FATE?

Chapter Three

When Selena came out of the changing room, Michael Knowles was there leaning against the wall waiting for her.

He was kind and attractive with light blonde hair and baby blue eyes, yet Selena was still wary of him. Actually she was wary of anything that looked like a man.

"Please let me drive you home" he said as he pushed off the wall.

Selena nervously tucked a lock of hair behind one ear and answered "thank you Mr Knowles...."

"Michael" he corrected.

"Thank you Michael but I would rather find my own way home" she said as she nervously toyed with the pendant on her neck.

"I can see you've let down your hair. Unfortunately just literally and not metaphorically," Michael observed, dipping both hands into his pockets.

Selena had nothing to say to that.

"Thanks for coming to my rescue earlier, goodnight,” Michael smiled ruefully and watched bewildered as she walked off.

At the last minute, he huffed out of breath and followed her out of the building.

"I don't bite you know. I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I promise I'm going to love and care for you, all I ask is a chance."

Selena thought that that must have been exactly what her father had told her mum when he was still wooing her.

He must have seemed nice. Maybe he had even been, but she had experienced firsthand how a man could look nice on the outside but be a terrible person on the inside.

Their neighbors thought her dad was a kind man. He was always helping to fix things.She stopped walking and turned to face him, Michael.

"I don't doubt that you love and care for me, but I'm sorry I'm just not interested Mr Knowles." He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation.

"Am I not attractive or rich enough for you?"

"It's not that."

He suddenly paused. "Or are you a lesbian?"

Selena nearly burst out laughing.

"No I'm not. I'm just not interested in being in a relationship with anyone." "Not in this lifetime at least," she added silently in her head.

"I'm sorry" she repeated leaving him standing there and looking after her dejectedly.

Later that night as Selena lay in bed, the image of Gabriel rose unbidden in her mind. "A god has come to dine with us" was the first thought she had had when she saw him immediately followed by the confusing magnetic pull towards him.

There had been another diner that had entered the restaurant before him,whom she was first supposed to wait on, but she couldn't resist the force that led her towards Gabriel.

She had to clench her fingers at her side to keep from reaching out to run her fingers through his lustrous wavy silver grey hair.

He had a strong chiseled jawline and inviting sensuous lips. She had wanted to kiss them so bad that her mouth had suddenly become dry. She had run the tip of her tongue over her lips and had seen the answering gleam in his brilliant blue eyes fringed with sinfully long lashes the same colour as his hair.

Those eyes had locked her in place and a vague part of her mind had been shocked by her reaction. She was sure even a major earthquake would not have been able to pull them out of their trance.

Until he had gently placed his fingers on her neck. The intensity of the electric tingles she had felt along the length of her body had been shock enough to have brought her out of her trance.

But more shocking was what she had seen. A succession of images in a flash– a full blood red moon, a white magnificent large wolf and a small pool of blood.

She sat upright and rubbed at her temple trying to make sense of what she had felt and seen. There was still a silent hum of the rush of shingles she had felt earlier.

"Oh sleep my good friend why hast thou abandoned me?" Selena muttered silently. She reached for her phone and on her search engine typed in the words, visions of moon, wolf and blood.

Thirty minutes later she was exhausted and her eyes ached. No sane person believes in vampires and werewolves and witches.

They're just myths. Make-believe stories. They don't exist. Selena told herself.

Maybe she was just hallucinating or something. She had not be sleeping so well recently. It could be the cause of her hallucinations.

She poured herself a tall glass of milk and ten minutes later, she was fast asleep.

 ●***

Gabriel was beginning to realise that a lot could go wrong in three months when you had an inefficient beta. He blamed himself for trusting his cousin and beta, Shawn Adams, to take care of things while he was away on a business trip.

At first, Shawn hadn't been his choice of a beta. The blood suckers had launched a surprise attack on the Blood Moon Pack.

The other pack members had to join the warriors in the fight. They had won but at a terrible cost. The former alpha, Gabriel's dad, lost his daughter and her mate in the fight. The former beta, Gabriel's uncle, also lost his mate in the fight.

His uncle and father had both being devastated by their losses and decided to hand over their positions to the next in line.

Gabriel had known Shawn was deeply traumatized by the death of his mother and was going to choose another, his best friend who was the Gamma's son as his beta.

But Shawn had sworn that he was emotionally stable enough and had gone on and on about legacy. In the end, Grabriel had obliged mostly because he had been tired of Shawn's whining.

He himself had been devastated by the loss of his only sibling and her mate. He felt especially sorry for the pups, his niece and nephew, that had been orphaned so young. But he guessed some people were just made of stronger stuff than others.

He was naturally a born leader and had always prepared himself for this position. His mother had worried that he was too serious as a kid.

His father had allowed him most times to sit in on meetings concerning the pack and its business. He had also learnt first-hand from his father how emotions must never be allowed to affect the decision making of a leader. His niece and nephew, Raphael who was nine and Clara who was six, were both presently looking up at him with pouts on their faces.

How in the goddess's name had he forgotten the bag that contained their stuff at the hotel he had been staying in. They had both specifically asked for comic books and chocolates.

He decided that to pacify them he was going to have take them to the mall later to get anything they wanted.

Raphael and Clara whopped excitedly when he told them about it.