Chapter 8.

*****

"What are they wearing?" Ashton asked confused as we watched another group of people in weird colourful robes walk by us.

"Probably costumes." Ben frowned.

I jabbed my elbow hard into his side when we received a glare from one of the older people that were not walking around in robes and was standing closer to the recreation centre's entrance doors. Ben coughed before he shot me a glare.

'Just be quiet before you offend someone.' I linked to him. The robes were confusing, but I was certain they had something to do with the mate ceremony and were most likely not costumes.

"Hey, guys." I looked at Richard as he jogged up to us in a shirt and pair of shorts that were covered in patterns, though these were different from the patterns I had seen on the earlier robes.

"Um... What are you wearing?" Tamia asked politely.

"Oh. This is traditional wear. It shows everyone who's in the ceremony and also points out our ranks. That's why I'm the only person wearing red." He said glancing down at his attire before motioning to other people around us.

"Traditional wear. Oh." Ben nodded. "It looks weird." Another elbow had Ben jumping before he attempted to retaliate but I grabbed his fist, opening it and trying to make it look like we were shaking hands. Richard's just stared at us questioningly.

"Good luck," I said lifting our hands as I did. I let Ben's hand go. 'Just because it's weird doesn't mean you have to say it. We've annoyed everyone enough.' I linked to him before speaking to Richard, "With the mating and everything."

He chuckled. "I know it seems a little weird, but the packs around here actually all do the same. To us, your pack is a little weird." He said.

"Of course, but..." I drifted. Is all of this traditional wear really necessary? Everyone already knew who everyone else was. And earlier I noticed a few of their elders gathering in front of one house for some reason. "I get it." Not really.

"We –"

"Beta! We need you with the elders." Someone called.

"I have to go. If you have any questions, there are some books in the library that explain this. Or you could ask anyone around here."

"Okay." I nodded patting his shoulder before he ran off with the man that had called for him.

'Alpha, do you think we can go sightseeing?' Ashton linked to me.

I looked at my sister to find her looking as confused as I felt. I was hoping she would help me make a choice. Would Karabo mind if we left? I had not seen him since our run that morning. I had had another nightmare so we took a jog and when we returned he disappeared to handle pack work and set-up for the day. He probably would not mind. We did not have anything to do with the ceremony anyway.

"Excuse me, when does the ceremony finish?" I asked a couple of random teenagers I spotted.

They looked surprised before one answered, "Probably at twelve, when the moon's high." She said.

"Thank you." I gave them a smile before looking at my friends questioningly. They nodded knowing what I was asking without me having to speak.

We left Karabo's pack and made our way to the city.

"They're really odd." Ashton said once we were walking down a street in a town crowded with humans.

"They are." Tamia agreed, "Do you think our pack will have to do the ceremony if you mate with Karabo?"

"I don't know, I haven't thought about it."

"What have you thought about?" Ashton asked looking curious. I shrugged. Nothing. All I had thought about was Karabo, not what we were going to do when we mated, what would happen afterwards.

"Well, you have to think about it sometime. If you two mate, our packs will merge." Tamia said.

"If we merge, who's going to be Alpha?" Ben asked.

"Eli, he's stronger and we're the bigger pack." I shook my head slowly at what Ashton said.

"There's no way an Alpha would step down. No way." I would have to be killed before letting someone else lead my pack, I did not care whether I was mated to them and I was sure Karabo felt the same as an Alpha.

"So what will happen?"

"I don't know. It's too complicated and I'm not in the mood to think about it." I waved my hands before turning so that I was walking backwards and facing my friends. I grinned. "Let's do something fun! We're supposed to be on holiday." I said.

"Are you okay?" Tamia asked me.

I nodded and she nodded back. "Bungee jumping?" She asked.

We began laughing. Those two words were banned from our household back home, and our Dad would say no before we even suggested it. Something about it being dangerous. He would always glare at our Paps while he told us no and Paps would pretend to focus on whatever he had in his hands or look out of a window like the empty blue sky suddenly became incredibly interesting to him.

I knew Tamia was just jokingly suggesting it but I stopped and stared at her seriously. Her eyes widened.

"You seriously want to do it?" She asked. "But Dad will kill us..." I smirked.

"Well, what Dad doesn't know won't make him livid," I replied. Our Dad was so protective and got overly worried about everything we did that was even slightly harmful or dangerous. She smiled nervously before nodding.

"If Dad finds out, I'm saying you forced me." That made me chuckle, I was pretty sure I had been corrupting her our entire lives...

"Let's do it." Ben agreed. We looked at Ashton and he grinned.

"I'm in."

"We never mention this when we get home," I said seriously. Dad was a lot stricter than Paps when it came to safety, it was funny that sometimes Tamia and I were more afraid of him than our pack's Beta.

We took a taxi to the bungeeing location and I realised I had not texted Karabo to tell him we had left when my phone began ringing. I told my friends I would meet them at the top of the bridge and answered his call.

"Hey."

"Hey, where are you?" He asked.

"Uh..." I had no idea what the place was called. I had heard Ashton say it to the taxi driver earlier... Oh well. "Bungee jumping. I forgot to tell you we were leaving." I said, "We'll probably stay at the hotel tonight."

"Because of the ceremony? You know you don't have to be there, right? But... I thought you would be curious." He said.

"I am. It seems interesting, just a little... weird..." I drifted. "I mean, I get the mate finding ceremony but the extra stuff..."

