I wake up feeling super excited because today is a special day. I can’t believe today is my birthday and I finally turn 18. I quickly freshen up and walk downstairs to have breakfast. I walk downstairs to find mom making breakfast in the kitchen. I am sure she is making my favourite. Mom and I don’t live in the pack house. We are from the Dark moon pack.

“Good morning dear” Mom says once I walk into the kitchen

“Good morning mom” I say taking a seat on the kitchen stool

Mom is actually not my birth mother. My parents died after I was born so I know nothing about them. I still love her like I would love my real mother because she is the only parent I have.

“Are you excited to be turning 18 today” She says placing a plate of chocolate pancakes in front of me, my favourite.

“Thank you” I say for the breakfast “And of course I am excited to be turning 18, if we were humans I can finally leave your house so that you can’t control me anymore”

“Good thing we are not”

“Even if we were I could never leave you alone” I say pulling her in for a hug

“I love you too dear” She says hugging me. While releasing from our hug, a car horn is heard from outside and that would mean my ride is here. I quickly kiss mom goodbye and walk outside to meet my boyfriend.

“You didn’t even touch your breakfast” Mom says, as I am walking out

“I will be late, bye” I say before I walk out the door.

“Hello, Beautiful” Matt says once I step outside. He is standing outside, beside his car

“Hey, handsome” I say walking up to him. He pulls me in for a kiss once I get close to him.

“Happy birthday” He says and hands me a box

“Thank you and what did you get for me” I say, excited to see what he got. I open it to reveal a pair of diamond hoop earrings.

“Do you like them?”

“I love them, thank you” I say, pulling him in for a hug

“You are welcome”

I know dating as a werewolf is wrong but I don’t have a choice. Mom has forbidden be from accepting my mate when I meet him so I don’t have a choice but to have a relationship with a human. It’s the only chance I am allowed to get at happiness. I don’t know why mom believes I should be with a human rather than my mate. I have tried asking her but she has never given me a reasonable reason other than it’s the only way to keep me safe.

After a few minutes of driving matt drops me off at school. I go to a university here in our city. Mom would never allow me to school somewhere else. If she even had her way, she would prefer I wouldn’t go to school. She does not believe there is a need for a werewolf to have a degree. I wish to be a reporter even though I am a werewolf and I don’t believe any knowledge is useless even if I don’t become a reporter one day. Matt does not go to college and does not plan too. He is from a wealthy family so his future is already covered for him as a human.

I walk inside the school building to start my day after I kiss matt goodbye.

“Are you sure you have thought this through” Chloe says while she lies down on my bed.

I got back from school a few hours ago. My best friend, Chloe and I are getting ready for my birthday party at Matt’s house. Mom hates when kids dirty our house so we are having the party at matt’s house. His house is also bigger so it’s better.

“Yes, I have. We have been dating for two years and I feel it’s only right that I give myself to him” I plan to have my first time tonight with Matt. We have been dating since my junior year in high school. Matt has been so patient with me and never once tried to force me to give myself to him.

“What about your mate? How do you think he would feel that you have given yourself to a human” Chloe is also a werewolf like me.

“A mate I am forbidden to be with by my mom, and for all we know he might have already slept with someone too” I actually wish he has because when I meet him, it will give me a reason to be angry at him and maybe make it easier to reject him.

“I don’t know why your mom forbid you from been with the one destined for you. Even though she says it for your own safety I rather be with my mate than suffer in pain forever”

A lot of werewolves don’t survive well without their mate. Some die while others become rogue.

“She is my mom; she knows what’s best for me”

“I guess she does and I still think you should keep yourself for your mate.”

“I know you want that but I feel Matt deservers me”

“Okay, whatever you say” She says, giving up all hope of convincing me.

After putting on my outfit, a pink sequin bodycon dress and applying my make-up we leave for the party. We arrive after a few minutes of driving and the place is packed with teenagers. I feel like I am late to my own party. We step out of her car and walk inside. Once we are inside Chloe and I go separate ways. I try to find Matt. I see him drinking close to the DJ with a couple of his friends from high school.

“Hello baby girl” Matts says, putting his arms around me and pecks my cheeks “You look beautiful as always” He says whispering into my ears over the loud music

“Thank you” I say wrapping my arms around him.

“Come on, let dance” He says, walking us an area in the living room where people are practically having sex with clothes on and they call it dancing.

An hour or so has gone by and things are going great. The party is amazing and all my friends both human and werewolf are here. Matt left to do something and it’s been awhile since I saw him. I decide to look for him around the house. I check all the rooms upstairs in case he slept off while looking for the bathroom but I don’t find him. I almost give up but remember that I did not check his parent’s room. Matt usually locks his parent’s room during his parties to avoiding anyone going in to have sex on his parents bed or going in to spoil or steal something value.

