The Double Luna

Clarisse Sinclaire stared at her reflection in the mirror. It was 9 pm. Her 17th birthday was in three hours. In three hours, she might find her mate. There was a party planned, starting at ten. All the eligible males from the surrounding packs were going to be there. And many eligible females who hadn't found their mates yet And Clarisse was staring at herself in the mirror, trying to decide if she really wanted to go. There was no way she'd actually find her mate. Was there? Then again, Daddy did buy her that hot little blue number,.with the matching heels. Okay, Daddy didn't know he'd bought her quite the dress he had...his credit card had had quite the workout when she and her friends went shopping. Her father Alastair, the Beta of their pack, was older than most, and he desperately wanted to see her mated before he died. ***** Theodore Rivers, Teddy, to his constant chagrin, was the Alpha-to-be of the Eclipse Moon pack. He was already 22, and just waiting on his mate. He'd already chosen his Beta, Jacob, the son of his father's Beta, and his best friend Tonight was Jacob's sister's birthday bash, traditionally held the night before, so that, at midnight, the 17 year old had a chance of finding their mate. Secretly, Teddy hoped Clarisse was his mate. He'd never mentioned a thing to Jacob, but he knew Clarisse would make an amazing Luna. Not to mention that she was gorgeous, but that was incidental. Really, it was. He was thinking of the good of the pack. "Teddy, are we crashing the bash, or bashing the crash?" Jacob asked, twisting the top off a bottle of beer and passing it to his friend. He opened his own and saw down in the chair across from Teddy. "Well, as the future Alpha and Beta, we are kinda stuck making an appearance. And since like 300 wolves from every pack around are going to be here, we might meet our mates." Jacob sighed. "But she's my kid sister. And I saw the dress she picked out. It's as blue as her eyes, probably illegal in most jurisdictions, and I swear, if she finds her mate tonight, I don't want to watch her getting macked on by some wanna be ranked wolf." "What if her mate IS a ranked wolf? Like, half the packs around here have eligible Alphas..." "Like ours?" "Well, yeah. Would that be so bad?" Teddy asked. "Would you be really upset if she were my mate?" Jacob clenched his teeth involuntarily before relaxing and shaking his head. "No, it would probably be a good thing, I could keep an eye on you both, and actually get to see my nephews and nieces, but if you are, guess that's the end of telling tales out of school, right? Please say I'm right." Teddy laughed. "No matter who my mate is, once I'm mated, I won't be doing any kissing and telling, even if she isn't your sister. And I won't apologize for that. Messing around is one thing. Mating...well, that's...you know, Jake..." "Yeah, I know." High school and college dalliances weren't serious. But once a wolf found his mate, his protective nature kicked in, and it wasn't anything like before. Wolves didn't like sharing. "So we're really going to this thing?" "We really are. Besides. Your dad asked me to deliver her present personally. You're not going to miss out on helping with that, are you?" Jacob grinned. "Certainly not!"