LUNAR AURELIA

Mate," growled Nicolas as soon as our eyes met each other's and my heart began to thud as a ray of hope spread slowly over it.

Maybe something could go right for me afterall. Maybe there was hope for me and I wasn't to live the rest of my life alone.

I would have a partner, a companion.

The mating ceremony party between Brie and Gabriel was now well underway and everyone except me was having the time of their lives.

I had stepped out from the hall to take a break from the gyrating bodies and loud music and had immiediately being slammed with the smell of rain and lemon.

I had thought that perhaps it was my nose playing tricks on me. It hadn't rained in a while

around here and we had no lemon trees either. It was not until I caught sight of Nicolas and the smell grew stronger that I knew he was the source of the smell.

My wolf began jumping inside of me, as if threatening to tear its way out of me, excitement and joy holding me tight in his grip.

Mate, mate, it began to scream.

Nicolas's eye color had changed as well, meaning that his wolf recognized mine as its mate.

Nicolas was the pack omega, the least of us, but I didn't care. I would now have a mate. Someone I could rely on, a spot of color in my grey world.

He opened his mouth to talk but before he could utter a word, Alex, another pack member, appeared and said,

"Nicolas, the Alpha wants to see you."

Nicolas gave me a smile and a nod before running off with Alex, leaving me there alone. I didn't care. All that mattered was that I got a mate and I would not be alone anymore.

Still with a smile on my face, I sat on a stoop and tried to imagine another world where things were going well for me. It seemed that things were going to get better afterall.

I had thought that because of my lineage and what people called my 'mother's mistake', I would live forever mateless, that the goddess would deem me unworthy of a mate. But it seemed I was wrong. I now had one.

"So you've eventually found your mate?"

I jumped at the voice that came out of no where, holding on to my chest as my heart threatened to fall out.

"Loreta! What are you doing here? What do you want?" I asked the girl staring intently at me. She was Brie's best friend.

The pink haired girl ignored my question and replied with one of her own. "So, Nicolas is your mate?"

"What's it to you?" I asked defiantly. She would be the last person I would share news about my life with. My life and what went on in it was none of her business.

"How fitting," she said, her tone condescending as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. "The pack omega and the pack outcast."

"You should learn to mind your business."

She shrugged, then thrusted something at me. It was a bottle of wine. "It's for Brie. Go give it to her for me. Gabriel sent me to pick it up."

"I am not your slave, Loreta."

She rolled her eyes. "Please. I really need to use the bathroom. Tell her I will be with her in a while. I need to touch up my makeup as well."

"Then go tell Gabriel you can't deliver it right now," I threw back at her.

She rolled her eyes as if she was talking to someone stupid who couldn't figure out a simple thing. "He's not in the hall. He's with his dad. They had something important to see to, I guess. Please." She said again, thrusting the bottle of wine toward me more violently.

This time, it was me rolling my eyes. "Okay. Stop ranting." I said as I collected the bottle. I was heading inside anyways, I might as well help her and beside, my brain was starting to hurt from all her yammering.

"Thanks." She said. "I'll be there in a minute."

I took the bottle and walk the short distance to the hall, all the while thinking about the moment with Nicolas.

My mate. What would he have said if he hadn't been called away? Something was obvious though. He had been happy as well. As happy as me. It didn't matter that we were both practically ostracized in the pack. What mattered was that we had found each other.

With this thought still in my mind, I absent-mindedly walked towards Brie and her multitude of friends in the hall.

"Ew," Brie eyed me up and down when she saw me. "What do you want?" Then she saw the bottle of wine with me. "That must be from Gabriel." She snatched the bottle from me without any acknowledgment and turned to her friends to squeal, "This is my favorite brand of wine and he got it for me. Isn't he the sweetest?"

I resisted the urge to smack her face as I turned away from them. I heard Brie say, "Come on. Let's open it up."

I had only gone a few steps when an earth-shattering scream pierced the air, the sound of breaking glass following it.

I turned back. And froze at what I saw.

Brie's skin had turned red and boils were growing all over her arm. Face twisted in agony and anger, she pointed a finger at me, "She tried to poison me! She tried to kill me!"

The music had stopped and everyone was now focused on us. The floor where she stood was now red, the wine pulling around her feet.

Words failed me as I began to quiver on the spot. What had happened? What was going on?There was only one thing that could have caused what was happening to Brie.

Wolfsbane.

Somehow, it had been in the wine, and I had been the one who delivered it.