let me see!”. I step out the door and Marissa practically jumps with joy. She makes a few more adjustments to the dress and selects a pair of sandals from the closet and we head out the door for lunch. I pull out my phone and see a text from Ben. Happy Birthday! Can’t wait for lunch. A huge smile creeps across my face. Marissa c***s her head to the side and grins. “Are you excited to find out if its him? My stomach immediately flips. I was about to find out the answer to the question I have been haunting myself with for years. “Maybe we just shouldn’t go. I don’t feel very good” My face turns pale and I start to feel nauseous. “Oh come on Alaina. You can’t avoid him forever. Besides don’t you want to know?” I nod and come to realize she is right. I needed to know. It was the only thing that was going to calm my stomach at this point. We round the corner and I can see the diner a few feet in front of us. I feel like my knees are going to give. We reach the door and Marissa reaches out and swings the door open and The bell attached to the top gives a little jingle. I step inside breathing heavily trying to find any sign of my mate. I think to myself maybe he isnt here. We walk down the isle between a few booths and round the corner and there sits Ben in the middle of a large round booth in the corner of the diner. His face slowly falls from his smile to disappointment, but he quickly recovers and jumps to his feet. “Happy Birthday!” He reaches around the table to wrap me in a hug. I feel like I am choking back tears. Ben was not my mate. It came with disappointment, but also some relief. The anxiety had subsided and only the sadness remained. “Thank you” I did notice the look on his face. Was he disappointed too? Maybe I was just seeing things. We all sit and catch up on what was happening around school. Who had found their mates and things like that. Daryn comes in shortly after we sat down and takes his place beside Marissa and pulls her close. Ben and I glance at each other. He looks just as disappointed as me. I can’t stop thinking about it. Marissa and Daryn continue talking with both Ben and I not saying much at all. The lunch quickly ends after we get our food, and I grab my bag and say my goodbyes. I walk back to my house and try to keep my mind off of it when I feel Ben rush up beside me. “Hey I think we need to talk” “What is there to talk about?” I look at him curiously not wanting to blurt out everything on my mind in that moment. I look at him and it only seems to make the pain of finding out worse. “Look I know it is stupid now, but for what it is worth I was really hoping I would be your mate” He says in such a somber tone. He scratches the back of my head and I come to a stop and turn to him. I look up tears falling down my face. “I have been hoping for years you would be my mate…I just didn’t know how to tell you” He immediately grabs me into his arms and we stand there for a while. He just held me. I could hear his heart beating just as fast as mine. Why was this happening now. Right after we find out we aren’t meant to be together. Why did he wait so long to talk to me. Finally he lets me go and promises to talk to me soon and heads the opposite way. I continue towards my house wiping my tears trying to think about patrol. There have been recent threats from our rival pack the Red Moon Pack. Alpha David has been taking it very seriously and delegated double patrol shifts for everyone. Ben and I always do patrol together. I roll my eyes at the thought. ‘Great that will really help my focus’ I think kicking myself for ever getting my hopes up. Someone like me would never be mated to an Omega’s son. I reach the door to my house and head upstairs to change for patrol. I throw on a tight strapped tank top and spandex. I sit on the edge of my bed and slip on a pair of old tennis shoes and head out the door to the pack house. I am the first one there and take a seat on the cement bench outside and pull out my phone. Marissa had called three times and texted me twice. Are you alright? Please Alaina you can talk to me. I text her back realizing I had been so caught up in the fact that Ben wasn’t my mate I forgot to text her back. I am alright. I thought I was prepared, but it was different once it actually happened Shortly after The Patrol team leader Jeremy shows up. Punches me on the side of the shoulder and wishes me happy birthday. I stand and we both proceed into the pack house. Shortly everyone shows up and we are given our assignments. I am of course paired with Ben and I feel tears sting my eyes once again. Absolutely not I think I pul myself together. I need to focus these threats have gotten serious and some of the pack members have gone missing. I need to be on my game today. We head out and Ben and I are stationed directly on the border between our pack lines and Red Moon pack. Hours pass without a word spoken between us and Ben finally speaks up. “Screw the whole chosen mate thing. If we care for each other we should be together right?” “If we do that Ben one day one of us will find our mate and the other will be left even more hurt than now.” He looks at me for a moment and pulls up a grin. “I am willing to take that risk. I love you Alaina. I want to chose you as my mate” My stomach flutters at his words but before I can respond we heard distant howling. We both turn and shift into our wolves. His wolf was incredible. A beautiful chesnut color with golden eyes. We look at each other and split to surveille the area. I am walking throught the woods on alert when suddenly I find myself flat on my back. Seething red eyes looking down at me. “Mate” The massive black wolf above me spat. Chills go down my spine and I manage to let out a whimper.