Chapter 2

"She doesn't have a taste for fashion." Ava remarked as she typed away on her cell. 

I pushed the cereal away clearly, not in the mood to finish it. My blood bubbled with annoyance. I was barely holding on by a thread. I have grown tired of her remarks. She was the only one that had a problem with my attire. Mom never saw the need to complain and neither did dad. Not that they cared much about me. Things have started to take a drastic turn for us though since Mom started talking to me more. I wouldn't want to ruin that by attacking Ava. I couldn't imagine what they would have done or said to me if I thought too hard about doing it. 

"Pull her some slacks Ava. She has been busy with work. I am sure that pretty much explains everything." Mom cupped my shoulders from behind and I tensed a bit under her touch. 

I let her words stir in my head and my heart skipped a beat. Could it mean that I was getting somewhere with my mom? I peered over at Ava across the island and I could see that she was beyond confused. I could understand why she was though. Mom never picked up for me. She was always on Ava's side. I didn't know what drove her to defend me but whatever it was I hoped it remained the same. 

"She is twenty two years old!" Ava pointed out. "Don't you think it's strange that she hasn't been dating anyone. Women have urges you know." 

Dad fiddled with his newspaper and took a sip of his coffee before folding the newspaper. He got up and kissed both mom and Ava's forehead. He looked over at me and his eyes were empty. No love, or empathy for me. He walked out without a word to me. My heart dropped in my stomach. I honestly didn't know what I had done to let him hate me that much. That's how our relationship has been ever since I was born. I knew the man had no love for me. It didn't matter how much I had tried to get his attention, it would end up backfiring on me. 

I was tugged from my thoughts when mom spoke up once again. "You have a point darling." She sat adjacent to me, where she was previously seated. She placed her mug on the counter top and looked over at me. "You should be thinking of marriage and kids. I met your father when I was seventeen and we got married straight away and started a family" She said. 

I almost choked on my spit. I wondered if she was actually hearing herself. Who in their right mind would give their seventeen years old up for marriage. Despite that they were mates which made it much easier for them to cope with each other. I have never heard of the moon goddess giving a human to a wolf. 

"I am so jealous of you guys. I wish I had met Carter earlier. He is such a gentleman." 

"How did you guys meet?" I uttered lowly hoping she didn't hear me asking but she did. 

"We met at club Fantasia." She said with the brightest smile I have ever seen. I have never seen Ava this happy in my entire life. "We were able to find each other by our scents." She continued and propped both her elbows on the island. 

My heart leapt out of my chest into my mouth. Every bit of hope that I had left to think that this man would notice me one day had vanished in an instant. He had found his mate. Ava was his mate. It all made sense now why he decided to date her. 

I hated the fact that Ava got everything she wanted and I got nothing. I couldn't hate her though. Not everyone was made to have luck. Some of us had bad luck. She was not to be blamed for my misfortune.

A pang rose in my chest as I remembered those dangerous blue eyes when I was ten years old. He was the only kid that agreed to play with me even after everyone else refused to. He treated me as if I was the most delicate flower he had seen. Now he had claimed my younger sister. 

"That place holds so many memories of your dad and I." She smiled as her mind drifted off to somewhere. 

"Is that where you met dad?" Ava asked in the softest voice. 

"It certainly is the first place we saw each other." She chuckled. "If I hadn't snuck out through my bedroom window that night I would never have met him."

"Wow!" Ava's eyes rounded. "Who would have thought that you were a rebel back then." 

"At the time I was dating some other guy." She trailed off before she stopped herself. Her smile went downward and she took a sip of her coffee. 

I wanted to hear about the other guy she was talking about. By the way she was acting I knew he must have been someone she truly loved and the topic was taking a toll on her. I rested my hands over hers hesitantly and caressed it. 

I tried to be confident about it but on the inside I trembled like a leaf. "You don't have to talk about it." I smiled weakly at her. 

I heard the blaring of a horn on the outside which startled me a bit and I knew it was my best friend Holly who had just arrived to pick me up for work. 

"I quickly removed my hands and picked up my dish and placed it in the sink. 

"I am heading off to work right now." I said awkwardly before walking away. I came to a halt when Ava called after me. 

"There is this amazing party later and I would like it if you accompanied me." She said with desperation in her eyes.

I fiddled with the end of my cardigan and smiled awkwardly at her. " Parties are not my scene." 

"Think about it on your way to work." Mom released a sigh. "This could be beneficial to you"

I slipped out of the house shortly after with my back pack in hand. I had no intention of wasting my time at a party when I could read a sappy romance novel or watch a teen drama series. It could be very time consuming but it was way better than grinding my body against hormonal teens or perverted drunkards. 

"Hey." Holly nudged me in the side pulling me from my trance. I hadn't noticed that we were already at the stop light. " Is everything alright with you?" Concern clouded her face. 

I watched as the light changed to green and the car started moving forward. I fiddled with my seatbelt and looked straight ahead. 

"Ava found her mate." I said. 

Holly was also a werewolf and the closet thing I had to a family at the moment. I cherished her down to her feet. 

"Holy Fuck!" She stepped down on the brake a little too hard which caused me to jolt forward. I stared at her wide eyed. If I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt I would have knocked my head against the dashboard or even worse flew through the rearview mirror. 

"That girl never kept a man for a month. I doubt this mate of hers is willing to stay the moment he gets used to her. Do you have any idea who this guy is?" 

She started driving again at a much faster speed. I clutched onto the seatbelt when she failed to keep her eyes on the road. I have known Holly too long to know that whenever she started blabbing she was unable to focus on anything else besides that. 

"I-I think you should focus on the road. You are speeding again. Remember the last time you got a ticket." I touched a hand to my erratically beating heart and prayed it wouldn't break through my ribcage. 

She began to swerve onto another track and a few horns blared behind her. She quickly regained her composure and focused on the road. 

"I can assure you something like that will never happen again. I am an excellent driver. You haven't answered my question." 

I bit down on my bottom lips before muttering his name. "It's Carter." Even his name sounded sexy. 

"No fucking way!" She slammed her hand against the horn. "Are you talking about our bosses, bosses, boss Carter." 

Disbelief was in her voice as she spoke. She shook her head. "I don't believe any of this shit."

"You better do it." I let out a shaky laugh. 

Silence soon filled the car as neither of us said anything else and I could see that Holly was worried about something, probably me. I stared out the window at the skyscrapers that we passed before we entered the highway. There were just so many fancy cars that I had lost count of the amount of them that I saw. We stopped at another stop light and Holly used that opportunity to stare at me. 

"How do you feel about that?" She said clutching the steering wheel a little too much. I could see that her knuckles were turning white. 

How did I feel about all of this? Dread gripped my throat as I tried to think. I couldn't think straight. It was too painful for me to focus on those feelings at the moment. There wasn't enough space in my brain to think about it. I wasn't sure what I was feeling at the moment. When I failed to reply to her she cupped my shoulder and squeezed gently. 

"I know you have been goo goo ga ga over him ever since you were like ten but it's best you forget about him. I don't want you to go through all that heartache again. I have seen you heartbroken before and I don't think I could ever bear to see you like that ever again."