Moonlit Cascade

Chapter One ~ Sophie

"Wasn't this your first date with him?" Paige asked.

"Yeah."

"Well shit. This requires unpacking," Paige got up and headed to the kitchen. "You want ice cream or wine?"

"You have anything stronger?"

"Tequila it is." Sophie pulled herself up into a sitting position as Paige came back and handed her a glass. She had mixed grapefruit juice in it so she wouldn't be drinking straight Tequila. Sophie would have been fine without the juice.

"The thing is, what if he's right? What if I'm really not going to meet my mate? What if I'm too old? If I don't take a chosen mate I might end up an old maid. Maybe I should just take him and be done with it."

"Wow. That is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard," Paige scoffed. "Soph, you're barely 27, you have plenty of time to find you mate. It's not like your fertile years are closing in fast." Werewolves natural good health and quick healing made it less risky for females to get pregnant later in life. Their menstruation timeline was the same as humans, reaching menopause around fifty, but because of their longer life span having pups later wasn't as taxing on them as it was on humans and their super healing made potential complications less life threatening.

"I know, I just..." she paused. "It's hard to hold out hope. All my friends are already mated. A lot of them took chosen mates and are perfectly happy. I look at them and think, would I be happy with that? Could I settle down with someone who's not my fated mate? Then I look at the two of you, and Micah and Madeline and you all seem so much happier and more comfortable than my friends and I think how could I ever give that up? I've met most of the werewolves around here and none of them are my mate. I mean do I have to go to Asia to find my mate?" She finished her rambling with a huff and took a drink, coughing when she swallowed to much. She saw Nathan and Paige smile at each other and gave them a glare.

"Asia's a great place." Her sister said with a grin. "I'd stay away from Bali though, if our experience is anything to go by, it only holds heart ache."

"Yes, because the entire island is responsible of the events that happened there." Sophie replied sarcastically. "I just want to have a love like you two, or Micah and Madeline, or even Patrick and Annie." Paige and Nathan chuckled. They had never seen two wolves fight the way they do even though they're mated. Mated couples who are fated mates don't stay angry with their mates for long, the pull to love each other is to strong. Patrick and Annie like to defy that norm. It was almost like an aphrodisiac for them.

"Maybe your mate is younger," Nathan said. "Paige is almost three years young than me, maybe your mate just hasn't reached maturity yet."

"If that's true, I hope they reach it soon. I don't want to wait forever."

"Maybe traveling for a while isn't such a bad idea," Paige said. "It can't hurt anything. Worse case you see some cool things, best case you find you mate."

"Where would I even go? I don't really want to travel the world alone."

"Well, you could go stay with Lennette and Thomas in London or we have friends in Paris, or Montreal if you don't want to cross an ocean."

"Or I have family in West Virginia, I have a cousin who's just become the beta in one of the Blue Ridge Mountain packs. I haven't seen them in ages. We could go visit and you come can come with us to check it out. If you like it you can stay the summer, meet some wolves in the different packs down there," Nathan offered. "And if not, you can try somewhere else."

"You two can hardly go traveling just so I can find my mate. You're the Alpha and Luna of the biggest pack in the north east for goddess sakes!"

"We're not traveling to find your mate. We're traveling to see family," Paige said wryly. "Besides I've always wanted to see the Blue Ridge Mountains. Maybe we could even go into DC and visit some museums. Oh! And the Shenandoah's!"

"You've travelled all over the world, how is it that you've never seen the Blue Ridge Mountains?" Sophie asked, trying to get them off the topic of traveling. The thought scared and thrilled Sophie at the same time. She had only ever traveled to Boston or London, each time to visit Paige and never for an extended period of time.

"I wanted to put a couple of oceans between me and dad when I left. American travel wasn't high on my list of priorities," she answered. "But you're trying to move off the point. Visiting Nathan's cousin, which I guess is my cousin too, you in?"

"I don't want to put you guys out," Sophie tried to give them one last chance to change their minds before she'd let herself get excited about this.

"It's not putting us out," Nathan told her. "Like I said, it's been ages since I've seen my cousin and my lovely nerd of a mate wants to see some museums. It's a win-win. Honestly we'll probably go either way but it'd be nice to have your help with the kids."

"You sure?" She looked at them hopefully.

"Positive." Paige could read Sophie like a book. She knew her sister wanted to go but didn't want to be a burden regardless of whether or not she actually was. "Besides, it'll be good to have an extra set of hands on the drive down. We've never travelled more than a few hours with the kids."

"Okay," Sophie said, trying to hold back a smile. "Thank you guys!"

"Course if you do find your mate, I'll have to give him a firm talking too." Nathan said to her.

"You will do nothing of the sort," said sternly. "You'll end up scaring the poor wolf so bad he'll end up having an aneurism. Besides, that's the right of the older sister." She gave Sophie a look of mischief and amusement.

"Love, you're more likely to send the wolf to and early grave than I am." Paige turned back to Nathan, and they started bickering. Some would think that they were unhappy but Sophie could see the looks of love they gave each other. She knew that she could never settle for a chosen mate. She wanted a what all her loved ones had.

"We'll find it. I know we will," her wolf, Virginia said you her. "I think this trip will be very good for us. "