Chapter 3

~Jason~

"Do I necessarily have to wear this?" I pouted lowly as I stared at myself through the mirror that rested on the shelf in the closet.

"Yes you do. It is her

perfect for the event," mother cheered but it was not helping me at all.

"It is a meeting, we have no use for a tuxedo or the fancy gown that you are wearing mum," I argued, wishing she changed her mind and allowed me wear what I was more comfortable with.

"Growlers pack have a custom of being very formal. If they had the chance, they would even turn a normal breakfast into a ball," she replied, proving her point for the choice of dressing.

"Hope this is not some agreement with alpha Charsle to hook me up with one of his daughters?" I peered curiously, adjusting the collar of the blazer to fit my neck.

"Hopefully not, those girls are a huge pain. I pray to the moon goddess daily that you are not mated to a woman like them," she turned her face in disgust as she let down the bun she had packed her hair in. "I guess we are ready. Shall we?"

"I already can not wait to get back home," I stated.

"Sadly, me too. But other packs in the country will be there so give them your best attitude son. Understood?" Mother pleaded and I only nodded in assurance.

"Understood."

"Oh look at my baby, going to be alpha some day soon. And when you get to the event, refer to me as Luna Diane of Shadow pack," she plainly corrected, hitting my upper arm along with her sentence.

"I will do no such thing, mother," I bluntly replied, giving myself a once over for the umpteenth time.

I looked good on tux and I was aware of that fact. But the moon goddess knew how much I hated anything that would draw attention to myself and this blue suit that fitted my body so well, did nothing but cause attention.

"Diane, Jason, your ride is ready," Sara, the mate to John our Beta and also the mother of Jacob walked into the closet with a smile.

Funny how their family insisted to be named after people from the human's Bible.

"Thank you so much Sara," my mother replied with an equal smile.

These two shared some sort of inseparable bond that no one in the pack understood. Some  said it was because of their position in our pack. It joined them together, but I knew better, they treated themselves like they were sisters by blood and for this same reason was why Jacob and I were like parabatai.

"Where is father?" I inquired as I allowed her wrap her hands around my elbow and walked out of the dressing closet.

"He is out with John, something about sharing the territory of the pack that lost all its members," she explained without remorse. I was not surprised myself, the pack refused to involve itself with other packs, so it was inevitable that they weren't prone to attacks.

"The vampires did it this time, didn't they?" I seethed and she nodded.

No one really like the vampires, they were enemy of all. Right from history to be told, vampires and us werewolves never saw eye to eye unless they had no choice or it was a case of life and death.

Vampires were usually selfish and hungry for power and domination over everything and everyone. I saw them as lucky to even be walking, they were already dead and needed to stay dead. But of course there were other good ones out there but we all knew only very few of them had clean hearts. The rest just wanted to feast on anything that had blood, mostly humans. They even went as far as taking people in as slaves and turned them into unspeakable things. I wonder how they expected loyalty with such manner of ruling. They acted like Barbarians.

"We do not need to bother much about them, we have the support of the other packs. So we have strong forces to help us," mother assured as if she read my mind but I was unmoved by it. Either they attacked or not, we were still strong enough to win in any of their battles.

"Let's hurry, we are going to be late if we don't hurry!"

******

Reluctantly, I alighted the car and turned around go open the door for mother. She wore a golden silk gown that adorned her body and showcased her womanly figure.

We were at Growlers pack and I could see other Alphas or representatives present for the meeting. The pack was a descendant of the British royal family, so everything they did could depict royalty. They recognized their alpha as king and Luna as their queen, they even went as far as having a castle where they all resides in and according to my mother earlier, turned everything into a ball.

I never had thought of an opinion for their custom or tradition but when I do think of it, I considered it as a waste of resources and an opportunity to show off. Every other pack in the country had pack houses and managed their territory for hunting seasons but Growlers pack had already used a huge portion of their land to build a village for its people. But hey, who am I to judge?

"Ah, the Shadow pack. Thank you for honoring us with your presence," queen Vivian spoke with a thick British accent. She wore a big ball gown and wore her hair up with a crown on top of it.

Showing off, as expected.

"Why thank you so much, your dress is lovely," my mother spoke so nicely to the woman that I could almost perceive her deception.

"Thank you. It is the only one of its kind. Our royal tailor made it specially for me," the queen bragged and I resisted the urge to scoff.

