Beyond Fate

Megan

Megan (pov)

I weaved through the crowd handing out glasses of champagne. My tray was nearly empty of filled flutes but the empty ones were stacking up and I needed to get back to the kitchen for refills. My manager Kathy hadn't been too happy about the tray I’d dropped earlier; she thought I was clumsy as it was, after I not so accidentally spilled food down one snooty cow last week.

She had thought she could shout at one of the new waitresses who was only sixteen and a little mousey. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I just couldn’t keep my nose out of things when someone was in trouble and when I saw the woman giving the poor girl crap over literally nothing. I had to intervene, so I’d pretend to trip and miss the table so I ended up tipping her food into her lap instead. Needless to say she was pissed that I’d ruined her two thousand pound ball gown. That’s why I was now on champagne duty instead. I didn't care, one crappy job in this place was just as crappy as the other. I was only doing this job until I had enough money saved for college. I was almost there just six more months and I’d be out of here for good.

I knew it seemed strange to people that I was in my twenties and only just thinking about saving for college but it was better than telling them the truth, that I’d been stupid and trusted my ex to save it for me but instead had spent most of it on fancy hotels for every girl on the planet but me, not only had Dexter been cheating on me but he’d been using my savings to fund it. I had felt like such a fool especially because he and one of his ho’s had laughed in my face when I had demanded it back.

He had been telling these girls that his girlfriend was paying for their fancy hotel or spa break’s where they were cheating. They had been laughing at me behind my back just to add salt to my wounds. It still made me sick to my stomach that I could have been played like that. I was a proud she wolf and I’d never live it down if people knew I’d got blinded by so called love especially with a guy I knew wasn’t my mate, not to mention a human. Our kind weren't exactly the most open minded of species. A lot of packs don’t even like to mix with humans, believing they are beneath them.

I would have been starting from scratch if I hadn’t trashed Dexter's apartment when I was collecting my stuff two days ago. I was in the midst of dumping all the food out of the fridge when I’d knocked the damn thing on its side and low and behold a secret compartment came loose inside revealing my savings along with extra money, Dexter had obviously been saving himself, go figure.

It was less than half the money I had saved by myself but at least I wasn’t starting from scratch again. It did however mean I wouldn’t be able to start college in the winter like I’d planned but it gave me more time to save extra cash. It hadn’t stopped me from going crazy on the apartment though I had only just spent the last of the cash I had that day buying us food so I sure as hell wasn’t leaving him with anything.

So anything I couldn’t eat myself I dumped, smeared through the apartment….. or my personal favourite used to block his toilet. I remembered reading a newspaper article once about a woman who’d put fish in the curtain poles of her husband's house after he divorced her and had always wanted to do it but Dex didn’t have curtains, only blinds, so I nixed that idea and put raw chicken breasts under the mattress instead. I knew he’d find it quicker but with how lazy he was he probably wouldn’t start looking till the smell was really bad.

People came towards me taking flutes off my tray and I gave them my best fake smile as they passed. I’ll admit I didn’t have to try that hard most of the time. I was invisible to these people. I’d been knocked over before but I had to say I’d been surprised by the groom’s sister, I had forgotten her name but she had been so nice apologising and helping me. It wasn’t totally her fault she had bumped into me, I wasn’t exactly paying attention either, my mind wasn’t on the job today. I was restless and my wolf had been driving me crazy all day. When I asked her what was wrong she wasn’t sure.

My mind had been a bit of a mess since my break up with Dexter. I hadn't really been bothered about him per say the truth was I had been thinking about ending things for a while but he had always manipulated me into staying. He had even tried to talk me out of going to college a few times but thankfully I’d been determined. It was only now I was outside of the relationship I was seeing how much he did it and it pissed me off. I was a strong she wolf and yet I’d become Dexter's little pet, following him round and doing his bidding all the time.

Dexter was my first real boyfriend. I never liked any of the guys in my pack; they only ever wanted to fool around with girls because they know they have mates out there. It’s like they think somehow it gives them a free pass to treat other women like a piece of meat.

I met dex in my final year of high school. My mother always encouraged me to see the outside world so I’d been sent to a school outside of the pack. Dexter used to hang out by the front of the school waiting for Carter, he was a year older than me so when he used to pull up outside the school with his motorbike and leathers he seemed like the coolest guy in town. He hadn’t paid me any attention at first, always talking to the cheerleaders over me. I was the punky rebel with an attitude and a new hair colour every week. It wasn’t until I started getting attention from Carter that Dexter suddenly took an interest in me.

