She snapped her fingers multiple times in her face to call her attention, but Ava wasn’t listening, neither is she focused on anything Nicole is saying, all her concentration was placed on the young man who just walked into the restaurant: her mate; and yes, she’s meeting him for the first time.
Nicole’s eyes followed in the direction Ava was looking, she found it strange that her friend’s eyes had been pinned in that direction for a good number of minutes and she wondered what was up. When she saw who Ava was looking at, she understood exactly what was happening. It’s Ava’s 18th birthday of course, and Ava is experiencing the mate bond. This landmark is usually common for she-wolves to meet their mate, that’s why Ava’s eyes had been glued on that man for so long, and his eyes had been glued on hers too.
Nicole couldn’t have been happier for her friend, everyone was worried she wouldn’t meet her mate on time, but now here he was; she would have the chance to reject him before the joining ceremony and then she wouldn’t have to worry about her mate anymore when she is introduced as the new Luna of the moonlight pack, with Alpha Ray, her betrothed standing by her side.
“What are you waiting for?” Nicole threw the question at her friend, but Ava still wasn’t listening, she might have been better off talking to a mannequin.
**********
The mate bond, Ava always knew she'd experience it one day, the very day she'd find her mate, but she never expected that day to be so close, she never expected that day would be today, she'd always thought that when the day came, she would be prepared for it; for rejecting her mate but she clearly wasn't, not with the shock that burst right through her the moment she saw Lucas. That very moment he stopped in his steps as they both began to experience the most powerful force; the only attraction in the world that can never be felt for a different person besides your fated, the only feeling greater than love itself; and he felt it too. She'd read in the past that no matter who you ended up with as a wolf, the attraction that overflows in your heart due to that powerful mate bond lives within you forever.
And as she saw him for the first time he walked into that restaurant in Bandera, the small town she’d visited, their eyes collided into each other's suddenly and none of them could look away from each other for even a split second, even from the distance between them, she could see his face and observe his handsome features clearly as he was standing across the room watching her too. It suddenly felt as if everyone and everything surrounding them had disappeared, and it was just the two of them there imprinting on each other for the first time. In the normal werewolf world, meeting your true mate for the first time, the one the moon goddess has paired you with, was a good thing and something worth celebrating, because from that moment onward, your life would never remain the same as you would no longer live as one person, but as the other half of a romantic union formed from high above, a perfect union destined by the moon goddess herself. But for someone like Ava Maynard, the future Luna of the moonlight pack, who had been groomed her whole life to be with someone else, someone who wasn't her true mate, the Alpha of the moonlight pack Ray, meeting her mate was not something to be happy about.
‘We have to do something,’ her wolf Layla called out from within her, and that’s when Nicole’s words started sinking in.
“Hello!!!” Nicole called out.
Ava suddenly jolted up from the chair, what should she do now? She wondered, why did going to reject her mate seem so difficult? Why was she feeling this sudden attraction for him? Was this supposed to happen?
‘Ava, you have to do something now!’ Layla repeated, she could tell by her shaky voice that the mate bond made her wolf uncomfortable too.
An idea then dropped into her mind; not a very clever one, but worth trying. This was going to be one of the hardest things to do; running away from your mate was like a piece of metal trying to pull away from the magnet it clung to, or running away from the warmth that shielded and protected you to face the death cold winter. It would be painful, almost impossible in fact, and somewhat hopeless because she knew that at some point, she'd cross paths with him again; the mate bond always made sure of that. Oh well..., she would cross that bridge when she got there, but for now she had to get away.
She grabbed Nicole’s hand much to her horror.
“What do you need me for?” She asked Ava vexingly, and a bit scared of whatever was going on in that head of hers.
“Let's get out of here,” Ava begged.
Upon seeing that Lucas started striding towards them, Ava didn’t think twice about it. She pulled Nicole up from the chair to stand and started running in the opposite direction, everyone in the restaurant stared at the crazy lady running and grabbing her friend’s hand in hers but she didn’t care, she had a bigger problem walking towards her, and she needed to get away from him, from all this; no, she wasn’t supposed to be feeling this way, she couldn’t reject him feeling like this.
“What's wrong with you?” Nicole was already beginning to lose her temper, and then she stopped and yanked her hand away from Ava’s.
“You're not supposed to be going this way, have you forgotten what you're supposed to do when you see him?”
Ava knows very well what she's supposed to do, but she never expected it to be today, she never thought she’d be this unprepared, and she certainly wasn’t ready to reject her mate now.
