Marry

“You can't be serious father.”

“Oh I can be. You have been searching all over for a mate that is either human, dead or hasn't been born yet. I have given you time. Let you go on your wild chase to find this mate of yours, but no more. You will marry William at the end of this month, whether you like it or not. It will help strengthen our pack.”

“Our pack doesn't need strengthening; his does. I will not be a tool for you to gain whatever it is you want to gain. I will not reject my mate. You knew I was worthy of ruling this pack and I have done a far better job than you have. They respect me, father. If I do this, I lose the respect of not just this pack, but I will lose the respect I have for myself.”

"They told me this would happen. A woman can never rule, they are too soft, too weak. They think with their hearts and not with their heads!"

He yelled, slamming his hand on the desk before him.

"You found your mate, you know what it is like to have one. What about all that talk about how special your mate is to you? Father, you're the one that always told me a mate is the only thing that can strengthen you?"

"Enough, you will do as I say."

I stormed out of his office, banging his door on my way out. I couldn't believe he wanted me to marry smelly William. How many times didn't we sit together and laugh about how William smelt like he worked at a winery or contemplating whether he bathed or not now he wanted me to marry him?

Over my dead body! My father was out of his f*****g mind if he thought I was going to marry that man, strong alpha my ass, he couldn't hold his liquor. What made father think he could hold anything for long? The thing is, William had never found his mate. They said she died on the night he shifted. He felt it happening, and he could do nothing to stop it because he didn't even know who she was or where she was from.

The elders said that at some point, William found his mate or crossed paths with her. Way before he got his wolf and the bond had formed, but not enough for him to know that she was his mate... Picture waiting all your life for that special someone, for that someone that will make you feel complete, for that someone you were promised and then losing them before you even had the chance to meet them.

I felt for him, but that didn't mean I should give up finding my mate just for him. They said he had never taken a chosen mate nor had he been with a woman before. He needed an heir to take over his pack, but I'd be damned if my father thought I was the right woman for that job.

"You look like you are ready to commit murder. Is there anything I can help you with?"

I turned to face my mother. Every time my father and I had an argument, I ran to her sometimes without even knowing it was her I was heading for. My mother, Lily, has always supported everything I did. After she had me, she could never conceive again. My mother and father tried for many years but nothing happened.

"Father wants me to marry William."

I whispered, sighing as I took a seat beside her on the bench in the garden.

"Smelly William? Goddess, what's gotten into your father?"

She asked, wrinkling her nose.

"I don't know, but I can't marry him, mother."

"I'll talk to your father for you."

"No don't, I'll fix this on my own. He said I am to marry William at the end of this month. If I found my mate, I wouldn't have to."

"Then go, find your mate. Your father and I will hold down the fort here."

See, that's the thing about my mother. She understood me sometimes better than I understood myself. If she wanted something she would ask, she would never pressure me into doing something I didn't want to do. My mother was human once. When my father found out she was his mate, he didn't care that she had no rank or wolf. He loved her from the first moment he saw her.

My father, Ethan, has royal blood, and that made him capable of turning a human into a werewolf. It is said that I am also able to. After my mother couldn't conceive again, my father brought in a witch to work her magic on my mother, but she was more interested in me. She told my father that I was the first female alpha to be born after 150 years...

That I was to be kept safe, and that when the time came I would be the one to take over as alpha... I would rule with an iron fist and when I met my mate, he would be the strongest alpha once I had turned him... at first my father didn't believe her. In this day and age, women weren't meant to rule, but when I shifted for the first time at eight years old, my father started to believe everything she said. My wolf is white with gray and light brown fur.

She is bossy and possessive. Even her aura brings my father down to his knees. She's ruthless and fears nothing, but most of all, she is the most lovable beast. She has these ember eyes, but they look more like flames, and she loves kids. She is everything a male alpha should be.

I smiled at my mother, took her in my arms and held her tight in my embrace. My mother always believed in a mate's bond. So did my father. I am not sure what has changed, but I wasn't sticking around to find out. He could marry and mate William if it was so important to him. But first I needed a drink. The day was long and what better place to relax and work out a plan to find my mate at Seth's pub?

Maybe, just maybe, tonight I'd find a way to forget my troubles, even if it was just for one wild, passionate night. William will never be the man I give my virginity to. NEVER.