"It suites you perfectly," mother chuckled.

"Thank you, this way and I will personally show you to the hall," she offered, showing us the way into the huge castle.

Entering its hallway, there were a few people, all of them busy with one thing or another. But most of them were found cleaning the furniture on the walls. They were all werewolves like us, there was a rule against taking in humans as hostages, all was to keep balance between the humans and werewolves. It would have been the same for vampires but they were always thirsty.

The castle was mostly decorated with ornamental flowers, even the paintings on the walls were paintings of flowers. Only a few frames showed portraits of past rulers of the pack and even one had a picture of the moon goddess herself.

"Mother," someone called out.

We had not even gotten half way into the hallway when they called for the queen. Abruptly, we all turned towards the direction of the voice.

One of the daughters of the king and queen, anyone could see the striking resemblance, plus they had similar scent.

"I have been looking everywhere for you, father seeks your attention at the moment," the girl who was about 17 years old rushed to her mother. She had blonde hair and just like her mother, she wore an overly exaggerating gown.

"Alright Bridget, handle our guest for me. Will you?" The queen asked but did not wait for her reply before walking away briskly.

Mother and I awkwardly watched as the woman went out of sight. They had to be one of the most disorganized people.

"You must be Jason! I have heard so much about you," Bridget shrieks and I winced. We already had sensitive hearing and most people still chose to yell. She grabbed onto my hand and began to pull me to only God knows where.

I turned to my mother to help but she winked my way and watched the girl continue to drag me. It was going to be a long day for me.

~JACOB~

"Can we talk?" Shawn came up to me. I looked at him worriedly but nodded.

"Of course, what's wrong?" I asked, giving my total attention to him.

"Can we go somewhere more private?" Shawn whispered in my ear and I could hear as his voice trembled. It scared me to know he was worried about something, and I wanted to resolve it fast.

I looked back to Daniel, pleading with him silently that I had to go. He waved his hands in the air, signaling that he had no issue with my abrupt absence. I mumbled a thank you and followed after Shawn.

Quietly, I continued to follow him and eventually, he brought me up to into his room. His back faced me and I could barely see his expression, and the room was so dark that a normal person would not be able to see clearly. But I could hear how quick and furious his heartbeat were.

"Shawn," I called out, dragging his name. He finally faced me and anyone could see he was anything but okay.

"I think people are beginning to suspect," he blurted out.

It took me a few seconds to comprehend what he had said and when I finally did, I shook my head in disbelief.

"What makes you say that?" I asked in amusement.

"I.." he trailed off, staring down at his feet. "I just know okay?"

"No one knows and no one will know until I am sure that you are ready to tell them. I promise," I assured, holding his shoulder and rubbing my palm on it smoothly.

"How are you so sure?" Shawn sighed, taking a seat on the edge of his bed.

"I am Jacob. Of course I know," I lied. I knew nothing about who knew, so far it was just Daniel who knew and it was only because he caught us in an intimate position once.

He laughed at what I said about knowing and it pleased me to see the smile on his face again. "You don't have to worry."

Shawn nodded, I knelt in front of him and allowed him rest his head on my forehead.

"I love you," he whispered, causing my chest to flutter. His room was almost dark but with our proximity, I could see his face well.

In the shadows, his face was so close to mike that I could smell the sweet fragrance of his cream and it almost felt Mille I was drowning in it. If we stayed together for long, people would detect our scents together but at the money I cared less.

Unable to resist any longer, our lips met. It has been like forever since I felt them in mine and I wanted it to never end. Just when I thought we were going ti be quick, his tongue was in my mouth. I could feel his impatience and I too was finding it very hard to hold on much longer. Our tongues continued to okay around for a while, savoring the tastes of ourselves but hands were already in his shirt when I realized we could not continue.

"Shawn we can't. Not now," I pulled away to look at him. I almost hated myself for doing it but it had ti be the right thing to do.

He was not ready for the world to know, meaning we could not do anything to implicate us. Not yet.

"I know, I'm sorry I got carried away," he quickly apologized, rising from the bed to give us distance.

"I love you too Shawn," I spoke softly, remembering I did not give him an answer earlier.

"I know," he smiled. "Go before Daniel freaks out."

"I would have his head if he misbehaves," I said bluntly. He knew that I meant what I said so he didn't argue further about it.

I turned away and walked right out of the room.