2, FINDING HER

LUCIAN

"I refuse!" I strongly disagreed with my father. 

Father, Alpha Ian had summoned me and my brothers to his chambers to urge us to attend the full moon festival tonight. 

Father always made me, Raul and Nikolai attend the festival every year because we were yet to find a mate and whispers about our curse were already making a buzz amongst the pack members. 

That’s right, there’s a heavy curse laid upon my brothers and me; a curse that restricts us from shifting into our wolf forms under the sunlight lest we get roasted. 

It was absurd as we weren’t vampires but still, it was real. Owing to that fact, we were called the 'Night Howlers', because our howls could only be heard at night when we were allowed to shift. 

The reason behind the curse remained vague but from the information we’d managed to gather, it was because one of our ancestors had rejected their mate on a full moon. After all, he was in love with another and this had angered Selena, the moon goddess. 

Therefore, to revoke this curse, Father believed it was best we find ourselves a mate since it was the rejection of a mate that brought the curse to be; for that reason, he’d been forcing us to attend the full moon festival.

 

But still, all our efforts had proven futile so this time, I didn’t even want to be bothered by that goddamn festival. 

"Lucian, you have no say in this matter," Father tried to reason with me. "It’s for your good."

Grumbling, I turned over to look at my brothers hoping they felt the same way I did but as usual Nikolai, the third alpha said nothing. 

It’s times like this that his quiet nature upset me. "It’s times like this you talk!" I snapped.

"Lucian, stop bullying Nikolai," Raul, the second alpha says moving over from father’s side on his bed-chamber to Nikolai’s, throwing his arms around his shoulders. "And why do you act as if going to the full moon festival is the worst that can happen? We also have fun there."

"YOU have fun there. Not me!" I corrected. 

"That’s why you are so uptight. Learn to live a little."

Our conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Father, it’s me." Our little sister’s voice resounded from behind door. 

On hearing Meade’s voice, my eyes widened as I instantly turned to face Father. "You did not!"

Alpha Ian shrugs. "I knew that you would need a little push. Meade, come in."

The door flew open as Meade walked into Father’s chamber. She does her best to hide her shock seeing I, Nikolai and Raul already gathered. 

She bowed her head before her father. "You called for me."

"Hope I didn’t interrupt you?"

Meade shook her head. "Not that all! I see my brothers are here already. It looks like I’m the one doing the interruption."

"I’ll cut to the chase, Meade," Father says. "I want you to persuade Lucian to attend the full moon festival tonight. You’ve managed to do it every year."

I balled my fist in anger because my father was threatening me using Meade in the sense that if I didn’t go to the full moon festival, he would force Meade into marriage. 

"I thought you said last year would be the last year they attend the festival!" Meade says strongly, but I could tell that she was scared. 

"Enough!" I cut them short. "You win, father. I will attend the festival tonight."

With that said, I dragged Meade out of Father’s chambers with me. 

Once outside, Meade sets herself free from my grasp, landing a hot smack across my cheeks as tears roll down her cheeks. "You should have just accepted to attend the festival in the first place. Must you let Father bring me up before you concede?"

"Meade--"

"Don’t. Just don’t--"

As I watched Meade’s retreating, Raul threw his arms around my shoulder. "Let’s get ready for the festival. We have less than three hours."

Throwing his arms off me, we made our way to our various rooms to get ready. Once prepared, we left for the festival.  

While Raul seemed to be chirping, Nikolai and I stuck to each other’s side like glue with no interest whatsoever in what was going on.

"You look like a dead man walking," I taunted Nikolai. "You should have spoken up to father that you didn’t want to go either."

"If I had spoken up, do you really think we wouldn’t still be here? It’s father we’re talking about!"

True. Nikolai had a point. "Go grab Raul, it’s almost noon. I’ll be waiting at our usual spot."

***

Every noon, the three of us would howl at the moon. I sighed, disappointed that once again we didn’t find our mate. 

Alone at our usual spot, I gazed up at the moon. "I guess it’s till next year then."

Nikolai and Raul joined me with Raul looking rather down than before. "Did all your energy tank get maxed up?" I teased, but Raul still didn’t cheer up. 

"When does it end?" Raul draws out. "I’m really tired this time."

"Let’s just hurry up and go train. It’s 12noon."

Immediately the full moon was high above the sky; in sync, we shifted to our wolf forms howling at the moon once. Twice...Thrice. 

Morphing back into our human forms; just as we were about to leave, I sensed this sweet fragrance like rose petals spread over water. 

It was so strong, I salivated."Do you guys scent that?"

"Yes," Raul responded, more eager to find the source of the scent than I was because he suddenly seemed full of life, more than he was a few minutes ago.  

As if on cue, we turned towards the direction of the sweet scent to see a girl inside the ballroom standing by the window in a fraying gown and her brown hair neatly packed up in a bun. 

The minute eye contact was made, we chorused "MATE!"