Fated Mate

The Drive

When I awake in the morning, I groaned, remembering that the me of the past had resigned me to packing that morning. I groan even harder as I sit up all the way in my bed and look around at my room. I think for a second how weird what I am about to do is. Spend two weeks with two strangers? Not what I predicted this week. My phone vibrates with the appointment notification telling me I will be late to show off my portfolio. I frown as I swipe it away and stand and stretch, no doubt preparing for a long car ride. My art career will have to wait for now because, regardless of how important it is to me, I know my wolf would howl until I spent some time with at least one of my mates. My wolf and I have not spoken much. As I said before, she is more like a porch dog than a fierce wolf. Since I first received my ability to shift, I have only done it a few times. Some like to do it to exercise and others just prefer being a wolf because they say it feels more natural. The few times I have shifted was for me to take reference pictures of myself for my furry art commissions. My wolf definitely perked up last night but she hasn't really spoken, just whimpered and yipped.

I pack two suitcases filled with clothes because, honestly, what do you wear when you are being courted? The third suitcase I pack with my art supplies and my Switch. As I am sitting on my suitcase trying to zip it up, I hear a knock at my door. I opened it to see my sister standing sheepishly.

"Hi Celeste, I wanted to say goodbye before I left and to wish you good luck." She says, smiling. Even though we are sisters, our styles are totally different. She is wearing denim shorts and an off-the-shoulder white crop. Her skin is what any average person would call sun-kissed and her muscles are well-defined. Her Luna training shows in how she carries herself with confidence and power.

"Thank you Diane." I said, still embarrassed by the Moon Goddess and her lecture. Regardless of how I may have shut myself out my sister was my sister and she should have done something to bring me back out. Besides, I only isolated myself because of her weird fascination with class and power.

"I wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding with Alpha Rourke. If you refused, I would have honored it and found another candidate. I promise you." She says and I can tell by the look in her eyes that the remorse is eating away at her.

"I believe you it's okay, it all worked out anyway." I said, and I am still somewhat hurt by her actions, but fighting with my sister is not going to make my decision any easier.

"I also wanted to let you know that Derek and I are leaving for our honeymoon this morning and that we will be back next week. Of course, from what I understand, you will be busy these next two weeks anyway." She says smiling "At some point, however, I would like to do some Luna training with you." She adds. It feels like there are two people inside of me. One is a little sister who is so happy that her big sister is going to spend some time with her. The other is a grown woman who is pissed that it took me reaching Luna status for it to happen.

"I am sure we could work that out" I said, eager to keep this new-found peace. Not that we were ever really at war with each other, we just always had tension when we spoke. Unease may be a better way to describe it.

"Well, I will let you finish getting ready. Mason and Rebecca are in charge while we are gone, so if you wish to leave the Clover Pack at any point, feel free to reach out to them. We will arrange a ride." I made note that the Gamma and Beta wives were nice enough to give me their numbers while we were getting ready for the wedding. She smiles and looks like she wants to hug or say something else but, instead, she gives me a small wave and shuts my door behind her. I finished packing my bag and made my way downstairs to the living room to wait for Lee. As I get comfortable on the couch, I hear a knock on the door and I release another groan. I opened to find Lee with a huge grin on his face.

"Morning Love", he says, and goes to hug me. I let him and the mate bond is electrifying. There are sparks anywhere is hand touches, like he just did the Cha Cha Slide on the carpet in socks. He feels it too and blushes as we pull away. "Do you have your bags ready?" He asks, peeking around to look into my house. The house I grew up in is nothing special. It is a simple blue suburban two story. Thinking about this, I am again reminded that I will be a Luna of a pack after all this, so I will have to move no matter my choice.

"Yes they are right over here," I said and stepped aside to let Lee in. He rushes in to grab my bags and put them in the back of his Jeep. His Jeep is dark green and that is all my dumb self knows about cars. I do note that he has chosen to keep his hard top on his Jeep, but from the mud on the side I guess that more often than not this vehicle is for off-roading with no top. I see that there is someone in the backseat as I get closer to it and I assume that it must be Beta Sean. Lee went around to open my door on the passenger side. He helps me get in as I notice how his Jeep is a little lifted. As I buckled in, I watched Lee walk around to get into the driver's seat.

