Love Bites

“Scarlet Rose Wrett, you come down this minute or you’re grounded for a month.” My mother’s familiar voice shouted up the stairs.

Oops, that meant she had been calling me for some time now. Groaning, I paused Netflix and left the comfy sanctuary of my bed to go downstairs.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Scarlet Rose Wrett- as you already know. I am 21 years old, yes, I know I am old. Don’t need to rub it in anymore.

My pack is called Red Moon Pack.

My dad is the retired Beta, which is the second in command. I have one older brother called Jake. He is 26 and his mate Maria is 25. Jake has just become the next beta, taking over from my dad.

The Alpha also stepped down and gave his position to his son, David. He is 27 and his mate Jenny is 25. I also have one younger brother- Matthew. He is only 8 years old and is super cute. Although Jake and I know that Matthew was 100% an accident, we won’t tell him, yet.

When he’s older, however, we will tease the shit out of him! Right now, we’re just good older siblings. Matthew is the one I spend most of my time with since Jake is busy with his own duties. Oh, and my best friend Aria, of course.

Aria’s dad is the Alpha King. Well, the temporary one until Aria’s cousin comes back to take his place.

Anyway, my mom spends most of her time looking at werewolf boys for me. You already know that I am 21 and if you hadn’t guessed it before, then I’ll tell you. I still hadn’t found my mate. Most werewolves find their mate when they are 18. If you don’t, it might be because your mate is dead and, in that case, you remain mateless. Many werewolves who this happens to, mate with humans and have a happy life. The other possible reason is that your mate is human, and, in that instance, you have to slowly bring them into our world as it might come as a shock to them.

My mom, however, refused to believe these two reasons and put it down to the fact that I haven’t been out enough and ventured to find my own mate. My mom had, therefore, put the task on herself to find my mate for me, since I don’t leave my house often. I mean who can blame me? My bed is my one true soul mate.

As I walked down the stairs, my mom stood there tapping her foot- something she does when she is really angry. I gulped- What have I done this time? I began wracking my brains for anything I had done wrong in the past few days. My mom isn’t the best person when she is angry. She makes David scared and he is the Alpha. I walked into the living room and as soon as my mom saw me, she dragged me to the sofa and sat me down.

“Scarlet, do you know how long I have been calling you for? What is the point of having heightened senses if you’re not going to use them!”

I grinned sheepishly, “Sorry mom. I was busy.”

Mom raised her eyebrows at me, “Busy? Doing what? Watching Netflix? Enough is enough, you need to get outside. Go for a run, do something. You haven’t found your mate because you are cooped up in your room all day. He could be closer than you think.”

Closer than I think? Surely if that was the case, I would have found him by now. Obviously, I would never say that to mom. She was already angry at me, didn’t need to make her even madder. I just had to appease her.

I replied, “You’re right mom. I need to get out more. From tomorrow, I will go for daily runs, in my human form. That would give me more opportunity to find my mate. I would go today but I have to go and help Aria, but I promise tomorrow I will go out and try to find my mate.”

My mom nodded slowly and got up. “Good. I know you can’t go today; it is a big event tonight.”

Suddenly her eyes gleamed as she said, “Who knows maybe tonight will be your lucky night?”

She smiled at me and kissed the top of my head. Typical.

’Was that it?” I asked.

“There was something else, but you made me mad, so I forgot. If I remember, then I’ll message you.” Mom replied before heading back into the living room.

I sighed. I was so relieved that it was over, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. That was probably because she forgot the real reason, she called me down.

Luckily, I had to leave the house so she could only message me. How mad could she get over text?

The house was so quiet because Matthew was at a camp for the next 2 weeks. I missed that little monster, he always kept mom and dad on their toes.

Lost in my own world as I head upstairs, my eyes drifted over to the clock and I swore. Shit, I was late. These thoughts of mine always make me lose track of time. I was meant to be helping Aria, after all, tonight was a big night for her and everyone else. Without wasting another second, I quickly got dressed and ran out of the house, not even saying bye to mom and jumped into my car.

I sped off, cursing myself for being late. As I was driving, I felt this pit of loneliness inside me. I know that I showed everyone that I didn’t care about not having a mate. That wasn’t true. I wanted to be loved. To have my mate protect me, for him to love me unconditionally and for him to care for me. Seeing my brother happy and my parents happy always made the hole in my heart get bigger. All of them had such good relationships and I was jealous. Was it too much to ask for my mate? Something that every single werewolf looked forward to?

I felt a tear escape and I quickly wiped it away. Mom’s words echoed in my head. Could tonight really be the night? I shook those thoughts away; I didn’t want to get my hopes up unnecessarily. Plus, mom was only saying that to comfort me. I couldn’t let these thoughts distract me anymore. Tonight was meant to be exciting for Aria, I wouldn’t let my sadness bring her mood down.

I parked my car in Aria’s house and walked inside. As usual, I was greeted by the maids and was told Aria was upstairs. I smiled and walked upstairs to Aria’s room. People were rushing past me with loads of things in their hands. I guessed this was for the return of the Alpha King. But when I looked at people’s faces, I saw fear.

I had heard about the Alpha King. His name is Dylan and when he was just 13, a family tragedy occurred. Both of Dylan’s parents were killed by rogues. They were viscously slaughtered, and rumours had it that they were killed in front of Dylan himself.

That tragedy caused him so much grief and hurt that he went on a killing rampage. It was said his wolf lost control and no one had ever seen a wolf so vicious. Dylan only killed men. He always left the women and children, but he killed men who had families as well as single men. Aria’s dad- Henry was the one who put a stop to Dylan’s rampage. It wasn’t easy but he managed to calm Dylan down.

He then decided it was best if Dylan goes away for a while and because Henry was Dylan’s uncle, he had a right to send Dylan away. No one knows where he went. Only Henry does. Henry was the younger brother of Dylan’s mom’s, but it was Dylan’s dad who had the royal blood. Since none of his dad’s family were alive, Henry was given the position of being temporary Alpha King. Dylan also agreed to it before he was sent away.

Aria was Dylan’s cousin and she always said that her dad would never let her know where Dylan went. Shivers went down my spine as I recalled that story. It made me wonder how he would be now. Most people were ready for the rightful king to take his place but it was no secret that they were also worried. Dylan killed once, who’s to say he won’t kill again.

Sighing, I made my way to Aria’s door. Normally, I never knock so today was no different. I opened the door to Aria’s room only to find her sitting on a boy’s lap and having a heated make-out session.

Seriously? This girl. She hadn’t even heard me come in, so I decided to make her aware of my presence.

“Oh my god. Ewwww.” I pretended to gag.

As expected, that got her attention and she quickly broke the kiss, a deep crimson colour flooding her cheeks.

I stood there and raised my eyebrows at her, demanding an explanation for the make-out scene I had just witnessed.