He Wants Me, He Wants Me Not

Chapter 2

Walking down the grand marble staircase that led to the foyer, Luna took her sweet time. She was being forced to attend the party and even though it was being thrown for her, she wanted to save herself the embarrassment and anger of having to walk into a room full of wolves and have them all know that she was an outcast. Besides, they were all at least a year younger than her and she didn’t want to waste her time on immature puppies. Finally making it to her mother and father, she caught the look of disapproval in her father’s eyes at her choice of party attire, but dismissed it. She was just as stubborn as him; hell, she got her stubbornness from him, so he knew that she wouldn’t go down without a fight. She was caught in a bear hug—how ironic—by her mother.

“Luna, darling, Happy Birthday! You look beautiful as always.” She sighed. Her father wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist and pulled her closer to him.

“Happy birthday, honey," he said, pecking her forhead, "Now, Luna, I know you already know what this party is about, and I’m just asking you to go along with it. You never know, you might meet him this time!” her father suggested.

Luna’s eye twitched as she tried to not roll her eyes; instead, she smiled slightly and nodded, mentally replying, ‘Yeah, right.’ They wished her good luck and their butler, Jerry, opened the massive wooden doors standing before her, sending her a pitying look. Once again, Luna took a deep breath and placed a serene mask on top of the face she knew was showing exasperation and irritation.

She made her way over to the bar at the back of the ballroom, smiling politely at the gaping boys, smirking at the glaring girls. After turning down all the boys who asked her to dance, which were the majority of the boys attending the party, Luna ordered a margarita and swayed slightly to the thumping base, watching the people on the dance floor ‘dancing’. After what felt like a couple hours of just sitting there, but was really just maybe one, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She swung around with irritation, about to mouth off yet another boy trying to come onto her when she came face to face with her brother, Sam.

Shrieking with excitement, she jumped up into his open arms and hugged him fiercely. Luna and Sam were extremely close, being twins, and he had gone off to a college out of state about a year ago. She hadn’t seen him for months and was ecstatic to be able to be with him again.

“Sammie! Happy Birthday! What are you doing home?!” she asked, letting him go.

“Nice to see you, too, Lulu. And what? Did you think I wouldn’t show up to my own twin’s birthday party?” Sam chuckled, amusement dancing in his eyes. Sam had never been fond of parties, being the quieter, conservative one of the pair, so they only ever threw the parties for Luna.

Luna smiled widely for the first time in a while, “Well, with you being an Ivy League nerd, I figured you’d stay and study for your next big test,” she teased.

Sam raised an eyebrow and left it at that. He swung his arm around his sister’s shoulder and led her out of the ballroom and to the den so they could sit down and get up-to-date with each other. They were so engrossed with their conversation that they didn’t notice there was someone in the hall until they ran into him. Luna stumbled and felt two strong, warm hands wrap around her waist to steady her, seeing as Sam was clumsy enough to fall, almost pulling her down with him.

She immediately smelled something like sandalwood and something musky, manly. She immediately liked it. Luna looked up into the eyes of her rescuer and was met with warm, delicious honey. At the same time that their gazes met, a sharp pain exploded in Luna’s head making her flinch harshly. The last thing she heard was her wolf scream ‘MINE!’ before she passed out from the excruciating pain.