"Weird? Eli, I know you think it's weird, it's new to you, but around here tradition means a lot to every pack. It's a cultural thing." He said, "I thought you wanted to witness the mate ceremony since you've never seen one before?" He added.

"I did, but I'll see it next time, or I'll read about it later. We're only here for a few more days." I said. There was a pause and I wondered if he was busy. That was confirmed when I heard him call out, 'I'll be right there – take this,' and there was shuffling before he spoke to me again.

"Right. I'll see you... tomorrow?" He said sounding uncertain.

"Yeah." I smiled and listened to him hang up before shoving my phone into my pocket and making my way to the top of the bridge.

The jump was fun and I was left wondering why my Dad was against us doing it despite him having done it before. We decided to get lunch afterwards and found one of the vampire sister duo there as we were waiting to order our food.

"You work here?" I asked. She could compel her way into any job and she worked there?

"Yes. What can I get you?" Vanessa asked. She seemed a little tense about being near us but visibly relaxed when I mimicked the grin my sister was giving her and she smiled back at us.

'Ask her where Paige is.'

"Ben wants to know if he can have a page," I said. Ben shot me a glare and despite obviously knowing that I and miss communicated what Ben wanted – I could see her holding back a smile; Vanessa tore a small page from her notebook and handed it to him.

"Thank you." Ben waved his page and looked down annoyed.

We ordered our food and Vanessa left.

'I thought you didn't want to see the vampire again?' I linked to him. Vampires could hear almost as well as werewolves could.

'I don't.' He replied.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the page from his hand before I pulled a pen from my pocket and wrote on it.

"That's my page." Ben hissed at me. I side-glanced at him wondering why the page mattered so much to him but I did not give it back.

"You're not a snake," Tamia replied.

"I can hiss if I want to." Ben said, "Do we have to eat here? What if she tries to feed on us?" His eyes shifted towards the kitchen and I took it that he had said that for not just us to hear.

"We're four. She's one." Ashton said.

"She'll figure it out. Vampires are cunning." He replied.

"We are, you should be worried. You werewolves are pretty weak." Vanessa's voice came from the kitchen. It sounded like a mutter. She couldn't tell that we were hiding most of our strength. We were stronger than she was, even on our own.

"Try me," Ben replied.

"No." I glared at him seriously. He nodded and linked an apology to me.

I wrote more on the page and then we all settled into discussing where we were headed next like Ben had not just tried to pick a fight with a vampire. When Vanessa brought our drinks she handed them out until she reached Ben's and her hand shook causing half the remaining drink to fall onto his shirt. My jaw dropped a little as Ben let out a surprised yell.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry. I get random spasms." Vanessa did not even try to fake shock and smiled when she finished speaking. Ben growled at her and I grabbed his wrist seeing the few people in the restaurant turn to us at the noise.

I saw Ben smirk and before I could figure out what he was thinking he grabbed Vanessa's wrist and pulled his hand back. She immediately let out a pained cry and stumble back out of the sun.

Ben placed her bracelet on the centre of the table in the sunlight and she glared at him while he smirked back at her.

"Take it, Vanessa." He said.

"Ben." Tamia glared at him.

"She's a vampire." He hissed.

"S –"

Ben let out a shout as something fell onto him before he ripped his shirt off and jumped from his seat, I followed him narrowly missing the wolfsbane Vanessa had tossed on him. I grabbed both their wrists to keep them apart. Sun and wolfsbane. Vampires couldn't survive sunlight without the help of a witch, and wolfsbane could basically kill werewolves. Were they trying to kill each other?

"Okay. Just calm down." I spoke, "Compel them." I instructed while nodding my head towards the shocked people that had just watched Ben and I disappear from the seat and onto our feet. Tamia and Ashton nodded and moved to the people quickly.

I let Ben and Vanessa go and grabbed Vanessa's bracelet before handing it back to her. She snatched it from my hand and I almost rolled my eyes. Why was she acting like I took it from her? I turned to glare at Ben but stopped as an idea popped into my mind and then smiled grabbing Vanessa's wrist gently again. She tried to pull away from me but could not. I looked into her eyes and held up my note.

"Give this to Paige. Take a walk with him. No fighting." I said. Ben was confused as Vanessa nodded and took the note from my hand. I grabbed Ben's face and his eyes shot wide as I smirked.

"Buy a shirt. Take a walk with her. No fighting." I looked between them and stepped back allowing some space for them to walk by me and I smiled.

"Did you just compel Ben to walk with her?" Tamia asked once she had done her share of compelling the people in the restaurant.

"What better way to make them bond?" I gave her a smile that she didn't return. "Come on, Tammy. It'll work, trust me." She sighed as I grinned.

"You're just too lazy to deal with them properly," Ashton said.

"Me? Lazy? No." I shook my head. "I was doing him a favour, he needs to talk to his mate." I moved to the booth next to our previous one taking my drink with me and my sister and Ashton joined me.

"You realise he's going to be completely pissed at you when he figures out he's been compelled?" Tamia asked.

"He'll thank me for fixing him with his mate. Even if it is weird..." I drifted. She gave a humourless half-laugh and I frowned. "Aren't you supposed to be the optimist here?"

"Aren't you supposed to be smart?" She replied. "This is going to end badly." She said shaking her head. Guess she left her optimism at home. Though, her saying that left me slightly annoyed because more often than not, she turned out to be right.

"I want to swim. Let's go to the beach!" Ashton interrupted us and I narrowed my eyes at my sister. She returned the look before smiling at her mate.

"The beach sounds good." She said. They looked at me and I shrugged.

Sure.

*****