My Rogue Mate

Chapter Three: Meeting My Mate

The party was in full force in the great hall attached to the pack house where I lived. I could hear the music and talking radiating through the walls up to my bedroom where I sat alone. I was dressed and ready, Kendall our personal stylist and makeup artist had been to make me up. I had long fluttering eyelash extensions that somehow still looked natural, and she had put some bronze on my eyes that brought out the grey of my irises.

I sat on my bed in my long red dress that clung to my top half and then floated out down to my ankles. I felt pretty enough, but couldn’t bare the idea of going down to meet my mate in front of all of those people. My Mother and Father had invited everyone who was anyone to this party, including every student from my high school - most of which I had never even spoken to. It’s not that I thought too much of myself to speak to the kids at my school, it’s just that, they were all so free - going to parties, having fun together, being in relationships with whoever they wanted. Not that I had ever had the chance to speak to any of them, I studied alone with a private tutor. I had originally been homeschooled, but I begged my parents to let me go to a real school. The “compromise” ended up being worse than if I had been homeschooled. Sitting with a private tutor in a private classroom all day, made me feel more different and alone than ever. The idea of all of the students, who seemed to only ever look at me with spiteful eyes, being at this party made me sick. I just couldn’t bare feeling even more left out of having a normal life than I already did.

I fell back onto the bed in despair. Any moment now my Mother would come bustling through those doors and shoo me down the stairs to join the party.

Just then I heard a knock at the door.

“Nice of you to knock for a change” I wanted to say, but instead I said, “I’m ready, I’ll just be a minute” I called, still lying on the bed. I sat up as I heard the door slowly opening, and saw my Aunty Tess, poking her head through the door.

“Can I come in?” she asked kindly.

I sat up straight and grinned, nodding my head. My Aunt Tess has always looked out for me, didn’t care whether I looked perfect or acting perfect. Just cared about me.

She jumped onto the bed next to me, swinging her legs to gain balance. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug.

“Happy Birthday Darling. I am so proud of the woman you have become.” She said brushing the hair out of my eyes. “I feel like I haven’t seen you all day - what are you doing up here?” She asked, looking at me deeply.

“Just getting ready, Kendall took ages with my makeup…” I said looking down.

“Aleynia…” my Aunt said with a knowing look on her face. I could never get anything past her.

“Fine. I feel… I don’t know. I’m scared. What if Nate isn’t the Mate everyone thinks he will be? What if… we aren’t right together?” I whisper, my voice shaking as though I am saying something sinful.

Aunt Tess takes a deep breath in, smiling with wisdom. She places her hand on my cheek, forcing me to look at her in the eyes. “Aleynia, the Moon Goddess has her plan, and your mate will be perfect for you. We need to put our faith in the Goddess, always. She knows you better than anyone, and she will pick a mate that is strong, and kind, and loves you very much - even if we can’t see it at first.” She presses her forehead to mine, “I love you very much Darling”.

“I love you Auntie Tess” I say back to her.

She holds me for a few seconds more before jumping to her feet and pulling me towards the door.

“Now come on, you’ve got a whole party waiting for you… and your Mother and you really don’t want her coming upstairs to get you” Aunt Tess says laughing.

I laughed along. As we leave, I turn to look at my room. The last time this will be my room. Soon my mate will live here too - or we will have a whole new bedroom together. I will miss this being my sanctuary. I smile, and follow my Aunt down to the party.

——

The great hall is bursting with life, it has been decorated in the packs colours; silver and deep blue. Warm lights twinkle above me as I enter the room. Everyone is dancing happily and chatting. There is delicious looking food everywhere, my stomach groans - I haven’t had chance to eat today. I start walking over to the food table but am intercepted by my Father, the Alpha of the Bright Moon Pack. I instinctively bow my head in respect. He smiles down at me lovingly, and looks down at my dress.

“So grown up. You will make beautiful pups for Nate someday.” He says beaming with pride.

