The Mate's Curse

Chapter 6

(Cassie’s POV)

Morning came and I couldn’t help but feel nervous about what the day would bring. Today we would be leaving my friends, the family I grew up with, and my life. I knew that by this time tomorrow everything would be different.

My mum had packed the majority of my clothes but had left out a dress for me, it was a jade green skater-style sleeveless dress that had a delicate black lace pattern down one side and it brought out the green in my eyes. I left my strawberry blond hair loose and wavy as it fell half way down my back. 

I walked out of my bedroom for likely the last time and down the stairs into the kitchen. Mum and dad were sitting at the table both silently drinking their coffee. My mum had a fitted grey dress on and silver grey heels, her hair tied up into a tight bun, and my dad was wearing dark grey suit pants and a blue shirt with no tie. 

I found my black flat slip-on shoes by the door and was pulling them on as both my parents looked up at me. “Morning, honey,” my mum said pleasantly with a smile that I could tell was strained. My dad just looked into his cup, his face blank. 

“Dad.” He looked up at me and gave a weak smile, but I have never seen him look so defeated. 

“I’ll be ok,” he said, rubbing his face, and I noticed that he hadn’t bothered to shave this morning. “It’ll be an adjustment, but it’s for the best.” I think he was telling himself that more than me. He got up from the table and pulled me into a tight hug. Then the doorbell rang and I felt my father stiffen. No one moved and the doorbell rang again. 

I pulled myself from the tight embrace and looked at my mum who was gripping her coffee cup so tightly that  her hands went white. I sighed, supposing we might as well get it over with. I walked to the door and stopped briefly at the three suitcases waiting. We were only allowed to bring a few minimal things from our old life and everything else would be provided, apparently. My whole life was now packed into one suitcase.

I opened the door and Beta Declan was standing on the other side. “Hey kid,” he said, and I glowered at him which earned me a chuckle and a wink. 

I rolled my eyes and smiled slightly. I liked him, he seemed to have a playful nature that set my nerves at ease. I knew that he took his position seriously too and didn’t abuse his power. A brief flashback to last night and his commanding tone reminded me he wouldn’t stand for s**t either. 

Beta Declan looked behind me and his grin fell into a somber smile. “Mr Waters, Mrs Waters.” He looked down at the suitcases and motioned behind him to the guard to instruct him to get the cases before he strode into the house and walked up to my father. I watched as he held out his hand. “I am here to escort you to the Blackstone pack territory.” 

My father hesitated a second before shaking his hand. “Thank you Beta Salo, it is an honour that you have taken this time yourself.” His words were clipped and I could tell his undertone was anything but pleasant. 

The guard that came in was struggling with picking up all three of the suitcases at once, he had a lean body and his tight black shirt didn’t do its job at hiding his defined muscles. He had brownish red hair that flopped down in front of his face but when he noticed me looking I saw a glint of mischief in his hazel eyes. “Like what you see?” he said with a wink and I blushed instantly at being caught. He grinned at my reaction and let his eyes wander over my body. “I’d be happy to give you the grand tour later when you get settled,” he said with another wink, and I blushed even more. 

I heard my father growl in the other room and looked over to see him glaring at the guard. “Parker!” the beta yelled. “Flirt on your own time.” His command was clear and the guard, or Parker, glanced over at them and winced under the Beta’s commanding tone before grinning at me again and lifting the bags all at once and carrying them out to the van that was waiting outside.

I looked back at my dad and the Beta who were both scowling after Parker and it suddenly occurred to me that I was about to be in a pack, one with male werewolves, and many around my age and probably unmated. Suddenly the nerves came back. I really had minimal exposure to unmated men. Don’t get me wrong, I had had dates and fun with some of the humans in town but never anything that lasted. A couple of relationships, but as a rule s*x wasn’t considered significant unless it was with your mate, whether that was chosen or fated. Basically unless you were in the pre-mated stage, not dissimilar to a serious partner or courting, or you were mated, then it was all fun. And since the only way humans could even enter a pre-mated stage was if they had been fated mate bond, which was rare but did happen, then I never had to worry about anything getting too complicated. But now I was about to join the biggest pack in Europe and what if one of them turned out to be my mate? Suddenly the thought of finding my fated mate was terrifying. Since my wolf was practically non-existent then I might not even be able to find him anyway, and even if I did then he’d probably just reject me once he found out I was defective. 

I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped. I had clearly been lost in my thoughts. My mum was standing next to me looking at me with concern. I smiled and squeezed her arm to reassure her I was ok. “It’s time to go honey,” she said sadly. I nodded my head and took one last look around the house before walking out into the driveway. 

Parker was sitting in the driver's seat of the minivan and the Beta was standing by the van with a guarded expression as he looked up the street. I followed his look and could see that just past the house stood a group of people. Thomas, Helen, Layla and all the kids were all there, they had come to see us off. I realised then that I didn’t even know if I would see them again, this was my family and I was leaving them behind. I felt the tears again and before anyone could say something I ran to them throwing my arms around first Thomas and then the others. There was a lump in my throat and I was hugging them really tight.

“I want to stay with you” I cried, feeling like my heart was shattering right there and then. 

“It’s for the best, beautiful one,” Layla whispered. “Don’t worry, everything is as it should be”.

I heard a cough behind us and looked over to see the Beta standing there with a blank expression. “We really have to get going,” he said and I shook my head. I didn’t want to leave my family behind. 

