LOVE AT FIRST GLANCE

SKYLAR

I am privileged  

At least that was what everyone thought when they looked at me.

I was eighteen today and to most girls it would have been a day of absolute bliss and a night of rave but to me, it was like every other day.

I knew I should probably get back to the party before they noticed I was gone which I found highly unlikely.

“Are you trying to fly away, little dove?” A throaty sound came from behind me.

I spurn around, coming face to face with the most magnificent man I had ever seen.

“The party is inside” I shot at him, turning back around.

“Are you sure? I can only see you” 

He leaned on the railings with me and I caught a whiff of his perfume, strong and inviting.

It gave me a heady feeling which I stubbornly attributed to the champagne I had earlier.

“I do not want company, Mister and I do not think I am the right…”

“What then is a stunning woman like you doing here all by yourself”

I let out a chuckle, glancing at him in amusement.

It would be the first time any man had called me stunning.

“I hardly think I am stunning and as for what I am…”

“You are exquisitely beautiful” He cut me short.

I felt his hand on my chin, turning me around so I could face him.

He had stormy eyes… exactly like those of the man I had seen downstairs!

“You…” I muttered.

“Me” He drawled. “Were you never taught that it is quite rude to stare at strangers” He murmured.

My eyes followed the curve of his sensual mouth as they lifted in a smile.

“You are not a stranger” I braved. “You are my must be my mate, my soulmate” I teased, my lips curling

“Am I now?” 

He leaned forward then, capturing my mouth in his while my toes curled and every thought of self pity I had been having earlier went with the wind.

******

The youngest daughter of one of the most prestigious families in the Wolfbane pack; a lucky girl, they all said but I felt anything but lucky.

I felt anything but privileged and right now I could feel the butterflies in the pit of my stomach on full rampage as I walked behind my sister.

My pure, beautiful and likeable sister.

She was the golden egg not me and my parents never failed to ensure I knew how much they detested my very existence.

“Can’t you be more like Freya?”

My mother would always say while my father preceded her statement with a disappointing shake of his head.

It was my birthday today and none of them remembered. They had been so busy trying to host the best party of the century.

The Wolf Luna day. 

It was one big party of the year where all the members of different packs gathered to gossip and throw money around… at least that is what I always called their conversations about each other. It was the only day, enemies and allies were all under the same moon. To celebrate the moon goddess,  under the Luna moon. 

It was my father’s turn to host this year hence the preparations. My father is the Alpha of the Wolfbane pack, one of the notorious pack in all the realm. A pack with more than enough enemy, than it had bargained for. 

If there was one thing Richard Wolfbane was good at except being a shitty father, it would be parties.

According to him, parties should be like banquets of the biblical Egyptians and judging by the naked men painted in golden dust patrolling with trays filled with wine, I would say he managed to achieve just that.

“Walk faster, Skylar and stop slouching… you look like an old woman” My sister, Freya scoffed.

I said nothing

Normally, I would give her a piece of my mind but right now I was too tired and very drunk.

They had not noticed when I slipped a glass of champagne into my dressing room, downing it all at once and coughing when the heat connected with my insides. I need the liquid courage it had to offer to face the crowd of snobbish hungry wolves ready to pounce and devour if they sensed the slightest form of a weak mind. Yes, I was the pack Omega. I didn't even have a Wolf. My dad said it was a total disgrace for a daughter of an Alpha to be wolfless. I agree.

I watched my mother grin from ear to ear, air kissing the widow of a man whom she had called a slut.

“You will put a smile on your face and mingle or I swear to moon goddess…” My father’s rumble and his tight grip on my arm caught me unawares.

“I will mingle” I muttered.

His eyes narrowed at me suspiciously no doubt wondering why I had accepted his terms so easily.

Like I said earlier, I was in no mood to argue.

I was more in the mood to be reckless, every individual in the room be damned.

I mingled however for a few minutes but in all honesty, I should not have even bothered. 

My sister took the spotlight with her laughter and her coy smile. She knew how to do everything right and she always knew the perfect things to say.

They did not notice me as usual when I slipped away from the party and through the back onto the balcony where I leaned in, my eyes happening on the city lights which twinkled so far away.

I wondered if it would be too much if I tried to run away and then shook my head. 

There would be no need for that. My father would catch me before I even took a step out of the house and…

My thoughts trailed off as I squinted in the dark.

I watched the figure of the man cross the road, stopping suddenly.

My breath hitched in my throat as I observed him. 

He glanced up then, our eyes meeting.

I knew I should look away, that it was rude to stare so openly and unabashedly and although every nerve in my body was screaming for me to glance away from this stranger, I could not.

He also stood staring at me, stubbornly refusing to avert his gaze and so I took it as a challenge.

I kept my eyes on him, my body heating up when I watched his lips stretch into a smile before he walked away while I remained staring at his back till he was but a speck and then he was gone, leaving me to wonder if I had just imagined him.

It was highly unlikely seeing as I still felt hot all over and I could feel the erratic pounding of my heart against my rib cage. There was something about him. Something in me that pulled me to him.

I sighed, turning back to the streetlight.

That was where I saw him. My Soul mate. 

“Have you been told to stop staring at strangers Little Dove,”  he said in the most captivating voice ever. 

I fell instantly in love with him