Chapter 3

Seb's pov

I hate this.

If there's one thing I hated the most, it is having someone else have power over my emotions.It is the sole reason for my limited association with people. I never associated with people simply because of my fear for the emotional baggage they brought with them and I am unapologetic about it.

It has always been mom and Lyra and me, in my world. Until Leo entered my life, three months ago.

As my mate.

The things I felt with him are totally different from what I felt for others.

As soon as I found out he's my mate, I felt this instant urge to become one with him and stay with him forever without any subject to detachment.

Unlike other times I didn't fear the thought of it at all instead I embraced it.

Fresh tears fill my eyes, as my mind drifts back to our first meeting.

__________________________

Alpha Luke invited me over to their place, to help them with the arrangements for a gathering.

It is a friendly gathering with our neighbour's pack, supposedly their alpha and his son will be here in an hour.

Normally gatherings like these were held at the pack building but since the  alpha is a close friend of Luke, they decided to do this in their house.

Looking around, I examined the whole room to search for my next task I should move on to, but everything seemed perfectly in place, scanning around my eyes met Luna Rose making her face bright,giving me one of her kindest smiles despite in her rush to make everything as perfect as possible.

I made my way to the living room in hopes of finding a new chore instead of standing there awkwardly idle when everyone is on their toes doing something after the other.

Upon entering the room , I find Roger and his mate Misa on the couch in serious discussion over something, they are too into it to even notice me entering the room. I settle on one end of the long couch, carefully to not disturb them.

It takes them few more minutes to notice someone else's presence in the room, they both look at me at the same time, their confused expressions now turning into shy ones, both of them holding something that looks like a tray.

I continue to look at them with the same amused look until Roger decides to speak.

" Seb! What do you think? " Roger asks lifting the tray in his hands, for me to get a better view." Which one do you think suits more ?"

Both of their attention directed towards me now.

The one in Roger's hands is a rose gold one with details at the ends which makes it more attractive whereas the one in Misa's hands is a yellowish gold one with no design on it making it look plain.

Despite my clear favor for the rose gold, I chose to stay out of their banter.

" I am not really good with this stuff. " I answer holding back my smile in.

Roger gives me that knowing look while Misa just sighs and places the tray aside. Now they are looking at each other intently with a quivering seriousness, which makes me tense for what's gonna happen next until they breakout into laughter.

The tension in my nerves morphes into bewilderment, despite the amusement of the whole situation I find myself smiling at them. Honestly you can never really understand what goes on between them, maybe that's how it is with mates. It's like they spoke in the language only they know.

Roger is my close- well! my only friend in the pack, he turned eighteen the following week I did. As the alpha's son, he took up the responsibilities of the pack and  found his mate, Misa.

She's a girl from the pack, I remember her as the silent girl from my class, I talked to her on few occasions before I changed schools. Even though Roger is younger than me, he found his mate before me but I'm honestly happy for him.

There isn't any certain rule that you should find your mate as soon as you turn eighteen, some found it weeks later and some after months.

Which leaves me with a hope that I am going to meet them soon, I might be lying if I say I'm not at all worried. I'm excited for it but not desperate to find them immediately.

I don't want to lose my mind and run after the fact that I haven't found my mate, cause things seem to run away farther when you want them more. I didn't want it.

The doorbell brings me back to the world. Alpha with other members on their heels are rushing towards the door to open it indicating the guests might have arrived.

Roger checks everything once again before rushing towards them standing beside Luke. Everyone  seemed to move at once while I stayed still at my spot not knowing what to do. Should I go with them to greet the guests or should I leave, while Luke did invite me here, but he didn't say if I can stay for dinner or not.

What if he just invited me to arrange things for the gathering and not to the actual gathering?

I don't know but even if he did, I don't think it's appropriate for me to stay for it since it's an intimate one. I don't want to be invasive. I make my way to the kitchen so I can exit through the backdoor.

The kitchen is crowded. The main chef and other maids work their way through keeping the dishes hot and Savoury. I manage to make my way towards the door amidst them. I quickly grab the handle to pull it but it stays as firm as ever.

Looks like it is struck since they don't use it frequently. I use some more strength to pull it harder this time. Nope. I will try again harder. Nada.

I should give up and just stay here.

I turn around to find the kitchen empty now, as they might have left to serve the guests. I sit on one of the kitchen stools. The delicious smell of the dishes still lingers in the air which makes me a little hungry.

The workers might know how to open the door, I just need to wait for them to return and then I can get out of here. I take out my phone from the pockets to pass the time in the meantime.

The chatter in the other room is faintly audible, Luke's voice being the loudest of all. A loud knock on the door makes the chatter stop, maybe someone else is joining them for dinner,I turn my attention to the phone, before I get to do anything else.

It hits me.

A very strong scent fills my nerves hugging me from all the sides making my wolf stir wildly within along with me in anticipation. I can sense it, I can feel it happening.

