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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫

𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐎𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 ↑

Oliver's POV

    𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 a young pup, my mom used to tell me bedtime stories of moments when a werewolf would find their mate. She had been able witness to quite a few in her day and her favorite by far was her sister Julie when she met her mate, Hank. Sure she loves the story of how she met my father, but they had been crushing on each other for several years so when my dad turned eighteen and saw mom, he dropped his textbooks and just went right up and kissed her in the middle of the hallway.

    It was the perfect, yet slightly boring, love story.

    As for my Aunt Julie and Uncle Hank... Well, their story had been a bit of a train wreck. Turns out Julie and Hank despited one another with a burning passion. Hank apparently knew Julie was his mate for a whole year before she found out herself after turning eighteen. But even then, it took her three months to learn the truth as Hank had managed to make an excuse to be out of town so he wouldn't have to deal with her.

    The hatred was apparently very personal, mainly for Julie. Turns out Hank used to date her best friend, but at the time no one really knew just how much of a player - and for lack of better words - a complete asshole Hank was as a teen. He apparently not only cheated on Julie's best friend multiple times, he used to do it when she was in the same room passed out. But her friend had been completely blind to it all and it wasn't until Julie caught him in the act, videoing the whole thing and showing her friend is when the two finally broke up.

    Now from what my mom tells me, Hank hated Julie for butting into his business and soon the two became rivals at everything. Harsh pranks were played, including the fact that Hank ruined Julie's chances of becoming valedictorian by framing her for cheating on a big midterm, for which Julie was suspended for going against the school's honor code. Apparently Julie had retaliated by getting her brother, my Uncle Jay, to hotwire his precious BMW R 18 motorcycle and crashed it.

    My mom explained how they almost physically fought in wolf form, but our Alpha at the time had to jump in and put a stop to it. Apparently when Hank turned eighteen and discovered Julie was his mate, he had been so enraged he broke his hand by repeatedly punching the wall, but of course he was fine. Us wolves heal pretty fast. After an hour or so, he was perfectly healed. The same couldn't be said about the wall.

    Julie, however, upon finding out once his return three months after her birthday, apparently flat out rejected him in front of everyone without even giving it a second thought or time to process. My mom told me how appalled everyone was, as they were in the middle of the Lunar Eclipse barbeque we host every year and nearly the whole pack had been there to bear witness to the tragedy unfolding. Though Hank had accepted, it nearly destroyed him when his wolf forced him to shift against his will and he ran off. It took nearly everyone convincing Julie to take back her rejection for Hank to survive and be able to change back.

   You see, when a wolf is rejected, only one thing happens with two different outcomes. The pain is so physically unbearable and weakening that it destroys you from the inside out. You will become weak and pale and sick for several months. Now, either you have to want to fight it or let it claim you until the bitter end when your heart gives out. You have to be stronger than you ever wanted anything in your life. If you fight, if you will yourself and refuse to let the Gods above take you, you can normally survive and live a long life, but you will always be haunted by the rejection and it does change it. Or, if you are not strong enough or you simply do not want to continue on, you die.