The sudden outburst from Charles causes Theo to loosen his grip on my hand. I take this as a chance to run back into the dining hall. I barely catch my breath when I hear dad calling me to his side.

''There she is, my princess.'' He says proudly as I walk to the table where all the Alphas, Lunas and their Beta's are seated.
''Athena, it's good that you've joined us,'' Mom smiles at me warmly and I return a forced smile.

"Everyone, this is my daughter Athena who had been in Toronto for the past eight years, she returned back to us three months ago,'' Dad announces.

''This is Benjamin Reed, Alpha of the Shadow Pack, his beta Andrew Walter and his son Sean who will soon be taking over their pack.'' I smile and nod at all of them.

''It's nice to officially meet you Athena, your father has been talking about you non-stop for the past hour,'' Benjamin laughs and slaps his hand on dad's back playfully.

''It's nice to meet you too,'' I reply in a professional voice as my eyes scan the room.

''I'm afraid my wife couldn't make it to the ceremony, she had matters to attend to,'' He adds as he catches my line of sight. ''ohh, that's too bad, I would've loved to meet her, do pass my regards to her.''

''Will do, girly. I'm sure Emily would've loved to meet you too,'' He says with a smile.

"Next we move to Ashton Walker, Alpha of the Eclipse Pack and his Luna Olivia Walker. ''It's a pleasure to meet you Athena,'' She says in a sweet honey-like voice,''you're incredibly beautiful'' she adds.

I smile and return the compliment. She seems like a sweet woman, could be about 4-5 years older than me. ''You should come by Eclipse pack sometime and we can sit, have some tea and talk. I raise my eyebrows at the mention of tea, she chuckles slyly and says ''or wine, we can drink and talk over wine.''
I laugh in agreement and say, ''definitely wine.''

I also meet their beta Maxwell and soon Ethan joins us, I hug him and congratulate him as he kisses my forehead in return, causing everyone to aww at us.

''Now there is only one other Alpha I need you to meet, but I can't seem to find him,"Dad says.

I instantly know who he is talking about. 'it's okay dad maybe some other time,'' I say softly and excuse myself from the group.
~~~
''What the hell dude!!'' you completely ruined my moment man,'' I hiss at Charles as he looks at me with mirth. ''You found her, dude you found her! Finally,'' he exclaims.

''Yeah and she ran away because of you in case you didn't notice'' I state. ''Theo, brother, chill, she couldn't have gone far, this is her brothers' party; calm down will go find her don't worry,'' he says in a whispered tone.
''The only thing I'm worried about is her not wanting to go with me, I saw the look in her eyes Charles, I can't leave her here now that I've found her. You have no idea of the rage I felt when that guy had his arms around her. I wanted to rip his arms off his body for touching her.'' I say with venom in my voice.

''You've only met her once and you're this possessive about her,'' He chuckles while shaking his head. I give him a look that shuts him up and continue.,''you've no idea how it felt when I first laid my eyes on her, she is exquisite man, and her scent; bloody hell she smells like wildflowers and blueberries with a subtle hint of passion fruit.'' I say as I imagine her perfect face and her soft skin when I held her hand.
''whoooaaa man you're whipped!'' Charles exclaims as he slaps my back. '' come on, let's go inside and make your mate uncomfortable, what say?''

''Don't you even dare do that Charles, I don't want to scare her.'' I threaten him. ''oh come on man, a little fun did no one no harm.'' He winks at me and goes inside the dining hall as I follow him shaking my head.
~~~
I sense him before I can even see him and know that he is in the room. I try to get out of the hall but Mom comes forward and latches her arm in mine and drags me towards him. ''Theo, it's nice to see you again, how is Lila? Do pass my regards to her.'' Mom says sweetly, a little too sweetly if you ask me and I look at her skeptically.

''Allow me to introduce my daughter Athena; honey this is Alpha Theo from the Crescent pack, the biggest and the strongest pack in this region and this is his beta Charles,'' She gestures towards them.

''Hello,'' I say politely and put on the fakest smile. I notice Charles smirking at me and I shoot him a glare.

''Ah I see you've met!'' Dad says excitedly as he joins in the conversation. 'great let's add Ethan to the mix and make it a big family affair' I thought as I roll my eyes in annoyance and catch Theo looking at me in amusement.

I chose to ignore him and his ridiculously good looking face and try to make a move when Ethan joins us. 'great, just great!

''What's happening here, are we having a family moment?'' he inquires.

''No this is not a family moment Ethan; can't you see that there are others' present here too!'' I snap at him emphasizing on the word 'others' and gesturing towards Theo and Charles.

