Chapter 3

• “Can you at least help? If you ain’t going to, can you go back to your room and stop intruding?” Ocean glared at me. It seemed he was dropping the act of being nice each time we were alone.
• I grabbed a box and headed towards the car. The Alpha would be driving to the Pack house, and the preparation of the mating ritual would take place there.
• “You don’t have to do that, okay?” Alpha West said and took the box from my hand. He placed it in the trunk of the car.
• “You can just sit in the car, and we will take care of the rest.”
• 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, any 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 wouldn'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, and he had on 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 Pack. I wanted you to live every day without being reminded of the child that you were, is that too much?”
• I halted with my back against her. “And you throw it at me with no warning and expect me to just 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 turned, and I ambled out of her midst, wandered around the pack house because it was big, bigger than the one in Heather pack. We lived at the pack house, as it was cheaper, and Mom worked here as one of the servants. They got paid, but it wasn’t much, but 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 a redhead. She was different from the last one I saw, her short skirt was lifted, her ass cheek facing his groin.
• I turned, pretending 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 do 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 him 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 of it.
• But 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 glance, whispered among themselves, and walked out.
• There was a girl behind them, her brown hair tied in a ponytail, her gown short, and her legs almost totally exposed. She was taller than me, probably by some inches, but 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 that boy and also when they played Hockey.
• “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, since 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 out the AirPod and gave it back 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 wouldn't know, maybe he’s trying to protect you.” He sighed and stared at the airpod in his hand, as he twirled it 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, but they could have been 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? Who would be cursed to have a mate like that?” Belly from Heather’s Pack. We were in the same class before.
• “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. “Will 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 all waiting for that moment, the moment that we would get to realize who was 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, but 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, as my wolf was leading me somewhere else.
• “Eris!” Kasper came after me.
• I stopped, and my feet didn’t move anymore. He stood right in front of someone. That person was panting, as if he was running down here as well, the mating bond, pulling us into each other.
• “Eris.” Kasper stopped running as well, and I stared at the one before me. His gaze widened at the sight of me, bewildered, disbelieving, shocked, scared, devastated. I saw all that in his eyes, and after a moment it was gone like it was never there.
• ‘Mate.’ I heard my wolf, loud and clear.
• ‘Mate.’ I heard him too.
• No, it couldn't be.
• Without hesitation, 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 would never submit to be Ocean’s mate.