I don’t knock on the door before entering because if it’s open only Matt would inside and I am not wrong. The only thing I did not think about was Matt having sex with someone else.

“Matt!” I shout, shocked he would do this to me. I can’t believe he is sleeping with another girl on my birthday. How could he do this to me?

“Ana, it’s not what you think” Matt says, coming off on top of the girl who I don’t know.

“It’s not what I think” I say, feeling my voice crack a little because I am about to start crying. I can’t believe I was foolish enough to want to give him my virginity tonight.

“It’s not what you think, I can explain” He says, walking towards me and tries to touch me with the same filthy hands he used on that girl.

“Don’t you dare touch me” I say as tears flow down my eyes.

I don’t waste another second in the room and run out before he sees me crying. He does not deserve my tears for him. I hear him calling my name but I act like my ears are not working and continue walking. I don’t stop walking even when I reach outside. I don’t want to be anywhere close to him so I just continue walking till my legs can’t go anymore.

I stop walking after what feels like about two hours. I think its two hours because before my phone died a minute ago it’s been five hours since I arrived at the party. I probably sure Chloe is worried sick about me and mom too. I don’t know how far away from the house I walked but I believe pretty far because I can’t even mind link Chloe. I decide to start walking back to the house the way I remember but I am sure which way I came. I was crying the whole walk and only stopped a few minutes ago. Everywhere around me are just long trees and I think I am lost. I just continue walking hoping to find somewhere I can charge my phone or someone to lend me theirs. I suddenly feel tired so I decide to take a break beside a little pond, big mistake of my life.

While I am trying to get comfortable beside the pond, I hear ruffling in the woods and once I take in their scent I don’t need to be told to know they are rogue. They smell really horrible and always look almost dead and that’s how the three in front of me look like right now. I quickly shift into my wolf and get ready for attack. My wolf is a beautiful white wolf called Eva. I can feel her getting ready to rip these rogue into shreds with her sharp teeth.

‘It’s been awhile since you let me out’ Eva says

‘That’s because you refused to talk to me for two years’

‘And whose fault is that’

‘I can’t believe you stopped talking to me because I started dating Matt’

‘As much as I would love to argue with you my precious human, we have company that look like they will kill us any minute’

‘Later’ I say and try to focus our attention at the threat at hand

I am not the best wolf at combat but I will never back down from a fight and as feisty as Eva is she won’t either. There are three rogues circling me, the one by my right attacks first. He tries to grab my shoulder with his teeth but I move away before he cans. I thought I was getting the upper hand until I realize I just severed myself to the rogue by the left. He catches my left shoulder in its mouth while I try to use my claws to pry it away. I don’t even have enough time to claw the Rogue on my shoulder when the one in the centre attacks me. It captures my paw in his mouth and as its teeth pierces my flesh; a painful scream escapes my mouth. I use my teeth to sink into the neck of the rogue who has his teeth in my paw and fling him away. I am able to fling him into a tree close by and he loses consciousness, one down two to go or so I thought. Suddenly more rogues appear from the woods. I have not even gotten this rogue to leave my shoulder, how am I going to fight all of them. I can see my death already flashing before my eyes but I won’t back down. I will fight till my breath. I use my paw and teeth to remove the rogue from my shoulder. He or she was there for a while and I can feel pain in my shoulder. I fight as many rogues as I can. I think if I survive this I deserve to give myself an award. I feel like they have torn every part of me but I don’t back down. I can’t because if I do they will eat me. I am about to attack another rogue when the most intoxicating scent drifts through my nose. I don’t know exactly what it scents like but it’s a mixture of the forest when it rains and sand when it rains. It scents divine to me. Eva suddenly starts becoming distracted from the threat in front of us and focuses on the scent.

‘How can you be focusing on that right now?’ I say but Eva but she just ignores me and tries to find where the scent is coming from.

I don’t get to move anywhere when two rogues put me down. My little conversation with Eva left me distracted and it’s going to get us killed. I try to pry them off but fail miserably because I am already badly injured. I can feel myself slowly slipping away but I hold on and when it seems like all hope is gone. The scent suddenly becomes stronger. The largest wolf I have ever seen in my life appears before us. He is the most beautiful wolf I have ever seen. He is as dark as the night sky. He growls and the ground beneath us shakes with how power he is, he must be an Alpha. The rogues holding me quickly release me and run for their lives. All of them actually run away. I try to get up on my paws but fail, I am badly hurt. He takes careful step towards me and Eva starts dancing in my head. I wonder why she is happy, we were saved but I still feel like we are going to die but understand once the words leaves Eva’s month.

‘Mate’

Before I am able to process the words that Eva said, I start to feel dizzy. The last thing I see is our mate changing back to human form before the darkness takes me away.