Ava knows very well what she's supposed to do, but she never expected it to be today, she never thought she’d be this unprepared, and she certainly wasn’t ready to reject her mate now.She saw that Lucas was almost close to them; he had paused for a bit when he saw her running away.“Let's just go, please we'll talk about this outside,” Ava persuaded. She didn’t wait for Nicole to respond, instead she turned around, her eyes searching and looking for another way to exit the large restaurant.“Even if you want to leave, where will you pass? There’s only one exit and he’s in the way of it you know, you'll still bump into him.”Just then Ava’s eyes caught the waiter who had disappeared into the door behind the marbled counter, she grabbed Nicole’s hand again and started in that direction. Entering the kitchen, she saw the waiter giving an order to the chef.&ldqu
“I’ll be fine Nicole, don’t worry,” she responded before opening the car door. As she was about to come down, she remembered something she was supposed to tell her friend.“Nicole, can you promise me something before you go?”“What is it?” Nicole feared what she was about to say.“I don’t want Ray, Ethan or anyone to know about what happened today. Can you keep it a secret?”“Are you sure? this isn't something you should keep Ava, if you're so uncomfortable about rejecting him yourself why not tell Ray? I'm sure he'll agree to stand by you when…”“No! I want to do it on my own, Ray didn't need my help when he rejected his mate, I should be able to do the same, the only thing I need you to do now is not to tell him what happened, promise me you won’t tell him.”Nicole sighed defeatedly. “If you say so.”“
‘Shit, so he'd followed us here;’ she didn't expect him to do that. This was one of the things Ava hated about being a werewolf; scents. You can never avoid your mate except he or she chooses to leave you alone bla bla bla.... she rolled her eyes as she recalled one of the most important rules of the mate bond. She knew from the onset that he might just follow her; he wouldn't have a hard time doing that since he could track her scent easily even if she ran to the ends of the world but she still ran anyways, hoping that he would give up on chasing her at some point and just leave her alone. She would admit that she felt a bit flattered that he went through such lengths to find her, and upon seeing that he was persistent having followed her all the way here, he at least deserved an introduction.She stood from the ground and walked up to him, not fully aware that she was back in her human form and was standing completely naked in front of him. She could
He reached his hand out to her and she knew what that meant, this is how Ray would reach out to her too on the day of the joining ceremony in front of the pack, and she'd be expected to accept his claim according to the tradition, then she'd become his Luna and be joined to him forever. The man standing in front of her offering his claim was the one she was meant to reject so she could accept Ray, she ought to do it now, but why was she so finding it difficult? If she accepted Lucas now, she knew there'd be no turning back. She was unsure of what to do at this point, her heart told her to accept him but her mind, which always told her to do the responsible thing had been shut down, it wasn’t there to tell her what to do this time, all that was left to do was follow her heart, which bing-banged loudly for Lucas.She did the same thing every she wolf does the moment she sees her mate for the first time. She slowly melted to her knees in front of him, putting her han
"You're pure, innocent. You don't have another male's scent on you; which means I'm your first. And do you know how that makes me feel? Do you know what that does to me precious?" He groaned subtly into her ear and brought his hands to massage her breast whilst kissing her cheek and her neck before he continued."It only makes me want you more my precious, it turns me on and it only makes me want to do things to you that I've never done to another woman," then he brought his lips to hers again.Ava didn't understand what he'd said by wanting to do things to her; but her curious mind did want to find out. She brought her arms to his back and pushed him closer to her body. Leaving her mouth and a hot trail of his kisses down her body, he brought his head in between her legs, and the thought of what he was about to do made her flush the minute she felt his wet tongue at the opening of her clit. Her clit was so sensitive and swollen, he started to lick an
Ava jumped right out of the bed the minute she realized this. Did it really happen? Did I lose my... Oh no! she cried within herself.'Layla! Layla!!!' she called out to her despairingly.Layla always tends to be inactive mostly in the mornings, sometimes Ava wondered why she had a wolf if she couldn't get to her when she needed her.Was he here? If he was, where had he gone? She tried to pick up his scent, and then she noticed that he was in the cabin too, just outside the room. They were alone in the small building and he was sitting by the fireplace, playing a guitar, she could hear the charming melody right from where she stood in the room and it tempted her to go outside to go and meet him, or to continue from where they finished last night. No! She scolded herself, doing that would just add more fuel to the fire, would worsen the situation, last night wasn't even supposed to happen and it did. She had to find a way to escape before
The wondering feeling she had last night about whatever surprise Ray and the other pack members were planning for her flew right through the window and was replaced by the intense desire she had for Lucas,….. t-the desire the mate bond made her have for Lucas. All because of what happened, she had missed her own birthday party surprise. In all her 18 years of being in her pack, of growing up as a moonlighter, she had never for once missed her special day with them until yesterday. Even though she didn’t like Ray’s surprises, spending her special day with her pack members was something Ava always looked forward to every year, even when the trio moved out of the pack house, she still celebrated her birthdays with the moonlighters every year; it was like Christmas to her, and she was looking forward to it yesterday before she met Lucas in that blasted restaurant, and now she missed it all; she had forgotten her own birthday, and it was all thanks to her mate. A
This was strange, how could she prefer the touch of a stranger to the touch of the one she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with? The mate bond gave the answer to that question. She noticed that Ray was still kissing her; she found it strange that he was enjoying this whereas she wasn't. Didn't he know that what he was giving her was far from pleasure? She felt bad about how she felt; Lucas's touch was supposed to be the one that repelled her, but no, it was exactly the other way around.Ray then brought his hand to touch her breasts, and she pulled away from his kiss at that moment, panting heavily. He saw her expression and dropped his head in his hand, he was disappointed but tried well to hide it."I'm sorry," she muttered."No, no, I should be the one apologizing, I know how you said we should wait and all, but I find it hard to restrain myself whenever I'm with you."Ray reminding Ava of the reason she refused him whenever he t