Mate- Venus shouts confirming my suspicions are true.

I'm already on my feet heading towards the scent, my feet take me to the living room where everyone's gathered. I stop when I see the crowd there.

My eyes search frantically among the crowd to get any glimpse of my mate, my eyes meet everyone in the room in hopes of them already looking at me, but only disappointment hurls in when none of them meet mine. The room is filled with members of my own pack and some other wolves I don't know but it's not hard to guess they're from the other pack who are invited today. The same way I searched every room in the house despite my anxiety raising up every time I walked into a new room with people I don't know. The one activity I avoided at all costs in these kinds of gatherings. I completed searching everywhere.

Still no sight of my mate.

We searched every room except one  - Venus chips in.

There's one room left where the families of two alphas are dining in.

I purposely left the room out considering the chances of finding my mate there, are the least. There's only Luke's family,who are already ruled out and the other alpha and his son with whom my chances of being their mate are almost zero. Also walking into a room where people are dining in is very inappropriate and rude. It puts my ethics at peril, so I am against it.

The scent is still very strong reminding us once again that my mate is still in this place. This is the closest I have gotten to finding my mate ever since I could and not being able to find them even when they are in this close proximity is killing me.

The sound of the main door opening brings me back to my senses, someone exiting through it with a jolting speed and closing the door behind them with a loud thud. They are already out the door before I manage to get a peek of them, the scent that is making me insane slowly fading in the air making it obvious that it's my mate.

The hesitance that has been stopping me all along leaves me at once and soon I find myself barging towards the front door despite all the curious eyes on me.

I kept following the scent with my feet stumbling until I reached the middle of the woods. The alarms in my head suddenly go off  with the realisation that now I am in the middle of the forest. Alone.

My unusual fear of this place raising my anxiety by every heart beat but it also mixed with some excitement in the anticipation of my mate, my mind begging me to get out of the forest but my body and heart had other plans.

My feet started moving on their own taking much deeper into the woods until they stopped at the sight of Him.

It's HIM.

It's a HIM.

It's a guy.

My mate.

He is facing towards the other side, towards the stream. Even from a distance I can figure some of his features, he is tall, very tall. His shoulders are broad making his entire frame much more big, like an alpha.

Wait! Is he an alpha?

Is he- is he the alpha's son?

No way.

All the thoughts leave my head disappearing into the air when he turns around facing me.

Before I can decipher on doing anything further my body starts moving towards him as if it has a mind of its own and he starts walking towards as well but with slow steps until we are inches apart, his face coming in to complete vicinity.

WOW.

He is utterly handsome. No!that wasn't even the word, unreal. He looks like someone you can only see in your dreams, only where utter perfection exists, he belongs there.

I raise my head to meet his hazel eyes looking straight into mine. His stoic expression now changed into something I can only make out as anticipation , he is anticipating me to take the remaining steps to vanish the space between us.

So I did.

Wrapping my arms around him with my everything as every inch of skin basked in his scent and warmth. It only enhances when he wraps his arms around me in return making the feeling complete.

I want to stay here, Forever.

___________________________

The moment I thought I would be cherishing forever now feels like a fever dream.

Honestly if someone had told me that day that I would be crying thinking about the same moment in a dimly lit room, I would've fought them.

It's not that I dismissed the possibility of little flights and small differences in our relationship but what I just didn't think would be this soon, our first fight and might be our last.

Before everything might come to an end.

Enough with the depressing thoughts - Venus tries to soothe me but I can feel the strain in his tone, I know how hard this might be on him.

" Seb! " Mom calls me with a soft knock on the door carefully enough to not frighten me suddenly.

I drag myself from the bed taking the blanket attached to my hip along with me to open the door.

" You are already up? " She asks in a whisper with a fond smile on her face, I nod my head before pressing a kiss on her forehead. " Roger is here to meet you" she says pointing down stairs.

" Oh! Is he ? " I crook my head a little to get a peek of the living room, he is sitting there on the couch, only his head is visible from here, if it was any other day I would have jolted towards him with excitement in whatever condition I am in, but I can't show up like this now, my eyes are probably puffy from all the crying last night, the last thing I want now is to make him concerned.

So I decide to stay back and wash my face and change into a fresh outfit before I go downstairs.

He looks up at me, already waving his hand like crazy , so I run towards him taking his hand before it falls off from the force he is waving with and pulling me into a bear hug.

Roger is the only friend I am genuinely happy meeting every time. He has this childish innocence to him which is rarely seen in people here, everyone else looks like plotting something in their heads while smiling at you.

" My name is Roger in case you forgot." He starts with his usual sarcasm separating from the hug and stretching his hand for a hand shake.

I take his hand, " well! It goes the same for you Mr. Roger. I am Sebastian, in case you also forgot. " I counter playing along.

He looks at me with offensive eyes. " I am not the one who ran off to a new pack and did not return for another three months after finding my mate. "

He says putting me in the spot.

