Chapter 4: Human Party

*Nikko's POV*

I stared around the backyard of this large house trying to see if I could discern any information about my mate. I had fought myself (and Ash) back and forth about coming to my mate's party, and in the end, I just couldn't stay away. I had to see her again. However, I had convinced myself by saying this would almost be a sort of recon mission at the same time. Enjoy myself, but find out more information.

I had gotten to the house with Byron a little early, so that way we could give my mate her birthday present and hopefully she would wear it. I was hoping to give it to her myself, but I met her mom at the door and was shuffled away to the backyard with a promise that she would deliver it for me.

Now, I was just nervously walking around, staring at a backyard. Most of the humans stared at us, but I didn't pay attention. Byron tapped me on the shoulder, then proceeded to hand my own cellphone to me.

"I am going to give you your phone back now, because you are starting to drive even me crazy at this point," he said with a smile. "I know you wanted me to keep it so you didn't come on too strong and text or call her too much these past five days, but man, are you miserable. You are going to see her any minute anyway, so what's the harm?"

I swiped my phone out of his hand and powered it up. There weren't any other messages on my phone besides the one from her inviting me to her party. Most of my conversations were between wolves of my own pack, so they would just mind link me if they needed something. I instantly opened her message and sent her two messages before I could stop myself.

It was worth it when I got her message back that read, 'I love the present, thank you so much. I am so glad you came'.

My face split into a smile and I sent her a quick reply. Then I glanced around as more and more people entered the yard, waiting to catch a glimpse of her. Byron was still standing next to me, staring up at the house.

"Have you discovered which room is hers yet?" I asked, knowing what he was doing.

"Not yet," he replied, still looking. "It appears as if most of the bedrooms are on the top floor though, so that would be my first guess. You might just have to rely on the pull of your mate's scent to find her room once you are inside."

"Yeah," I said hesitantly.

"That is still the plan, correct?" he asked me. "You said you were wanting to sneak into her room while she was busy with the party, so that you could try and find out more information about her before deciding if you would accept her as your mate."

"That's what I said, I just, I don't know…" My words drifted off as I felt a tingle shoot down my spine and quickly looked towards the house.

Standing right by the back patio door was my beautiful mate in her sexy birthday present dress, and she was staring right at me. I felt Ash howl in desire as our eyes met and I could feel a stronger pull coming from her. With it being her 18th birthday, she should actually be able to feel the mate bond much stronger than our first encounter.

From what I had learned, human-wolf mates seemed to operate almost exactly as wolf-wolf mates. The only difference was that she wouldn't have her own wolf, or the powers they provide. Ash whined at the idea of not having a wolf to bond with as well, or that she might not ever be able to hear his voice.

Except, a lot of the wolf mates said that they could mind link with their human mates as soon as the mating was complete with the bond mark. Possibly because once the wolf mate bond mark was performed, it was almost as if merging two souls into one, so the connection between each other became much stronger. I stared at this gorgeous girl in blue and was hopeful that would be the case for us.

"What am I thinking?" I thought. "I can't get wrapped up. I still have to decide what is best for the pack before I take things any further."

"There's nothing you can do," Ash thought happily. "Our mate is too pretty, and the pull of the bond is too strong."

"We'll see about that," I snapped back at Ash. I was strong too.

I forced my eyes to look away from her and focused on Byron, who was staring at me in wonder.

"How can you do that? Avoid her?" he asked. "Even I can feel the bond that is radiating off the two of you right now."

"I'm going to go check out her room," I said through gritted teeth, needing to get further away. "You stay down here so she doesn't get suspicious."

I took a peripheral glance towards her as I moved further to the back of the crowd and saw that the girls from the mall were starting to surround her, though her eyes still followed me. As more people noticed she had arrived, the people around her swelled. Ducking my head, I easily hid from her view and escaped through the back of the crowd to circle around the pool and back closer to the side of the house, away from where her friends were leading her.

I waited by the side of the house as everyone dragged her over to the pool, where there was a table set up with all the gifts. As soon as her back was to me, and everyone's attention was on her, I quickly walked along the side of the house and through the patio door that she had just exited.

Ugh. The smell of her was so strong here; it was euphoric. I paused to take another breath in before following the trail to the staircase. I had seen the mother in the kitchen getting ready to surprise her with a giant bakery-style birthday cake, so I knew I had no worries of running into her upstairs. However, I didn't want her to catch me on her way outside, so I hurried up into the room that smelled like my own personal heaven.

As I pushed the door open, I noticed that the room was very modest and neutral. More mature than I was expecting for a teenage girl. Not like I had much room to talk though, since I had just turned 21 a couple months ago. Her room also told me at first glance that she must not be too materialistic. Nothing was extravagant or over the top, and it seemed like she mostly just had necessities.

However, as I walked around her room and looked a little closer, I did see a few more personal touches. She had pictures of her and her mom and her walls, from the time she was a baby to some that had to be recent. I stopped to admire how cute my mate was as a baby in one of the photos, where she was wearing the sweetest little swimsuit sitting in a kiddie pool with her mom.

"We would make cute pups," Ash whispered in my mind, but I pushed him back down, my cheeks slightly more red.

There were also a couple of action movie posters taped up on the wall, and even some books scattered around. I glanced at her made bed and saw a yellow dress laid out on it. That must have been what she was going to wear before she got my present. I smiled in satisfaction at the idea of her picking the dress I had bought her…even though I had already known she loved it.

While standing by her bed, I realized that her cellphone was sitting on her nightstand, charging. I walked over and picked it up, sliding the screen open. Luckily, there wasn't a pass-lock on it.

"Are you really going to go through our mate's phone right now?" Ash asked me in exasperation. "That doesn't seem very respectful."

"We have no idea who she is, and I am just trying to find out more information," I thought back at him. "It's not like I'm going through it because I don't trust her. I just want to get to know her."

Ash grumbled, but didn't say anything else as I re-swiped open her phone and started to investigate. The main screensaver was the first thing I saw, and it was of her and her mom on a hike in the mountains.

"See, that's good to know," I pointed out to Ash. "She likes the outdoors. That's kind of a must in wolf packs, especially ours, since it is located in the mountains."

Again I got no reply, so I moved on to the apps. It looked like your normal phone, with mostly gaming, streaming, and social media. Not to mention all of the reading platforms. But other than that I didn't see anything unusual. No dating apps, specifically, so that was a plus. I opened her playlist and saw that it was mostly 80's rock and country. I could deal with that.

Then I was down to the texts. Ash grunted a little again, but it was easy to ignore him. The top three texts were mine, which I was happy still read 'hot mall guy', the ones with 'Aaron', and then it was 'Mama'. My stomach twisted unwillingly at the sight of Aaron's name again, so I hurried and opened the thread. The top message was from her, and it was her being extremely clear that she was not interested in him.

I sighed in relief before I could help myself. Even if I was still up in the air, I couldn't imagine her being with anyone else. Just thinking about it was getting my blood boiling. Satisfied with the phone, I put it back on the nightstand and walked over to the two large windows on the one side of her room. Glancing outside, I realized that I was looking into the backyard and could see the party happening.

My eyes once again instantly found my mate. Her back was turned towards me, so I could see the low back cut on the dress and her blonde hair falling in gorgeous curls against her skin. Even staring at her from this distance got me excited. It seemed as if the more I saw her, the more I wanted, and I wasn't the only one.

All of the boys that had come to the party seemed to be surrounding her now, and I watched as many of them scanned her head to toe. One of them even walked up and gave her a hug. Ash started to growl loudly in my head and I couldn't help but let a growl slip out of my lips as well, and I rushed back down to the party.