Tina's P.O.V:
Mike picked me up after school and took me to 'the tree'.
It's our, favorite hangout place and our treasure chest. It's a huge tree near the road on the way to home; it is huge with lots of branches and leaves, it's shady, its branches covered a vast area, that there aren't many trees close to it, the ground around the tree is covered in grass and the giant trunk makes the vegetation and tiny meadow invisible to unfamiliar eyes . It has got a big hole in it where we hide our treasures, we found it when I was around five, and from that day onwards it's our favorite hangout and hideout place.
Once we reached there he made me stop a couple of steps away from the tree, turned me around and asked me to close my eyes, I reluctantly complied. There was total silence for a couple of seconds, only the distant sounds chirping of birds and sound of leaves when they move lightly in the gentle breeze I am engulfed in his scent, I stood there taking in the wonderful scent of my mate wondering what is he planning to do.
"Happy birthday to you...
happy birthday to you...
happy birthday to dear Tina...
happy birthday to you....."
I opened my eyes to see him holding a cake with lighted candles, that too a red velvet cake, my favorite. I am totally surprised, and I could feel tears forming in my eyes, tears of happiness. But tears alarmed Mike, he is by my side in an instant he started to panic and say,
"Did I do something wrong? Don't you like it? I thought you might like this, I'm so sorry if I messed up again..", I tried to cut off him a couple of times but he kept saying nonsense non-stop.
"MIKE. STOP IT.", he is shocked when I shouted at the top of my voice. I felt guilty when I saw the hurt on his face, "I love it", I said softly. And that brought a smile on his face. :)
"Our mate is so romantic", river exclaimed dreamily. I smiled and shook my head at her. She is head over heels with him.
Mike had a picnic blanket and some snacks arranged there, we cut the cake and stayed under the shade of the tree for a while. Mike is half sitting and lying on the blanket supporting his weight on his elbow and I was sitting and leaning to his tummy, we talked about anything and everything. Then suddenly he stood up and pulled out a small packet from his pocket.
"I saw this at the mall the other day and thought of you. I know how much you like this kind of stuff and hope it will make up all that pain I put you through, " he said handing me the small box wrapped in silver paper and decorated with a red satin ribbon.
"Thank you, Mikey. But please don't hurt yourself thinking about what happened. It was all a misunderstanding, I should have asked you directly rather than jumping to conclusions. " I told him while taking the packet from him. He just nodded and smiled, giving a nervous look to the packet. I smiled at his nervousness, he doesn't know no matter what it is I would love anything that he gets me.
It is a cute bracelet. It's a brown leather braided bracelet with a golden wolf with blue eyes hanging from it. It was so beautiful. [I am a sucker for any ornaments with wolf design in it.]. I just loved my new bracelet, and the fact that it has blue eyes like Mike and his wolf made me fall in love with it instantly. I let him tie it around my wrist and give me a tight hug mumbling a thank you.
"Tina meet me at my office in 10 minutes", I heard my dad through our family mind link." Ask Mike to join us as well".
"Okay dad", I replied.
We reached home in seven minutes.
When we got home everyone including Mike's sisters and their mates are already at dad's office and we are the last to enter.
[Alpha's office is in the main pack house. Packhouse will have most of the pack offices, like alpha's office, beta's office, Pack daycare, etc. Old weres without family support and children who are orphaned will also be living in the packhouse. We will have pack meetings conducted in here once every month. Sometimes Alpha and Beta families or some other high ranked may stay at the packhouse, but we are staying at a separate house because mom wants us to have real family experiences.]
"I hope everyone is here, so let me just start." my dad talked in business tone," I have contacted some Alphas to get information about the 'early-age-mate-finding' thing and luckily Alpha of Blood Moon pack encountered such a situation before in his pack."
I could feel everyone holding their breath as dad spoke. I started fidgeting with my handkerchief, then I felt Mike's hand on mine and I instantly relaxed.
Dad continued after taking a look around the room, "Till the day both the mates become eighteen there won't be any kind of sexual attraction between them. Even if one of them is above eighteen, his/her hormonal hike will go into hibernate till their mate turns eighteen."
"Means??",asked a very confused Cal.
"Means, until Tina turns eighteen they won't be sexually attracted to each other. Mike's wolf will only feel the urge to protect her and love her but there will not be any lust involved. And since they already found their mate, they won't go to anyone else for physical pleasure." dad replied.
