Every year, there is this big party that is being thrown for all young werewolf adults in hopes to facilitate finding their mates.
As you may already know, finding one's mate as a werewolf is primordial and essential to the very survival of our kind.
See, not finding your mate will cause you to go insane and weak. This rarely ever happens, but when it does, they will become Omegas of the lowest level until they find their mate. Some people who don't find their mate at a certain age will be forced to mate with someone else if they wanted to keep sane.
I attended the stupid party when I just turned an adult as my parents forced me to go. Fortunately, I did not find my mate there.
See, I'm not too excited about meeting my mate. I want to live a free life first, I want to go where I want go and do the things I need to do first.
Having a mate must be great, but I have other plans before I meet whoever he is.
After the very first party that I attended, I didn't attend anymore. Two years has since passed.
But my two year streak of not attending was lost when my mother dear decided that I absolutely had to attend this one. She and I made a deal.
"Alright, if you promise me that you will attend this year, your dad and I will not bother you about it ever again. Even your brother." she said. My ears and eyes perked up.
A golden opportunity.
They were going to stop nagging me about finding my mate. My ears won't bleed from their incessant reminders!
But wait— what if I find my mate there?
No, no, no. I already went before and he wasn't there. Plus, it's mostly the same people that attend every year so there shouldn't be much changes.
Yeah, pfft, no. There's no way he'll be there.
"Deal." I gambled.
And so, here I am. Standing at one of the corners of the room, with a cup of punch in my hand.
The big ballroom was filled with people, the lights were dim, stupidly dim may I emphasize, thank goodness for night vision and there was the loud music playing.
I've been here for an hour and so far, there were no signs of my potential mate which relieved me tons.
"Hazel, are you really just going to stand there all night?" Quincy asked taking my other hand and tried grabbing me to the centre.
Due to her pulling me, the cup of punch spilled a bit everywhere. Realizing, she immediately stopped.
"Quincy, look at the mess you've made! Hazel needs to look perfect for her mate!" Caroline seconded and I turn towards her.
"Aw, c'mon. A drop of punch can't ruin Hazel. She's perfect the way she is. I bet your mate will be a hottie." she whispers causing the three of us to giggle.
In fact, Caroline has already found her mate. I only convinced her to come with Quincy and I to make sure that Quincy doesn't get too wild. She tends to do that especially at the presence of alcoholic beverages.
"And I bet your mate is an Alpha." Caroline seconded with a touch of a dreamy voice.
I quickly give her a reprimanding look. "No, he will not be. He will be a regular pack wolf and we will live simple pack life." I say as I give her my cup of punch. "I'm suffocating in here, I'm going to go out for a bit."
"You're no fun Hazel!" Quincy retorted and I just laughed at her while shaking my head. Wrong, this is just not my idea of fun.
With that, I pushed myself out of the crowd. I passed by some guys asking for a dance, but I kept on.
As I was finding my way to the doors leading outside, my head started to hurt, a lightheaded feeling overcame me and my stomach started churning. My senses started perking it all up and I didn't fail to notice the sudden changes.
Damn it all, was my food spiked?
Impossible, I would have smelled it.
The colourful lights swirling around the room was making me feel extremely dizzy all of a sudden and I started crashing from one person to another.
"I-I'm sorry." I whisper and tried desperately to hold onto something so I wouldn't fall.
My eyes roamed around to look for Quincy or Caroline, but they were nowhere to be found.
Great, just great.
I suddenly picked up a scent and in the midst of the boisterous party room and the people that kept crashing onto me, that very faint scent was a drop of water in the middle of a desert.
My feet moved on their own and unknowingly, I was following the scent. Gradually, it started getting stronger and I was practically pushing people around me just to find whatever or whomever it belonged to.
My heart started pounding and I wanted to stop since I was starting to have bad feelings about this, but I couldn't. I had the urge to find and follow this scent and I will not rest knowing till I find what it was that was making me feel like this.
Yet somehow, I knew I was going to regret this.
But I kept following until I found myself at the door leading to the terraces. My eyes frantically scanned the place since the scent was very strong at this point and the scent was coming from here.
And then I see him.
Him.
WAIT.
HIM?
My breath was ragged as I observed the man who was standing alert, looking all around him, for sure looking for me. His eyes were golden, trying to focus.
Quickly, I concealed my scent, which I knew was pretty dumb because I know that I cannot conceal my scent from my mate totally, but it will help for now since he doesn't know who I am.
I swallowed hard and turned around and started walking away quickly, but at the same time careful not to draw attention to myself.
'Why are you leaving, our mate was there!' my wolf scolded but I kept walking away going straight to the doors.
The more I walked away, the worse I felt, but I didn't mind, it's not going to last long anyways. I just-- I just need to get out of here.
My chest tightened and my heart was out of control. My hands were clammy and I badly needed that fresh air I was looking for before.
As soon I saw the door, I started running and since my heals were bothering me, I took them off and held them as I ran past the people.
At first, I didn't know where to go but then seeing the tall trees of this pack territory, I immediately headed there.
My dress was a cream tulle dress and I knew that at this point, it was already ruined. My dress would be sullied and some of its parts would have been shredded by now along the forest, but that didn't matter.
I was busy thinking how impossible this could be. There is no way he is my mate.
There is just no way that Archer Hamilton is my mate.
I ran towards nowhere, I just knew that I had to get away before he noticed me. My chest was pounding so hard even more that I was practically running so much.
My hair that was in a fixed bun earlier has now dropped and my feet were mudded and scratched from running barefoot.
"Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have come." I repeated to myself. Finally, when I judged that I was far enough, I started slowing down and pacing my breath.
When I came to my senses, I realized that I was completely in the middle of nowhere. The trees around me were so tall, blocking the moonlight, but just letting enough light for me to see my surroundings.
I still wandered thoughtlessly while thinking about the weirdest encounter I just had. How is Archer Hamilton my mate? I thought he had--
I froze when I felt a pull.
H-he followed me?!
Frantically, I looked around for a place to hide, but that was pointless because I was literally in the middle of nowhere.
I could feel him getting closer and I need to hide quick, I don't want to meet him. And to be honest, I think there's been a mistake.
The pull was strong and my instincts were making me to get closer to him, but I was stronger than that. Looking around, I found that the only place I could go in were the at the branches of the trees.
I ran a bit more and when I found a tree tall enough, I climbed till I jumped at one of the branches with enough leaves that hid me.
All that there was to do now was to wait and for him to not find me... hopefully.
It was a good five minutes before I saw his figure emerging out of the darkness.
The pull was so strong that it was getting harder for me to fight it back.
I watched him as he was looking around, his breath ragged from running and at each step he was taking, the impact of the pull was amplified and I knew that that's what led him to find me.
He stopped in front of the tree I was hiding on and I made the mistake of still looking at him because when he looked up, our eyes met.
The world stopped spinning, time froze when our eyes met and I was practically breathless.