Misty II

[56] It Gets Better

Four years feel like four centuries.

Was it an illusion? I ask myself everyday.

Was it some evil magic trick? That scent.

But the beast in me knows, it was her. She was there.

A reason to patrol the Rucussan border every night. If not night, the day.

The urge to sniff her scent, see her, hear her--makes me insane.

As if she has disappeared.

The day before Ceremony, King asked me about her. He listened to me keenly as I tried to describe her scent.

He patrolled the border like every Lycan Alpha does and found no scent like of hers to confirm it to himself. Still he searched for her during the ceremony, he told me. She wasn't there.

I couldn't doubt the Alpha's keen sense of smell, his aura and his instincts. He didn't skip her.

She skipped me.

King assured me that she is too young to look for her mate and participate in the Ceremony.

But I think the worse.

Miggy's fate makes me doubt my own. What if something happened to my mate too? The thought curls my heart with every breath I take.

It is easier for Oscar. He isn't left hanging in the middle. I have been and I get worried.

Virion and Adam have grown up. They searched the whole pack too. With same fates as ours, they await the mere sniff of their foreign mates' scents too.

The sound of cheers shake me from my thoughts.

The bright torches everywhere, the sacred fire, the roars and cheers from the crowd--piss me off.

But Aunt Rose is happy, I tell myself to calm my anger. Or maybe, jealousy.

Otherwise, Anton didn't spend a mere round in search for his mate.

No sweat. No tears.

These four years, his focus was on training his younger brother, following what my father says, what King says, what Beta Barald says. He leaned his teachings as ambitiously as we did, but without the longing for his mate.

He drinks wine and dances with the widows. Even during the festivals, he mumbles prayer to the Goddess with no sincerity. Working with us in the fields, instead of waiting, he lived his moments. He enjoyed his young age and took the responsibility of leading his family as perfectly as King and Salome do.

But the sincerity to wait for a mate? There was none.

We have been together since forever. We play with pups, tease our sister-in-laws, cook food with our mothers. We train, work hard in the fields, wrestle during the storms, swim in the lake, goof around together. We create joy with same liveliness.

But when it comes to valuing the presence of a mate, he has never shown interest. Oskar and I keep control on our gazes. But he watches the females like any attracted male would.

Three weeks ago, Adam couldn't handle his first shift properly. Anton ran in concern for his younger brother to the grounds near the Mystics' border, not letting him feel the absence of a father and the foreign scent reached his nostrils.

His mate was looking for him.

My blood boils at the thought.

He was too cocky while narrating us the story.