Eternal Wolves

MATE!

Ares’s POV

The ball was pretty energetic and it is clear that Alpha King Harmon spared no expense this year. As you walk into the ballroom you immediately see the dance floor with all the strobe lights and multi-colored lights flashing all around. The music is loud and helps to create an energizing atmosphere. The bar was expansive and stretched across the entire back of the giant room. People were dancing all around but mostly in the center of the room, some were standing around the sides of the ballroom socializing, and others were hanging out towards the back by the bar.

I figured I could walk around the ballroom to scope the place out and see if I could pick up that scent again. It was dark in the ballroom and the fog machine on the dance floor made the air smell musty, but it was at least worth a shot.

I started at the bar, picking up a crown and coke. Just as I left the bar to begin my lap around the song, ‘Search Party’ by Sam Bruno came on and that seemed to excite a lot of people. I continued sauntering around the massive room taking in everything. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. There were so many people dancing to that song in the middle of the dance floor that you couldn’t really see anyone distinctly. Since it was dark and late, I noticed the bar started passing out glow stick necklaces and bracelets.

‘I guess the ball was going to turn more into a rave than a ball’, I chuckled and shrugged to myself. Some people recognized me and gave me a nod or greeting in passing. I politely reciprocated the wave or nodded as I continued to weave my way through the crowds of people.

“Hey sexy, where have you been my whole life?” A brazen she-wolf jumps in front of me, clearly intoxicated.

“Uh...well...living in another pack.” I laughed as I tried to move around her.

“Nuh-uh uh...not so fast Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.” She paws at my chest to stop me from moving past her.

“I’m looking for someone right now, so I really can’t talk right now, I’m sorry.” I politely brush her off.

I will admit, if she would have come across me a few years ago, I may have taken advantage of her predicament, but I have long since outgrown my wild partying days. I realized fairly quickly that that whole scene wasn’t much fun when you didn’t have the right person to enjoy it with. That’s when I realized I was lonely and my wolf wouldn’t settle until I found my mate. He sure could be a stubborn pain in my ass at times when I don’t see eye-to-eye with him. That was two years ago. Of course, my father forbade me from ever coming to the Mates Ball and Claiming before this year, so if my mate wasn’t from my pack, I would just have to wait, and I have, patiently.

‘Follow that smell!’ My wolf, Eros, reminds me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

‘Okay, okay, chill out Eros...I’m going.’ I tell him in my head.

I continue my walk around the ballroom with no luck in picking up the scent. It’s getting late and I finished my drink. I don’t know why this scent is messing with me so much. I’m supposed to be searching for my mate, not trying to figure out what this intoxicating smell is, but Eros keeps telling me this has something to do with finding my mate so I keep pursuing it. Before going back to my friends, I go get another refill of my crown and coke from the bar.

‘That scent!’ Eros alerts me.

I smell it! It isn’t very strong, but I quickly grab my drink from the bartender and follow it. The smell is so strong now that all I can think about is figuring out what it is. I bump into people as I continue to follow that smell. It leads me out of the ballroom, which is where I was headed anyway.

“Hey Ares!” I bump into Alessandro on my way out the door of the ballroom.

“Huh? Oh...hey Alessandro. Not now...I’m in the middle of something.” I am so distracted that I don’t even give him a sideways glance as I walk right by him.

The scent builds and is stronger until I follow it around to the bathrooms before it fades again.

Damn it!

I see Alec with Celeste a bit away from the bathrooms and figure I can be social and still keep an eye on the area in case the scent comes back. I’m not too close, but hopefully, I am far enough away that whatever it is, will come back this way.

The more I think about it, the more I realize, this scent might be a person. If this was a pack operation, I would have a warrior at every entrance and exit point in this area right now waiting to capture whoever this could be. But, I have to remind myself that I’m not at home.

I walk over to Alec taking another swig of my drink, “What’s happening?”

“Not much man...we were just talking about an after-party on the second floor,” Alec smirks as he lifts a strand of hair from Celeste’s face and pushes it behind her ear. She immediately blushes and smiles.

“An after-party? Since when did the Mates Ball have an after-party?” I look thoroughly intrigued. I’ve never heard of there being after parties.

“Oh, it’s not an official after-party...more like a private after-party,” Alec gives Celeste a wink and she instantly giggles still blushing profusely. I was starting to see where he was going with the comment and realized it wasn’t something I wanted any part of.

“Gotcha...well...you have fun with that! I’m sure you won’t have a difficult time finding willing participants.” I chuckle and continue drinking my crown and coke as I eye the area the scent came from, waiting for someone or something; I didn’t know what, I just knew whatever that scent belonged to would be showing itself and VERY soon.

“WHAT?! You aren’t going to join?” Alec was caught off guard by my response apparently.

“Dude - I already told you before we left that my father wants me looking for my mate the entire time I’m here. If he catches wind that I spent my night on the second floor partaking in a s*x-induced rave, he will lose his s**t on me. You know that!” I scolded him.

“Alright, alright...geez calm down man. And keep it down! I was just messing with you.”

