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  Dylan was taking a shower when his thoughts suddenly traveled back to his eighteenth birthday. That day was the most anticipated day of his entire life because he would finally get to know who his mate was.

                                                 FLASHBACK

From childhood, everyone had thought that Dylan’s best friend, Charlotte, Benjamin’s daughter would be his mate since they did practically everything together, but the moon goddess had some other plans.

Charlotte, whose birthday was a month earlier, found her mate two days after her birthday party when the entire pack had concluded that it was going to be him. To everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t Dylan but their pack’s youngest doctor that was mated to Charlotte. Benjamin wasn’t too happy about it but there was nothing anyone could do about it.

On Dylan’s eighteenth birthday, his mom organized a grand party and invited every eligible female werewolf in the pack, just so he would find his mate that day. Hours passed and nothing happened. He danced and tried to socialize with the female werewolves but in the end, he didn’t even catch a whiff of his mate’s scent from any of them.

It was almost midnight that day, the party had ended and everyone had left when Dylan caught a faint scent. It was a vanilla scent, his favorite flavor. He could feel his wolf already getting excited by the scent. He quickly followed the scent which was leading him to the front door. He couldn’t wait to see who she was, or what she looked like.

Was she one of the female werewolves from the party whom he probably didn’t say hello to, or was she a passer by?

Whichever way, he really didn’t care. He just wanted to be with his mate.

Dylan couldn’t hide his eagerness as he threw the front door open, but to his uttermost shock and disappointment no one was there. He only caught a glimpse of a black car driving away in the distance.

Could that have been her? He wondered, frantically looking around his surroundings in hopes of miraculously seeing her, probably beside the house. He gripped his hair and let out a groan of frustration when he didn’t spot her anywhere. His wolf was in a worse state, as it kept urging him to go after the black car.

Dylan then changed into his wolf form and let his paws and his mate’s faint scent lead him. He ran and ran for endless hours and still couldn’t find her or the black car. He gave up searching for his mate at dawn and returned home.

                                         END OF FLASHBACK

Dylan never revealed what happened that night to anyone because knowing the kind of family he was born into, they would tell him he was only imagining things. Not finding his mate on that day was already a taint on his family’s reputation, he couldn’t add crazy to it.

After almost an hour, Dylan finally came out of the bathroom. He was shocked to find his mom sitting on his bed, probably waiting for him to finish showering.

“Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with your mate? He needs you more than I do.” Dylan drily said while going through his closet for something to wear.

“Why did you speak to your father in that way?” Jane questioned back, glaring at her son.

“Mom, seriously! You’re trying to pin the blame on me!... I can’t believe this. I can’t fucking believe this!”

“Watch your language when talking to me. I’m your mother.” 

“And I’m your son, mom!” Dylan yelled and the room fell silent.

“I know he is your mate and all, but I can’t believe you’ll actually take his side on this.” Dylan continued after controlling his anger.

“He’s your father and your Alpha.” His mom stated.

“Tell me about it.” He chuckled with heavy sarcasm.

“If you by any chance forgot what happened earlier, I’ll gladly remind you… I only made a harmless suggestion, mom, that was all I did.”

“A suggestion you should have kept to yourself.”

“What?”

“How can a child of Dwight make such a cowardly suggestion?”

Dylan stared at his mom in disbelief. Did she just call his suggestion stupid? He thought his mom knew the kind of person he was? He thought she understood him better? He guess he was wrong all along.

“So.. because I suggested that we have a friendly relation with the Pride pack, that makes me a coward?” He asked just to make sure he got her point.

“Greenwood pack and the Dwight family never surrenders to anybody or anything whatsoever without a fight.” Jane replied through gritted teeth to stress her message.

“Wow!” He exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief and regret.

He should’ve moved out of the house when he had his first fight with his dad. That way, he would’ve saved himself from the mental and emotional torture he has been going through for the past three years.

“You’re not even remorseful for what you did.”

“Remorseful? For what exactly? Oh, I get it… You want me to crawl at his feet and apologize for nothing exactly… Well guess what, mom? This time I won’t play to your tune.”

“In that case, I’ll suggest you stop interfering in matters that concerns the pack.”

Jane’s statement came as a shock to Dylan, who wasn’t expecting such words from his mom.

“Okay.” Dylan nodded with a heavy heart, looking anywhere but his mom.

Jane on the other hand didn’t mean the words she said. She only wants him to stop being at loggerheads with his dad over almost every issue. She opened her mouth to try to convince him that it was for his own good, but no words came out. If only he would look her way and see how sorry she was for hurting his feelings. She tried to reach for his hand but stopped herself midway, and reluctantly turned around to leave.

Jane had already opened the door and was about to step out of the room when Dylan’s voice brought her to a halt.

“If that’s what you guys truly want, do me a favor and tell Daniel to make someone else his beta.”

He thinks it’s time he faced the truth.