The Lone She-Wolf

The Ceremony

David's POV

The ceremony had begun.

I know that everyone is expecting me to pick a mate but it was not any of my problems at all, or rather, I was not interested in it. But I had to put up with it and act like it was something I wanted to do.

Evander came to my side.

“ You know you have to smile, do not keep your face like that, it does not look good on you at all"

I know that my face was just normal, but here was Evander telling me that I looked worse and that I should let out a smile.

I had to obey him when someone else came to me and asked me to brighten up my face, then I knew it was something serious and I had to do as I was told.

It was a fake smile that I had on my face.

“ Are you ready?" Evander asked me.

" Ready for what?”

" To choose a mate of course, don't be silly at this point in your life, you are going to get lucky and the Moon Goddess will make a match for you, are you ready for that?” He playfully hit my shoulders.

" I am not ready for whatever it is that involves having a mate, and will not be interested as well, I am not sure if any of them catches my attention at all,” I said to him.

“ You will find her soon, the Moon Goddess will let you meet her tonight,” He said to me.

I got seated, and I noticed that the place that was used had an extra decoration added to it and even had beautiful lighting as well. My eyes caught the beautiful ladies that were all over the place, they had taken their time to look so good and I loved it.

The ceremony had started, and the ones that the Moon Goddess was favoring were happy that they had found their mate already.

Evander came to me, he looked worried but I was not worried one bit.

“ You should move around and try to dance with each one of them to see if you will feel something," He said.

I know that he was speaking out of concern for me but I was fine.

“ If she were here, my wolf would have felt it, but she is not and you should know that by now," I said to him.

“ You could be wrong, maybe you will need to go close to her so that the feeling can be stronger, I doubt you will feel anything from where you are” He frowned.

I never wanted to leave where I was sitting. I enjoyed sitting there and watching them, then frowning at the girls who think that they have found the most precious thing because they have been mated with their man. It looked funny to me. I did not like the feeling that it gave me.

I got up from my seat, and I saw the look on Evander's face. He must have been thinking that I wanted to go meet the ladies and dance with them, but that was never the case.

I left the venue of the ceremony.

I was no longer enjoying the things I was seeing there, the laughter and all of that. The girls think that they have found their perfect man, someone who would not keep them in the position that my mum is right now.

“ Where are you going? Why are you leaving the venue of the ceremony?" He asked me.

“ Get me a drink," I demanded.

He went to get a drink for me, he helped me open it.

I took it from him and began to walk through the paths that led to the woods.

“ The venue is this way, why are you heading in that direction?” He ran after me.

" Stop, do not make any noise,” I said to him.

He looked at me like I was the one who was going crazy.

I felt something so strong, the smell hit my nose, I knew that someone was there, I followed the smile and I did not see anyone but I knew that someone was there.

“ What is going on with you?" Evander asked.

“ Do not make noise" I whispered to him.

I know he could not perceive what I was perceiving because he wouldn't have asked me if he could feel it.

It was a lady, I followed till I got to a place that was so strong, that I knew that she was around the place.

Then I began to hear footsteps, she was running away, I tried to follow her but I lost track of her as she ran too fast.

I stopped to go after her.

“ Are you okay?"

“ Yes,'' I said. She was gone.

I went back to the ceremony, it had gotten even more heated up than I had left it.

I looked around the place, maybe I should take their advice and dance with the ladies if I felt that scent again, maybe she could have run back to this place. Did she know that I was the one that was in the woods?

I got close to a girl, even though I did not want to do that.

I held her hands. She was surprised that I would do that. She felt special for a second, like telling her friends that she was with me.

Then I left her, I could only imagine what her reaction would be as I moved to another girl.

I held her close and she thought that I was holding her that way because I felt something for her. She clung to my body and it made me feel uncomfortable. I begged Evander to take me from her but his attention was elsewhere.

I tried to get his attention then he finally looked my way, I pleaded with my eyes to get me away from her but it seemed like he was enjoying what the girl was doing to me. The girl had her body attached to me like I was her second skin and it made me uncomfortable. Soon, she wrapped her hands around my neck.

“ I think I should go check something over there?" I said to her, trying to escape from the bond that she had put me in.

" I will go with you instead” she held my hands.

" That will not be necessary at all, you should stay back,” I said to her and quickly slipped my hands off hers as I walked fast to where Evander was standing.

" Why would you leave me there? Did you not see the signs that I was giving to you? You should have come to my rescue” I whispered into his ears.

" The goal is to get a mate, so I let you stay there so you can find someone" He responded.

I sighed, I wanted to go back to my room, my room was more comfortable than this place.

“ Alpha David, you have not found a mate yet?" I heard one of the men say, he was a very good friend to my father and I did not want it to appear like I was being disrespectful because I badly wanted to ignore him and the question he was asking me.

“ I will" My reply was short and that sent him a message that he should let me be.

Soon, I heard my name ringing in the speakers.

“ Tonight is that night, and the Alpha has to find himself a mate tonight, ladies, you can have him for yourself, his mate needs to be found" I heard the man say.

