Chapter Three

(Aegis's Point Of View).

Three hours into dinner and I was already planning murder. I was planning the murder of my dearly beloved sister. But that was besides the point.

He was ignoring me. 

 After last night I assumed that we would be closer. If I didn’t know better I would have thought all that happened last night just a dream.The pain and roughness between my legs that accompanied every step I took as I walked assured me otherwise.

We were having dinner with the Alpha's family.The unusual absence of the Alpha and Luna made the already horrible day take an even depressing turn.

We’d been attending this dinner since we were children.The dinner was a customary tradition between the Alphas family and their Betas.  As little children, whenever the dinner began to lose our interest we would always sneak outside to play. We were a formidable force, all three of us, Elias the prankster, I the tomboy and Vela the princess and baby of the group. We were a close knit group forced together by the intricacies of living in a pack house as high ranked children. 

The sound of Vela's laughing spiked up rage in me. Every thing she did made me angry.  

It hurt so much that anger towards my sister was brewing inside of me. But could i really share the attention of the one person that was supposed to be mine?.

 Vela always had our parent’s attention. I blamed it on her being the younger child but deep down I knew they just didn't care for me. I knew they favored her and I didn't hate them for it. I wasn't their biological daughter anyways. They adopted me when I was found abandoned in a nearby forest and I was forever grateful for them.

I played around with the food on my plate, my appetite long gone.

My parents were not subtle about their who they favored. It was hard to not notice the difference between Vela and I. She was everything I wasn't. She was friendly while I was socially awkward. She was confident and beautiful whereas I was more quiet and too myself. She had friends that would gladly die for her and I only had her. 

Everyone believed she would end up the  Luna material whereas I was simply "The  Beauty's sister" or as her friends loved to call me “ The Beast”.

My stomach was beginning to hurt.

We grew up fine as different people and I never minded that. She was my sibling and I was so proud of her. She was everything I hoped she would be. She never asked for the attention people gave her, she was just that good. As stupid as I sounded as the older sister, I looked up to her. She was somewhat of a role model to me.

She was one of a kind just as I was.

She was beautiful just as I was.

And my mate was supposed to see that.

For the first time I was jealous of my sister.

Jealous of all she has that I didn't.

Jealous of what he  saw in her.

Jealous of the memories and friendship they shared.

Looking at them together made me realize i was the outlier.

The odd one out.

And for the third time that night, tears welled up in my eyes.

I just wanted a place here. A place in my mate's heart.

The scent of cedar and mint hit me all at once. The scent that mixed itself with mine yesterday night. The memories of the events of the night made me desperate to step into his arms again , claim his skin for my own, reach into his heart and hold his heart in my hands while I stood waiting for him to be the same. But I couldn't do that.

That was my mate.

The other half of my soul.

He was so close and yet so far away.

He must have sensed the direction of my thoughts because I felt his eyes on me. Heat quickly rose up to my face in embarrassment.

Vela stood up suddenly startling me clicking her fork on her wine glass to get everyone's attention at the dinner.

"Would everyone please be kind enough to move to the living room. We have an announcement and one last gift for the birthday girl". She proclaimed.

I was actually quite confused as to why she had to save a gift for today_my birthday was yesterday. But i however trudged after our parents and Elias back into the common room.

I was the last to get to the room and I could already distinctly hear her speaking already but my thoughts revolved around a certain brown haired man that was avoiding me. 

I felt someone looking at me and looked up to find Velma grinning at me. She dashed into another room and soon came out with a big blue box with a small red bow in  hand. She beamed at me handing me the box before shifting her gaze to her feet encased in black strappy heels. 

"This one is from Elias and I".

 Elias stood up and instead of standing  beside her in the middle of the room, he simply leaned against the wall. He crossed his arms across his chest making his arms bulge and temptation held me by the throat. Those hands had been undressing me the night before.

 I took my seat on a nearby couch, box in hand. I was so excited. Was this why he was avoiding me?. 

Awn, he wanted to give me a gift, he was truly a weird man. I thought as I looked up to him with a smile nearly getting lost in his forest green eyes.

 Nearly tore my eyes away from him as I pulled apart the box and slowly lifted up the cover and I could feel his eyes on me as I did.

I felt my heart stop. In a thousand years, I could never have imagined what was in the box.

A beautiful rose red dress was neatly folded into the box. On top of it was a silver colored envelope with the inscription:

                        Wedding Invitation 

                Elias Jonathan and Velma Davids.