By the time I left high school I was well under Dexter's thumb and he knew it too. He made me follow Carter around watching his every move so he had more time to spend with his friends. The first time I’d caught him cheating he had told me she was an ex who was stalking him and he had been powerless to stop her when she had kissed him. Of course I believed him and a few weeks later the same thing happened again, same girl and once again I bought his excuses and lies.

Sure it was a toxic relationship and I hadn’t seen it at first but it wasn’t like my situation had been unique, things like that happened all the time to men and women alike.

From what I’d heard from around the room, the groom at this wedding was in a similar situation. He had gotten some pack girl he was sleeping with pregnant and had been forced to marry her.

Poor guy, I’d actually felt for him. From what had been said within the wedding party his bride was a pain in the arse. But that’s what you get when you sleep around I guess. I’d overheard one of the bridesmaids whisper that it was all part of a plan for the bride to gain herself a title within the pack. The groom was the pack's head warrior and a beta blood he was a catch for sure. I hadn’t seen either of them yet but I’d seen a picture of the happy couple as I’d come in. They had one of those huge framed pictures that acts as a guest book outside the main doors. Yes I’d had a quick gawp at the groom, sue me.

He was definitely my type, all tattoos and muscles that screamed bad boy. Ugh what was wrong with me the guy was married…..I could admire from afar though. He reminded me somewhat of dexter. Blonde, tattoos, motor bikes, he wasn’t as muscled as the groom but still.

The memory of that jerk made me want to scream. How could I not have seen that he was just using me to keep that ass of a brother of his in line. Dexter always knew Carter had a soft spot for me even before we got together. Part of me thinks that’s why he asked me out. That's why he had more time to chase anything in a skirt because I was doing his job for him.

That’s why I’d decided to tell the groom's sister the truth about Carter. He was up to his old tricks again using girls until he got board of playing the victim and would make her feel like trash once she realised she’d been played. Carter and Dexter were two of a kind when it came to manipulation they just had different methods.

The night we had gone out to the club I had been out looking for carter after Dexter had scolded me for letting him leave with the two she wolves. I tracked his scent to the silver moon’s borders. I knew I couldn’t just sneak in, especially in the middle of the night they may mistake me for a rouge and kill me on sight. So I had gone back to Dexter’s apartment but when I’d opened the door I found him on the sofa with his head between some girl’s legs. I knew Dexter was bad news and that it wouldn’t last because I had a mate out there but damn that bastard was cold. I was out trying to find his brother and he was getting it on with some random chick. He didn’t even try and explain or apologise. Oh no. Instead he scolded me for being back so early and to get out of his house.

Now I’m not the type to lose her cool quickly but that night I was a raging inferno and so was my wolf. I beat the s**t out of the arsehole and his b***h enough to let them know that they were f*****g with the wrong girl. I’ll never forget the pure fear in Dexter’s eyes, I smiled to myself remembering it. I told him if he ever came near me again I’d rip him to pieces and then flashed him my wolf's eyes for a split second, I left him on the floor of his apartment crying and trembling.

I was suddenly brought out of my thoughts by the announcement of the happy couple and their first dance began to play, some old 90s song that had me instantly cringing. I couldn’t see the couple fully through the crowd of people, only slight glimpses of the bride's dazzling dress. Giving up I began heading back towards the kitchens when I caught the most intoxicating scent of oranges and chocolate. It made my mouth water and instantly I went in search of it, thinking there was a chocolate fountain somewhere I figured I could swipe some while everyone was watching the bride and groom. But as I moved through the crowd I realised I was moving towards the dance floor. My wolf was completely on edge and I had no idea why.

I reached the edge of the dance floor and my wolf howled in my head in both joy and pain as my eyes met the beautiful couple swaying on the dance floor in the centre. I had never felt anything like it. My heart began to beat like crazy in my chest. I thought it might explode from joy and die from the pain at the sight before me. The most handsome man I had ever seen in my life was the source of the sweet smell that made my mouth water.

I wanted nothing more than to run into his arms and stay there forever but the woman that was already wrapped in his arms only confirmed that I would never have that. My mother had never warned me this could happen, not at my age, maybe if I was older but not at 23. She had always told me beautiful fairy stories of when I met my mate I would have someone that would love me and care for me unconditionally forever, he would be my everything and I wouldn’t have to be alone any more but she was wrong. He hadn’t waited for me; he had married another. I felt the tray in my hand crash to the ground along with all the glasses atop it feeling my broken heart shattering along with it at the sight of the one person in the world that should have only brought me joy and love in life. My mate….. the groom.