I squeezed my hands, I was preparing my fist to punch that stupid face of his, I could not believe that he would say such a thing to me.

“ You see what I was just saying? The ladies should come to him if he does not want to meet them as earlier discussed" I heard the man that was next to me say, he was telling his friend, he looked at me, he knew I heard what he said, well, he was not hiding it, he wanted me to hear it.

I stood there, all eyes were on me, urging me to make a move.

I could not cope with it so I left the venue and went back to my house.

I got home and took a bottle of drink. I was sure that the next meeting would be about me, but only if they would see how unconcerned I am about this mate thing, they would leave me the hell alone. It exhausted me so much.

“ You should not have done that" Evander was in my face again.

“ I need a good sleep"

“ What you need to do is to get back to that ceremony, you disappointed everyone that was there, you know it is not fair right?"

“ I want to sleep"

He sighed.

“ Leave my room"

He left, and as soon as he left I went to check the door to ensure that it was close enough. I stood by the window, I was tempted to go out of the room, into the woods but I had to hold myself back because I did not want anyone to suspect anything and I did not want one of the elders to pull me back into the ceremony that I had succeeded in leaving.

“ Who are you?" I asked no one in particular.

The night was getting cold.

The smell that I perceived was that of a girl, a girl who seemed to hold me spellbound, I was somehow connected to that smell, it was so strong.

“ I need to find that girl,” I said.

I went back to my bed but I could not sleep, my mind kept drifting to that girl I saw.

I stood up to go get water because I was restless, I got to the door, opened it, and saw Evander standing there.

“ Did you leave this place when I asked you to?" I asked him.

“ No, I was looking out for you"

“ You wanted to get a chance to take me back there or you were looking out for me?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

He smiled, his plans wouldn't work for me.

I got the water and drank it.

Then I began to hear noises outside.

“ That noise is coming from the ceremony?”

" Yes, we should go check what is going on,” He said.

I wanted to rush out but I stopped on my track.

" Are you this is not some trick to take me back to that place"

“ No, it's not, you should go see what is going on there" He led the way.

I followed behind him.

When we got there, I saw that it was two girls. They were fighting over a man who happened to have picked one of them. It was explained that the Moon Goddess had chosen one of them for him and it did not sit well with the other one.

I shook my head.

“ I guess this is enough for today" I went back to my room.

" You see why I said there would be no need for this? It is just a way of causing issues among themselves” I said.

Evander just stood there looking at me, his expression showed that he disagreed with me.

I felt I was being hypocritical because the girl I took in her scent was still on my mind. I wanted to see her so badly. I turned on the bed till I finally slept off.

I woke up the next morning, feeling exhausted already. The day had not started for me and I was already feeling weak. I had to freshen up, take my bath, and come out of my bedroom.

When I got to the sitting room, I saw that there were people there, I became confused.

I sighted Evander at the far end of the room. I beckoned on him to come to me because I could not tell what was going on, I could not explain either.

“ What is going on?" I asked him.

“ The women are here with their daughters, they were asked to bring their daughters so you could spend some time with them," He said.

It was funny to me, I could not imagine such a thing happening to anyone let alone happening to me.

“ What kind of thing is that?” It sounded disgusting to me.

I looked at the girls, they were nothing close to the kind of girls I would even want.

“ Thank you for coming out, I was wondering if you would stay in bed forever, I nearly asked one of the maids to go call you." That was one of the top officials in my house, he made sure that everything was in order in my house.

“ What is going on?" I asked like I was just seeing the woman and Evander did not breathe a word about it to me.

Well, I wanted to hear from him, maybe Evander was wrong.

“ These women were asked to bring their daughters here for you to be free with, maybe we will be fortunate enough to get a mate for you," He said.

I scoffed, a distinguished matchmaking would have been better than what is being set up here. This lacks a lot of thought.

“ I am not interested," I said.

I was about to leave when he rushed to my front and blocked my way.

“ You should give this a trial, do you know the kind of embarrassment it is that you did not find a mate?" he said in a low tone”

" I do not find that embarrassing, besides, there is another ceremony coming up, maybe we can be lucky” I whispered back to him.

He frowned as his eyes went to me, them to the women.

“ You should not keep the women waiting"

“ They decided to wait, I never asked them to"

“ You should do this one favor for me, even though it does not work out,” He said.

Even though anything was meant to work out, I will not let it happen with the kind of girls that I was seeing here.

I turned slowly and faced them.

“ Thank you for bringing your daughters to me, they are received with open arms” I forced a smile.

The girls giggled, they were happy to be with me.

“ Have your seats, ladies," Max said to them.

Yeah, his name was Max.

The women did not sit, they said they had things to do, so they left their daughters there and left. There were about four girls there.

I felt like I was trapped already, I searched for Evander but it seemed he had left already, he left me to face this horrible moment of my life.

“ Hello," One of the girls said to me.

I could not believe I would be going through this.

“ I need water" I felt I was suffocating.