His Fated Mate

Chapter One: Work

I got up early this morning to shower before work. Today was extremely important, the Alpha had put in a massive order for his party tonight. The party was mandatory for anyone who had received the invitation. I had received one, and unfortunately my mother had insisted that I had to go. I tied up my long curly auburn hair in a ponytail, and stared into the mirror into my violet eyes. They were my favorite thing about me, completely unique. I had an hour glass figure I wasn’t skinny but I wasn’t fat either I was somewhere in the middle.

I hurried to get dressed, I pulled on faded blue jeans and a black shirt. The shirt was one of the shirts for the cafe I worked for. It said, ‘Silver Moon Cafe’ and it had a wolf howling at the full moon. I grabbed my favorite black hoodie and my purse. It was about four in the morning the birds were hardly awake. I headed down the steps, the fading smell of coffee told me that my mom had already left. She was an ER nurse at the pack hospital, they were always under staffed.

I headed to the front porch to wait for my boss Iris, she drove a little yellow Volkswagen beetle from the seventy’s. Iris was a family friend, she had amber colored eyes, silver blonde hair, she was short and petite. She was the kindest person I had ever met, she always donated our baked goods to the local food bank. I loved Iris she was like an aunt to me and she always made sure we had food in our house no matter what. I saw Iris’s yellow bug crest the hill, so I bounced off the porch and headed to the sidewalk. The car just came to a stop and I hopped in, the shop was about three miles away from my house.

We didn’t bother talking it was too early and neither of us have had our morning coffee. The car seemed to also be protesting at being up this early. We only had a few hours to bake off all the pastries we had been working on all week. We took our time making these to impress the Alpha. He had a reputation for being cruel and ruthless. If your business did not produce a high quality product when he asked for it just kiss it goodbye. We got to the store, and hurried to start the ovens and more importantly start the coffee pot.

This building had been here for a hundred years, it had been many things before a cafe. But Iris and her husband had put a lot of work into this place. The hard wood floors were still polished and shiny as if they were still brand new. The tables and chairs were made of old oak whiskey barrels. We had a pastry case, several coffee pots, espresso machines and even made frozen drinks. We served breakfast, lunch and dinner and catered just about anything you could imagine. I made us two large cups of coffee with cream and sugar while Iris had started baking our pastries.

All of our pastries were made and ready to be baked but that was going to take most of the day. We only had until two this afternoon because that’s when the Alpha had ordered all the business in our pack lands to close. That way everyone who had received an invitation could go, this was something that happened every year. We had a relatively large pack so he held a party every year after high school graduation. He hadn’t found his mate yet so he believed that she just wasn’t of age yet and we get our wolves at eighteen. I had just gotten mine last week, I had my first change and it was the most freeing thing I had ever done. I was so happy to finally have my wolf, it was like the piece of me I had been missing was finally found.

Iris and I chatted about random subjects throughout the day, and we probably drank four pots of coffee each. The baking and boxing felt like it took forever, but luckily she had decided that we would not be open to the public today. So that meant we only really had to clean the dishes and as I baked off the pastries she washed the pans. We made a good team, I loved working here.

“Are you excited?” Iris asked.

“Not really,” I sighed.

“Why not?” She questioned.

“Well… what if he truly is as mean as the stories? What if I’m his mate and he rejects me then I’m lonely forever. Or worse what if he accepts me and then keeps me locked away in his sprawling mansion. I kind of hope that I am nothing special to him.” The caffeine had kicked my anxiety into overdrive.

“Oh boy, looks like your imagination is getting the better of you.” She chuckled.

“What if he’s mean, Iris?” I repeated.

“You’ll be okay, you deal with mean people all the time here. Besides you don’t know what it’s like to have a mate that is only made for you. Who knows maybe that’s all rumors.” She shrugged.

“Yeah, maybe he’s a living teddy bear just looking for a little love.” I giggled back.

We kept on teasing each other back and forth for awhile. Eventually everything had been baked and Iris was washing the dishes while I was packing up the cooled treats. I was nervous about this whole party thing but, at least my best friend would be there. Bryn wasn’t invited to the party but would be there with her mate, Felix. He was the Alpha’s beta he was, tall, handsome, he had sandy blonde hair, with green eyes. Felix had a serious attitude, although he did joke from time to time. Bryn on the other hand, was a short brunette, she had light blue eyes and a fair complexion. We both were blessed with hourglass figures, Bryn had a can do attitude, there was no telling her no, her confidence was amazing. Bryn and I had been best friends since we were in kindergarten, she had always been prettier than me.

I was so happy when she found Felix, I had been worried that it would be the end of our friendship. Thankfully he couldn’t say no to her so she towed him around to all of our outings. We hung out every weekend, and talked everyday. Felix had started to come out of his shell something that was easy to do with Bryn. I checked the clock again and it was almost the pick up time so I hurried to finished the boxing. I finished and still have a few minutes to spare so I washed the coffee pot and cups we use to be ready for tomorrow.

I started obsessing over that I was going to wear, this was a formal event and I knew I had nothing to wear. Maybe I would have time to run to the store and grab literally anything. I knew I would never look as good as the other girls that would be there but I wanted to try. I don’t even know why I cared about this stupid thing, I guess something about the possibility to have what Bryn and Felix had was appealing. There was a sharp knock on the front door, and it was Felix and Bryn.

I hurried to let them in, and as they walked in so did five other members of the guard.

“Hey lovey!” Bryn called as she walked in.

“We are here for the order, Casey.” Felix was stern.

“Yes, all ready for ya.” I smiled at him.

He nodded and waited for me to ring it up. I told him the price and he hardly batted his eyes he just handed me the card. I swiped it swiftly, and handed over the pin pad. He finished it and it beeped printing the receipt. He snapped his fingers and each of the men grabbed their fair share of boxes and packed them in the cars outside. Bryn and Felix had already left with their bunch of boxes.

Once all the boxes were gone, I hurried to lock the door and put the register drawer in the safe. When I got back into the kitchen, Iris had already mopped the floors and was just waiting on me. We finished early and got to leave before two.