Different

Evelyn

Witches, vampires, and werewolves are meant to be fictional characters in a story, but in my life, they are real. I also happen to be one—well, technically, half of one.

My father was a werewolf and my mother was a human. Being mates with a human is rare, but in some cases, like my parents, it happens. Now, my parents' story is a bit different.

In the werewolf community, it is uncommon to still be mateless by the time you are twenty-five.

My dad was twenty-six and without a mate, so he took one of the she-wolves that was in the pack and mated her. Her name was Jen.

They ended up having a girl, and shortly after the birth of their daughter, Tessa, he found his true mate, my mother. He left the she-wolf for my mother, and they had me.

Things were good for a few years; Dad lived with my mother and was still involved in Tessa’s life.

That all came crashing down when the jealousy was too overwhelming for Tessa’s mother, and she killed my mother.

That angered my dad, and he killed Jen, but what no one realized was that Jen had found her mate awhile before these unfortunate events.

She was so obsessed with my father that she didn’t give her mate the time of day or the love a mate is supposed to give to the other.

That day, Jen’s mate followed her and watched her die, and in retaliation, he killed my father.

Depending on who you ask, some say my father didn’t put up a fight. Others say the wolf was of high status—alpha or beta or something of the sort.

After that day, my dad’s brother, Raf, and his mate, Sam, took both of us girls in and raised us as their own.

Since Raf was the top warrior, we lived in the pack house along with the beta family and the alpha family.

Raf and Sam have one son named Julian. The betas have two sons, Parker and Wayne, with Parker next in line to be beta.

The alpha family has one son whose name is Alex and he hasn’t been around for the last ten years—something about some type of special alpha training every soon-to-be leader has to go through.

It has now been nineteen years since my father died. Tessa is twenty-one, almost twenty-two, and I just turned twenty.

Tessa and I don’t have a good relationship. She is the preppy, cheerleading type whereas I’m the shy, quiet type.

We both have the same color hair, dark brown thanks to our dad, but everything else about us is different.

She is tall whereas I am short.

She is thin whereas I am curvy.

She has blue eyes from her mother’s side and I have brown eyes.

Both of us are beautiful girls, but in completely different ways. No one would think we were half-sisters unless we told them.

Because we are so different in our personalities, Tessa gets a lot of her friends to make fun of me.

Now this isn’t one of those “everyone made fun of me so I became a badass” type of stories, because not everyone makes fun of me.

It’s just her and her group of friends, which I shrug off most of the time because I would rather not argue with her.

She tends to be pretty petty and holds grudges. A lot of people believe I’m the older one because I’m more mature.

Tessa throws tantrums, which are not pretty and make her look like a three-year-old—stomping feet and all.

I help out any way that I can when it comes to pack duties. I help cook and clean, and when I’m not doing any of that, I’m training with my uncle and Julian.

With me being part human, I’ve had to work extra hard to become as skilled as the other wolves, but it is all worth it because I love my wolf and all the friends I’ve made along the way.

Julian is my best friend. He is the only one that I confide in about Tessa and her friends being bitches to me.

I think that is why he has basically taken me under his wing, and if Tessa and her friends get snooty while he is around, he gets very protective.

Tessa likes to spend her time shopping and checking out the male wolves. She never joins in on the workouts, but she likes to watch them walk around half-naked.

She cannot cook to save her life, and she doesn’t do any of her own chores. I don’t even know the last time she washed her own clothes.

She is one of the pack gossips and tries to get involved with the beta brothers.

She is what you can call a rank chaser. She only tries to seduce alphas when they visit, or betas. Sometimes she will try to get with omegas, but that is the lowest she will go.

She won’t give anyone else attention or even look their way. Sometimes I swear she is going to end up with your everyday average wolf as a mate.

I feel a little bad for whoever her mate is because I’m fairly certain she hasn’t saved herself for him. Who the hell am I kidding, I know she hasn’t.

Me, on the other hand, I’ve not even had my first kiss. I’m in love with the thought of mates, and I’m so excited to meet mine.

Because being half human and half werewolf is rare, I had to visit another pack where another half breed like me stayed. Raf wanted me to see that I could fit in just like a normal wolf.

To find my mate, though, I have to physically touch them for either of us to know, which kind of sucks because any normal wolf can just look at another and know if they are their mate or not.

Since learning that tidbit of information, Raf and Sam, along with Alpha Ben, have made it mandatory for me to shake hands with every unmated wolf in our pack as well as anyone unmated who visits our pack.

But I’ve still not met my soul mate.

But I will not give up like my father did. I will wait until I meet him; I know for a fact he is out there somewhere.

Besides, I still have five years until they say it’s nearly impossible to find your mate. So, I’m confident I will find him soon. I can just feel it.