Chapter 1

DONOVAN

The loud music and annoying chatterings under the neon colourful disco lights fills my ears and as I sipped from my glass of red cherry wine, I want nothing better than leaving already. I was never one to like parties, unless my friends dragged me along. More less, a party that only made me feel less of myself. Because unlike every other person, the party has never benefited me in any way. It never gave me a mate even after I became a teenager. In a few months, I will be twenty and taking over my father's place as the Alpha and Lycan King and yet, I did not have a mate yet.

There is nothing more frustrating than that.

"All hail the moon goddess!"

I turn my head to the direction of the familiar voice to see my friends and their girlfriends striding to my direction. I force a smile at them, knowing too well that they are about to make my life miserable.

"Hey." I click my glass with Randall's as he reaches me and the girls give me quick hugs before taking their seats beside me. Looking at how complete and happy they are reminds me that once again, I am what you would call...mateless.

If that is even a word.

"What's up, bro? You look...you." Randall says with a chuckle. "Where's your lady?"

I shrug and take another sip of my drink, watching Lewis play with his girlfriend's boobs. I throw my eyes away again. "I don't know. She's supposed to be here."

Knowing Lori, I am sure she would be busy still trying to cake her face up and find the 'perfect' dress for the party.

"Lori will always be Lori." Lewis chips in with an annoying chuckle. "I wonder how you are going to handle her when the both of you eventually get mated."

I play with the rims of my glass as he spoke. Everyone else believes Lori would someday, be my mate. I don't doubt that too. We have been together for two years now and it was only fair we end up as mates. But then again, I used to believe the feeling you get with you mate was...divine. Eccentric. A kind of feeling that would take you out of the world. Something you have never felt before your entire life.

But with Lori, it is different. I do like her. But not like the way everyone describes their feelings with their mates. Or perhaps, they are lying and there is nothing like that eccentric feeling.

Just...feelings. Nothing special.

My eyes lift and from a distance, I can see Lori cat walk to our direction, her usual arrogant smirk on her face. She waves at a few people and sneered at some.

Lori, the most popular girl in the entire Red wood park. Lori, my about-to-be-mate.

"Here comes the queen bee." Randall announces and Lori gives him a playful shove of his head when she finally reaches us. She is dressed in a tight-fitting, very short and flimsy gown and I tightened my jaw as I imagine the many things I can do to her in that dress.

"Hey." She slips a hand around me and plants a gentle kiss on my lips. "Missed me?"

I bite my lip as I stare at her exposed cleavage. Lori is the most sexiest girl I have ever seen, and there is no denying that.

"Maybe." I whispered back and she kisses me again on my lip before taking a seat beside me.

"How's it going, guys?" She asked, sipping from my drink and I eyed her lipstick stain on the rims.

"Great." Randall replies with a cunning smile. "We've been waiting for hours."

"Oh, boo." Lori answers with a fake sympathetic tone.

"Forgive me, already. You know how annoying I can be."

She looks back at Lewis and Randall's girlfriends; Valerie and Katy with a fake pout. "Blame your girlfriends for ditching their best friend for dicks."

The boys laugh at her words and even I couldn't help a chuckle.

"You know I would chose a dick a hundred times over everything else, Lori." Katy replied with a seductive bite of her lips and we laughed again.

My friends are the most savage crew and no matter how annoying they can be, they never fail to crack me up every single time.

"You know, the two of you better find a mate, yeah? It's getting tiring, watching you wait every single full moon night for that one person to change your lives forever." Lewis said, lighting a cigar and puffing out smokes.

Lori wraps her hand around me again and sends Lewis a smirk. "The moon goddess is taking her time to pair the most perfect couple together. You don't understand that Donovan and I are a dynamite, do you?"

I am beginning to get uncomfortable with their conversation and ransacked through my hair for a perfect excuse to escape them.

"What would you say about nerdy Alexis, then?" Valerie replies. "According to what I have heard, she is yet to be mated just like the both of you. Would you say she is also being specially prepared for her mate, just like you?"

Alexis. My mind is taken back to the sharp-mouthed nerd in school. It had never occurred to me that she would be mated like the rest of us. She is a complete tomboy and I didn't think she has interests in boys.

"Didn't Randall say she was gay?" I lift a brow at Valerie who rolls her eyes in turn.

"You wouldn't believe that rumours, would you? I heard Sally tried to kiss her once in the janitor's closet and she turned her down..."

"Maybe it was because she wasn't interested in her. Sally looks like dog poop." Lewis cut in with a laugh.

"Or maybe it was just baseless rumours and she is as straight as the rest of us." Valerie maintains.

"Here comes the devil." Katy announces and we all looked the direction of her eyes and instantly, I smell the most pleasant scent I had never perceived. My heart twril and dances and I find it difficult to say a word.

"Who dresses like that to a party?" Lori laughs as we stare at Alexis in a knee length gown and a dark leggings covering her legs. She has a kind of ribbon on her hair and a pink pair of heels over her feet.

My heart melts as I stare intently at her while her eyes roams the party as though she is lost or didn't want to be here.

"I sincerely feel for whoever would be mated to her. She is a disaster." I hear Randall's voice behind me and I felt the flutters in my stomach.

"She is my mate." I hear myself say.

Alexis is my mate.