(Johnny pov)

“Smile, for godess sake you're supposed to be happy” Tammy scolded me for the hundredth time today, everything from ‘straighten my tie' to ‘your supposed to act happy to have married me’. Happy…huh I felt as though I hadn’t felt that emotion in months, how could I when I only felt like I was dying inside. Today I had sealed my misery and bound myself to this awful female till my life ended. I was acting how I felt….. miserable.

“ Johnny you just stepped on my foot” Tammy glared at me seemingly uncaring about the people around us.

“ Now now darling, remember to smile… wouldn’t want people to think we were unhappy” I gave her a fake smile but she just rolled her eyes at me and began playing to the crowd again. oh no couldn’t have that, everything was a show with Tammy and her entire family not to mention circle of friends. I had tried to give this a go at first, Tammy had seemed so into me in the first few weeks but things had changed once she told me she was pregnant. I think I actually felt my heartbreak that day she came to my office, sobbing into a pregnancy test it wasn’t what I wanted to be honest I’d never really been into Tammy she was just another girl, another party, another drunken one night stand that I wished had never happened but at the end of the day we would have a pup to bind us so I had tried to commit to the relationship but I seemed to irritate Tammy the more I tried to please her.

It soon became all too clear to me that Tammy was as fake as they came in every aspect of life and she sure as hell didn’t care about me. So I had called her out on it after a few weeks. she didn’t even try to deny it because she already knew she had me by the balls, my pup was growing in her belly and our laws were very clear about unplanned pregnancy.

Knowing full well there was no way out of this I agreed to go along with the mateship for the sake of my pup, after this circus of a shame wedding though I told her I was done playing the fake happy couple, I wasn’t going to lie about this being a mate-ship of circumstance maybe that way I would serve as a reminder to the males that sleeping around had consequences.

I couldn't see Tammy caring any more about our child than she did me. She only needed him or her for her title. It showed too, She was already almost four months pregnant and hadn’t mentioned anything about our pup other than to remind me why I had to marry her. She hadn’t even brought so much as a pack of nappies yet. Mom and Alisha had brought tons of things. Our house was bursting at the seams with baby stuff but the child's mother hadn’t even mentioned it. I had to stay with Tammy if only to make sure my child had a real parent in its life. I wouldn’t let him or her down and I was determined to be the best father I could possibly be even if it meant Staying with a woman that made me miserable, a woman who had only gotten pregnant to trap me. My pup wouldn’t pay for my mistake, that's for sure. They were my sole focus now, my life, my heart belonged to them and only them.

“ Do you smell that?” The most amazing scent of cinnamon and sugar hit my nostrils and I breathed it in deeply. Tammy shoved at me discreetly and I hadn’t even realised I’d moved her to one side to sniff out the source of the amazing smell. If I missed out on divouring whatever it was because of this stupid dance I’d be pissed I was as if it possessed me, I had to find it.

“ Seriously Johnny we just ate, are you trying to piss me off?” Tammy glared at me and began pulling at my arm to get me to come back to her.

“ no really, it’s like a Cinnabon, it smells amazing” I said to her hoping she would say something like that was on its way out from the kitchen but all she did was subtly roll her eyes, pulling me back to her while we swayed to the music, we danced like that for a little bit but I couldn’t stop trying to find the source of that smell.

Somewhere in the room there was a loud crash. Everyone's head turned to the sound…. That’s when I saw her.

My wolf went crazy in my head and I think my heart actually skipped a beat. I gasped and everything ground to a halt. Time stopped and nothing else in the world mattered but her. Towards the edge of the dance floor was the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on in my entire life.

“Mate” my wolf yelled happily ast the sight of the beauty staring at us.

she was an angel in human form, the most perfect thing I’d ever seen and she was mine. Her body was tiny for a werewolf, tall but thin but curves that suited her, made her sexy. White blonde hair rested on top of her head but it had been dyed a light pink on the end. It was hard to tell with it all tied back but tiny stands of pink poked out through her elegant bun. The blue eyes she possessed were as deep as the ocean. I could spend hours getting lost in them. She had been sculpted by the goddess just for me and I would bow down to praise her for this gift everyday.

Something caught my attention and I inhaled deeply. She was crying. I immediately wanted to grab her and demand to know what had made her so sad and stamp out whatever it was from existence. She would never cry again as long as I was around to love and protect her. I felt a voice in the distance and someone was pulling on my arm but I didn’t care. This moment there was only one thing I cared about and that was this stunning creature in front of me. I wanted to hold her, kiss her, learn everything about her including every detail about that beautiful body. Her likes, her dislikes, did she have dreams I wanted to know it all. I needed to consume her like she had me, I was hers, heart, body and soul, I was all for her.

