Chapter 3 Finding A Temporary Mate

• Katie's POV
• "There she goes again, asking Mike to be his omega." I heard some she-wolf purposely raise her voice for me to hear them.
• "Well, does she have a choice? She will be kicked out of the pack in just a few months if Mike won't still budge." Another she-wolf giggled as the both of them snickered when I went past them.
• A decade swiftly flew by, and my sixteenth birthday is now coming up. That is why, even though I hate it, I become more desperate to stay. I still want to see Khalid and his mate, Jessica, be the leaders of this pack. I know they would be great, even greater than Alpha Fredrick and Luna Kathrina, my parents..
• "Duh. Of course he won't pick her! Lexie is a much better fit for an omega than her."
• And here, I thought they were done talking about me. Not having the energy to escalate things, I just rolled my eyes at them. They just glared back.
• Although this scenario isn't new. The she-wolves either avoid me or just talk behind my back. The latter is just so pathetic, though. I mean, they are more than welcome to say it in my face. They just don't have the guts. I understand that the she-wolves are afraid of being caught up in our family drama. They are also scared that if they befriended me, no one would ask for their hand as a fated mate or a chosen one.
• Fated mates are the ones that the Moon Goddess blessed you with. The bond is so strong and powerful. The connection is said to be so immense that only Alphas and Lunas are most commonly known to have fated mates. Sometimes they even don't have fated mates.. In rare occasions, normal wolves can also be blessed with one.
• If you cannot find your fated beloved or simply don't have one, then you can take in a chosen mate.
• Many things have changed throughout these years. The only constant is that my parents still harbor some kind of hate just because I didn't wolf out. They insisted that I should be, since the Moon Goddess' gift to our pack was that all children of the Alpha who turn five will wolf out. Unlike other packs, in which they wolfed out at age twelve. Although from time to time, I see Luna Kathrina's gaze soften. But my brain dismisses it as a look of pity. For I am still, after all, her only daughter.
• Aside from being unwanted by my parents and the whole pack, I was also an omega.
• Omegas are the lowest-ranking wolves, and we are usually bullied. Some of us didn't wolf out, and the others that did are simply low-borns.
• No one would really like to take an omega as a chosen mate. So it is usually an omega male wolf that takes an omega she wolf.
• That is why, if Mike really won't ask for my hand this time, then I'm done. This shitty expectation: who in Goddess' name made this cruel rule of ours?
• The saddest bit of it, if I have any right to be sad, is that all of this will happen on my birthday. As if it lost its meaning of being a joyful occasion since every birthday of mine, something cruel always happens to me..
• Like what happened on my twelfth birthday, I was kicked out of the house. It was one of our pack's laws that any wolf under twelve years old would live with their parents. Despite any circumstances, unless it is a criminal act like murder or betrayal. Khalid took advantage of this law so that I could live with him and have food to eat.
• By the time my twelfth birthday came, Alpha Fredrick banished me from the house. Since the law doesn't state that I could live with them any longer. He didn't even waste a single moment. Once it was midnight, he barged into my room and dragged me outside.
• The other wolves whispered and stared at me, but nobody dared to help me. My two friends' house was a bit far from us, so they didn't know until it was morning. Only Khalid stayed with me and shifted in his wolf form to warm me up in the woods.
• Now I am fifteen, sleeping in an old and abandoned wolfguard's cabin by the woods. I fixed some basic necessities, like the broken door, window, table, and chair. I just gathered some leaves from the forest, and in there I slept. Alpha Fredrick won't allow anyone to give me anything. Aside from Khalid's secretly sneaking out some old pillows and a blanket. I was only twelve at the time and needed to learn how to be independent..
• Back to reality, there's this general cruel rule that any she-wolf that is unmated, unwanted, or does not have a fiancé will be kicked out. Sounds awful, right? The criteria for another she-wolf is at the age of twenty-nine, but the daughter of an Alpha is at sixteen!
• They have had this genius mentality in the past that an Alpha's daughter is always to be dreamed of. That is why sixteen for them is considered a long time.
• Well, maybe in the past, Alpha's daughters were like candies in a store, and dozens of kids wanted them so badly.
• But yeah, not me.
• A very fucked-up rule, I know. Because how in the world would a she-wolf survive in the wild?
• All by herself?
• ALONE???
• I cannot even begin to fathom.
• So flabbergasted by the fact that I can't even stay for another thirteen more years here since I am the daughter of Alpha Fredrick. Just great.
• There have been a few cases in the past in which they threw out she-wolves that were unwanted. Others died, harsh but that is nature and reality. The rest of them tried to survive by any means necessary. They tried to raid other packs and even ours out of revenge, but they have not been successful. This pack is pretty strong; I used to be proud of it, but now, not much.
• And, alas, they turn to their last hope of finding something to eat: the prohibited forest..
• "You're here again?" Mike snorted, and I was knocked back into reality.
• Do I have a fucking choice? I want to scream those words at him, but of course, I can't. He's the only lifeline I have right now, and I cannot afford to make him hate me even more. As it could risk being kicked out earlier than planned.