Chapter 3 - Chapter 3

As I thought, I was nearly tortured to death.

My mom dragged me to my room and shoved me into the shower and then she spent approximately 30 minutes taming my hair, which was long enough for me to come up with several theories for this abuse.

All theories evaded my mind as she pushed about 6 different outfits to me and then decided after I tried on each one that she liked the first one best.

My long white-blonde hair is in silky waves cascading down my back, I'm wearing a pair of distressed dark blue jeans with a white lace off the shoulder crop top and some booties. She just did some natural make up with a smokey eye that makes my violet-blue eyes pop. Rens eyes are more of a vibrant gold with violet specks, although when she's angry, I have been told they just glow violet.

Despite my mom's aggressiveness, she has some good taste, but as the theories come back to my mind, I decide to just confront her as to why she is going through this effort.

"Mom, why the heck are you going so far for this meeting, I could just wear a t-shirt and sneakers, and I literally smell like a strawberry patch now.." I trail off as I catch a whiff of my scent and throw my hands in the air defeated.

"Well, your father will be covering the why during the meeting so I feel like I should let you be surprised, now come, you're late!" My mom said casually as if she isn't the reason why I'm late.

I didn't really have time to process much of what she said because I'm being dragged out the door and immediately, mentally cursing her for putting me in freaking booties with heels.

A few minutes later, she opened the door to the large meeting room, and we respectfully stood by my dad's and brother's side, pretending we aren't 25 minutes late, not that anyone would dare complain, and nodded toward our pack's beta, gamma and top warrior. Everyone else didn't really require a nod, but I briefly smiled in acknowledgment at everyone when my mom elbowed my rib cage.

My brother is starting to take over more of my dad's alpha duties, so he leads the meeting.

I kind of zoned out for most of it until I was once again elbowed, but this time by my dad so that I would pay attention.

"As many of you may have heard, the Blood Oath pack will be making its way to us in the next couple of days for an important meeting regarding the recent rogue attacks involving some weaker packs. I expect everyone to give the members of the Blood Oath pack the same respect you give us despite the rumors going around, I can assure you guys are safe, Alpha Ambrośe is a good friend of mine." Landon addressed the pack members.

I couldn't help the pride that went through me and my wolf as my brother spoke. He is going to be a great alpha when he meets his mate and takes over completely.

After the meeting disbanded, it was just my family left.

"Aurora.." My dad started.

"I know, I know, I must be on my best behavior and not give anything away about my abilities, better yet, out of sight, out of mind, right?" I said in my best impression of my dad, yet no one even smiles per usual, which made me frown.

"Rory, this time is more serious, I know Alpha Ambrośe personally, but I can't say the same for the members of his council or pack that may be in attendance with him, you need to be careful, if you are to go out in the forest, take a guardian." Landon said.

"We just want you to be safe. We have a barrier up that separates our pack lands from the outside, but while the other pack is here, that barrier can't protect against a threat on the inside. You are our only daughter and the sun in our lives, we need to know you won't be careless." My mom said and I could see and feel the sincerity.

"I will be careful; I love you guys. I promise I will bring Chase with me if I need to escape from the crowds for a bit. Please don't worry so much, this will go smoothly just like any other time a pack has visited." I said trying to ease their worries, but I know it won't get better until the visit is over and our pack is secure inside out.

Landon gave me his goofy smile before we walked out of the meeting room together, and left mom and dad to finish talking over their worries.

"Okay baby sis, ready to get some training in? You're going down this time." He said jokingly.

"You ae so on. First one there, gets first move." I said with a laugh before taking off in a sprint to the training grounds.

Didn't take long before he caught up to me though per usual.

"And the winner is Landon." Chase hollered with his best announcer voice.

"Only be a second because of dumb long legs." I retorted as my brother wore his gloating smile.

"I still won though, first moves mine." He chuckled while Chase just smiled at our usual shenanigans.

Chase is a guardian and my best friend. We've known each other since we were toddlers. When we were teenagers and we made a promise that if neither of us found our mates, when we grew up and were ready, we'd choose each other. After that he told me he loved me more than a friend. I love him too, and lately I've grown more to the idea that we would be together one day.

For some reason though, I could never bring myself to be more than friends with him, though he knows how I feel. Guardians, although commonly don't have fated mates, still have them sometimes, unlike runts, it's extremely rare to find our mates, if we even were blessed with one.

My grandma was a runt, and she told me when I was little, that she believed more runts didn't find mates for a few reasons, one being our short life spans due to our weaker nature, the second correlating with the first, due to being weaker, runts are too scared to travel in search of their mate and lastly, when they are mated, the mate could reject them to be with someone stronger.

It all made sense to me, and I think that's the only thing that holds me back from Chase, I still hold a small amount of hope that maybe me and Ren do have a mate somewhere out there.