The Emerald Storm of Her Return

Chapter 3 Mates!?

We were greeted by all the ranked members. Uncle Sam selected his life long best friend, other than my father of course, Dan Seebing, as his Beta, who fit the bill well. They worked very well together. The Beta female, Dan’s mate Maria, met me with a warm welcome back hug, and Beta Dan expressed his congratulations with a smile. I made my rounds of the remaining ranked members. Delta Chris Scope and his mate Sandra. Gamma Luke Reising and his mate Darlene. All their children were also there to greet us. My last hello’s and thank you’s went to the two pack attendants currently unloading the bags we brought on the plane.

After saying hello to the welcoming committee for what felt like two hours, Aunt Tia took me to the top floor of the 4 story house, which is the Alphas floor. The third floor belongs to the beta and his family, the second belongs to the delta and gamma families, and the first is open to all pack members. It is where the conference rooms, dining halls, kitchen, and guest quarters are located. Because my father was the Alpha, taken over by my Uncle Sam, I have only ever lived on the fourth floor. Everything looks the same, with a few minor improvements and updates from over the years. The interior decorator in me immediately starts swirling with ideas to update the pack house even more. We arrive at my room, but it is not the same one I grew up in. My previous room shared a jack and jill bathroom with Vinny, I guess they decided we needed our own bathrooms now. Plus, since Vinny is now going to be the next Alpha of Sun Lake, he’ll be moving into the Alpha suite soon. I am now on the opposite side of the house, my room being the last one on the left. There are six bedrooms on each floor, along with an office for each ranked member on each floor. Vinny and my rooms are separated by Aunt Tia’s office.

Knowing full well I would want a say in the design and set up of my room, Aunt Tia reached out to me almost 6 months ago asking me for exact instructions on how I wanted my room to look. She opened the door and I immediately fell in love. It looks exactly how I wanted it to. I instantly notice the huge windows on the wall to the left, letting in a ton of natural light, with a great view of the lake straight ahead. A gorgeous white queen sized bed sits right in front of the windows with a beautiful wood platform bed frame. The room is painted white with accents of black, grey, and brown that matches the trunks of the trees outside. It is the mature and aesthetically pleasing haven I had imagined.

“You’ve got a real talent here sweetie, I never would have designed a room as nice as this.”

My Aunt says to me while we both take in this beautiful room.

“Holy s**t!”

Vinny yells behind me, scaring the s**t out of Aunt Tia and myself, on purpose...

“Geeze asshole announce yourself or something”

I scold, clearly irritated. Vinny thought it was funny as he stood there laughing, clearly proud of himself. Aunt Tia took that opportunity to smack him upside the head, she didn’t prefer being scared either.

“Ow mom” Vinny cried while rubbing his head.

“Your cousin just got back and you’re already trying to give her a heart attack” she said to him in a very parenting tone.

“Cmon, give Jo some credit, she's tougher than that!” Vinny claims, defending himself.

“Hey at least you’re smart enough to know that.” I say in a mocking tone as I punch him in the arm.

Vinny didn’t make a single move from the punch and proceeded to laugh, and joke

“Okay maybe not”. In my defense, Vinny has become incredibly jacked. He just looks like an Alpha, and he’ll be a great one. I mean, he does have Alpha blood. Even though Uncle Sam was born of Beta blood, Aunt Tia is actually of Alpha blood. She is the daughter of the late Alpha Richard Sampson of the Red Moon pack. Her younger brother, Damion, succeeded their father and is now Alpha. So it makes sense that Vinny is a born Alpha.

I rolled my eyes at him and began exploring my new room.

“Alright sweetie we’ll go ahead and let you get settled into your room, festivities begin in a half an hour” Aunt Tia reminds me as she pushes Vinny out, shutting the door behind them.

I immediately come crashing down onto the very comfy bed and instantly realize how badly I need a nap. After graduation, the plane ride, and the welcoming committee, I'm pooped. However, reminding myself of the half hour I have, I head to the bathroom to freshen up. I throw some water on my face to breathe some life back into it and stare at my reflection in the mirror.

