"You know, even though you're 20, your teen angst hasn't left you." Khale chuckled as he stood in the hallway.
"Teen angst? You trying being the prop everyone wants to show off." I grumbled as I took my keys from the wall.
He followed me out to my car and got in the passenger seat without a word. Khale is 24, my parents had a few good years without having fun with each other. Though I would only attribute that for mom having to be away for coven duties.
The trees gave way to the bridge and the beautiful river flowing underneath it as we headed closer to the city. I was informed I would be staying at the apartments where the other visitors would be staying, just so I wouldn't run away.
"Why do I have to go to this stupid ball? We haven't had one mated pair from it in 3 years." I slammed my fist into the steering wheel before growling in pain and stupidity.
Khale didn't say anything. I know he was dreaming of his mate and taking over as Beta when Dad decided he was done. And of course, since he got the wolf side of the family he didn't have to worry about hybrid children. Unless of course he was paired to a witch. I think that is the only thing that scares him and the things that keeps him from looking too hard.
"Now that I think of it," I mumbled to the fall air, "Our pack hasn't had a mated pair at all in 3 years. Despite all the young wolves."
"Don't remind me." He mumbled.
"Look, why don't you ask dad to get you a leave of absence so you can travel to other pacts? Or better yet, it wouldn't be bad if you were to train with our allies on the coast."
"Why do you know so much about it?"
"I listen, even when I don't want to. I hear it." It was silent for a while. "Which made it so awkward when you brought Casey Gashiver home and lost your virginity."
Khale choked on the air as he stared in shock. I gave him a smirk and turned onto the highway. Wolves and their insatiable appetite. "Even you fell prey to the one night stands of the ball."
"You heard that?" He wheezed.
"It gave me nightmares for weeks."
"Why did you feel the need to tell me this now?"
I shrugged and flicked on my blinker to take the next exit. It was taking everything I had not to just continue driving to the sea. The rocky shores, the dense woods, the salty wind that sung with the secrets of thousands of hearts.
That is where I longed to be. That was my mate, and I saw no other.
"Morgana! Watch out!" I hear a shout from the passenger side as a large black SUV blows through the intersection I was just about to cross. I froze at the wheel as I watched it trail into the distance as fast as it came. They called me reckless.
The honk from behind me shook me out of my haze and I went forward, taking a right in the direction of the black SUV and sinking into my seat. The silence was loud, but I feared the music would be too much. It was odd, we were all feeling it. Our pack was worried about why mates weren't being found. I know dad came home sometimes late at night with heavy sighs and stacks of paperwork.
"What will happen to our pack if no mates appear this year?"
Khale wouldn't look at me, twisting the ring on his hand as he thought about whether or not he should tell me. He just had this look of worry about his face that shouldn't be on a 24 year old's face. He sighed deeply and ran his hands through his hair.
"The pack will be forced to disband. We would be swallowed by other packs, ranks lost, among other things."
It was a hard blow to pride if you lost your pack. It was your family after all. A large, dysfunctional, non-related family. I had only seen one Alpha lose his pack, and he went mad as soon as the decision was made. No one saw him again after he ran into the woods. Though I suppose, no one blamed him.
"So what, do they blame me for the stagnation because I haven't been going?" I grumbled.
"No, not.." he couldn't even finish the sentence. "Okay, they might. But as long as you go and at least act happy, hopefully that will fix the balance of things."
"I haven't even shifted yet. So I won't be able to tell what is going on or even if I get a mate. I don't have my magic to tell me either." I sighed, resting my head on the steering wheel as we sat at a red light. "I'm not even sure I would want a mate."
"Don't say that." He snapped.
"Well, no one wants a hybrid mate. You've even said it yourself that you wouldn't accept it. Why should I put myself through that?"
"Because!.....because....because its supposed to bring balance..." he sighed.
"Balance for everyone else even if it means I get rejected in front of the entire population of young werewolves."
We didn't speak for the rest of the trip, and the weather seemed to agree with the mood. A storm blew in rather quickly, the lighting reaching its long fingers in arcs across the sky. The wind picked up and shook everything that was tied down and took away everything that wasn't. It seems the energy of the world just was charged.
