Their Human Mate

Lightwood

“You can’t really tell our story, Carter, without them hearing my side as well,” I told Carter, sitting beside him. He laughed and rose up from his seat.

“By all means, continue where I left off,” he said. “I’m going to find Ember anyway. Think I’ll steal a kiss or two from her,” he said, laughing before leaving the room.

“Tell her to save some for me too, asshole,” I yelled back before he disappeared around the corner.

“My best friend in life is a menace to society sometimes,” I tell the camera. “Ember wanted our story to be known for generations to come, and we are, of course, a big part of that story. Let me tell you a bit about myself.”

Seth Lightwood

It was a sunny day in Miami, Florida. The days here were always sunny, and I loved them. Carter loved it when it rained, though — one of the smaller things we disagreed on. I know he told you about our friendship. We really did share everything growing up. We were always mistaken for brothers because of it, though we looked nothing alike. We were both 6’5” in height — the average height of any alpha wolf male. He looked like your typical American male, with blue eyes and short, wavy blonde hair. He looked just like his father. I, on the other hand, had jet black hair that I let grow to my shoulders. It was wavy as well, though I kept it trimmed every few days. My eyes are light brown, almost hazel — looks I got from both of my parents. Our parents are currently traveling the world. Once our fathers passed us the title of Alpha, they packed up and left with our mothers, wanting to explore more of the world together.

Carter and I ran everything together — the pack and the restaurant. My cooking skills are phenomenal, but my true passion is being the alpha of our pack, which is why I mostly handle pack details. I know Carter loves being an alpha, but his passion has always been to lead his own restaurant, so we helped each other with our dreams and made it happen. Our restaurant is known as Moonlight — a play off our last names, the same as our pack, now known as Woodstone.

Lately, the workload for us both has been getting a bit too high daily, so we put out an ad for a wolf who was not only great in the kitchen but had good skills at managing people. She or he would be my assistant for pack paperwork and would serve as top chef at Moonlight.

Carter explained how our packs came together, but I’ll give you more details. The north and the south were not always divided. Three alphas ruled a region — one in the north and two in the south. It wasn’t until the northern alpha, Alpha Woodcrest, grew hungry with power that he and his pack attacked Carter’s grandfather’s pack. Carter’s grandfather sent word to my grandfather, and we backed him up as Woodcrest was creating chaos amongst us. Our grandfathers, together with our packs, drove Woodcrest and his pack back to the north. We could have taken it, but according to our grandfather, it was not theirs to take. As Carter told you, it was ours. Why us specifically, though? What possible reason would we have to create chaos, causing the deaths of many wolves in the north? We had no ties there.

We did, however, send a few friends to report back to us from the north. We knew a few of the families there wanted to join our packs and were tired of living under the current alpha, Ryder Woodcrest, who was known to be merciless. Killed without cause. Took whatever mate he wanted without consequence. Our friend Seal reported that Ryder had taken his girlfriend and mate, Victoria, and killed her. Last I heard, he had another girlfriend now — a human girlfriend. The disgust that ate at me when I heard the news made me want to shift and violate the treaty just to end him. He was not a chosen wolf to mate with a human, and the fact that a human wanted to even be with him annoyed me just as much, but I’ll get to why in a moment.

Carter told you we were known as Yin and Yang. The names were fitting enough. When we had our first shift, Carter’s wolf came out pure white, and mine came out pure black — but what made our wolves unique was that Carter’s paws and snout were all black, while my snout and paws were all white. We think it is because we were both born at the same time and under the blue moon, which is like a supermoon for wolves. The blue moon makes us even stronger and faster than usual. It is when our wolves’ hormones are sent into overdrive, so any unmated female wolf in proximity to an unmated male wolf during this time would be all over each other in seconds.

Carter and I, having been born under the blue moon, have been fortunate to be spared the full force of that feeling, but we do still experience a heightened lust drive during this time, and we are still men after all. Sometimes, the female wolves in our pack would come to us and we would satisfy ourselves and them. It is the way of our nature. I feel sorry for our mate whenever we meet her, because she will have to put up with both of us. Women always threw themselves at us, even in school. They were always attracted to power — even human women, who didn’t even know what we are, simply thought we were rich and tried to throw themselves at us too, which was utterly disgusting to me. Carter found it amusing.

The thought of a human and a wolf mating has always bothered me. I hadn’t told Carter this, but back in college there was a girl named Melonie who I had actually fallen in love with, even though she was not my mate. Melonie was unlike any other human I had ever met. She was sweet, with eyes as green as the forest and light brown hair. We dated for some time. I used to think all humans were the same — greedy and selfish — but she showed me she was different. At least, that’s what I thought. I had made up my mind that even though she was not my mate, I was going to marry her. I was not a chosen wolf to marry a human, as chosen humans’ eyes light up a bright blue every now and then when in close proximity to a wolf mate, but I didn’t care about the law.

She was a beautiful soul, and I loved her. I loved her enough to buy an engagement ring, and I headed straight to her dorm room to ask her to dinner. I was going to propose. Lo and behold, the second I opened the door, I found her on top of another man. It took everything I had not to kill them both on the spot. So from that day on, I vowed never to let myself go there with another human. Call me bitter if you want. I don’t care. That is the vow I made. I didn’t tell Carter this. I know he thinks I just dislike humanity for no reason. The one time I allowed myself to be open with a human was the one time I ended up proving myself right. My mother taught me early on that humanity is selfish, that humanity is greedy, and I would never let my heart be tempted by another human again.

But fate is a fickle mistress that cannot be changed. A lesson I learned the day she walked into our restaurant, applying for the job we had advertised. A human by the name of Ember Maze.