I felt the sting of something across my cheek and took my eyes off my mate long enough to see my raging b***h of a wife staring up at me. Rage was all I could say to describe her, all consuming rage. She kept hitting my chest screaming at me but I just stood there unmoving which seemed to make her angrier. What the f**k was her problem? And then everything hit me all at once and I realised what had happened to make my mate cry… me.

The room, the guests, my wife, where we were, all of it came shooting back in an instant and in that moment I wanted to die. It was me. I was the reason my beautiful mate was crying. The devestaion hit me like a bomb going off and I didn’t think it was possible to feel such pain. Imagine the first time you meet your mate would be at his wedding to someone else. I had destroyed her and it broke my heart in two. I bent forwards ignoring Tammy’s frail hits feeling like I might vomit not caring if it was on her or not. She needed to back off, she had no idea how I was feeling right now.

I shot back up to the empty space where my mate had stood only moments ago. She was gone. She couldn’t be gone. She couldn’t leave me. I had to find her. The overwhelming need to know she was ok made me forget I was in a room full of people and I pushed Tammy to one side letting her scream and shout like a toddler in the centre of the dance floor, I moved towards the spot where my mate had been, catching her lingering sweet scent with the intention to chase after her. She couldn’t get far. I was one of the best trackers in the pack, even rivalling our official trackers, I would find her.

As I began to move I was stopped by something hard and I knew without looking it was my old man. Even Mitchell wouldn’t have stopped me right now he knew what my mate meant to me, but so did dad. Why would he stop me from getting to her then…I pushed against him wanting to go to her….I knew why he was doing this but I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge it. How can he be asking me not to go to her, not to hold her, not to love her until the end of my days. I couldn't, he was asking the impossible.

“Dad” I looked at him in blind panic, not sure of what to do. His usual vacant expression was now all emotion; he was heartbroken for me. All I knew was he was holding me back from my mate and my wolf was going insane with the need to be with her.

MINE!!! he roared in my head.

Dad clutched my shoulder pulling me to him holding me in an embrace but at the same time stopping me from doing anything stupid. I felt tears falling down my face as I held back from crying out, what had I done. “ I know son, I can’t imagine how hard this moment is for you..but you’ve taken vows, made promises to your wife….you knew what would happen if this moment ever came, I’m so sorry my boy but you have to let her go” let her go? The thought of letting her go and being free to love another tore me apart. I was dying the most excruciating death possible. Dad clutched me to his chest tighter and I held onto him to stop myself from collapsing under the weight of everything that had just happened.

MINE!! My wolf roared, he had found his mate, she was all he wanted. He didn't care about Tammy he never had, he always scalded me any time I was with a female as if he had known the perfect beauty we’d be getting as a mate. I didn’t know her I didn’t even know her name and now because I was stupid and slept around I never would.

When I was about to collapse completely I heard the sweet voice of my baby sister but she wasn’t bright and soothing as she normally was. She was angry and in distress. It didn’t do much to distract me from my blinding pain but it was enough for me to pull myself together and search the room for her.

I found her trying to come to me but someone was holding her back stopping her. I had last seen her dancing with Mitchell but now he was gone and I was ready to rip a head clean off after what had just happened. This male would do nicely for daring to touch my sister….Nathan.

I quickly broke away from dad before he could stop me and started walking towards my sister and the dead man clutching at her. Mitchell suddenly appeared beating my to it and shoving Nathan away from Alisha growling ferociously. It was hard not to submit to the power of his alpha wolf. My own steps faltered slightly but I pushed forward. Most of the pack members in the room had already bowed their heads. Mitchell’s eyes glowed amber and I knew his wolf was trying to break free. I figured out a few weeks ago that his feelings for my sister had developed beyond that of a simple temporary infatuation. The amount of times I’d given him s**t for the way he’d looked at her, I’d never been too worried I figured like most males he was just checking her out. She was very beautiful. I'd always had to keep an eye on her and make sure no one took advantage. I’d thought I was safe with Mitchell. He'd never been the same since Rose and in the time he’d been back home he’d not been interested in a female but it was now clear as day to see he was in love with Alisha.

I intended to defuse the situation and get Nathan out of there even if the s**t had dared to touch my sister he didn’t deserve to be ripped apart by our alpha over a misunderstanding after all Nathan didn’t know Mitchell was in love with Alisha. I charged towards them as Mitchell roared making the room tremble. Telling him to back off but Nathan clutched Alisha tightly pulling her away from Mitchell and round his back as she tried to retch her arm away from his grasp, I smelled blood, her blood and that’s when I saw red. I didn’t hear any of nathan and Mitchell’s words until Nathan said one word that made me stop dead. “MATE!!”