THE WOLF'S CEREMONY.

It is such a chilly day for me, which is why I’m stuck up in my room in the softest bed in the world.

Reading a manga with my best friend playing Barbie.

Jessie.

Jessie happily climbed on my back, spreading out her hands in the air, staggering, and shaking her balance as my bones hurt like baffling.

“Get off me!” I yelled at my best friend to stop climbing on top of my body; it was pretty annoying and painful.

“Look how high I can fly; it’s a beautiful thing.” She softly sang one of her favourite Barbie cartoon songs.

I rolled my eyes. “Will you stop singing? It’s annoying and gets off my back this instant, Jessie. I don’t want to repeat myself, Jessie.”

“Come on, I just wanted to know how high I can fly.” Jessie left my back and jumped on top of my bed happily as I bounced.

“By jumping on top of my body,’ I scoffed. “You could try doing it in the sky by standing on the roof of this mansion and see how high you can fly,’’ I said sarcastically.

She will probably fall down and crush her bones.

Jessie just ignored me, cackling, and glanced at the manga I was reading.

“Reading some BL comics again.” She smiled.

“Yeah,’ I emphasised, rolling my eyes.

“Isn’t it weird reading this genre of manga all the time? I prefer romances to BL ones. And besides, Oceana, you are underage. You aren’t supposed to be reading that stuff.”

“I read the ones filled with so much love and not bad stuff.’

She doesn’t have to know what I read. It would be embarrassing explaining it to her. “And I don’t care if romance is your preference or whatever you choose to read. This is mine and it’s not like you love to read, anyway.” I pointed it out.

“Yeah, reading makes me dizzy.” She rolled her eyes in a circle, laughing.

“I thought as much, so leave me be,” I mumbled.

“I hate reading; why do you love reading manga? Doesn’t it bore you? I prefer to watch Barbie. My favourite Barbies are “The Princess and the Pauper, Barbie: A Fairy Secret, Barbie in The Nutcracker, and “Barbie And The Twelve Princesses." She beamed and sang. "You are just like me. I'm just like you. There's somewhere else we'd rather be..."

I rolled my eyes. “Enough! I’ve heard enough of your Barbie titles and songs.”

“But they are the best; I would love to become a Barbie someday. Do you know what that means? I could live in a castle forever with my charming prince, or I could be Cinderella, don’t you think?’

That was such a ridiculous compliment, or should I say, a statement? We are in the real world, not a fantasy. Who wants to become a Barbie?

“Come on, Oceana, answer me.’

“What’s your problem? Leave me alone, Jessie.” I shifted my body away from her and laid down properly on my soft peach bed and my fluffy pillow, focusing on my manga.

‘No, I will not,’ she said, getting up from her spot in the bed. “I’m just asking a simple question that needs a simple answer,’ she yawned, covering her mouth and inched a little closer to me. “My mom is going to kill me if I don’t show up at the werewolf ceremony. Oceana, let’s go.” She stood up properly from the bed and nearly pulled me along with her.

Jessie Paxon is my childhood friend.

We’ve been friends since we were babies because both of our parents have also been best friends since before we were even born.

Jessie is an eight-year-old Beta, my best friend, and a sister from the Paxon Pack.

She had blonde hair tied into a ponytail, a round nose, blue eyes, very short, white, smooth skin, and almost little hands.

Her lips were as red as a lollipop.

That’s kind of weird, right? Using the term “lollipop” Well, that’s how I can best describe how red her lips were.

She is so beautiful as a baby that you can’t pass her by without taking a second look at her.

We wear almost the same clothes and dress in the same pattern; if she packs her hair, I do mine as well.

We do nearly everything to ourselves, so much that people mistook us for being twin sisters, and well, I don’t mind; she is the only one I got in the world, and I was just two years older than her.

She is like a sister to me—it didn’t matter to me; she wasn’t my sister by blood.

We are almost the same thing, yet the only difference between us is that my long hair is white, my bright blackish eyes are kind of red, like the colour of a wine.

I have a pointed nose; I love to wear pink gowns on special occasions. And jeans, and a hoodie to school.

I’m an Alpha, the princess of the Mackenzie Clan, and the daughter of the ruler of the realms.

I am in the top rank as an Alpha.

I sighed for the fifth time. ‘The ceremony is about wolves meeting their so-called mate and bonding with them, right?’

“Yeah, since my sister is eighteen, she is gonna meet her mate. They would kiss and bond.” Her flushed cheeks beamed with excitement; she is always dreaming about meeting her prince charming when she is just eight years old. Aren’t children supposed to be thinking of how to play and eat all day instead of dreaming of an unknown charming prince?

What a dummy.

“And your mother wants you to attend; you are not even a teenager yet.” I reasoned.

Why are parents so obsessed with getting their kids together with this sort of fated mate thing?

Is it a sort of curse or something?

“I know, but I just want to see how it goes and meet my prince charming,” she dreamily said.

“Ew. That will be so disgusting.” I frowned in disdain. “Meeting a lot of alphas feasting on their mate or a bunch of them on one person, all moaning and making stupid noises. They should ban us from that sort of ceremony; we are kids. You are still a child; why will you be dreaming about meeting your mate at this age? We are supposed to be kids, not adults.”

“It doesn’t matter if a child encounters her mate in this day and age; don’t be such a killjoy. I want a mate, and it doesn’t matter to me if you want one or not.” Jessie laughed out loud at my words.