Chapter 03

“Can you at least help? If you ain’t going to, go back to your room and stop intruding?” Ocean glared at me, he was dropping the act of being nice each time we were alone.

I grabbed a box and headed towards the car, the Alpha will be driving to the Pack house, and the preparation of the mating ritual will take place there.

“You don’t have to do that okay?” Alpha West said and took the box from my hand, he placed them on the car booth.

“You can sit in the pack, we will take the rest of it.”

I nodded and went to sit in the car, plugged my AirPods on, and started a random song.

Someone took it off my ear. “You’re something else, Iris.”

“Do you have a problem with me?”

I took back my AirPods from his hand.

“Your father wanted me to sit out.”

“And you did?”

“Obeying the words of the Alpha, got a problem with that?”

I put back the AirPod and glanced at the window. Alpha West got into the car with Mom, and they were smiling at each other.

I shook my head and turned away from them.

“Should I put some music on? What do you like, Eris?” He asked.

“Silence.” I retorted.

Ocean huffed beside me.

Life at school, and life at home, were all the same, I was eighteen, and I had never had any fun, or friends, the little act of violence scared me, and I ended up having panic attacks most times. Mom wanted me to have a life but how could I?

A place where I won’t be reminded of the past, a place where I could be free, and this was the place she thought of, Winterfall Pack and Ocean West, were everything that I was running away from.

He was scrolling on his phone, his headset was on his neck, a blue hoodie, and a pair of white pants. He had a piercing on his eyebrow, and a small tattoo at the back of his ear.

“Don’t be too obvious.” He muttered, and I looked away.

“You’re checking me out. Iris.” He smirked.

“Eris.”

“Not much of a difference.”

He took his gaze back to his phone. “Tell the fool to stay away from you.”

I snapped my head at him. “Who?”

“The one who brought you home yesterday?”

“Kasper.”

“I don’t care about his name, Iris. Don’t go around with anyone.”

“And who are you to tell me that? You must be stupid.”

“Eris, words!” Mom scolded. “Ocean is only looking out for you.”

“If there’s anyone that I should stay away from, it’s HIM!” I drawled at the last words, pointing a finger at him.

“I know this is hard for you, don’t make it hard for everyone.”

“So I’m the problem.” I nodded resignedly, the car stopped and immediately got out of it.

Mom came after me, but I wasn’t ready to listen to her talk.

“Eris!”

“I need some space, a place where I don’t have to breathe the same air as you and your family.”

“So you want to go back to Heather Pack? You’ve no idea how hard I worked, day and night so we could leave! I worked so hard for us, Eris. I didn’t want them to keep reminding you of what happened, I didn’t want that memory to keep haunting you and then West came, I never knew I was going to fall in love with him, never knew he was an Alpha and then when he proposed, I accepted. Eris, it was an escape from Heather’s Pack, I wanted you to leave every day without being reminded of the child that you are, is that too much?”

I halted with my back against her. “And you throw it at me and expect me to accept all of it.”

I spun around slowly. “The anxious look in your eyes, Alpha West can’t see it but I can, there’s something more, Mom. Something that you’re hiding.” I saw Alpha West heading down to us. “Look, your husband is behind you.”

Mom twirled, and I ambled out of her midst, wandered around the pack house because it was big, bigger than the one in Heather’s pack. We lived at the pack house, it was cheaper, and Mom worked here as one of the servants, they got paid, but it wasn’t much, and mom didn’t have to pay for rent because she was a worker there.

Alpha West must’ve paid a visit to the Packhouse, that’s the only way they could’ve met.

“Fuck…ah…”

”…slower…”

There were grunts and gagged breaths, my legs came to a halt, Ocean was behind the red-haired hair, she was different from the last one I saw, her short skirt was lifted, her ass cheek facing his groin.

I turned, pretended as if I hadn’t seen a thing, and walked out of there. I went back to the front of the Packhouse and sat in the lounge with my AirPods on.

“What are you listening to…?”

I turned to the sound of the voice, someone had taken the seat beside me.

Kasper.

“Just a random song.”

“Here, listen to this…” He took out my AirPod and placed his. “Iris, the goo goo dolls.” He smiled and played the song.

“…and I don’t want the world to see me 'cause I don’t think they’d understand…” He sang.

I smiled a little and he caught it. “You’re smiling, Eris.”

I hummed, and the smile left my face again.

“You sound good.”

“You think so? I’m not confident in my voice.” There was a shy smile on his face.

“You should go for it, and be what you want. You can sing.”

“And I write songs too. I can send you my playlist sometimes, I notice you put your AirPods on your ear a lot.”