''okay, okay calm your horses down Ena, I was just asking.'' He says raising his hands up in mock surrender. ''I need to go and umm check on dessert.'' I say and this time I say it in confidence so that a certain someone doesn't catch my lie and excuse myself but not before catching the looks on Theo and Charles' faces, it seems like they are planning on making me uncomfortable for the rest of the night, well two can play a game or in this case, three. 'Game on boys' I think to myself and muster up the evilest smirk I could.

I walk out to the dining area and see Axel by the dessert bar, I do a quick check to see if the other are coming out and sure enough I see Ethan, my parents, Theo and Charles. 

I see Theo's eyes scanning for me and I quickly duck and hide behind Benjamin who towers like a giant compared to everyone else. I walk up to Axel and give him a nervous smile.

I know what I'm about to do is considered selfish and insensitive but I cannot let those two get away with it, believe it or not I am a prideful person and they hit me right where it hurts with their little game.

"Hi," I say softly.

"Hey there, bored of your mate already?" He asks obnoxiously. I chose to ignore his snide remark and concentrate on the task at hand.

"Axel," I sigh heavily, I needed him to execute this, so I have to choose my words carefully.

"Before everything that happened between us we were friends, even before I left and I'm hoping that we still are. I just don't want any hard feelings between us. So I come here asking for your help and if you ever considered me your friend I'd really like it if you'd help me out," I conclude.

He remains silent for a while as he contemplates my offer. After a long pause he nods his head and says, "what do I have to do?"

I smirk as I look at him and say, "oh nothing much, just dance with me."

As we walk to the dance floor all eyes are on us especially a certain pair of light brown eyes that seem to bore holes in my skull.The DJ puts on some soulful music and we begin slow dancing.

"This is nice," Axel says, "I've always imagined us dancing like this,although the situation is different from what I had pictured." He concludes as more people join us and soon  nearly half of the crowd is on the dance floor including Ashton and Olivia who flashes me a smile.

I give him one of my well practiced laughs knowing perfectly well that Theo is listening in to this very conversation.

As we turn and swirl,my eyes lock with Theo's, they hold an insane amount of anger and jealousy as he glares at Axel's back who says something but I zone him out as I continue my stare off contest with Theo.

Axel stops all of a sudden and let's go off  me,he looks  between Theo and I and puts two and two together. "So that's why you asked me to dance with you!" He whisper-shouts. "You just wanted to  make him jealous,well guess what Athena you may have succeeded there but you just lost yourself a friend." He says venomously and leaves me in the middle of the dance floor gobsmacked.

I'm about to follow him  when someone grabs my wrist and pulls me to him.I roll my eyes at Theo as his hold amusement in them. "I have to go after him, let go of me." I say.

"You know I can't do that love," he says with a small smile playing on his face as I widen my eyes at his nickname for me. "Besides it's rude to leave a lady stranded on the dance floor,especially someone as beautiful as you." He remarks and I scoff.

"Did i mention how ravishing you look tonight?" He asks with a raise of his eyebrows.

"What in the world...." I scoff again. "Don't you get tired of these cheesy compliments?"

"Absolutely not,especially if it's my mate whom I'm showering with compliments," He says confidently and I hear a gasp of shock near us.

"Ena..."I hear Ethan say making me turn to look at him guiltily. I see him dancing with Melanie who seems to want to glue herself to my brother. He politely let's go off her and comes closer to us.

"Athena, is what I just heard true?" He asks calmly. I look at him but don't say anything.

"Athena answer me God damn it." He whisper yells and Theo moves into a protective stance next to me. He stares at this action and rubs a hand through his face. "We need to tell mom and dad" he states.I nod solemnly and say "I know."

"At the house, when all this is over and don't try to weasel your way out of this one Athena,"he says in a warning tone and I nod solemnly.

It  may have looked like I won this round,but it most certainly didn't feel like it. I dejectedly leave the dance floor as Theo attempts to follow me. " I need some space to think please,"I say and  he politely obliges and backs off.

I walk to the daffodil fields and lean against a huge boulder as I stare at the sky.My life has completely overturned in the past 24 hrs. This was not supposed to happen,it was not part of the plan.My life is totally messed up.

A shuffling sound breaks me from my trance and I turn to see Ethan coming towards me. "I want to be alone,go away"  I say.

He ignores me and leans against the boulder next to me. "Why didn't you tell me Ena?" He says dejectedly "I just found out a few hours ago ,I just couldn't walk in during the ceremony and tell you,could I?" I question as I look at him and he nods.

"What will you do now Ena? You have to tell them and soon too,you will have to leave with Theo tonight." He suddenly says as he realizes the gravity of the situation. I look at him as tears start brimming in my eyes. "I'm not ready for this Ethan" I sniff.

"We never are Ena." He sighs and pulls me into a hug and places a kiss on my temple.

"Come on, its time" he says as we turn to look back and see the pack house almost empty save for a few people here and there. I force a smile and we walk towards where I see Theo standing with Charles in a distance.

***
Thoughts??
-Jessica.S