Chapter 1 - My eighteenth birthday.

Blanca

I WAS BORN A DEATH WALKER. A clairvoyant or a medium, as they call it in some cultures and under normal circumstances, I could have lived a very happy life. If I hadn't been born the daughter of the beta of a werewolf pack. My jet-black hair and striking blue eyes just added to the fact that I was wanted by all males and even some females, but loved by none except for my parents.

I was the outcast. The only one in the pack with powers beyond just being able to shift into a beast. Nobody could explain it since nobody knew of a wolf who had powers other than just being able to shift. The only other creatures we knew of with this gift were the vampires. Some of them could read thoughts, some could do magic and others could cause incredible pain without so much as flicking their wrist. Sadly, that was also the reason why I was about to experience the worst day of my life.

Today was my eighteenth birthday. I have been looking forward to this day since I was a little girl. That one special day in your life when you are supposed to find your destined mate. That one person who was made just for you. The one … I spent all day upstairs with my parents to celebrate and my mother had planned a huge party for me downstairs.

I wasn’t very interested in the party since I knew nobody really liked me, but since my father was the beta of the pack, it was expected that there would be a big party in my honour. Not that I thought people would come just for me. No, this pack was coming for food and free alcohol. That part I was pretty sure about, but I agreed to the party to make my parents happy.

My mom had bought me the perfect dress just the week before and I was looking at myself in the mirror when my father walked in to let me know it was time to go downstairs. The bright sequenced red dress clung to my body, making me even more self-conscious than normal, but I smiled at my dad and hooked my arm in his. The tradition was that the new adult wolf would be presented to the pack by coming down the main staircase. I felt my hand shake a little and clamped the other hand over it as we reached the stairs and all eyes turned to us.

Everyone was gathered in the foyer to sing Happy Birthday as I came down the stairs. I was so damn nervous! Not because of the pack, but because I really didn’t want to trip and fall down the stairs and disappoint my parents!

“MATE!” A loud growl shuddered throughout the crowd and our eyes met.

“Carlo,” My heart felt as if it was about to stop as our eyes met and the realization struck me right in the damn gut!

“Mate!” My wolf squealed inside my head and I flinched slightly. My dad looked at me and then at Carlo and I could just feel the excitement growing in him. He never said it out loud, but I knew he had always secretly hoped Carlo and I would be destined mates. I always thought both our parents secretly hoped that we would one day end up together. It made the most sense. We would be the power couple of the pack … Carlo pushed through the crowd looking furious and he took the stairs two at a time, meeting us half way.

“I, Carlo, Alpha of the Crescents, reject you, Blanca, as my mate. Do you accept my rejection?” His eyes flashed with anger and I blankly stared at him. First off, I never imagined he would be my destined mate. Everyone else did! I didn’t! Secondly, did he have to immediately reject me on my birthday? Couldn’t he at least have waited until after we cut the damn cake? And lastly, why the hell was I even worried about any of it? The pain was instantaneous and horrific, but I also didn’t want a mate who didn’t want me!

“I accept your rejection!” I growled as the pack stood looking at us. Turning on my heel, I stormed back up the stairs. I should have known that he would be my destined mate. I was the beta’s daughter. The third highest-ranking female in the pack. Carlo’s mother was the first, which made my mother the second, and then I fell out of the damn bus somewhere along the way.

“Blanca, sweetheart! Stop!” I rolled my eyes as I heard my mother calling me and I slowed down, but I didn’t stop. I didn’t care about protocol or how it would look to anyone that I left the party before it even started! I hadn’t seen Carlo all day, and the moment I was making my big entrance he had to ruin everything! He was my mate. The one destined to love me! Of course, he didn’t waste a single second. He walked right up to me and didn’t even wish me a happy birthday before he rejected me.

“Blanca, I’m so sorry, sweetheart. If I had known …” My mother put her arm around my shoulders as I fought the urge to cry out in pain. All I wanted now was to reach the sanctity of my bedroom so I could lick my wounds and find peace.

“Mom.” I cut my mother off and stopped walking. Turning to look at her as tears slowly filled my eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Please, go back to the party. I just want to be alone.” What else could my mother say? I have to figure things out for myself from now on. I was eighteen and a senior. I was all grown up. My mother nodded and reluctantly left me alone. I slammed the door behind me and fell onto my bed, grabbing hold of my stuffed frog.