“Thank you Father” I say in response. My father is a silver haired and large built man in his late 50s, he has led the Bright Moon pack since he was 18 years old - young for an Alpha, but after his parents were both killed in a rogue attack, he had to step up to lead the pack through a very dark time. My Mother joins us and I notice they are wearing matching colours to the decor, dark blue and silver. She grabs his arms lovingly and plants a kiss on his cheek. They are a beautiful couple, and although they argue and disagree on somethings, they are always mates. That is what I want with my mate.

My Mother must be slightly tipsy as she doesn’t notice my tardiness to my own party, instead she grabs my hand and twirls me around, very out of character for her.

“Right, it is time!” She sings happily pulling me towards the stage at the top of the room.

“I was just going to grab something to eat I haven’t -“

“No time, we can get you something to eat afterwards, Nate is almost here! Plus, really Aleynia you don’t want to look like a pig.” She responds.

I glance back to the table of food, my stomach growling in hunger. But follow my Mother to the stage. As I step up onto the platform, the music dies down and everyone stops talking. My Fathers voice needs no microphone for the pack to hear him, with his booming Alpha voice.

“It is my immense pleasure to announce the 18th birthday of my only daughter, Aleynia.” He says gesturing to me. “Rest assured, myself and my beautiful wife - will be with her and her mate every step of the way, teaching them all we know about leading this pack. They will continue to lead our Bright Moon pack and will make it the largest and most powerful pack of all time!”

Everyone cheers to that, stomping their feet and cheering in agreement. I catch a subtle but intoxicating smell - pine trees and… a wood burning fire, I lick my lips as though I could taste the smell. My father raises his arms to silence everyone, and they follow his instruction immediately. I sniff quietly, trying to catch the smell again, but it’s gone.

“And with that, I would like to also present our future Alpha, Nate. As you all know, my Aleynia and Nate have been destined for each other since birth. And although some may say there is no guessing the Moon Goddesses pairings, anyone who knows them can see that they are destined to be mates and now on her 18th birthday we can finally cement this bond, and the Union of the Bright Moon and Silver Star packs!”

Everyone cheers as they part the crowd, from the stage to the doors of the great hall. I take a deep breath, in a moment I will have a mate - I am sure I will love him properly once the mate bond kicks in, I just know it.

As they start to open the doors, a Gamma wolf - Keaton, I think his name is, runs over to my father and whispers something in his ear. I manage to only catch a few words of what they say “-here… crashing the party… they… ten… rogues”. At the last word I look to my father in shock. He says quietly, “I will deal with them after, keep an eye on them for now”. I shake the worries from my head, rogues are always crashing events like this - usually to score some free food and booze.

I stand up straight as the doors open, and that gorgeous smell returns - even stronger this time. I see Nate stood in the distance with his family behind him. He is wearing a dark blue suit with a silver tie. He looks handsome. I start to walk down the steps following the beautiful smell. Nate walks towards me too, grinning from ear to ear. As I walk closer to the centre of the room, the smell gets stronger and stronger. This is it. Everything was going to work out as planned. Nate and I would be the great leaders our families wanted to be. We would make everyone proud.

We were about twenty feet from each other now. The crowd stared at us in awe, excited to see the moment their future Alpha and Luna mark each other. I look back towards Nate who was still walking, but his grin slowly disappearing and turning into a look of confusion. I hope my smell wasn’t unattractive to him. Ten feet away from each other now and Nate started frantically looking around in disbelief. What is going on? Why is he acting this way? The smell was stronger and more delicious than ever now, but as I got closer to Nate something seemed off. The smell seemed to be coming from the left of him.

I heard some movement from the crowd to my left, just where the smell was coming from. I looked away from Nate who had stopped walking and was looking at the floor in shock. As I looked towards the smell the crowd parted, and a rogue wolf stepped out from among them in his human form. He was tall, with light brown skin and dark black hair. He was wearing a tight grey shirt that showed off his rippling muscles. His eyes were black as he stared at me.

“Mate.” He growled deeply.

My vision blurred and I collapsed to the floor.