"I swear it fit me last summer!" Dione said, still trying to close the zipper on the back of her dress. "Goddess, for real. What if I meet a cute guy tonight? All my clothes are in Europe."
Eleonora had enough of the spectacle, went to her dresser and got out her graduation dress. It was a short wide dress with lace on the shoulders and neck. Dione had fallen in love with that dress as soon as Eleonora had worn it that night. Sometimes she had sneaked into her closet just to wear that dress. She could stand in front of the mirror for hours just starring at it. "Here." She threw the dress in her sister's hands and Dione's eyes grew big. "Now drop the act, you knew we would celebrate your birthday. You didn't bring any clothes on purpose."
Dione giggled mischievously as she dropped her current dress and put on the white one. "This dress was made for me! You know I'm right." She twirled in front of the mirror, smiling at Eleonora. Then she ran up to her sister and gave her a strong hug. "I owe you something."
"See it as a late present. I wanted to give the dress to you in the first place." Eleonora smiled back at her little sister.
"What will you wear?"
"The usual I guess."
"Please let me choose your outfit?" Dione almost pleaded. "You have the most beautiful clothes hidden in your closet."
"I'm not surprised that you still know what I own." She laughed and let her sister reign free over her clothes. "I think you wore my clothes more than I did, and I believe I'm still missing a few pieces since you left."
With a quick move Dione vanished into the closet, her head buried in a pile of dresses and skirts. Eleonora smirked, knowing her sister had taken a few things with her to Europe.
Half an hour later, both were dressed and their hair and makeup was done. Eleonora wore a black pencil skirt and a grey pullover, other than her sister, she wanted to wear something that wouldn't make her freeze to death. The party was in the open and the autumn nights were already cold.
"Dad said he invited some teenagers from other packs who attended school with us." Eleonora said while getting a little package from her table.
"I hope I can find my mate tonight. I didn't have any luck while I traveled the packs in Europe but I'm kind of glad about that too." She said with a blush on her face.
Eleonora walked back to her sister, the package hiding behind her back. "Maybe your crush is your mate. You never told me who it was. I only know that he's Theo's and my age."
Dione's cheeks turned red at the thought of her crush. "I'll tell you if it's him. I haven't seen him yet anyway."
Eleonora nudged her side. "If you tell me who it is I can tell you if he is still mateless. A lot have found their partners in the past year while you were gone."
Dione took a deep breath. "Klaus." She whispered. Eleonora was only able to hear it because of her werewolf hearing.
She laughed at the name.
"Why are you laughing?" Dione almost screamed at her; her face completely red out of embarrassment. "Don't laugh about me!"
"Hey, calm down. I'm not laughing about you." Eleonora's laughing calmed down, it was just too cute to see her little sister so flustered about it. "It's just that Klaus was the one who took me to the hospital last week, you could say he saved my life. But I didn't get to thank him yet. I laughed because it is a nice coincidence."
"Good." Dione said at her answer, still a little pissed but she had calmed down again.
"You should have this." Eleonora took out the package and gave it to her sister.
"What is this?"
Eleonora flicked her sister's forehead at the stupid question. "Open it to find out."
She didn't have to say it twice for Dione to rip open the package. It revealed a small white box, that was as big as her palm. Dione already smiled, excited to open the box. She slowly continued, revealing a silver necklace with two small pendants, a diamond and a moon.
"You're crazy!" Dione screamed happily. She took the necklace out of the box and placed it in her sister's hand. "Put it on for me, come on!" Dione turned around excitedly and pushed up her hair. Eleonora did as she was told and helped her sister to fix the necklace around her neck. Dione let her hair down again and raced towards the mirror. Her long brown hair was falling straight down her back to her waist, only the first two strands were braided and pushed back into a small, braided crown. She fiddled at the necklace to place it in the middle of her chest. Her blue eyes lit up as she looked up and down at her. Eleonora couldn't help but smile at her sister being this happy.
"You're the best!" Dione ran at her and hugged her tight. "Come here, let's take a picture."
Dione dragged Eleonora next to her and took her phone from the nightstand. Dione was a head shorter than Eleonora and their hair colors couldn't have been any more different. Dione with her straight brown hair, her sparkly blue eyes and Eleonora with her fire red curly hair, and green eyes. Eleonora wanted to keep her hair open tonight, Dione had helped her to fix her curls a little so that they didn't look too wild anymore. She had only a little makeup on her eyes and light red lipstick on her lips. She was wearing a set of necklace, bracelet and earrings in gold, but she liked that the accessories were so light and decent.
"Goddess, I don't know what I'll do if none of us finds their mate tonight. Oh right -" Dione rushed to her purse and took something out. "This is for you."