"I don't think we have got to meet formally yet. My name is Beta Sean Frost of the Clover pack" A voice from the back seat says accompanied by an outstretched hand.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Celeste Black." I say awkwardly shaking his hand.

"Sorry I had to steal your mate away for a little while last night. I had to discuss something that came up back home." Beta Sean says.

"Speaking of being back home, I am so excited to be taking you out pack" Lee says getting the car started.

"Perhaps we should warn her of what kind of welcome awaits her Alpha Rourke," Sean says. I took a short pause in my mind to acknowledge that Sean referred to him so formally when, last night, Lee said that all his friends call him well, Lee. It is not unheard of for Betas and Alphas to not be friends, but more so, coworkers, but for the most part, the Moon Goddess allows your Beta to be your best friend, so that you have a built-in companion.

"Well, you see my sisters have been waiting for this for quite awhile," Lee says, smiling and driving away from Pack community.

"They keep mind-linking us to tell us how excited they are to meet you." Sean adds.

"They also keep forgetting that you have yet to choose, so nothing is set in stone," Lee finishes.

"How old are they?" I asked.

"Josie is 25 and Maeve is 17." He says and then pauses to add "I am 21 in case you were wondering." I guess I should have been but the shock has really hindered my thinking abilities.

"I am 19 in case you wondered as well," I said to him.

"I am also 21" Sean says from the backseat. It causes me to laugh. "What? I wanted to feel included." He says, mocking offense in his tone.

"Have you ever been to another pack before?" Lee asks me.

"No, I only ever really left mine for the normal reasons." Most packs in North America live in gated communities. Not the kind you are thinking of more rugged. Although mine is not quite as rugged as others since it is such a new, pack community. One of the first things that changed back in the day was making the golf course into a training field. We kept the pool and clubhouse the same because they both made for a safe, fun, hang out for pups in the pack. There is also a playground but it is due for renovation. The Clover pack has been around for a lot longer than us, so, I imagine they have a way more established and nature-centric pack community. The normal reasons to leave your pack are grocery shopping, school, and just anything not included in your community.

"Well, I hope you are ready for a culture shock," Lee says. We spend the rest of the drive getting the surface level stuff out the way. He tells me his parents are in Ireland and left him with the pack when he was 18 and him and his sister have been Alpha and Luna since then. They wanted to be closer to their roots. I can't imagine having that much responsibility so young. The Clover pack is not at all a new pack and is actually an American version of the Irish Conglomerate of Werewolves. It doesn't exactly make it massive though, which makes me less scared to be the Luna. But I have almost no Irish blood in me, so that thought is counterweighted. Sean was a rogue pup that they found doing patrol one day when he was only 2 years old. They took him in and he has been raised to be his Beta since then. They said that Josie took to him the best and spent a good portion of her time doting on him. "No one tell Josie I am not actually her pup", Sean says with a laugh. Lee tells me he was beginning to think that his mate had passed already, because he had gone to several packs by now and found no one. "I had already decided once I got older I would stop looking so hard, because I was scared I would mate with someone who was freshly 18." Lee says with a slight grimace.Before I know it I see we are approaching a gate that is covered with ivy and clovers. It is brick on the post but metal on the actual gate. At the top of the gate there is a four-leaf metal clover. Lee punches in a code and the gates open and welcomes me into my home for the next week. The dirt roads wind us through a beautiful pine forest where wildflowers and clovers line the ground. It takes about two minutes before we see structures, but when I do, I feel like I have been teleported to another world. Every building looks like it was plucked out of a fairy tale. The houses or cottages are rather covered with greenery all along the walls. A culture shock indeed.

We arrived at a two-story cottage that appeared to be the largest one. I assume this is Lee's house and I am proven correct when he gets out to welcome me. He opens my door and leads me up to the house.

"Welcome to the O'Malley residence, where you will find you are not the only girl but that you are the most beautiful". He dips his head down to kiss my hand.

"SHE'S HERE!" I heard someone shout from the top window of the house followed by what sounds like a heard of elephants trampling down a set of stairs.