Chapter 1 - A birthday surprise!

Irina

“Bye Mom! Bye Dad!” I smiled as I walked out of the house. I loved my parents, and I knew they loved me. They were still just as in love as they were on the first day they met. I didn’t have to see it to know. My friend honked her horn and I waved as I rushed over and slipped into the passenger seat. Today was our last day of school. One more exam and I would be done with it forever!

It was also my eighteenth birthday. My parents wanted me to have a huge party, but in the end, I got them to agree to just dinner at our favourite restaurant. I loved being with my friends, but I knew my parents couldn’t afford the kind of birthday party my friends’ parents had for them. We lived in a small town, in a small cozy home, and it was exactly the kind of life I wanted.

I saw myself finding someone who loved me just as much as my father loved my mother. Someone I could build a small, cozy home with. Maybe we could spend our weekends working in our garden and Sundays reading the paper together. I had it all planned out and after today, my life was going to work out exactly like that.

My friends and I laughed as we walked out of the last exam and they handed me my birthday gift. I was lucky to have the friends I had. Although they were disappointed that they couldn’t take me out to the bar on my birthday, they understood why I wanted to spend the night with my parents.

As I walked down the stairs before dinner, I watched my parents laugh. My father took my mother’s hand and kissed her palm softly. Their love was the kind of love I wanted. I teased them about it all the way to the restaurant, but they knew how deeply I wanted a love like theirs. I grew up in a home where money didn’t rule our lives. We didn’t have so much that we could just spend, but we also didn’t have so little that we went hungry.

We had just enough … Our life was just enough and that was exactly the way I liked it and wanted my life to be like. Dinner was incredible as always and we joked around before my father finally gave me my gift. I knew it wouldn’t be something like a car or something huge, but I didn’t want anything huge. When I opened the small box, I gasped.

Inside the box was a beautiful silver necklace with a pendant that spelled out my name. I loved it and jumped up to thank them while my mom helped me to put it on. My birthday was exactly what I wanted it to be. It was just a normal average birthday, but I was happy. I heard some chairs shuffling behind us and as I looked up, our eyes met. My heart stopped as I breathed in sharply, and I only looked away when I felt my mother’s hand touching mine.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” She frowned and I tried to smile. My body was reacting in the weirdest way and as I sat down, I noticed the man looking at me. He was literally staring!

“Yeah, sorry. I seemed to have developed a bit of a head ache. Would you guys mind if we went home?” I tried to smile, but I could see from the looks on their faces they weren’t buying any of it. Thankfully, they didn’t give me too hard a time and we left the restaurant. As we walked out, we passed by his table and our eyes met again and I felt a bolt of electricity shoot through my body. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough!

Hunter

THE BOYS CONVINCED me to take them to the local pub. They were all in the mood for a little bit of drinking and perhaps meeting up with a girl or two and I didn’t want to be the one to spoil their fun. I smelled the scent before we even stepped inside and as I scanned the crowd of people in the pub, our eyes met.

“Mate!” My wolf growled and I forced his voice down into the depths of my mind. It couldn’t be! She was just a child! As she walked past me, I took a deep sniff of her scent. She was also a human! I could tell that she had felt it too, but from what I knew about humans, she would have no idea what it was that she was feeling.

This can’t be happening! This young girl was my second chance mate! My heart pounded and my breathing felt laboured as I forced myself to stay seated while she walked out the door with what seemed to be her parents. I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts of her, then gave the guys some money to get us some drinks.

That was exactly what I needed! Alcohol would force her out of my mind! Alcohol and if I could find one, a woman … Yeah, I needed a woman who would force the young girl that was my mate out of my damn mind! I scanned the room, but for the first time since my mate died, nobody appealed to me. I honestly couldn’t see myself sleeping with any of the women there!

I sat in the corner watching the boys drink and flirt all night while I thought about the young creature who had stolen my heart with just one glance. I tried to convince myself that there was no way I could take her as my mate, while my wolf told me that she was our last hope at happiness. She was our last chance at an heir. What if the moon goddess didn’t give us another chance?