Zayla

Mates.

For humans they can be many things: lovers, friends, acquaintances.

For vampires, they’re a constant reminder of the life they are forced to live in death, a sacred hope that they know will be ripped away from them with one bite, the last piece of their soul that exists.

And for wolves…well, for wolves they’re everything! Every happiness, every heartbeat, every flutter in your stomach rolled into one person.

Their smell, their taste… Everything about them is intoxicating.

For most wolves finding your mate is relatively easy.

Every year, wolves who are of age come into our pack territory for my parents’ yearly ball, and every year someone leaves with their mate on their arm.

For twenty-one years I’ve dreamed about the day I’d meet mine.

Who is he? What does he look like? Does he want me like I want him?

Every day I get dressed up, going all-out to look as beautiful as possible to make sure he notices me, and every day I go to sleep disappointed.

You see, unlike my older twin brothers Drayden and Draxel, I didn’t meet my mate when I turned fifteen.

No.

Draxel and Drayden were lucky.

Draxel mated Kimber, a daughter of one of my parents’ best friends.

We’d known her our whole lives, so when it turned out that she was not only Draxel’s mate, but the future Luna of our pack, everyone was thrilled.

And why wouldn’t they be? She’s amazing!

It was only three short weeks after Draxel and Kimber mated that Drayden found his mate, Blair.

But my mating—sigh—well, my mating is a lot more complicated.

You see, unlike everyone else, who gets the chance to meet their mates at fifteen, I met mine way before that.

I mean way, way before that. The only problem is that… I guess I should specify that I’ve never actually met him in person.

My first run-in with my future mate was unexpected.

My parents and I were visiting my uncles, Silas and Thackery, to discuss pack business.

It had been a busy day of meetings when my parents decided that, with my uncles, my younger cousin Kasyn, and my Aunt Milani, we’d all go to the lake to swim and have fun.

The three boys were running wild around the bank, our mothers were sunbathing, and our fathers were cooking near the shore. I, on the other hand, was busy chasing butterflies.

I had found this beautiful neon-blue butterfly fluttering off in the distance, so I took off after it, nearly catching it as it shuffled through the tree line.

It pulled me further and further into the woods until I was surrounded in darkness, and the butterfly was gone.

Getting scared, I started to cry. I could no longer see my family or even hear them over the sound of the wind slamming against the trees.

“Shh, little Lux, it’s going to be alright.” His voice was so deep it scared me yet calmed me all at once.

Jumping up to my feet I searched around for the owner of the voice, but I came up short.

I was alone, or at least I thought I was until he spoke again: “You really shouldn’t be here, my little Lux.”

Sniffling into the sleeve of my dress, I searched around again and found nothing, but I know I heard him.

His voice was so calming. Even as a child I craved to hear it again.

“Who are you?” Searching around again, I hoped and prayed that I’d catch even a glimpse of the owner of that soothing melody he called a voice.

But instead I heard nothing and saw nothing.

My dad came and found me right after that. He scolded me about running off, reminding me that even though we were on safe territory, I needed to be with someone at all times.

I tried to understand—I really did! But even then, he called to me on such a primal level that I couldn’t help but search him out.

After that, I didn’t see or hear anything from the mysterious man again until I was thirteen.

It was an odd day for me. I had just started my period and my brothers and I were butting heads at an unusually high rate, so I stomped off through the tree line behind our house.

I knew I was safe there, being as it was the only place I was allowed to go where neither my father nor my brothers ever seemed to bother me.

Throwing myself down on the tree stump of an old forgotten tree, I couldn’t help but cry out my frustration.

Why today of all days did Aunt Flow decide it had to be her first visit into my life?

Why couldn’t my brothers understand that I didn’t need them getting pissy over me growing up? It wasn’t like I had control over my body’s natural age progression.

I mean, I wasn’t a vampire.

After sitting on the old mossy stump for a good hour, my tears finally died out, and my body was in the last stages of calming—only a few hiccups every few minutes.

That’s when I heard him for the 2nd time.

“Oh my little Lux, you certainly have grown.”

His voice shocked me to my core, and I was up on my feet a little too fast and lost my balance…

Until, ever so lightly, his hand—slightly calloused yet gentle—touched my shoulder, halting my fall and effectively halting my breath.

I felt him chuckling in amusement at my clumsiness. “Be careful, my little Lux.”

“My name is Zayla, I don’t know who Lux is,” I squeaked out, feeling his hand push the hair over my shoulder, before a deep chuckle ran through his body so forcefully that it shook in my own.

“Oh, but Zayla, you will always be my little Lux.” His voice was far more amused this time. I whipped around to look at him, but just my luck, he was gone.