The girl that left this house six years ago is not the same one here now. Looking at my reflection I see the once long blonde hair I had, now cut short, falling just below my shoulders. I was a late bloomer, so I had only hit puberty at 16, basically just before I left. I have filled out since then, especially my legs, and my behind. I guess I can thank soccer for that. The only things that don’t seem to have changed are, the fact that I’m still only 5’5, and the bright emerald eyes staring back at me. My eyes are something that always caught people’s attention. They are a very unique, intense emerald with a hint of turquoise. I personally have never seen anyone else with the same color eyes, so I am sorta proud of them. I throw some loose wavy curls and dry shampoo into my hair, and a little bit of makeup on, attempting to hide the look of exhaustion on my face. I mosey back into the bedroom where I throw my suitcase on the bed and begin to rummage through it for something to wear. I’ll worry about unpacking tomorrow. After throwing clothes around searching through my suitcase, I settle on a grey strapless romper and some strappy beige and white sandals.

20 minutes have gone by and there’s a knock at my door.

“Vincent Drescu is now entering the premises” Vinny slowly opens the door, pops his head in, and looks at me with his eyebrows lifted, waiting for approval.

“Was that so hard?” I ask.

Vinny just laughed and made his way over to the small white loveseat on the wall to the right of my bed.

“How you settling in, kid?” he asked sincerely.

“Great, the room is perfect, whoever your mom hired executed my designs perfectly.” I say, avoiding what he’s really getting at.

“Yeah no that’s cool, you really do have a nice eye for this stuff, but you know damn

well I wasn’t talking about the room.”

Vinny and I fought like siblings, but we loved each other like siblings too. We were close, I knew there was never anything I couldn't come to him about, and he always wanted to help. We really were brother and sister, and I was always grateful to have a big brother. But, that also meant he was really good at seeing through my bullshit.

I decide to play dumb anyway, maybe he’ll give up since we only had about 8 minutes before Aunt Tia came to drag us downstairs. She’s a very punctual woman.

“Well then what are you talking about?” my eyebrows now lifted.

Vinny just rolled his eyes.

“I’m talking about being back here, in the pack.” He stated sympathetically.

Vinny was always aware of my mental state before I went to school, and it made him extra protective of me. He was always checking in on me, glad to see him waste no time in getting back to it.

“I don’t know Vin…. I mean it's only been like an hour. I guess it just hasn’t fully hit yet.”

I had turned off my wolf side six years ago and havent really acknowledged it since. Because I was 17 before I went to school, I hadn’t even gotten my wolf yet. When I turned 18, it’s almost as if my wolf, Lyanna, knew I needed time to get my head right. She spoke to me and told me that she knows and feels all the pain from our parents murder too, and everything after, and that she would wait for me until I am ready to embrace my badass she wolf. And retreated to the back of my mind, holding true to her word.

“Well when it does hit I’ll be right next to you,

because you’re quite literally about to

be thrown back to the wolves,

are you ready for that?”

I thought I had spent time preparing myself for graduation and coming back to life in the pack, but the truth is, I am nervous. Before I left I was the weird, sad, alphas orphan. I was determined to prove to everyone I had changed. I am not the sad little girl anymore, I’m a badass she wolf. I am the daughter of Alpha Phillip Drescu and dammit I am going to remind everyone of that.

“Until some double D bimbo struts

her stuff across the room?” I said to him jokingly.

“Haha yeah about that, I kind of don’t do that anymore.”

I looked at him with wide eyes.

Girls loved Vinny. I mean he was a good looking 6’4 guy. Of course I never looked at him like that because well, gross. But there's no denying that every girl notices his blonde locks and bright green eyes when he walks into a room. He definitely liked the attention.

“Heh?” was all I could muster out.

“I found my mate” he stated.

Holy s**t I completely forgot about mates! How could I have forgotten that coming back to the pack could mean I would potentially find my mate? I mean, I see others with their mates, but finding mine wasn’t really something I had been concerned with these past six years. I pause my silent panic attack and turn my attention back to Vinny.

“Oh my god for real!? When?”

“Well, my Dad started taking me to Alpha

meetings about two years ago.

