Chapter 2: Sweet Eighteen

She almost forgot that it’s her birthday if it wasn’t for the Beta smiling in front of her.

            “Thanks. I guess…”

            Ansel arched his brow. “‘I guess’? What kind of thanks is that?”

            Sasha shrugged, not knowing what to feel and what to say. “A gratitude from a lowly slave.”

            “Here we go again.” Ansel just eyed her for a heartbeat, sighing. “Will you at least put on a happy face on your eighteenth birthday and stop whining about being a Slave?! I promise, if I become an Alpha, I will make you the Queen of this pack.”

            Sasha chuckled. “You have a way with words,” she bit her fingers in order to stop her tears from falling. “But we both know it’s just a mere wish—a whisper and hope under the sea of stars that will never come true.”

            “Nothing is impossible,” Ansel countered.

            “But everything is not possible as well.” Sasha didn’t so much as glance at Ansel when she laid her head atop the two clothes that serve as her pillows.

            “Goodnight, Ansel,” a horse whined nearby.

            “You haven’t yet blown your cake.”

            Sasha turned to him, eyes scanning whether he’s telling the truth or just making her sleeping time a bit more delayed.

            “What cake?” she looked around again, lifting her body for a little from the bed of hay.

            “Here it is!” Ansel pulled a palm-sized chocolate cake that she thought was just a pile of horse shit. Ansel, whose veins were gifted with scorching embers and fierce fire, lit the candle atop the cake in a click of his finger.

            “Happy Birthday—” Ansel sucked a breath as Sasha kneeled and sat in front of him, smiling as bright as the stars adorning the heavens, “Sasha…”

            The candle’s flame danced in Sasha’s eyes, debating whether to blow and make a wish or blow Ansel and make herself pissed. She chuckled at those thoughts.

            What the hell are you thinking, Sasha! She scolded herself by shaking her head. Ansel watched her with narrowed eyes.

            “I can’t accept this, Ansel,” Sasha finally spoke.

            “Is it because I’m a Beta?”

            Sasha shook her head. “I don’t even deserve to be greeted by a high-ranking wolf like you.”

            “Just this once,” his voice is soft and beckoning. “Just this once, let’s forget about the world. Let’s forget that I am a Beta and you are a Slave. Let’s forget that…” Ansel took a deep breath, “...that we are just friends.”

            She gaped, her heart pounded in her ears. Her breath almost felt nothing against her throat. Did Ansel just confess to me?

            “Just kidding!” Ansel burst into a laugh that Sasha swore was not. Yes, Ansel is a man of beauty; his broad shoulders, muscular body, eyes like the ripe dates of the desert, his pinkish lips. Everything about him is real and a dream for a Slave like her.

            For a Slave like me…she whispered against her thoughts.

            “Ansel…” his smile vanished as she inched closer. “What if…what if I was an actual Alpha’s daughter? Or perhaps the lost daughter of Alpha Jonas as many have said. We only know her son has died on the day your father took over the Fire Moon Pack but what about—” 

            “Stop,” Ansel pleaded, his voice rasped and dull. “I told you to quit talking about my father.”

            “I’m just stating a fact and our pack’s history.” Sasha gazed into Ansel’s soul through his warm but smoking hazel eyes.

            “It’s painful you know…”

            “What’s painful?” She closed the distance between them, digging into the chocolate cake with her bare fingers that she didn’t even know if it’s clean.

            “That my father thrived so hard to bring peace to our pack, even sacrificing his loyalty to Alpha Jonas by killing him, only to end up being murdered by the relative he took down in order to achieve the concord.”

            Sasha sighed, she couldn’t agree more. During the days that Alpha Ariel reigned as the leader of the pack, peace hums to a song everyday. Wolves always never quarrel or end up in a bloody fight. She had seen it as she grew up day by day, often wishing if only she could turn back time, she would kill Alpha Cal herself with her own makeshift wooden dagger.

            But everything has already happened.

            “We both lost our fathers in different ways.” Sasha murmured between her eating of the cake Ansel gave to her. “I guess we should be careful with our life now.”

            “I baked that.” His eyes darted to the handful of chocolate cake resting in her palm.

            “I don’t know a Beta like you could bake.”

            “I don’t even know a Slave could devour a chocolate cake in a matter of seconds,” the brown-eyed Beta countered, eyes smiling.

            And then they both cackled, their laugh echoing in the barn.

            Ansel lifted his thumb to Sasha’s lower lip, brushing away the icing that stuck its way to her face. “Slow down or you’re gonna look like a little starving lamb.”

            She smiled at his words. Sasha. Freaking. Smiled.

            She did not grin or smirk, but smiled. And he addressed her by her name, not  Slave.         It sent a little joyous voice in her head. Finally someone recognized her for who she is, not what she is now. “You just called me Sasha…”

            Ansel whipped his head to her, brown eyes shining. “Yeah, I did. I’ve been calling by your name for a long time too”

            “You forgot that I’m Slave. And Slaves’ names are taken from them ever since Cal became an Alpha, hence we are just called Slave. ”

            But Ansel instead pinched her cheeks playfully. “You may be a Slave but you’re a Queen to me.”

            There was never a time that Sasha’s cheeks heated as far as now. “Qu—Queen?”

            “Yes. And if I ever have a chance to take you as one, I will definitely crown you on my own.” He brought his hand to the air, “ Sasha, wife and Luna of Alpha Ansel. That’s the most beautiful thing I've heard.

            Their eyes met, and both did not look away. Staring and gazing at each other’s soul never felt so good for Sasha. Ansel’s so calming and positive. 

‘Maybe it’s really his attitude and not just because he’s a Beta…’ she pondered.

            “Tell me, Sasha…” he wiped her chocolate-covered hands with his black skirt that he took off (the one he only wears during special occasions). “If you ever have your wolf and found out that I wasn’t your mate and you have another mate, will you reject your original mate just to be with me?”

            Sasha’s mouth fell open. “How—I mean, maybe…”

            “Maybe what?” his brows furrowed.

            “Maybe yes, maybe no.”

            Ansel cackled, his laugh reverberating inside the barn house where the horses are sleeping peacefully. “You are literally still indecisive until now,” he barked, softly hitting her shoulder while laughing in a feminine style.

            Sasha fell in her bed of hay on the opposite side. But in a second, Ansel was now atop her, his breath warm and heart throbbing against her palm.

            They just fell silent, unable to know who should break the silence. Sasha watched Ansel’s chest rise and fall as he inched closer to her face. “If you ever have your wolf and found out that I wasn’t your mate and I have another mate, I will gladly and proudly reject my original mate just to be with you.”

            Sasha gasped—incredulous, leaving Ansel to brush his lips in her open mouth.