Failed birthday surprise

The wondering feeling she had last night about whatever surprise Ray and the other pack members were planning for her flew right through the window and was replaced by the intense desire she had for Lucas,….. t-the desire the mate bond made her have for Lucas. All because of what happened, she had missed her own birthday party surprise. In all her 18 years of being in her pack, of growing up as a moonlighter, she had never for once missed her special day with them until yesterday. Even though she didn’t like Ray’s surprises, spending her special day with her pack members was something Ava always looked forward to every year, even when the trio moved out of the pack house, she still celebrated her birthdays with the moonlighters every year; it was like Christmas to her, and she was looking forward to it yesterday before she met Lucas in that blasted restaurant, and now she missed it all; she had forgotten her own birthday, and it was all thanks to her mate. And now she's still standing here in the kitchen, naked and covered in mud in front of her betrothed and her best friend, with no possible explanation to give as to why she disappeared last night, the both of them must probably think she has run mad now.

“We’re waiting,” Ethan said in response to her silence, he didn’t seem to be pleased seeing the state she was in.

“Now, now Ethan,” Ray chided. “Can’t you see that she’s all tired and dirty? She must have had a pretty rough night; I don’t think its nice to be putting so much pressure on her. I’m sure she has a pretty good explanation for her to have missed last night’s party.”

Of course, Ray would never see the wrong side of any situation, Ethan hissed and returned to the dishes behind him.

Ray walked over to her. “Now dear, go and freshen up and then you can come downstairs and tell us where you’ve been.”

“Thank you,” she felt guilty that Ray had spared her yet another one of Ethan’s interrogation sessions, but she couldn’t help herself.

As she walked out of the kitchen, she could feel Ethan glaring holes into her back. She went upstairs and did as her betrothed had said, getting in the shower and washing off all the dirt from her body. About thirty minutes later, she was back in fresh clothes and entered the kitchen to see Ray and Ethan sitting at the table waiting for her, her untouched birthday cake had been disposed off including the decorations.

She sat in front of them and looked at Ethan’s face, he was still angry but not as before, she focused her gaze back on the two men. They were waiting for her to start speaking and she heaved a sigh, not knowing the next set of words to bring out from her mouth.

THREE HOURS LATER

"Here."

Ava woke up from her daydream to find Ray standing near her in their bedroom where she sat thinking. He was handing her a wrapped present, probably to make up for what he couldn't give her last night.

She shook her head, refusing to take it, not because she didn't show up yesterday, but because of the tremendous guilt killing her on the inside for what she did last night; it seemed to be growing bigger by the minute.

"I don't deserve it, Ray."

Ray shunned her statement, "Don't say that, everyone deserves something special for their birthday, even if you forgot yours."

And yes, that was the flimsiest excuse she could come up with for being absent yesterday, but it wasn't a lie, she really did forget.

"I'm sorry, you and the others worked so hard to surprise me yesterday and look at how I messed things up," she apologized for the hundredth time.

Ray dropped the gift on the bedside table and sat on the bed beside her, taking her two hands in his and glancing at her with those reassuring eyes of his.

"It's ok babe, we still have plenty of birthdays to look forward to, it wouldn't hurt to miss just one. Besides, I know how much you love your birthdays, and I understand that for whatever reason it was that took you to the extent of forgetting it yesterday, it had to be important."

She had told them that there was a reason why she forgot her birthday surprise yesterday, but she couldn't bring herself to tell the reason yet. Although Ethan wasn’t buying that excuse, Ray didn't hold it against her, he knew that if they learnt to love and trust each other with time then they wouldn't have a problem revealing their secrets later on. She just hoped that time would come soon, Ray was so sweet to her, he'd rejected his mate without batting an eye, he wanted her so bad but he had to do the right thing, all for Ava and the pack, but when it became her turn to do the same, she did the exact opposite of that; she let Lucas take her, she let him take what she'd been keeping her whole life for Ray. When she said she didn't deserve it; she wasn't talking about the gift, she was talking about Ray, she didn't deserve Ray at all, she thought solemnly.

"Let's open your present!" Ray said excitedly, removing Ava from her thoughts again. He took the gift from the table and handed it to her, she just sighed and stared at it in her hand. To be honest, she wasn't in the mood to open any present but she didn't want to hurt Ray's feelings so she just went on with it.

She unwrapped it and saw that it was an old picture of the two of them when they were still kids, side by side with a more recent photo they took together, holding each other's hands; seeing it brought tears to Ava's eyes. The two pictures were placed together in one frame. She looked up at Ray and gave him a warm smile. That wasn't all, "Look behind the picture,” he told her.

And when she turned over the frame, she saw a few words in his handwriting, written behind the gift.

Thank you for making me the happiest Alpha alive,

I promise to love and be with you from the beginning till the end,

You will always be my precious Luna,

Love,

Ray.

Seeing the word 'precious' made her freeze at that point but she tried not to let it show to Ray, and then the tension in her heart doubled when Ray leaned over to kiss her. She froze and it wasn't because it was unexpected, but because for some strange reason which she didn't know the answer, Ray's touch had always repelled her, that was why they hadn't had sex up till now even though they'd shared a room for years. She'd always thought this was a normal feeling and it would go away once they were joined, but after her night with Lucas, she became fully aware of the fact that she didn't like it when Ray touched her.