He's really been aggressive preparing

me to take over. But anyway, 6 months ago we went to one at Night Storm Pack and sure enough, there was my mate.”

He looked like he was reliving a fairytale moment.

“Her name is Charlotte, Charlie for short,

and she’s Alpha John Soren's daughter!”

The look of excitement in him at just the mention of her name made me look at him like a total alien. Who was this man and what the heck happened to Vinny? The shocked look on my face must have alerted him to what I was thinking, which wasn't hard to figure out.

“I know, growth.” He stated while pointing to himself.

“I've just never seen you so excited about one girl before” I say to him.

He looked at me very seriously now.

“She’s not just one girl, she’s the girl,

my mate.” His gaze softens.

“Do you remember what they taught us

about mates when we were younger?”

I nod.

“It’s totally true Jo. When they say your mate

becomes your everything, your thoughts become consumed with that person, the need to be around them is constant, that you'd do anything to protect them and die without them, it’s all true.

I knew the minute we were in the same room my mate was there. It’s like her amazing scent was made just for me. She was made just for me.”

I knew of the power of the mate bond, but to see it completely flip my cousin from player to this romantic love sick pup, shows me just how powerful it really is.

“Wow, I am so happy for you Vin.

Seeing you like this makes me want

to cry and hug you.” I say with a proud look on my face.

“Well you don’t have to cry, but I’ll take the hug.”

He pulled me in for a hug, I loved my bear hugs from Vinny.

“Wait, hold up a second now. This happened six months ago and you’re just telling me about it now?” I pulled away from his arms and was eyeing him now. “This couldn’t have come up in the 20 something FaceTime calls since?”

“How did I know you were gonna say some s**t like that?” He was half smiling. “Finding your mate is a big deal. Like life altering kind of big deal. It’s not something I wanted to share with you over the phone. Plus, we were trying to give you a real break from the pack until your graduation. I wanted to respect that. I mean it would only be natural that it would make you think about your own mate, and I wanted to give you your last six months. Please don’t be mad at me Jo.” He was looking at me with puppy dog eyes.

I decided to give him a break, he had good intentions, and I didn’t have the energy to be mad at him.

“I’m not mad, thanks actually, for being so considerate. I’m really happy for you.” I said to him and he smiled.

“Ya know, it’s really good to have you back Jo, I’ve missed you a lot sis.”

“I’ve missed you too, bro.” I said back to him.

Right on cue, Aunt Tia appeared in the doorway.

“Okay let’s go kids, the guests are arriving.” She exclaimed with a big smile on her face.

“Oh honey you look gorgeous, you’ve grown into such a magnificent young woman” she says, beaming with pride.

“Thanks Aunt T” I smile back.

“We’re right behind ya mom” Vinny states.

“Okay, but don’t make me come back up here and drag you kids down, I’ve done it before.” she threatens as she heads down the hall.

“Sorry kid, can’t put it off any longer, you and I both know she will most definitely come back up here in two minutes if we arent down there.” Vinny reminds me.

“Facts.” I agree.

“Also, I am 23 now and I think you need to be at least 10 years older than me to call me kid” I say to him.

Vinny chuckled.

“Ya know I don’t really care how old we get, you’re still my kid cousin in my head.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Hey I’m just over here thinking how many

horny douchebag assholes I’m gonna have to keep away from you. Mom is right. You’ve grown up quite a bit and I can’t say I’m all that thrilled about it.” He says to me with a smirk.

“I doubt it will be that hard, I’m still a sad little orphan to everyone.” I say sarcastically.

“You know how much I hate it when you call yourself that” He says to me sternly.

“I’m sorry, you’re right” I submit.

“Besides, just on the way in here I saw

about 4 unmated males eyeing you up

and down, Uncle Phil would beat my ass

if I didn’t take care of them. There's only one man I will allow to touch my cousin, and that’s your mate, whoever he may be.” He says to me as he leads the way down the hall.

Again I am reminded of finding my mate. I just got back, I am barely ready to face the pack, how the heck would I handle finding my mate? I do my best to shove the nerves aside and head down the hallway. Whether I like it or not, I am back in the pack.