" Now that's- , okay! I am the culprit, I agree. " I admit raising both my arms  in the air in defeat. He laughs in triumph.

" That's okay though, you are the Luna afterall." He says, the title makes me swell with pride. I wanted to be many things but Luna was not definitely one of them but it's one thing that made me feel complete, like I always was meant to be one.

" How are you doing and Misa! How is she? " I ask about their well being since it's been many days since I saw them. I met Alpha Luke a couple of times in the pack meetings with Caleb but not another member of the pack including Roger.

" She's fine and mom keeps asking about you, You should visit her sometime" He replies with a smile on his face. Luna Rose has always been fond of me, she treated me like her own child, I owe a lot to them.

" Misa asked me to invite you over for some tea and If you didn't budge she insisted that I even go as far as kidnapping you, I even brought some witch's sedative potion with me. " He says too seriously to even consider it as joking, I heard they have shifted to their own place recently while I was away and considering it would be my first time visiting their place,it would be rude to reject their invitation even though I have no strength in me to go anywhere.

" No such threats please, I'll go " I reply feigning a fearful look.

" Thought so " He counters keeping back the glass bottle into his pockets.

We both make our way towards the door after saying our byes to my mom, we fall into our usual conversations including a vast variety of topics until  we reach their place.

It is a nice place with decent interiors, walls covered in a monotonous grey tone with black detailings on them giving it a classy look and with a very minimal furniture making the place tidy and we'll keep it. Roger directs me to one of the couches before he disappears into the kitchen and returns along with Misa.

" Hi! Hi! " Misa greets in her usual chirpy tone making her way to give me a side hug. " Hey! " I greet her back with the same energy.

" Took you long enough to visit us Seb. " She comments making me click my tongue in guilt, after three of us got seated. Both of them are close enough to have the minimal physical contact and I completely understand the necessity of it better than previous instances as now I have my own mate.

The memory of him bitter on my mind.

" Honestly how are you doing and I  can't wait to hear about your mate, Tell me all about him, what he likes and how he treats you, tell us everything. " She says with clear excitement in her voice.

I just chuckle in response not knowing where to start. " Uhm... He's a great guy, a bit serious but we get along well " I reply, raising my head to look at them only to meet with expectant looks from them which genuinely confused me. Am I supposed to say more?  " And..." They both say in unison.

" And? " I repeat their words hoping they would ask me clearly only to be met with disappointed looks. It clicks.

" Oh! And he treats me well " I redeem my answer making their faces filled with a satisfied smile.

" That's good." Misa says to pat my shoulder before getting up to get us some coffee. Roger fills me in on the recent pack drama in the meanwhile when Misa calls him from the kitchen.

" Yeah babe, coming" he gets up as soon as possible making his way to her.

Babe.. The endearing term sounds so foreign to my ears, He will never call me that. Fuck! He doesn't even call me with my nickname instead he uses my full name too, even that rarely happens. Maybe I don't have the fortune of getting called like that in this lifetime.

We chat some more over the tea before I decide to tell them my goodbye as it's almost nearing lunch time.

" Next time you need to be here with your mate, okay? "  Misa says already planning for the next time.

" We will "

" I will make sure of it " Roger chimes with a mischievous smile, standing up to walk me out, when we are almost near the door he stops me by nudging my shoulder a little, I look back to see his concerned eyes. Fuck did he find out...

"Seb! Is everything okay? "

Shit.

" Umm.. yeah! Why? "

" Nothing, it's just that- , it's just that I don't see your mark and I know it's very personal but I just wanted to check. "

Oh..I know where he is coming from, most of the werewolves mated in their first month of finding their mates, some waited to get to know each other until the second but more than that is rare, it's not that it is a rule, it's just unusual.

" We just thought it would be better if we get to know each other well before we complete our bond, for.. you know to lay a concrete foundation for a strong relationship and all " I say as sounding as casually as possible but damn did it tear through my to get each word out.

" I know, I know " He says way too quickly by nodding his as if he is agreeing with every word but I know he is just afraid that he might have said something offensive. He stays silent for the next few seconds before starting again.

" I know what Leo is like , he is a very private guy , he used to maintain his distance from everyone except from very few friends even in the academy and you are not much different either so I guess it works for you guys that way. "

" You both attended the same academy? "

" We did, I thought you already knew that, he didn't tell you? "

" Of course, he probably did. It might have slipped my mind " I try to answer in my most convincing tone.

" I'd better get going now before I start getting calls from mom. I'll see you soon." I take my leave before I have to make up some more lies than I did.

I wanted to laugh, with all the revelations I had in the past two days , I realised I know nothing about him and we know nothing about each other. Wow... So much for getting to know each other. My path back fills with the same depressive thoughts, now with a few more adding onto them.

I reach my doorstep just at the right time to be greeted by my mom, she hurriedly ushers me in without a word and my heart almost stops to see the man himself in there.

"LEO."