Eleonora held the package of pills in her hands. "What are they for?"
"Okay, so this is a pheromone blocker. Don't tell anyone I gave this to you. The Luna of my pack has been working on this but is still testing them."
"You're giving me unlicensed meds?" Eleonora asked in disbelief.
"Don't worry, they work. They just haven't passed the legal work yet. They will weaken your sense of smell and even your scent. But you shouldn't take more than one or your senses can be weakened permanently. Just one should be enough for a couple of hours."
Eleonora held the package next to her. "No wonder theses meds are unlicensed, Dede, That's dangerous." She said accusing.
"That's why I'm telling you, only take one at a time and the maximum of three a day. It's your shot at true love, don't waste it." Dione smiled sweetly and left.
Eleonora played with the package of pills in her hand. They would block her scent and her mate couldn't find her; the same thing would apply to her. If she wanted to find a person she liked, without fearing to meet her mate, this much a great option. After thinking about it some more she pushed her drawer open and put the meds there. She didn't want to use them. Well not yet at least.
"You look beautiful, sweetie." Her mother said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Take these outside. They are already waiting for them." Her mother pushed a big box of chocolate cookies into her hands.
Eleonora took one and held the rest with the box. "Thanks mom." She ate the one cookie, it was still hot and delicious, Eleonora doubted she could find anything more delicious tonight. She made her way into the garden and saw a bunch of people dancing and talking.
She ate her cookie and looked around. Her father and Theo had built a music box near the pool and lightbulbs were hanging everywhere from the trees and the house. To the side at the fence was a long table placed and all kinds of snacks and food was placed on it.
Eleonora walked over and placed the box of cookies on the table only to be distracted by a beautiful scent. She was wrong, there was something more delicious tonight, barbeque. She smelled the freshly grilled meat with the mixture of smoke. he looked over the crowd where the scent was coming from, and she already felt her stomach growl. At the end of the delicious smell stood her father at the grill. She picked a hand full of cookies and made her way over. She pushed past a few teenagers who where probably standing and waiting in line for a fresh piece of meat. Eleonora made her way to her father and held the cookies under his nose.
"You have to stand in line, sweetheart." Her father said while turning the meat, avoiding the sweet and delicious smell of cookies.
Eleonora was sure to put on her best puppy eyes. "Please, dad. I even brought your favorite cookies." She waved the cookies before his nose to let him get all the smell. Her father's eyes glistered and his mouth visibly twitched.
He bit into the direction of her hands, but Eleonora was fast enough to withdraw the cookies out of his reach. "Do we have a deal?" She asked in a sweet and victorious voice.
"I know you ate my ice cream together with Tony last week. I only let it pass because you were injured. The least you can do now is give me some cookies." Eleonora didn't stop her puppy eyes until her father sighed deeply. "Fine." He got a plate and put the next piece of meat on it. The line of people audibly groaned and wasn't pleased that she had stolen a piece of delicious meat from them.
"You're the best, daddy." She hugged him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Sorry guys." She winked at the waiting people. She placed the cookies on a place next to her father and left.
Eleonora found her usual spot, the hanging bench, to be occupied by a kissing couple. She made short process and shushed the people away. The two teenagers left hand in hand giggling. Eleonora was sure they would find their next make out spot in no time, seeing how their lips were already connected again. She looked around the porch and the garden. There was no sign of Nora and Dan, and she was sure to know why. 'They must be using their new bed.' She thought. But something came into her vision, it was a bunch of liquor bottles that came from a cooling box next to the pool. A symbol of a wolf with flowers was on each of the bottles. Nora's branch. No wonder the teenagers were in such good moods if they drank from Nora's alcohol.
Eleonora settled down on the bench and dug into her meal, enjoying the scenery in front of her. Dione was obviously having fun, after she opened her presents, she was now on the dance floor with most of her friends.
"Leo, how are you doing?" Klaus came up next to her.
"Klaus, I didn't expect you here."
"Well, for once I'm not on patrol. I switched my schedule with a friend." He smiled at her.
Eleonora grinned. "Is there any special reason you wanted to be here tonight?"
He rubbed the back of his head. "Do you think you can get Dione to come somewhere more private?" The grin on Eleonora's face got even wider. "I want to talk to her about something."
"What 'something'?" She teased him, knowing his intentions after she spoke with Dione earlier, it seemed her sister wasn't the only one with a crush who wanted to confirm if they were mates or not. "It's fine, I know what you want. And I owe you one."
"Why is that?" he asked confused.
Eleonora stood up and placed her empty plate to the site. "You took me to the hospital that morning. Thanks to you I'm okay now."
"Right." He scratched the back of his head. "I had forgot about that. How are you now, that was one bad attack? You look completely healed."
