Unlikely Match

"Yes, baby sister, just like me," Damaris had replied to Ivone's question with a chuckle, but Ivone only frowned up at her.

"I'm not your baby sister," Ivone said, feeling less, "I'm your twin."

"Youger twin sister equals baby sister," Damaris laughed, "Now let's look for your mate, all the while still trying to stay out of step mother's way..."

"Why does the ceremony focus on the girls?" Ivone asked out of curiosity, "When the males get mated too."

"That is because the males can only sense their mate when they come of age, hence them finding their mate is completely dependent on the girls..."

"Mate," Ivone said in a whisper and her sister turned to her.

"Did I just hear you say mate?"

Ivone, as if shaken from a daze, slowly turned to her sister with an unsure nod. She blinked and shook her head to clear her thoughts but it came again, like a soft whisper dropping into her mind.

"...mate..."

"Ivone, are you sure?" she hesitated and came even closer to her sister, grabbed her by the shoulders and leaned into her ear, "...you cannot just say the word without actually feeling it..."

"No..." Ivone said and broke free from her sister, weaving through the crowd towards the main area.

"Ivy! Wait!" Damaris called her back, but she was gone.

Ivone ran through the crowd, urged on by the resounding call she was hearing in her heart, "...mate... mate... mate..." and she, unknowingly, whispered it out as she ducked and weaved through the people, listening and feeling for the heart beat of her mate.

"Mate," she said as she slammed into a hard chest, stopping with a grunt and a slight whine of pain. She held onto her head and looked up, right into the frowning eyes of Alpha Prince Reyes Thorold himself.

He frowned down at her, by now, a few people had stopped to have their attention on the two.

"Mate?" he asked, looking down at her in disgust.

Ivone stared right at him, the beating heart of her mate was now close, so close she felt she could hear it beating right inside her head. Her own heart beat rapidly and for some strange reason, she seemed to be out of breath, like she had just ran a marathon.

She was so consumed by the pull and the urge to find her mate that she had not noticed Zina whose arm was locked in with Prince Reyes' and her step mother standing right behind her daughter. The look her step mother gave her could bore a hole right through her and she should know that going back home, she would face a very severe punishment because she had not listened to her step mother and remained home.

But no, none of that crossed her very occupied mind.

"Mate..." the voice came again in her head, "Mate..." she whispered again.

Reyes gritted his teeth now, it was obvious that he felt rather insulted that this... girl was refering to him as her mate! How prepostrous! He looked the girl over, her dress spoke of what class she came from and her skin, although not quite bad, was still not as smooth as should be. He could not even find her courage impressive but rather insulting. He felt Zina squeeze his arm a little and even without looking at her, he could tell that she was upset. His wolf could sense it.

"I could never be your mate," he said to her, loud enough for the others standing around them and watching to hear, "You're not and could never be my..."

"Mate," she said again quite daringly, only that this time, she was not the only one to say it.

Reyes paused and narrowed his eyes. He had heard the other person say the word and it had come from behind him, but then... that voice...

He turned around just as his twin sister was coming around from behind him. She had on the same look as the rather daring young lady before him and she seemed to be gasping for air as if she had run a marathon.

He watched at first in confusion as the two women slowly approached each other, and then it dawned on him and his eyes widened.

"Mate?" he whispered, realizing that the person this girl had been refering to as "mate" had not been him, but his twin sister.

He looked around at the crowd, by now a lot of them had begun whispering into each other's ears and looking at both him, his sister and this strange girl funny. A girl could never be mated to another girl, never in the history of Nightshade pack had this happened, never in the history of any pack had he heard that it happened.

Just before the two women could touch, or hug, or do whatever it was that the mate bond was making them to do, he grabbed on to his sister's wrist and yanked her away from the girl. The women, as if suddenly pulled away from a trance, gasped, their breath returning to them and their eyes falling to him.

Reyes cast one last long look of disgust at the girl as realization dawned on her and fear came to her eyes. She was quick to bow to him in respect but he was much too disgusted and angry to want to respond to her. He gritted his teeth, cast one last glance at the crowd, disengaged his arm from Zina before he turned away, pulling his sister along with him.

Zina looked on sadly as Reyes left her in the middle of the crowd, pulling his sister away from the eyes of the crowd. She returned her attention to Ivone who stood shaken before them and she took in a deep breath as her mother who had now come to stand very close to her squeezed her arm.

Zina knew that now more than ever, she needed to maintain a certain image before the eyes of everyone. SHe was now not the ordinary Zina Vagne they all knew but Alpha Prince Reyes' mate and the soon to be Luna.

As Damaris made her way through the crowd to come stand with her sister, Zina was already cooking up punishments that they two would face the moment they would get home. So she smiled at them and turned away, walking with her mother, she would not want any one to associate her with them. Now her status was elevated and theirs just got way lower. They would have to leave the house but before then, they would be dealt with, most especially Ivone.