Pulling into the car park was nothing short of a disaster with all of the people running in and out of the apartments. People were hugging and laughing, talking in the middle of the drive ways so that no one could get around. It honestly put me in an even more sour mood. I'm not the most sociable of people most of the time, but this really made just want to crawl into the deepest, darkest hole possible and wait till this all was over. I dreaded to see who I was made to room with. Gender assigned rooms, like that was going to stop anyone from hooking up the moment they put their bags into their rooms. I bet the whole place just reeked. Khale got out and grabbed his bags as I glared out from under my windshield. He seemed fairly popular and ran into some old friends from college, leaving me in the dust to fend for myself.
I could leave. Right now. I stared down at the steering wheel hard. I could leave. Just drive and see that ocean. But was I really going to accept rouge status just so I didn't have to go to a stupid party? Was rouge status honestly a worthy punishment for skipping it? Did I really want to risk never seeing my family again?
Eh, I doubt my family would notice. 13 kids, you don't notice if one just isn't around anymore. They have their hands full with the other 12, especially if Khale gets the balls to ask dad to go traveling. If he is the one who believes so strongly in mates and fixing the balance, why doesn't he put more effort into finding his? Why is everything resting on my shoulders?
Something within me won out and I ripped the keys from the ignition. Grumbling, I shoved them into my bag and shoved my door open. I grabbed my suitcase from the truck and sulked my way to the lobby doors. I begged myself to turn back as the whispers and pointing started.
"Name please?" The desk attendant didn't look up and sounded rather bored with her work, watching her fingers type across the keys.
"Morgana Lachlan."
The clicking stopped. She slowly looked up with a shocked face before it turned into a sneer. "You came back I see."
"Yup." I rolled my eyes.
She sighed and hit the keys like it was the hardest thing in her life to do. She grabbed a key from the back counter and stretched it over so that it was dangling over the tiles.
"Here's your room key, and trust me, your roommates aren't happy to see you."
I reached for the keys, but she dropped them onto the ground. "Oopsie, sorry. I'm just a butterfingers."
I struggled to kneel down, my bones cracking loud enough to make the others in the lobby wince. As I stood up I mumbled, "I bet if you weren't to busy playing with yourself all the time for guys, your hands wouldn't be as slippery."
She gasped and cursed at me as I walked towards the elevator. Though there were only two people inside, the closed the doors as fast as they could push the button. I sighed, stairs it was. Everyone else avoided me like the plague. This was totally going to be a great party and totally not end up with me limping home through the woods covered in fruit punch and thorns.
It took me about a half an hour to struggle up five flights of stairs to the apartment I was to stay at. I guess I should count myself lucky, as that was with a few people tripping me as I went. I'm 20 for gods sake, why are people acting like such high-school bitches.
The apartment door was the only one that had not been decorated with scratch marks, makeup stains, or the more obvious bra or underwear on the door handle. Perhaps these people would be a bit more reasonable. In fact, there was no indication at all of anyone really having entered the apartment. I used my key and slowly swung the door open.
There was minimal chatter coming from the TV around the corner as most of the lights were off despite the very dark thunderstorm outside. As the TV came into view, I could see one body watching it and heard to bodies moving about the adjacent bedrooms.
The movie was an old black in white horror movie, though I couldn't quite tell what it was. I moved forward slowly, preparing for a very possible ambush and subsequent drop from 5 floors.
"Hello? I am...the fourth roommate, for as long as we're here..?"
"Don't sound so cheery about it," a female voice came from the body in front of the TV, "This stupid party is nothing but a hook up for one night stands. No one finds love anymore."
"Oh thank gods, someone who knows." I sighed as I dumped my bag on the counter. I popped the fridge and pulled out a soda. Walking around the couch, I plopped down on the other side.
"I'm Claire." The girl stated plainly. Her purple hair now noticeable in the TV light.
"Morgana."
"Ah, so you're the one everyone is bitching about. I like you already." She threw what looked to be a snack cake in my direction. "Welcome to the outcast club. Otherwise know as the hybrid pack."
"Wait...you're a?"
"Yup. And so is Sherri and Kat. So what did you do to piss everyone off?"
I shrugged into the darkness, "I honestly have no clue. They threw me off a balcony when I went to my first ball at 16. I've been skipping them ever since. Some people blame me for the lack of mated pairs around my pack."
Claire snorted and clapped her hands. The lights responded and were a bit of a shock to the system. "Yea, I got my magic first, needless to say the rivalries are strong back home."
"Who is here?" A deep pitched voice called deep within one of the bedrooms. There was shuffling around before the door opened to a very tall, dark skinned woman with beautiful curly blonde hair half hidden under a towel.
"The one everyone has been talking about, Sherri."