“Come on honey,” my dad said, gently pulling me away from the group and I couldn't hold it in any more and I allowed myself to sob into his chest as he guided me towards the van. I climbed inside and took a seat in the back while my mum and dad sat in the seats in front of me. I fumbled with my seat belt and it clicked into place as the van door slid closed on my old life. I stared out of the window at anything, at nothing. I just needed to stop my emotions before they ate me up. The Beta jumped into the front passenger seat and closed his door before indicating for Parker to start the engine. My mum started quietly sobbing as the van started to pull away from the house and I continued to stare out the window with tears streaming down my face.

***

From what I knew the Blackstone pack was around 30 or so miles away so it would only take us around an hour to get there. I watched the scenery out of the window  as the cities gave way to the countryside. Most packs were pretty secluded away and protected from prying eyes, and around 50 minutes later I could tell when we were getting close just by the lack of civilisation. Parker pulled into what appeared to be a private road that looked like it cut into the entrance of a mountain range. There was a tall black iron gate and a small gatehouse just inside. The gate began to open electronically, probably controlled by a guard in the gate house. When it had opened wide enough, Parker pulled the van through, and as we passed the gates I felt butterflies in my stomach. This was it, we had arrived at our destination, our new home. Parker slowly drove the van past the gatehouse, stopping briefly and speaking to another guard, and then set off further down the road. I turned and looked behind me, watching the gates close again, the claustrophobic feeling coming back stronger than ever. Then suddenly I felt a sense of calm wash over me and looked to the front of the van to see that Beta Declan was turned and staring straight at me. He smiled reassuringly before I saw his eyes glaze over, mostly likely speaking to someone through the pack mindlink. He nodded and then turned back round in his seat and turned to Parker and muttered something that I couldn’t catch. Parker nodded and simply responded, “Sir”. 

I looked out the window at my new home and could see that we were flanked by mountains on both sides of the road. But up ahead there was an opening and, as we got closer, a bridge. As the van exited the mountain tunnel and started over the bridge I looked around and gasped. To one side of the bridge was a pooling of water below with a waterfall coming from what looked like the mountain top. There were people in the water and on the grass surrounding. It was Saturday morning and a warm day, so it looked like this was a popular gathering spot. The water looked beautiful and sparkled a beautiful blue in the sun. The water narrowed again and ran under the bridge. Following it, I looked out the other window and saw a beautiful green view of pine trees and open lands. The river seemed to run all the way through the land as far as I could see. The road continued on the other side of the bridge with small stone built houses to the side. When the road split into two, we turned down the right road and followed the river part way down, then Parker turned down a smaller road on the left which passed by more houses, these ones a bit smaller. At the end of the road was a large stone building, it had green double doors at the top of a few steps and the grounds had minimal but pretty flowers.

Parker pulled up to the entrance and stopped the van. A short woman stood in the doorway with a warm smile on her face, she was plump and looked to be in her 50’s or 60’s, she certainly seemed to give off a friendly grandma vibe. Beta Declan climbed out of the van and opened the door for us to get out. 

“Oh, Beta.” She had a lovely sweet voice. “How lovely to see you this morning.” My parents were out of the van and I was just climbing out as her gaze swept over us. “And a massive welcome to our new pack members.” 

She walked towards us holding her hand out to first my father and then my mother. 

“My name is Agnes Wilkins but please call me Aggie, I run Finnius House and co-ordinate all of the omega schedules.” She smiled warmly. “Whatever you need you can come to me for.” 

She looked over at me and her smile widened. 

“Well, I can tell you are a special one, girl.” The Beta coughed and she looked at him and then looked sheepish before turning to my parents. “Let me show you your room.” With that, she turned and walked towards the house. My mum and dad silently turned to follow her and I hesitated and turned to the van to get the luggage out. 

“Nah, beautiful, I’ll grab it and bring it up.” Parker grinned at me as he headed towards the back of the van. The Beta glared at him before placing a hand on my back indicating I should follow behind my parents.

We followed into the house and caught up with them in the hallway just as they started ascending the stairs. The decor inside was plain but bright and airy and pleasant enough. I could hear Aggie talking away to my parents about schedules and times and rules and such. “I’ve put you in a lovely room on the 1st floor, it’s slightly bigger than most being that you are a mated couple,” she told my parents with a smile. She stopped in front of a door and unlocked it, then opened the door wide open and stepped to one side to allow my parents to enter.

I followed them into the room which, again, was simple but nice. The walls were a warm beige and the room had one big picture window that looked out of the back of the house over the forest that surrounded us. There was a double bed that was bare of any bedding and a powder blue sofa at the end of the bed. There was also a chest of drawers and a wardrobe on one wall. All the furniture was white, giving the room a fresh, modern look. 

“There is a private shower room through that doorway there.” Aggie pointed to a door by the bed. “And when you are ready, I can take you to get some bedding and some curtains that suit your style.”  

My mum stifled a sob as she looked around the room. “It’s...nice,” she said as tears filled her eyes. 

My dad brought her into his arms. “It’s ok, Jess,” he said into her hair as she sobbed into his chest. “We can do this, it's not so bad.” Despite his words, I could tell that he was barely holding it together himself. Everyone looked around and I could tell that they felt as uncomfortable as I did witnessing this tender, private moment. 

I looked around and saw that Parker had brought my parents’ suitcases to the room and was standing just outside the door, waiting, I guessed. I felt that my parents needed some alone time so I turned to Aggie. 

“So, where do I sleep?” I asked. Aggie looked at me, confusion crossing her face, and then she looked at the Beta who coughed, drawing my attention to him. Oh crap, what was I missing?

“About that...” he said.

“What?” I had a bad feeling in my stomach.

“The Alpha has requested an immediate meeting with you.” 

Oh f**k! What now?