River

Chapter 3

River’s P.O.V:

Slow down Fern – I say to my wolf.

She is clearly excited to be free again. She is running as fast as her legs can carry her through the forest.

Free – is all she says back.

I’m sorry that I haven’t come out here in a while. You know we had a lot of training to do so we can become Alpha. – I appologise to her. I feel bad for not letting her out.

I love my wolf. She has light fur that is a mixture of greys, whites and browns. Her eyes are as hazel brown like mine. Her name suits her too. Fern.

She is headed toward a small clearing on the edge of a cliff that overlooks the lake on our property. In the distance you can see the whole town. I usually come up here to just have a moment alone. No one else knows about this spot… accept for Ashton.

As my wolf enters the clearing, she sniffs the air. We are not alone. Ashton’s wolf is sitting on the edge of the cliff. Fern’s ears perks up and her tail starts wagging. I know she wouldn’t mind being mated to Ashton’s wolf, Hunter.

They have become very closely bonded as we grew up together.

Hunter sniffs the air, clearly he knows we are here. He immediately turns around and our eyes meet.

Fern heads over to him and sits down looking at the view. The sun has started to set and the town’s lights are turning on one by one. It’s so peaceful up here.

Fern allows me to take control and Ashton is also now in control of his Wolf.

“Hey Riverbug.” He says still looking at our view.

“Hey Ash.” I say. “I thought you headed over to your friends for the evening.”

“Yeah, that was the plan but I decided I need some time alone.” He replies.

“Oh, I’m sorry for desturbing you then. I will leave you be.” I say as I rise from my sitting position.

“No, you are not bothering me. You can stay.” He pauses. “I actually would like it if you stayed.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. “Do you want to talk about it?

I could pick up that something was bothering him.

“I don’t really want to talk about it. If you don’t mind.” He says.

I nod my head and we sit there in silence, both in wolf form looking over the view as the darkness starts to take over.

I am the first to disrupt the silence.

“I better get back home. I have school tomorrow and I don’t want to go to bed too late.” I say.

“Yeah, I better head home too.” He says standing up.

I stand up too and he nudges me with his snout.

“Goodnight Riverbug.” He says.

“Goodnight Ash.” I nudge him back.

And with that we both take off into the forest. I stop at the tree where I left my clothes and shifted back to my human form. I got dressed and headed back to the pack house.

I headed up to my room and got pajamas from my walk in closet. I went to my en suite bathroom and ran myself a hot bath with lavender soaks.

After my bath I got dressed and went straight to bed. I mind link my parents to say Goodnight.

Goodnight, Mom.

Goodnight, Dad.

They both link me back at the same time. Goodnight River.

The next day I drove myself to school again in my own car again.

The week passes by slowly but eventually we are just days away from my 18th Birthday. The pack house is crawling with guests and even our town is full of unmated wolves. Some of the omegas have found their mates the past couple of days. Even Bronwynn found her mate. His name is Jacob. They have already mated and marked each other. I have never seen her so happy.

Jacob is a Beta at the Half moon Pack not far from us. He was going to stay in town untill after Bronwynn graduates in a few weeks. Then she will go live with him and his pack.

I will miss her but atleast she won’t be far away.

Paisley has been dressing up and looking her best everyday. Her birthday is only about a week after mine and many of these unmated wolves will still be in town for her birthday. She is a beta’s daughter after all.

I really hope her mate is someone in our pack. Since Bronwynn is already leaving, I wouldn’t want to lose my best friend too.

With all these wolves around I felt very overwhelmed. I headed into the forest almost every night this whole week just to get away. I felt a stronger need to be in the forest this whole week. I didn’t know why but I thought it was because of the calming effect the forest had on me and that my body just felt stressed and overwhelmed with everything happening.

Finally my birthday arrives.

I wake up early and head into my bathroom to shower and clean myself up. Today is going to be a long day. Paisley convinced me to join her this morning at the salon to have our hair and nails done. And she litterally begged me to allow her to do my makeup for this evening. I had to say yes just so she would shut up.

I headed down to the kitchen and grabbed some breakfast before heading over to the salon where Paisley was waiting for me.

By the time we were done, it was time for lunch and we decide to grab something from the café across the road.

We sat down and ordered two coffees and toasted chicken mayo sandwiches.

“So have you really not felt the mate bond with anyone today?” Paisley asked. Clearly hoping her brother still has a chance.

“No, nothing yet. “ I say before taking another bite of my food.

