Damon takes my bag. “Let me show you your room.” He walks down a hallway, and I wave bye to my brother.
I can’t wait for my brother to find his woman. I just want him to be happy, and now that it no longer feels like I’m missing a huge part of my soul, it’s like I can breathe. It’s so strange how your life can change just like that.
He leads me up the stairs. I love his house. It’s wood, but it’s so open with so many windows letting beautiful natural light into the house. My wolf wants to lie beneath a window, enjoy her new home, and rub up against everything, putting her scent in her mate’s house.
He pushes open a door and, right in the center of the room, is a queen-sized bed. I notice doors on the left and the right. “One of them is the closet and the other is your bathroom,” he informs me.
“It’s perfect, thank you.” I smile and roll my bag into my room, and he shuts the door behind me.
When I am finally alone, I let out a deep breath, allowing everything to sink in. I sit down on the edge of the bed and shake my head in pure disbelief as I look around the room. You wait for something your whole life then, in a blink of an eye, it just happens. It’s wild.
Now I have to get ready for my date. I look at the clock on the wall; it’s four o’clock.
“Damon, I am going to take a nap, do you mind waking me at six?” I know he can hear me from wherever he is in the house.
“I will. Sleep well, Moon.”
I smile at his endearment, and I change into a baggy shirt and fall onto the bed. I fall asleep with a smile on my face.
Damon
I listen as her breathing evens as she falls asleep. My wolf wants to prance around the house because his mate is here and she feels safe enough in our presence to fall asleep. I sit back on the couch, closing my eyes, after setting an alarm, on my phone, to wake me up at six. I just want to close my eyes, for the first time, knowing my mate is here. She is safe and, most of all, she is mine.
That is a fucking blessing. She is a blessing.
My pack is my pride and joy. Many packs don't allow mates to be together if they are not the same breed. Everyone will be welcome here. It does not matter if you are a bear, lion, or wolf. Mates are mates, and mates’ bonds do not discriminate. It’s time for a change in the shifter world; it’s time to get out of the old and selfish ways.
I drift off to sleep as my mind wanders to a million different things at once. The most important thing is my hopes for the future, with my Moon.
Farren
He woke me up, from outside my room, his scent sneaking in through the cracks around the door. My nose flares as I breathe in deeply, and his scent wakes and soothes me instantly. I climb out of bed, feeling much better than when I lay down. The eight-hour trip here had been exhausting. I’d been feeling so many emotions. Leaving the pack I grew up in was very hard, even though—since it was a small pack with few young people—I’d known it was time to move on. Especially with the mating coming up in a couple of months.
I stand at the door, smiling, knowing he is standing right outside. I hear him breathing deeply, and I know he is doing the same thing. We shifters crave the scent of our mates.
I find myself thinking about the yearly gathering coming up in several months. A lot of stuff happens during that time. Many men and some women are together, in one place, trying to find their true mates. Sometimes complicated situations arise. For example, upon occasion, a wolf mates with a bear. Talk about hell. Many alphas do not allow different breeds to be together. So the couple is banished to the woods. It’s a sad situation.
It happened once in my old pack. Randall, a male bear, and Olive, a female wolf, mated and were banished to the back of the property, but they are very happy. Randall works in town as a firefighter; he had to find a way to support his family. Maybe I should ask them if they want to transfer to this pack.
I take out my phone and text Olive. She is around thirty years old now, with a three-year-old son and daughter.
Me: Have you ever thought about transferring to a new pack?
I hit send and set the phone on the bathroom counter as I step into the shower. Letting the warm water massage my back, I hurry to wash my hair and body; then I step out.
The screen on my phone lights up, indicating a text. I wipe my wet hands on the towel and pick it up.
Olive: All the time, it’s hard to find a place where we are wanted.
I am hit with so much sadness that this has been her life for so long, being secluded from everyone.
Me: I just got to the pack where my brother is beta, this is different from the other pack. Everyone is accepted, and the alpha is my true mate.
After I dump all of that information on her, I blow-dry my long hair. I look at myself in the mirror, and my eyes glow as I think of my mate, who is showering in the next room. I smile and continue blow-drying my hair, and the screen lights up again.
Olive: Ask him, tell him the situation please.
I can feel the anxiety in her text, and I tighten my grip on my phone, pissed off that people can’t just be happy with their mates and accepted by their packs. After all, you can’t choose your true mate. I close my eyes, controlling my anger.
