3, NOT SO HOPELESS

ANDREA

Brody’s sudden blurting out that he had found his mate had caught me off-guard. In fact, I was disappointed because it wasn’t me but still, I tried to be happy for him. 

"That’s good news, Brody! I’m happy for you," I say half- hearted. 

"Thanks, Andrea. I knew you would. You are the first person I’m telling this to tonight."

"Who is it? Your mate, I mean."

"It’s Valerie. Can you believe it?"

The 'Valerie' Brody was talking about was Valerie Wes. 

She is the daughter of Elder Gerald, one of the pack elders and also one of the many persons that most pack members wanted as their mate because not only was she pretty but she was also well mannered. 

And let’s not even start with her grades. Valerie wasn’t a beauty without brains. Valerie Wes was Elder Gerald’s pride and joy. 

It was like she had it all and now the moon goddess had given her a perfect mate like Brody.  Just great!

Seeing Brody overly excited made me want to push him away. "You should go spend some time with her then rather than hanging out here with me."

"No, It’s your birthday. I don’t want to leave you all by yourself."

This... Brody needed to stop acting this way if he didn’t want me getting the wrong idea. "Well, you should. You don’t want people getting the wrong idea now, do you? You now have a mate. Things are different this time."

Damn, what the hell was I saying? Why was tears threatening to cloud my vision? I looked away from Brody so that he wouldn’t notice but he did. 

With his hands on either of my shoulders, Brody turned me to face him. "Andrea, what’s wrong?"

"It’s nothing. You, just go find Valerie. It’s not gentlemanly to leave her all alone tonight. What do you expect her to make of that? I’ll be fine." 

Before Brody could respond, I ran inside to the ballroom where the festival was holding. 

When inside, the fact that no one noticed me or glanced towards my direction made my eyes singed because I mean just when I was outside with Brody he regarded me as 'beautiful'. 

This birthday was going on worse than ever. I had rushed inside earlier because I thought inside the festival, I would find other mateless persons like myself and probably feel better afterwards but rather I was surrounded with people with their mates. 

"Seriously?" I muttered under my breath, shutting my eyes tightly. Slowly opening my eyes, I move through the couples over to the far end of the ballroom by the window. 

Gazing up at the moon, I exhaled. "I guess I’m unlucky again this year. I thought it would be different this time."

I was starting to believe that maybe the problem was me. It was easy for Avery and the rest of my friends when it was their turns last year; so why me? What made me so different?

Glancing over at the wall clock, my eyes followed the clock’s movement. "It would soon be 12 noon." Wrapping my hands around my  shoulders, I muttered. "Happy birthday, Andrea."

"Oh, please! Stop acting as if you are all alone." An invincible voice says. 

Startled, I looked around for the source of I’ve voice but found no one. "Who are you?"

"Me?" Came the voice again. "I’m Kezav, your wolf. It’s nice to finally meet you, Andrea."

I twitched my lips. "Did the moon goddess send you to me as a 'compensation' gift for not giving me a mate?"

I was already disappointed by the fact that I would have to keep on living without a mate that the appearance of Kezav didn’t excite me.

"The night isn’t over yet" Kezav encourages me. 

"Even though. It still sucks." 

And to think that I’d been looking forward tonight all day.

The grandfather clock chimed as it was 12 noon. The full moon rose high above the sky, grasping my attention. 

Just below the rising moon, I spot the triplet alpha brothers whom were popularly known as the Night howlers as per the stories Avery had told me about them. 

They morphed into their wolf forms, howling at the moon three times in sync. As I watched them shift back into their human form, I couldn’t help but fall in love with them. 

Since I was always working in the pack house when the alpha brothers weren’t around or in the kitchen, I never got a chance to see them up close as now. 

Although all three brothers looked alike, they had a striking, enrapturing different eye color that was used to tell them apart--again, as per Avery said--

Alpha Lucian eyes were grey, Raul’s brown and Nikolai’s crimson but still, they were all breathtakingly handsome. 

"I wonder what brought them to the festival" I say, voicing out my thoughts. 

As if they’d heard me; in sync, they’d turned towards my direction and our eyes met. I froze unable to move or breathe. 

Shit! Had they heard me? What do I do? Were they upset or irritated that a lowly omega as myself was curious about them?

Dear Goddess, I really shouldn’t have come here tonight. 

The longer I maintained eye contact, the more I shivered in my stead because it felt as if they were staring right into my soul from my eyes. 

Kezav, my wolf started jumping excitedly, twirling around in circles making me break off our eye contact. "Kezav, what’s wrong?"

"MATE!" she screamed. 

I blinked twice, confused. "What did you just say?"

"MATE! OUR MATE!"

I stilled, finally grasping her words as I could feel it too. My mate is amongst one of the three alpha brothers. The question now is; which one? "Which one of them is my mate?"

"Which one?" Kezav repeats. "All three of them!"

It felt surreal; like I’d gotten more than I had wished for as I had not just one; but three mates and they just happened to be Lady Meade’s brothers who were also Brody’s cousins.