“Well have you seen Ashton yet?” She askes wanting to seem casual but failing.

“No, I haven’t seen him yet. But he is not my mate Paisley.” I say feeling slightly uncomfortable. I have purposefully been ignoring him the past few days because I knew that there could be the slightest chance that he is my mate.

“Well how do you know that?” she askes. “You clearly have been avoiding him the last few days and it could only be because you think there is a possibility that I am right and you are wrong.” She adds sounding very confident.

“I am not avoiding him” I say trying to sound convincing.

“Could have fooled me.” She says with a smirk but the conversation ends there and we finish our meal.

When the bill comes Paisley insists on paying since it’s my birthday.

She walks me to my car.

“So I will see you a bit later. I just need to go pick something up for my mom on the other side of town.” She says. “Then I am just going to get my outfit and things at home and come straight to you.” She adds.

“No problem. I will just be at home helping my mom with some things for tonight. See you around 4pm?” I ask.

“Sure. See you then.” She says and hugs me and kisses my cheek before turning and waving Goodbye as she walks away.

I get into my car and head home.

After helping my mom I head up to my room. It’s almost 4pm so Paisley would be here any moment. The party starts at 6pm so I decided to get ready so long. I put my hair into a low messy bun and curl a few loose strands of hair in the front to shape around my face. I never put this much effort into doing my hair but I just know if I don’t do it Paisley is going to do something way more girly and detailed with my hair.

Once my hair was done I got my dress from my closet and my jewelry and shoes. I put everything on and as I was struggling with the bracelet, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.” I say.

Paisley opens the door and looks me up and down.

“You look amazing!” she yells and drops her bags to the floor so she can hug me.

“Let me help you with that.” She says taking the bracelet from me to help me put it on.

“Thank you.” I say. I sit down to slide on my silver heals. They are a bit high but they look good with the dress.

“Now Makeup.” she says and grabs her makeup bag and pulls me over to my vanity.

I sit down and let her do her thing. I have never been good at doing makeup but Paisley is a pro. She has watched countless yYoutube tutorials and obviously practiced on me way more times than I would have liked.

Once she was done I got up to look at myself in my full length mirror. I gasped. I didn’t even recognize myself. I looked great. The dress hugged my curves in the right way and the hair and makeup just completed the look.

“Now that you look amazing, I need to get dressed too.” Paisley says and starts grabing her things to get dressed.

She picked out a soft pink,strapless chiffon dress and has silver heals that are even higher than mine. She lets her hair hang loose in soft curls. She does her makeup and once she is done she twirls around for me to see the completed look.

“You look beautiful” I say.

“Thank you. I don’t look nearly as good as you right now, but I will accept it this once.” She says with a smile.

Are you girls ready? Guests are arriving. – my mom links me.

Yes, we will be down in a moment. – I link back.

“So are you ready?” I ask Paisley. “My mom says the guests are starting to arrive.”

“Sure, Lets go find your mate.” She says with a huge smile on her face.

When we reach the end of the stairs a waiter passes us and offers us champagne. We each take a glass and walk towards the main dining hall. On our way many guests stop us to wish me a happy birthday. Many unmated wolves flirting with me. Non of them seem to be my mate so far.

Paisley watches my interactions with them curiously. A slight smile appearing when she realizes that they are not my mate. She just wants to be right about her brother.

Ashton enters through the large doors and takes a glass of champange that the waiter offers to him. He stops dead in his tracks when he sees me, and I do the same.

He is wearing a black suit. His hair is slightly messy but in a good way.

Paisley notices that I am staring at someone and she scans the room to see what I am looking at. I can see from the corner of my eye that she has an excited look on her face. Clearly thinking she was right.

When I saw him I held my breath. I was hoping he won’t be my mate and this is the moment of truth.

I wasn’t exactly sure how I would feel or what would happen when I found my mate but when I saw him I didn’t feel anything other than how I normally felt around him. I have always thought he was attractive but I didn’t feel anything pulling me to him. I felt relief wash over me as I realised he definitely couldn’t be my mate. I look at him and it seems like he feels the same way. He smiles at me and winks. I smile back.

Paisley realizes what is going on and I can see she is dissapointed.

“I told you he isn’t my mate.” I said.

“Well our search is still not over.” She says hooking her arm into mine and pulling me toward the next group of unmated wolves.

I knew no one in the building is my mate. I didn’t feel anything. I just felt normal.