Just then, that scent slaps me across my face. It is so strong and so potent that everything around me fades into the background. When I look up and see where the scent is radiating from, I see the most breathtaking, gorgeous she-wolf I have ever laid eyes on. I almost dropped my now empty glass.

She had beautiful, flowing light brown to dirty blonde hair in small curls and ringlets pinned up on the top of her head and cascading down to frame her face. Her dress was classy. It appeared like it was falling off her shoulders and was an off-white color with a sheer see-through silk layer on top of the main material. There were sequins and cherry blossoms on the dress that added to the elegant design and it was cut in the shape of a V right at her chest, making her flaunt her large goddess-given t**s.

‘MATE! MATE! MATE!’ Eros begins howling in my head.

“Mate,” I say still standing in awe at the sight before me.

“What?! Holy s**t dude! You found her?” Alec asks excitedly not seeing who I am looking at in the distance.

As I begin to make my way towards her, another male walks up to her and quickly wraps his arm around her waist. She doesn’t fight back or slap him for touching her, so it is clear that she knows this wolf. That’s when I realize just how f*****g pissed and jealous I am of that simple gesture.

‘Calm down Eros...don’t jump to conclusions just yet.’ I tell my wolf to hopefully keep his temper at bay. I know I had a bad temper, but when Eros got pissed, he took over and I couldn’t control him when that happened.

I stay where I am instead of pursuing her despite Eros’s internal nagging to follow her. I don’t want to cause a scene.

“LAST CALL AT THE BAR LADIES AND GENTLEMAN!” The DJ announces over the sound system.

The male with his arm around her waist begins pulling her into the ballroom towards the bar hurriedly. I slowly maneuver my way around the crowd of people to observe her from a distance. People keep reaching out to shake her hand or say hi to her. That struck me odd, but I was more focused on who this mother fucker was that was pulling our mate away from us. I keep my distance as I watch them at the bar. She is standing next to him but with her arms crossed and brows furrowed clearly looking pissed off. That was a good sign, or at least it looked that way.

The guy took a shot of some type of alcohol before downing a glass filled with more alcohol as she watched him. I could see them having a mildly heated conversation before he grabbed her wrist and began pulling her out of the ballroom.

Something in my gut began fluttering and squeezing all at the same time. I felt light-headed and eerily calm, despite how pissed Eros was that another wolf was pawing our mate. At least I knew she actually existed! She was beautiful and physically here. That enticing scent was my mate’s scent, which meant that tomorrow during the claiming, Eros would have a one-track mind, and for the first time in a while, we both agreed about one thing - we would make her ours tomorrow during the claiming.

I followed them out of the ballroom, still keeping enough distance from her that I couldn’t smell her scent and she wouldn’t be able to smell me. He was taking her away from the ball. She was not happy about it either. I wanted to intervene, but the only thing that would do is piss the other wolf off, scare her, and cause a scene. Since they were both members of Alpha King Harmon’s pack, I didn’t want to risk pissing him off, thus pissing my father off in the process, so I held back and bit my tongue. It took every last ounce of energy I had left to control Eros and keep him from taking over at that moment. When they were out of sight, I was able to calm down a bit.

“Well…..” I feel an arm wrap around my neck and shoulders which causes me to snap out of my previous train of thoughts. I look to the side, knowing all too well who is standing next to me and I stiffen immediately.

“What do you need, father?” This is literally the WORST time he could come check on me, but since I stepped into the grand foyer where all the mated wolves were congregating, he wasted no time in trying to get an update from me.

“What do I need?” He states rather loudly. Oh goddess, he’s had several drinks.

I immediately begin scanning the area for Trace. I make eye contact with him and he immediately sees what is going on and furrows his brows looking at me. He gave me a thumbs up, thumbs down hand gesture from where he stood across the large area as if to ask me if everything was okay or not. I darted my eyes towards my father and gave him that all-knowing look of ‘He’s drunk and I don’t want to be here’.

Trace takes another sip of the beer he is holding before excusing himself from the group of people he was talking to and makes his way towards my father and me.

“Hey Alpha Lucian...Ares…how are you both?” He smiles asking my father more than me.

“We are fine! I was just trying to have a father-son conversation!” He growls at Trace.

“Alright...Ares...you got this?” He looks at me apologetically as if to say, ‘Sorry! I tried!’.

“Yeah, I was just heading upstairs to bed. I think I’m a little too drunk to keep up with Alec and Alessandro.” I smile, lying in hopes that my father will take the hint and leave me alone.

“Not too drunk to keep up with me! C’mon son...tell me all about your night!”

“I really am tired, father. Can I meet with you tomorrow at breakfast and tell you? Nothing eventful happened tonight really.” I pleaded with him.

He gave me a glare and I guess he was feeling extra generous, that or he didn’t want to cause a scene in the Alpha King’s house, so he let me go saying, “Fair enough! But I intend to hold you to it! I want all the details tomorrow.”

“Yes sir. Goodnight sir.” I say quickly bolting upstairs, taking two steps at a time. Her scent is still wafting through the air on the stairs, but I know now why the scent was upstairs past my floor. She was a pack member here and lived on one of those top 3 floors, which also meant she could potentially be a high-ranking she-wolf.