“Most times I don’t listen to anything.”

“I know, you just want to stop them from talking.” He smiled, and I kept listening to the song.

“When I saw the name, it reminded me of you, Eris.” He chuckled nervously.

“I’m glad I found you here, the mating ritual is starting in an hour.”

“You are here early.”

“I guess I was just being nervous, I’m nineteen, I was here at the mating ritual last here but I didn’t find my mate, I thought this year might be different because you’re here.”

I stared at me and didn’t say a word.

I wasn’t here for the mating ritual, I didn’t care about finding a mate, I was forced to be here since I was part of the Alpha family and Mom wouldn’t let me sit out on it.

If I wanted a mate, it would be someone like Kasper.

Soft-spoken, calm, innocent and genuine.

He would fit into the Prince Charming category.

Ocean walked past with some of his friends, about three boys, they glanced at me, a quick one, whispered among themselves, and walked out.

There was a girl behind them, sucking, her brown hair was tied in a ponytail, her gown was short, and her legs were almost exposed. She was taller than me, probably with some inches, she was still around five feet.

“That’s Flora Hamster. Ocean’s obsessed ex-girlfriend. They stopped dating last year, and she doesn’t want to get over it. She still follows him around, and they were here last year and they are here again.”

“And those boys, Ronny, Flynn, and Noah. You don’t want to know about them, they are like some sort of gang and Ocean West is the leader.” He explained.

I had seen them before, when Ocean was beating up someone and when they played a Hockey game.

“If you want to stay in school, avoid them and don’t get involved with them, if they give you a red card, sorry, Eris. You will be out of school but that doesn’t apply to you, you’re the sister.” His voice was down when he mentioned that, and I stared ahead of them.

“How bad is he?”

“Who?”

“Ocean?”

“Yes.”

“Very.”

I took the AirPod and gave it to him. “Then you shouldn’t be around me, I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

“I’m fine, Eris.” He said with a smile on his face.

“You don’t have to worry about me, and I’m not doing anything wrong, am I? Though, I heard he warned everyone to stay away from you, mostly the boys.”

“Why?”

“I won’t know or maybe he’s trying to protect you.” He sighed and stared at the airpod in his hand, he twirled them between his fingers.

“I hope we end up being mates tonight.” He blurted out after a moment.

“And?”

“I’m going to make a song for us.”

I chuckled softly, shaking my head.

“I hope so too, you ain’t that bad, Kas.”

“The mating ritual has begun.”

We started to move out to the open field, the moon was up, a round moon, everyone was seated around, tittering. It was filed up and some from other packs were here.

I didn’t want to see anyone from Heather Pack, they might be here since Winterfall Pack was hosting the annual mating ritual.

“Isn’t that Eris?” I heard someone say, “…she came here, I wonder what for? Would he curse to have a mate like that?” Belly from Heather’s Pack. We were in the same classroom.

“What’s wrong with her?” Kasper stepped forward.

“Oh, he doesn’t know.” Belly giggled with the other girls.

“You are the one who doesn’t know her, why don’t you shut up and do what you came here for?” Kasper argued, and Belly was lost for words for a moment.

She huffed. “Just watch and see if it will last, she will end up turning you into something else. I know her, we basically grew up together. Eris…” She clicked her tongue. “Would always be Eris.”

“Just ignore her.” Kasper said and held my hand, he pulled me away from there, making sure we had a spot to sit, that wasn’t close to either Ocean or Belly.

Alpha West came out to speak, and Ocean did too, trying to fit into the description of his father and everyone clapped.

The next was an Elder, and we were waiting for that moment, the moment that we would get to realize who were meant for each other.

The mating ritual began, the sound of drums, low chanting voices, the blue moon, as if the spirit of the moon goddess was pouring down.

Yet I felt nothing, there was no connection between Kasper and I.

We glanced at each other, there was no bond, it was just empty but something was pulling me away from him.

I stood up from Kasper, without another word, and ran out of the field, my wolf was leading me somewhere else.

“Eris!” Kasper came after me.

I stopped, my feet didn’t move anymore, he stood right in front of someone, he was panting, as if he was running down here as well, the mating bond, pulling us into each other.

“Eris.” Kasper stopped running, and I stared at the one before me, his gaze widened at me, bewildered, unbelief, shocked, scared, devastated. I saw them all in his eyes, and for a minute it was gone like it was never there.

‘Mate.’ I heard my wolf, loud and clear.

‘Mate.’ I heard him too, concisely.

No, it can’t be.

I turned to Kasper, reached out to him, and kissed him right in front of the person who was my mate.

That was my rejection of him.

I will never be submitted to be Ocean’s mate.