"I'm good, thanks." She typed something on her phone. "Dede will wait for you at the club house in about ten minutes." The clubhouse was an old building, it was mostly used by the youth of the pack for parties and gatherings even though it was a community center a few years ago. But since Dione's birthday party was at the pack house the clubhouse would be empty. "Oh and try not to tell Theo about it or he might stop you." She laughed at the end.
"Thank you!" Klaus said happily, hugging her and leaving already. He was in a hurry, probably to finish everything before Dione would come to the club house. Well ten minutes isn't much time for any big preparations, but Eleonora also needed her fun.
She looked over the crowd, she saw her sister checking her phone but still on the dance floor, Theo was drinking some of Nora's alcohol with his friends and her parents were standing at the grill. That's when Tony made his way into her field of vision. He walked straight towards her father and looked rather serious for attending a birthday party. Her mother immediately released the hug they had shared before and was listening earnestly to Tony. Eleonora couldn't interpret her father's expression, but he looked rather upset, if not angry. Her father turned around and walked straight towards Theo, he told him something that Eleonora couldn't hear because of the loud party music. She could see that Theo nodded once and both of them left through the garden gate, closely followed by her mother and Tony.
Eleonora stood on her toes trying to see where they were going but their figures faded in the darkness of the night. A moment later, right before she wanted to follow them Theo returned through the gate, looking around and locking eyes with her. He waved for her, a strange smile on his face, a face she knew too well when he was trying to hide something from her.
He made his way through the crowd and reached her on the porch. "Why are you standing here alone? This is a party."
"What's going on? Where did mom and dad go with Tony?" She asked skeptical.
Theo laughed dry. "What do you mean? Must be something about the patrols." He crossed his arms over his chest, he was lying.
"What about the patrols? Did they sight any rogues?" Eleonora asked further, hoping Theo would tell her on his own. "Dad talked to you, and you walked outside. You know what they are discussing now."
"He just said they had to talk to one of the patrols before they know more and can act. I don't really know what is going on myself." He gestured with his hands, that wasn't a lie.
"You know-" Eleonora grinned and her brother didn't like that. "Let's go for a run, shall we?"
She walked into the house, not leaving her brother any room to talk or say anything back. She walked straight to her room and grabbed the little package that Dione had given her earlier. She took one of the pills out and pushed it into the pocket of her skirt.
"What is that?" Theo stood in her door with a skeptical look.
"Girl business." Eleonora said, shrugging her shoulders. She was so much better at lying than her brother and one topic always got him off her case.
"Fine, I don't want to know." He said with a disgusted look on his face.
"Oh, grow up already, Theo!" Eleonora said annoyed. "Let's go now."
After a few minutes of walking Eleonora stopped, she sniffed the air and walked into the direction she could smell her parents in.
"Leo!" Theo stopped her again, giving her a demanding look. But he knew better than to stop her like that. The only thing that would stop her once her curiosity was picked was brute force or the simple truth.
"Stop me if you can." Eleonora teased back, leaving a smile on her face as she continued.
Another ten minutes went by and they were able to see the lights of cars.
"I'm serious, Leo." This time Theo had grabbed her arm and looked angrily at her.
"What?" She said with a blank face, already annoyed that he didn't tell her what was going on.
"Mom and dad told me we shouldn't come -"
"You mean they didn't want me to come, seeing as they send you as my babysitter." She interrupted him.
"You don't leave me a choice." He said shrugging his arms.
And before Eleonora could react her feet were swept off the ground and her vision was blocked by something sturdy. "Let me down!" She screamed. "I swear I'll change here and now and run to mum and dad if you don't let go of me."
Theo started walking with Eleonora swung over his shoulder, he made it look like she was some sack of clothes. "As far as I know they are some visitors from another pack."
Eleonora had calmed down on her brother's shoulder and looked behind her now. She could see people standing by the cars now. A young man, around her age with dark brown hair and an elder lady. She had never seen any of them before. "Why keep it a secret then?"
"No idea. You might as well ask dad tomorrow." He wasn't lying this time.
Eleonora sighed deeply. "There is no way dad would tell me. I hate to say it but he's good at keeping his secrets, not like you or mom."
"Hey!"
"What?" She shrugged on his shoulder. "I'm just stating the truth. By the way you can put me down now. This isn't comfortable at all, maybe if you carried me bridal style."
"No way!" Eleonora was quicker on her feet than she could say it. Theo walked further in front of her.
"Well, I guess I have to snoop around myself to find the answers." Eleonora starred at the stars above her, wondering what the young man and old lady wanted from her parents. It had to be important enough for them to come in the middle of the night. She pushed the thought to the side, deciding to try and find out more the next day. Tonight, was Dione's night after all.