Elijah POV
I sat at my desk with my head in my hands. My migraine was absolutely throbbing, and no matter how much I stared at the paperwork in front of me, I couldn’t seem to make heads or tails of it- which wasn’t great, since it was due this evening before I left off for the party tonight.
It was only two days since the last party, but this one couldn’t be rescheduled. I’d promised far too many people I would go- yet nothing I could do would rid me of this headache.
“Got that zoning paperwork for me?” Jerome asked, tapping his knuckles against the doorframe.
I groaned. “Not yet,” I replied. “We don’t have the budget to buy any more land, but we need at least three more houses built by the end of the year. Where are we going to put these wolves?”
Jerome frowned. “You could always push up towards the mountain. There’s plenty of pack land that way, and there’s really never any trouble from that direction.”
I chewed my nail. “You’re right…” I said, hesitantly. Father had always warned against letting wolves roam the mountain. He had said it was dangerous, but never really expanded on the why. And then there were all the rumors…
“I mean, it’s our land anyway,” I said, nodding as I wrote up the order to start zoning the pack woods for home building. “It’s not like it will hurt. But we’re going to need to start pushing for more land at some point. We’re running out of woods.”
Jerome took the paperwork and slapped me on the back. “We’ll start on a longer-term plan tomorrow. Don’t you need to get ready for the New Moon Ball? Rosalia will be pissed if you skip it again.”
I sighed. “I know, I know, I just wanted to wrap that up first.” I pushed myself out of my seat and ushered him out of the way so I could head back to the Alpha suite. “You need to get ready yourself- please, for the love of the goddess, find your mate tonight. I’m tired of hearing complaints about you.”
He shrugged, “Hey. I’m just giving the ladies what they want. It’s not my fault they were thinking it would be long term. I’m not willing to sell my chance at finding my true mate.” He hesitated, “Well. Not while I’m still this young.”
“I’m about done waiting,” I admitted. “October 2nd couldn’t come any faster.”
“Are you and Rosalia serious about that?” Jerome said, wrinkling his nose. “I mean, I know you two are bumping uglies, but to actually mark her is…”
“I can’t wait forever,” I muttered with a sigh. “An Alpha needs a Luna. You saw how my dad aged so quickly after mom died.”
“I know, but still,” Jerome said, stopping when we reached the stairs that led up to my private suite. “He waited for his fated mate. I just feel like you’re shortchanging yourself.”
“I’m not,” I replied, leaving him no room to argue. “I’ll see you again in a couple of hours.”
“Sure, sure,” Jerome said, waving dismissively.
I trailed up the stairs that led to a bedroom once belonging to my parents. A fresh coat of paint and some new furniture didn’t alleviate the sting of sleeping somewhere where they once laid their heads.
Luckily, I never had to worry about sleeping alone here.
As expected, when I entered the suite, I could smell Rosalia everywhere. The lights had been dimmed, and candles were lit around the room. I kicked off my shoes and locked the door behind me, stripping my clothes away and prowling around to the bathroom.
She was there, in the large garden tub, tastefully censored by bubbles and sipping on a stemless wine glass filled with red wine. “Finished with work, Alpha?”
“That I am, Beta Rosalia,” I answered, admiring her. She was a beauty. She’d dyed her blond hair cotton candy pink, and had a strong hourglass figure, with huge breasts and thick thighs. She was the avatar of the goddess of s*x as far as I was concerned, and for some reason, she was just as enamored with my body. “Mind if I join you?” I asked, already climbing the single step over the edge.
“Looks like you don’t need permission,” she purred, turning to grab a second glass, already poured for me. She passed it over and I took a sip before setting it on the edge, reaching out to take hold of her hips and pull her over to me.
“I’ve had a horrible headache all day,” I said, nuzzling where her slender neck met her collarbone. “I’m thinking some alone time with you might help.”
“That’s very convenient that we are alone in here, then,” she said, kissing my head, her hand coming to tangle itself in my hair.
My c**k throbbed, already fully erect. I slid my hands down her thighs and found her clit with my thumb, circling it playfully and watching the arousal darken her eyes. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”
“I had an inkling,” she purred, crossing her arms behind my head and arching her back as I continued to tease her. “You’re awfully naughty, you know that?”
“Naughty?” I repeated, “Me? Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Fooling around like this before the New Moon Ball? What if we find our mates there tonight? Whatever would they think?”
I scoffed. “If they’re anywhere close to as old as we are, I’m sure they’ve been screwing around themselves.” I pressed my c**k against her entrance and began pushing into her. “Besides, we’re bathing right now, aren’t we? Doubt we’ll leave much of a smell on each other.”
Rosaline rolled her eyes. We’d been able to avoid her father’s suspicion for years by screwing in the bath or shower, or at least washing up thoroughly afterward. Of course, we always smelled a little bit like each other- frequent mating would do that- but there was a good secondary excuse there.
We were, after all, usually close to each other.
Rosaline moaned as I filled her, and started rolling her hips, creating delicious friction in the hot water. I tossed my head back, relishing the sweet ecstasy as she lost control of her urges, becoming erratic and hurried in her motions. Just before I was about to burst, I took her hips and turned her, leaning her out of the tub and sitting up on my knees. I thrust back into her and she cried out as I ravaged her doggy style in the tub.
When I finally came, I emptied my seed into her. She smirked, “Bold move, Alpha.”
I shrugged. Perhaps it was jealousy on my part, but leaving a little extra scent on Rosalia on the night of a New Moon Ball had become something of a habit. I knew she’d be leaving with me. We were twenty-four now, and most people found their mates at New Moon Balls when they were eighteen to twenty-one. After that, the chances dropped dramatically.