Sherri's guard dropped and a smile graced her face. "Well its about time, we were worried we wouldn't get to meet you."
She had a southern drawl which hung to her words like molasses. She reached over to the other door and gave it a sharp knock. A squeak came from behind the door, followed by someone falling. Sherri opened the door just in time to see a short woman dusting herself off. Her fiery red hair stuck out in frizzy waves and her glasses were a bit too big for her soft face. Freckles dotted her nose and cheeks. Her green eyes blinked rapidly at the change of light.
"Kat, are you okay? Do we need to get the kit?" Sherri whispered softly.
"N-no, I'm all good. Whats going on? Do we have to get ready now?"
I decided to wave into the doorway, trying to dispel the awkwardness of first time meetings.
"The other girl that is rooming with us is here, her name is Morgana. She is a hybrid like us."
I tried to give the girl a reassuring smile. She was dressed in a large sweater and pants, she looked like she had just been taking a nap. She gave me a nod and flopped back onto the bed. Her snores could be heard a few seconds later. Sherri shut the door quietly before plopping down on the armchair beside the couch. She untied the towel and started to hand dry her hair.
"So, they said that you had been skipping all these balls. Why are you here now, Morgana?" Sherri's muffled voice came from behind the towel.
"My alpha threatened me with rouge status," I gave a little eye roll, "Supposedly I am being escorted by one of the visiting alphas' sons."
They both began laughing and whistling, even saying a fake eulogy at my expense. I cracked a smile. This went on for a while, them standing while looking down saying that though they hadn't known her long, it was a shame to lose her to the sickness of fuckingtrosita that she contracted at the ball. They weren't that creative with the disease name.
"How much you want to bet that your mate is the one who escorts you." Sherri snorted. Claire seemed to grow more sour at the subject of mates and began glaring at the TV once more.
"I don't want to bet and I don't want a mate."
"Really?"
"Most people would immediately reject a hybrid mate. I'd rather just not deal with it at all."
Claire seemed to wince at my statement. I sighed and patted her leg slightly.
"Anyway, so we have to dress up for this and I did not bring a single formal outfit."
That seemed to be my mistake. Sherri grabbed my arm and drug me off the couch, slamming into Kat's room and shaking her awake. She managed to drag three people out of the apartment and to a small sports car towards the end of the car park. By the time she decided we all had been given the best outfits would she allow us to return to the apartment. We only had an hour to get ready.
The girls seemed to have warmed up to each other and were happily dolling each other up, at least they were having fun even if this night was one of the worst for all of us. I was less than enthusiastic, sitting on the bed in my underwear. I stared at the red lines as the moved across my body. They seemed to get brighter and more angry as the hours go on. What if something bad happens? I mean, something bad is bound to happen, but what if its really bad?
I think we're all close to shifting, and that is a scary thing itself. I've seen pack members almost kill others during their first shifts. We're already blamed enough, and to be honest, there is no information on hybrid shifting. We can't guarantee any sort of safety in regards to everyone. Would it be bad to just go to the Alpha and explain? Its probably too late.
I sighed and slipped into the evening gown that was a long sleeved floor length dress that hugged in most places, only flaring about the ankles and had a deep v to show off cleavage. A drop knife hung in the crease between my chest and a black thin ribbon clasped around my throat. I left the three braids in, leaving my long curly black hair down and painting my lips with a dark blood red. I gave a sharp black eye-shadow and liner. My boots were heeled and tall, concealing a hidden blade in the heel and one around my thigh. I wanted to be prepared. I stepped out to see everyone else was ready. Sherri stood bold in her golden halter dress with a gold scarf over her shoulders. The blonde hair was pinned with fan clips and looked as if they were sharp enough to cause damage. Everything about Kat was soft. A soft mint green dress that was a slender tube. Her red frizzy hair was tamed to frame her heart shaped face, and all that was on her face was a little blush. Claire was the one who really shocked me. She had chose not to wear a dress and opted for a pair of dark blue pants that were akin to silk bell bottoms. She wore a dark blue bra and a leather jacket hung on her shoulders. All in all they looked so much better than I could have ever hoped to be.
Before we could say anything to each other, there was a rap on the apartment door, followed by the sighs of some impatient and annoyed young men. Surely they were annoyed they had to play babysitting duty instead of finding the closest closet for their late night fling. Since it was my fault for the escorts, I was the one to walk to the door and grab the handle. It bit into my hand and felt like ice. That should have been warning in itself. I opened the door and walked out into the most bizarre night of my life.