Mated to the cold-blooded Lycan Prince

It was a fine and frisky Friday night in Seattle. The air was filled with excitement and expectation and with every breath, Celeste was filled with more of it.

She could barely hear the music playing in her car. All she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat pounding against her chest. Her breath heaving through her body; long, deep breaths that couldn’t seem to fill her lungs.

She stared at herself through the rear-view mirror, her big green eyes wider than usual. She took a long look at herself. And neither saw a werewolf nor the-girl-next-door. All she saw was herself.

A half-breed misfit who didn’t fit perfectly into any of the communities that she came from. That ended today, she assured herself. Tonight she would finally be accepted by The Highland. It was her destiny.

It was where she belonged. Without the glare of the unapproving elders and the judgemental whispers of all those who disapproved of her mother and now her. It was a new world.

Celeste rolled her shoulders and tried to pull them down from her ears. She pulled her tongue from the roof of her mouth and wiggled her jaw. “Relax,” she whispered to herself.

She smiled first a wide toothy grin that showed off her white shiny teeth. Then a smaller smile with her lips pressed together.

None of it looked natural. It wasn’t natural. It looked wrong and now, under the glaring brightness of the streetlight, even her custom-made red dress looked wrong.

“It’s just the panic,” she nodded to herself. “The dress looks great,” she said. The dress was made specifically to accentuate the curves of her athletic body.

Celeste thought of how wonderful it would all be. She would finally make friends. It was a big deal for someone who had lived 21 years between two worlds that had harshly rejected her.

She stepped out of her Jeep and walked forward against the cool breeze towards the hall. Through the windows, she could see the room teeming with elegantly dressed young people, her people.

Their laughter and indistinct chatter floated above the soft hum of the music. It was warm inside, and she couldn’t wait to be engulfed by the warm embrace of finally belonging.

A smile stretched across her face, excitement, and anxiety fluttering around her belly. She blinked at the threshold, absorbing the moment her life would change forever.

She opened her eyes and felt the warm golden lights on her body. Suddenly, the room fell silent around her. It was as if the entire room had gasped at the same time. Like they were one singular being, and she was an intrusive foreign object.

“I guess they just let anyone in here now,” a blonde girl sniggered.

Her whisper broke the fresh new silence in the room, releasing an eruption of sniggers and whispers.

“I should have seen this coming. Let’s give it some time,” Celeste whispered to herself, nodding awkwardly as she made her way to the snack table.

Her eyes darted across the room, searching for a friendly face in the sea of whispering cliques. Each took a turn to glare at her before whispering and sniggering.

Lilith, the crown princess of the neighboring Adal pack glided across the hall, beaming at her, her arms outstretched. She was the picture of warmth and grace, everything a queen in the making ought to be. A nod from her would surely make her intrusion acceptable, Celeste thought.

“Celeste,” she smiled, folding her into a hug.

“Lilith,” Celeste smiled with relief. “So glad to see you,” she sighed, stepping out of her warm hug.

“Tough crowd, right?” Lilith said, pursing her lips in sympathetic embarrassment.

“Yeah, real tough. I was starting to think no one would talk to me all night,” Celeste confessed.

“Yeah,” Lilith said, looking around the room anxiously. “It can’t be easy, not fitting in.”

There was something about Lilith, an awkwardness she couldn’t place. There was more to this conversation than Lilith just being a gracious host. She had something to say, and neither of them wanted it to come to that.

“And I’m ruining your party,” Celeste admitted.

“Sorry,” Lilith cringed, “Everyone is talking and whispering and it probably sounds really self-centered, but these things still matter to my pack. It’s not fair, but it still matters to many of our people, and having you here it- “

“It makes you look bad,” Celeste sighed.

She was defeated, the little flickers of hope, and excitement extinguished. Even though she had delivered it gracefully, Lilith was asking her to leave, and all eyes were on her again.

“What the hell was she thinking coming here?” Samantha smirked, staring unapologetically at her.

“Thank you,” Celeste smiled awkwardly at Lilith before slowly trying to walk out without causing a scene.

“Sorry,” Lilith whispered before sashaying away into the crowd.

Celeste blinked away her tears, she was humiliated, unwanted, and rejected yet again. But she would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

She walked faster, her heels clicking across the ceramic floor in time with the quickening pace of her heart. It felt as if the music had stopped like the party was on pause until she left.

The hall suddenly felt hot. Through her tears, she dug her nails into her palms and rushed through the doors toward her car. The road home was blurred by her tears and the rising heat of her rage.