Mr. Wiggles had been with me since I was a baby and I always clung to him when the world became too cruel. My entire life I have been teased by others. Nobody cared that I was the daughter of the beta and when my parents tried to protect me from the bullies … The next time I ran into a bully, their words were even crueller.

I quickly learned not to tell my parents about it. They had done so much over the years to try and find out why I had this curse. I couldn’t put more on them. Being the pack beta with a freak for a daughter was bad enough as it was. I cried into Mr. Wiggles as an intense pain started to work its way through my body and my wolf howled in agony.

The mate bond was being ripped to shreds. My mother explained it to me when I was younger. She always told me that she was sure my mate would never reject me, but that if it did happen, I should be prepared. I didn’t scream as the pain grew stronger. I wouldn’t give anybody the satisfaction of hearing me cry. Even if I was on the beta floor where nobody other than the betas were allowed.

I wished that I could leave the pack. I wished I could go somewhere where people would be kind, but I wouldn’t be able to. If I ever left, Carlo would surely declare me rogue and then I could even become feral because of my curse. Maybe becoming a feral rogue wasn’t such a bad idea. At least then I wouldn’t have to live with the constant ridicule, for something I had absolutely no control over.

“Honey, I’m so sorry.” My father’s voice pierced though my pain as he sat down beside me on the bed. I hadn’t even heard him come in and he never came in without knocking first. I was a daddy’s girl. I loved my mother dearly, but I had always been a little closer to my dad. I kept my face firmly planted on Mr. Wiggle’s tummy. I knew that if I looked at my father, he would see my tear-stained face and I didn’t want him to see it.

It wasn’t as if I wanted Carlo. I actually didn’t like him at all. The man thought he was the goddess’s gift to werewolves! All the girls got wet just looking at him and those were the ones that weren’t even old enough to find mates yet!

“I will speak to Carlo’s father. He has to make this right.” My father rubbed my back and I finally looked at him.

“No, daddy. Please, don’t. I don’t want someone who doesn’t want me.” I wiped my face with my sleeve and took a deep breath so I could try and rid myself of some of the pain.

“Blanca, you can’t expect me to just leave it. Look at the state of you. You are in pain and that is on your birthday. Carlo should at least apologize. He could have waited until tomorrow to reject you if that was what he wanted to do. Everyone has always said that you two would end up together. I don’t understand why he rejected you.” He tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear as pain shot through my body and I cried out this time. “I will call the doctor.”

I couldn’t help it. The pain was just so bad that I was finding it incredibly hard to just breathe. I didn’t want Carlo! I didn’t want my father speaking to his parents on my behalf and I sure as hell wouldn’t accept any apology that Carlo might give me. It would be fake, since he never meant any of his apologies. Carlo never believed that he was wrong. So, when he apologized, it was usually because his parents made him do it.

“Dad, I’m glad he rejected me. If he didn’t reject me, I would have rejected him. I don’t want him.” My father didn’t look happy, but he accepted my choice and left me alone. My mother came in to check on me a short while later. The pain had come and gone in awful waves and didn’t seem to subside, which made me wonder if I would ever be rid of it. The doctor arrived and there wasn’t much he could do about it. My body would burn from any pain medication faster than they would be able to give it. In the end, he had to tell my parents to just support me through it.

The doctor believed it was so bad because of our rank. An alpha who was mated to a beta was the highest of all, after all. The doctor couldn’t stay very long because he was called out by someone else, and I didn’t care. I just wanted everyone to leave me the hell alone. One thing that kept playing through my mind was that people could now stop gossiping about me behind my back. Everyone finally knew that I was Carlo’s destined mate and that he didn’t want me. At least, that part was over. All they could talk about from here on out was the fact that I could talk to the dead.

I took a deep cleansing breath when the pain grew a little less, and again wondered how long I would have to deal with it before it was finally over. For three days, I was in the worst pain I had ever been in my entire life, but eventually it subsided and my wolf stopped whining for her mate. The death, unfortunately, didn’t take time off and I was constantly bombarded by them wanting my help. The only good thing about it all was that I didn’t have to see living people during those three days.