Beware of the Werewitch

Chapter 11

'This is it! Today is my eighteenth birthday!' Ella thought. Ella threw the covers off and bounced out of bed. The sun was already shinning in through her window. 'Good.' She thought. One less thing that I will have to worry about. The Luna had warned her that if it rained the Gazebo would not be a great location to hold this.

Ella quickly showered and dressed and made her way downstairs for breakfast. Her father was already up and making her favorite meal. Homemade waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.

“Happy Birthday! My little angel is all grown up!” Her father exclaimed with excitement as she walked in. He hurried over and gave her a hug and kiss with a spatula in one hand and the other had batter on it. His apron had strawberry juice all over it, and he had whipped cream on his mustache. Ella took one look at him and burst out laughing. She grabbed the dish towel off the counter as she continued to giggle "You've got whipped cream all over your mustache." Her father, who had looked confused by her laughter, began to laugh also. Ella helped her father wipe the whipped cream off and then they sat down to waffles.

As Ella took a bite of the first golden fluffy delicious bite, her father cleared his throat "So, is there any particular werewolf that we are hoping to meet today to see if they are your mate?" he tried to be casual, but Ella could hear the worry in his voice. Ella put her fork down.

"Dad, I do not have my eye on any of the werewolves in the pack, in fact I do not have my eye on any werewolf at all. If it happens great. In the meantime, I just want to finish school, and go to college." This seemed to visibly ease the tension in her father's shoulders. He gave a silent nod and then began to cut up his waffle while his blueberries, his preferred topping, rolled all over his plate.

They ate in companionable silence. When the food was gone, Ella washed the dishes. She had been holding off on asking her father about whether he was able to get in touch with her mother and if she was going to be able to make it in time, especially since Ella had moved the party up earlier.

"Hey Dad, Were you able to get a hold of Mom?" Ella turned and leaned on the kitchen island. Her father looked up at her from his phone which he was studiously looking at. Ella waited as her Dad put the phone down on the table and sat back in the chair. The look that met her told her all she needed to know.

"Well Sweetheart, I did finally get in touch with her last night. She had just gotten into her hotel. She was too late to make the flight back that I was trying to book her on, so she was going to try and see if she could book herself on one this morning. I have not heard back from her yet. She was supposed to try and catch the first flight available. She may have been in a hurry and forgot to text me."

Ella nodded slowly, but she did not dare speak because of the lump in her throat. She could not understand why her mother would just get up and leave the night before her birthday like this, no matter how angry she was.

She looked back at her Dad who was now staring out the window. "Why?" was all she could get out.

Her father looked at her. "Why what?"

Ella took a deep breath. "Why did she just up and leave? Did you ask her?"

Her father looked away from her again as if had wished that she had no asked this question. "Before we go too far down this rabbit hole, I want you to know that I did ask her, and what little she did say made no sense, so I plan on getting her to explain when she is back and your party is all over." Ella's father pushed back his chair and walked over to her looking at his watch.

"I think that we should get going if we are going to set everything up. What time are the caterer and the DJ coming to get set up?" He asked changing the subject quickly.

Ella looked at her phone and sighed. "The caterer said they would be there around 2:30pm to set up and the DJ at 3pm. That should give us plenty of time. The florist will be there at noon. We can set out the flowers and that gives us plenty of time to come home and shower and get ready."

Ella went down to their basement to get the few things that she thought they might need for the set-up and threw them into a box that she found down there. She met her Dad at the front door, who was on the phone with someone when she came back up and he ushered her out the door and to the car.

"Great! Thank you guys. I will see you over at the gazebo in ten minutes." Her father hung up the phone.

"Who was that Dad?" Ella asked curious who her father had roped into helping them last minute.

"That was out muscle." Her Dad said proudly. "I got us two strong backs for the morning. Luckily they do not sleep in on weekdays thanks to the Alpha. It was good of him to let you off from training today for your birthday." Ella froze her next question dying on her lips. She clapped her hand to her forehead.

"Oh Goddess! I forgot! I was supposed to meet them at the packhouse at sun up again this morning. The Alpha is going to skin me alive and then turn me on a spit." She put her head in her hands. She knew she would not be able to avoid him either. The Alpha was invited to every function in the pack. Dread began to fill her as they drove up and parked at the gazebo and saw the Alpha's red truck parked on the other side of the parking lot.

"Come on. Time to face the music. I am sure he will give you a bye. It is your birthday after all." Her father said.

Ella groaned "I am pretty sure I used that one up last time." she grumbled under her breath. They got out of the truck. Ella suddenly felt very edgy. Her head was hurting like it was being electrocuted from the inside. She tried to ignore it, and figured it was part of her anxiety. Rubbing her temples, she followed her father to the equipment shed where the tables and chairs were stored. The lock was already undone, and the door was open. She could hear movement inside. Her head began to hurt her more the further she walked.

"Why don't you head over to the gazebo and decide where you want everything and I will have the guys start hauling the tables and chairs over to you so you can tell them where they need to go." Ella nodded and almost staggered back to the gazebo as her father went inside. She felt a brief moment of relief when she reached the gazebo and got out of the sunlight. It was so bright that it was actually causing her pain. She leaned on the railing for a minute, taking deep breaths to try and ease her aching head.

She turned at movement behind her and saw a table with legs walking across the grass to the patio picnic area. She walked down toward the moving table and began to give directions.

"I think we will start with the tables for the DJ and the caterer first. The DJ table can go over here and then the next three can go up here for the caterer."

The table moved downward and the head of the person carrying it came up as they went to pull out the legs. Ella's head exploded with pain. She dropped to her knees. It hurt so much. Her head pulsed harder and harder until she leaned forward with her forehead on the cold grass. Everything went black. Her body sat up staring forward with golden flaming eyes. "MATE"