"What about her heat?", my mom asked nervously, embarrassing me more.
"She won't get any before she turns eighteen.",dad said with a straight face.
[ Heat is an extreme hormonal drive a she-wolf will go into once she finds her mate. This is the time the female is most fertile and it will happen every six months excluding the time she-wolf is pregnant, it will continue till you reach menopause. When the female is in heat her scent it will drive males crazy with lust and desire, so heat is nature's way to make sure that we reproduce. ]
Everyone visibly relaxed once dad finished talking. My brothers walk up to Mike and apologized for this morning's episode.
Meanwhile, Jane, Ebony, Tania, and Ruby are suffocating me in a group hug.
"oxygen...oxygen... I want oxygen...", I managed to squeak out and their mates came to my rescue prying their hands from me.
"We are so glad it's you, Tina. We always wanted you two to end up with each other", Ruby said with a grin while pinching my cheeks.
"We can't even imagine someone else in your place.", Tania said shaking her head in horror not even wanting to imagine it, and making me laugh at her expression.
"You are perfect for our little brother," Jane said with un-shed happy tears in her eyes. Jane being the eldest has always been like a mother to me and Mike, when our own mothers were busy with the pack business or out on tour it is always her who took care of us.
After a few minutes of interacting, we all left to get ready for the party. The girls took it into their hands to doll me up...
I give a worried glance to Mike as they pulled me to my room, he just gives me a sympathetic, helpless look...well-done mate!! God only knows what they are planning to do to me.
After an hour and a half of pure torture, they are finally done with me and let me have a look in the full-length mirror in my room.
"Wow. I can't believe it's me", I can't believe my eye. I am wearing a strapless full-length lime green dress with matching earrings and heels; my brunette hair is curled and is down. My makeup is light but it somehow highlighted my facial features so beautifully.
"You look so beautiful", my mom said coming into my room.
"Yes, she does." The girls and Aunt Cathy (who came in with mom) agreed.
"Lucky Mike", Jane said.
"He will be drooling over her tonight", Ruby added and I blushed.
I can't wait to see Mike.
By the time we got to the backyard party already started. My eyes automatically searched for Mike and found him near the pool with the rest of the guys, suddenly I became self-conscious about my looks. Then I see him gaping at me while taking in my appearance. He had a proud smile on his face.
" He liked us", I said to my wolf.
"Na...Nah... He loves us", she smirked. I rolled my eyes internally at her and made my way to my mate.
He took my hands in his when I reached him and murmured to me, "You look so beautiful, My Tiny girl", I elbowed him for using my nickname for him while smiling like an idiot. He straightened when we heard my brothers clearing their throats. I smiled and I gave both of them a hug then went searching for dad.
My dad is talking to uncle Josh and gestured me to come close to him. Once I am there he hugged me and smiled.
He clapped his hands to get the attention of the pack to address them,
"My dear friends and family, today we are here to celebrate the thirteenth birthday of Celestine Mary Lucas, youngest daughter of Alpha of Lunar Spirit pack. As her father, I am so proud to announce that my daughter found her mate today as well." As he finished there are cheers and claps from the crowd.
"Michael please step forward", dad asked glancing at Mike.
"Friends, I now present you the youngest mates of our pack, Michael Adam Joshua, and Celestine Mary Lucas". The whole pack cheered for us. Some shouted congrats. One by one our pack member came to us and gave us their wishes, everyone is so happy for us.
I get to dance with my dad, brothers, uncle Josh and finally Mike.
We laughed, we joked and we danced. I felt so complete being there with him, like a hole that I didn't know was there inside me was filled. While danced with his arms around me, nothing mattered to me, my age or his age or the long wait in front of us, not even the glares my brothers are giving us.
I felt like a princess, a fairy-tale princess.
I wish the time stop still with his hands around me.
This is the best birthday ever.
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Hi friends,
I hope you all like this book.
I am sorry if it is a bit dragging. I was planning to make a twist in this chapter but that will make it a very long one. So I thought I will do it in the next chapter. :)
Meanwhile.. enjoy the lifelike Celestine...
Live the moment... :)
Please vote and comment on the book.
Thanks for reading
Love,
Niranjana
P.S: Please find the pic of the bracelet into pic area