~
It was my eighteenth birthday and being the future Alpha everyone in the pack was congratulating me. I had come of mating age. Not that it mattered much unless my mate was older than I was, or the same age. To explain why I wasn't excited about being mating age, I'll have to go into a history lesson.
You see, hundreds of years ago the Elders had made a blood oath, with the Moon Goddess herself, that both mates had to be eighteen or older to act on the bond, and you couldn't feel it until you reached that age. In the beginning of time, werewolves felt the bond as soon as they met their mate and usually marked them with a bite to show this, the bite resulting in a tattoo like appearance with the initials of the biter. This turned into a problem for many whom met their mates at a young age, as we can be so hormonal and driven by lust when we reached our teen years; many of our kind strayed and had casual sex with other wolves and even humans. For those who had already been marked by their mate, the pain the heart and inner wolf went through when they were cheated on by their mates, caused many of our kind to kill themselves. The emotional turmoil often was too much for them to handle at such a young and confusing time in their lives.
When our population started to drop by the thousands because of all the suicides, the Elders journeyed to the Moon Goddess' sacred temple and summoned her to human form, begging and pleading her to make a blood oath to limit the age of mating. Agreeing with the terms of the blood oath, the Moon Goddess and Elders conducted the ceremony, hoping that it would prevent the deaths of so many wolves and save our race.
Being eighteen meant that I would know who my mate was the second she touched me. If she was younger than I was, though, I wouldn't be able to act on it until she also came of age. So while, the guys were clapping me on the back with well wishes and the girls were hugging me and kissing my cheeks I felt it, the magical spark that made my heart race, the spark that only my mate could give me. I glanced to my left to see a black haired, green eyed angel moving her lips away from my cheek and whispering a happy birthday to me.
She was walking away from me before I even had a chance to figure out who she was so I grabbed the arm of my best friend, Baydon, and ordered him to follow her and find out her name and age. He gave me a knowing look before following her through the crowd without questioning my request.
The next ten minutes passed in a haze of the remaining people around me wishing me a happy birthday and giving their well wishes. Upon Baydon’s return he took a firm hold of the sleeve of my t-shirt and dragged me away from the last couple of people hanging around.
"I have good news and bad news," he told me bluntly. "But first I want to confirm. It's her, isn't it? She's the one." I nodded my head rapidly in excitement, almost bouncing around in my haste to find out all about her, my side of the bond wreaking havoc on me already.
Baydon sighed, "Her name is Roxanne, and her friends call her Roxy or Rox. Roxanne Lei Sparks. She is a femme wolf, obviously, from our pack.” He stopped there, looking at me worriedly. I huffed for him to continue, but he remained silent. His silence was starting to piss me off, so I let out an almost feral growl for him to reveal the information he was keeping from me about my mate. When he still kept his silence I asked him out right.
"Age?"
Baydon gulped and ran his hands through his short blonde hair before whispering something I couldn't understand. Another growl escaped from my mouth, my almost non-existent patience wearing even thinner with Baydon and his stalling tactics. My eagerness to know all about her was now overflowing and he was becoming a block in my path of knowledge.
He groaned realising that he needed to tell me before I completely lost my cool. "She is sixteen, Blaze, turning seventeen in two months."
A groan of my own broke out from my lips as I grabbed fistfuls of my spiky brown hair in frustration. An explosion of anger quickly followed my actions
"You are fucking kidding me right? Sixteen. Shit. Fuck. Fuck. Shit. What the fucking hell. I have to wait fourteen months before I can tell her. Fuck I'll be past my nineteenth birthday by then.” The frustration at having found my mate and being unable to have her was bursting out of me in a flow of cussing and aggression.
"I want her now, right now, in my arms where she belongs. Please tell me your playing some kind of sick prank and I don't really have to wait that long.” By the end I was whispering, almost pleading with Baydon for him to say it was all a cruel prank and that she was of age and I could have her now.
Unfortunately for me, Baydon just shook his head sadly before saying, "And you know you can't touch her again, or tell her before she is eighteen, or you may anger the Goddess and the Elders."
"Don't remind me," I whined, flopping down on the ground with my head in my hands.
"She is perfect, and I'll just have to be patient, and wait for her to be ready, but until then I want her protected, do you hear me Baydon? Organise it now, make sure she remains safe, I can't do it, and so it's up to you until I can." Possessiveness and protectiveness was adding itself into the mix of anger and frustration, making me bark out commands at my best friend. I did feel bad for him, being on the receiving end of my bad mood but he seemed to understand. He just nodded and walked away, I presumed to follow the orders I had just given him.