Yet Rosalia insisted on attending each and every one. She’d even been invited to some other regions, and attended those as well. So far, she’d had no luck.
But that didn’t matter, because October 2nd, on her twenty-fifth birthday, roughly two months after my twenty-fifth birthday, I would take her as my chosen mate and Luna. It was the earliest she would allow me to. She wanted to give her fated mate every chance under the sun, and I could understand that much. But it had been seven long years since we turned eighteen, and neither of us had even gotten a whiff of a mate yet.
I felt like it was time to move on, even if most seemed to disagree with me.
After the splendor of bath s*x wore off, I washed Rosaline’s hair and scrubbed her back, a favor which she was happy to return. We rinsed off the suds from the bath in the shower and towel dried. I moved to the closet while she unzipped a dress bag she’d left hanging on the canopy bed. The dress was strapless and red, with peals of fabric that looked like flower petals. She would look beautiful in it, I knew. And though we were by no means exclusive at this point in time, I knew I would hate every minute of watching her dance with other men tonight.
It was largely part of why I didn’t like coming to these balls.
But Rosalia had put her foot down on that as well. If I didn’t make a true attempt to meet my mate- which, in her eyes, meant going to every single ball- she would make me wait another five years before becoming my Luna.
She was as cruel as she was beautiful.
“Nice dress,” I remarked.
“Thanks,” she replied, “It’s a rental. If I bought a new gown every time I went to one of these things, I would be broke.”
“You could just wear the same one,” I remarked, pulling out the same suit I wore every time. It was nice, pressed, and had been spritzed with perfume- either by Rosalia or by an omega looking to help me out.
She wrinkled her nose at me. “No thanks.” As she wiggled herself into it, she continued, “You men don’t know how easy you have it. You’ve been wearing that same suit for years, but if I showed up in the same dress every ball, there’d be all kinds of whispers about me.” She sighed, turning her back to me and exposing the unlaced corset back of her dress.
Without needing to be told, I started lacing it for her, peppering kisses over her back as I did so. When she was tied into her dress, she helped me with my tie, and we kissed one last time before she started on her makeup, and I started playing a bubble shooter game on my phone. It took her a solid hour to finish up, and by then, I had already dozed off, my headache subsided and the stress of the day leaving me.
She roused me with a laugh, and we loaded into an SUV with Jerome in the driver seat. We rolled out in a caravan consisting of three vehicles, with roughly eleven unmated wolves in attendance. Rosalia took the backseat for herself, and I took the passenger seat, watching out the window as the landscape rushed by us until we found our region’s New Moon Ball hot spot.
Each region handled the balls differently. In ours, we had the Embark Castle, a gothic castle that had been built in the late 90s for holding weddings and parties. The owners were vampires, but they used that to their advantage- they had no pack affiliations of their own, so they were very neutral to any disagreements that might arise, and they had neutral guards as well. Also vampires, but they stayed out of our way and hung mostly in the shadows.
It was a rare kind of collaboration we didn’t usually see between our kinds.
As usual, they had rolled out the red carpet for us. Photographers lined the walkway, and I sighed, my headache making a subtle come back. I opened the door for Rosalia, and as always, we walked the red carpet together, arm in arm.
Once we made it through the big double doors, the world transformed from something modern to something out of a historical drama. Women clad in dresses- some conservative, some sultry, all beautiful- flaunted wine glasses and jewelry. Those with stronger bloodlines prowled the grounds, seeking out the meeker omegas that lingered around the side.
As usual, Rosalia split off to greet her friends, and I headed to the booths they kept reserved for the cadre of each pack. I found Jade Moon and ducked inside. I hadn’t caught a whiff of any mate on my way in, so I was quick to abandon any hope of finding her here today.
“Hey, Elijah,” a lithe man in a nice suit said, coming up to my booth. He offered his hand for a shake, and I shook with little energy. Herald Crowley was the ideal candidate for Beta of Yellow Fang pack in Connecticut when the Alpha stepped down, but he was in a similar position as I was.
Too old for this s**t.
“Sorry to see you back here,” he said. “Glad to see Rosalia is enjoying herself though.”
I risked a peek out to the dance floor and found her in the arms of some random wolf. “I can see the drink service isn’t as good as last time I got here,” I said, changing the topic immediately.
Herald waved someone over, and they took my order for a bottle of whiskey. They brought it back within minutes, and I poured myself a tumbler, happy for something to take a little bit of edge off. “You’re looking rough,” he said, taking a seat uninvited. “Hey, I’m, uh… I’m sorry to hear about your dad.”
I drained my glass and poured another. “Yeah.” That was another reason I was avoiding these things, especially as of late. I could only handle so much pity over the loss of my father.
Herald hung around for the remainder of the song, then wandered off. When I’d drank a fraction of the bottle myself, I went onto the dance floor. Already, some mate bonds were being announced.
Emiline Roswind of Yellow Fang and Edgar Stalle of Amber Skies Pack.
Dallas Fairemont of Jade Moon and Rebecca Gnash of Amber Skies.
Allie Mae of Yellow Fang and Glenn Small from Jade Moon.
I tried not to actively groan. Not one new pairing from this ball, but two. And how would we house those newly mated wolves?
Well, sorry to say, they might need to shack up with their parents for a few months while I worked that out.
I found Rosalia in the crowd and prepared myself to ask her for our customary single dance. She wouldn’t offer me much more- not here, at least. But I knew something was wrong the minute I approached.
She was tensed, looking across the ballroom. There, a man had locked eyes on her. He was tall, broad, dark and handsome. He practically walked through three other couples to get to her, and the minute he came upon her, he pulled her in tightly, breathing in her scent.
His eyes locked with mine, as if he was already angry about smelling me on her.
Even from where I stood, too far away, I could hear him growl the word: “Mate.”