***

“You’re home early,” Alexander said, looking up from his book.

“Nothing new, right?” Celeste said, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“You don’t have to put up with it, you know?” Her father offered sympathetically.

Celeste could never hide her feelings from her father. He adored her and could somehow see right through her. He knew her every thought before it was even fully formed. It had been that way since she was a child.

He couldn’t hide from her either. She knew what he was thinking. It hurt him to watch a world he was such an easy part of split her up at every chance.

“I do, dad. I have to make it work. I can’t be anywhere else. This is where I belong. Even mom said so,” Celeste said, throwing herself into an armchair.

“But she didn’t want this, Celeste,” her father pleaded. “She just wanted you to be happy. It’s all the both of us ever wanted for you. We have enough money that you can spend for eternity and you don’t have to lift a finger. Why swallow this up if you don’t have to?” Alexander begged desperately.

Alexander watched his daughter, she was so brave and determined, it frightened him. He wished things could be different, that he could change things for her, make their little world right, but he couldn’t

“But I don’t want to go anywhere, dad. I want to stay here, with you, in the place where I grew up. And I want them, all of them, just to get over it and actually see me for who I am,” Celeste sobbed.

“I know honey, I know,” her father soothed, holding her tight in his arms, “but you can’t force them to accept you.”

“I won’t stop trying. Mom said Atwater’s don’t take the easy way out dad, running would be the easy way out. This is my home. It’s where I belong, come what may,” Celeste said, burning with determination.

***

Celeste was ready for pack training at the crack of dawn. Even though she hadn’t slept much and spent most of the night tossing and turning. She was fuelled by her untiring resolve to be part of the pack.

Not just someone living among them, but someone they accepted and saw as one of their own.

She had been practicing her transformation for weeks, even though no one thought she could do it. Her blood wasn’t pure, and even she wasn’t sure she could do it until she actually did it, and it was magical.

What happened at the ball would be behind her, behind all of them, when they saw what she could do. When she finally showed them that they needed her.

Celeste decided on the spot that the Ball didn’t really matter anymore; this would be her new start instead.

She was still riding on her high when she arrived in the valley for the pack training. She watched as the others filled in, straggling along, recovering from the late night at the ball. Cold stares and sniggering glares shot at her through the windscreen of her car.

Celeste smiled in response. She wouldn’t let them get her down, she was there to win them over.

After sweating through the lunges, the runs, and the weights, Celeste felt strong and positive. When they were working and pushing through their training, it really didn’t matter what DNA made each of them up.

They were a pack. They were what Celeste wanted all along. With the trainer showering her with compliments, it was clear the work she had put in on her own was paying off. And the pack couldn’t be anything but impressed.

“Okay, cubs, we’re going to get into our sparring session. Get into pairs,” the trainer barked.

Celeste looked around, watching as people drifted towards each other, pairing off.

“Looks like I’m stuck with the mixed breed runt,” Jacob snarled. The mean look on his face bellied his cruel intentions. His thin lips twisted with malice.

“I’m Celeste,” Celeste smiled, offering her hand in introduction. She wasn’t going to let this weedy man get to her. He wasn’t worth her irritation and even though he had insulted her, she had heard it too many times in her 21 years in the woods.

“You’re weak and you don’t belong here,” Jacob said between his teeth. He grabbed her outstretched hand and squeezed it hard, grinding her knuckles together. Celeste could hear her bones crunching against each other as the pain seared up her arm.

Her body tingled, and she felt her chest expand and fill with something she did not understand. There was something inside her fighting for release.

“You’re hurting me,” Celeste whined softly.

She chose to fight her own feelings, this strong urge to let herself explode instead of fighting Jacob. There was no telling what would happen, what humiliation she would face if she lost control.

“Please, you’re hurting me,” Celeste cried.

“Oh, am I?” Jacob mocked, tightening his grip.

“Let go!” Celeste hissed, tears filling her eyes.

“Make me!” Jacob barked.

“What’s going on here?” the trainer shouted, moving quickly towards Celeste and Jacob. Everyone’s eyes followed her to where Jacob was now, twisting Celeste’s arm behind her back, rendering her helpless.

“When will you get it through your thick skull that you just don’t belong here?” Jacob shouted angrily.

“And who the fuck are you to decide that?” Sebastian growled, stepping out of nowhere and dragging Jacob effortlessly off of Celeste.

Sebastian wasn’t just anyone; he was the Lycan prince. Cool, mysterious and alluring. His arrival at that moment changed everything.