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Chapter Four

Alexandria

Annie turns to me and gives me a tap on the shoulder, when I turn to look in her direction, I can’t help but roll my eyes at what she asks.

“Hey Alex, is it just me, or does James look like he is about to shift into his wolf?”

When Annie looks over at him, she gets a look of surprise on her face. She and I are best friends, she seems to know exactly what I am talking about. She then looks back to me with the same surprised look on her face.

“I see what you mean, what is wrong it’s him.”

Then Annie says something I never thought could be possible.

“What if he smells his mate?”

She begins to look from him to every other female in the room and when she looks back at him, she notices he is staring in our direction. Then she turns to look at me with her eyes as big as saucers, and I somehow know the next words that are going to come out of her mouth before she even has to say them. so, I try to beat her to it before she can even say anything.

“NO, NO, no, there is no way! I can’t be!”

“Alex, think about it...His mate has to be someone who isn’t eighteen yet, she is from this pack, and he is standing there looking like he is about to shift and staring right at you!”

“Annie NO, I’m not his mate. I can’t be.”

In the process of saying all this we try to keep it low enough so only she and I can hear each other. I’m on the verge of tears but I refuse to let them fall. I’m stronger than this, I can't be his mate, why would Selene do this to me, she must want me to be miserable for the rest of my life.

Why would she put me with James?

Then out of nowhere he regains control over himself, and his eyes are back to normal, and he walks to his seat. Occasionally, I catch a glance of him in his seat and I notice he still manages to stare at me. It’s a little creepy and unsettling. This day needs to end....like now. This can't be happening. I can’t be mated to James. What will I do if I am? I need to stay away from him and from Jackie. Especially Jackie. I pray to the Moon Goddess that I will not be mated to him. Please….Anyone but James.

By the time I make it home and to my room I’m just a bundle of nerves and jumpy as all get out. When I hear a knock on my door I am about to jump out of my skin and realize it's just my mom on the other side.

“Come in.”

My mom opens the door, and she has this look on her face like she can tell something has me unsettled.

“What’s wrong honey? You seem a little on edge today.”

“I’m okay mom, Annie just said something today that has me a little jumpy, but I’m not letting it get to me, you know how she is.”

“Oh yes, Annie is something special. How is she doing?”

“She is doing good; she is looking forward to the ball next week.”

“That’s wonderful I’m so glad you will have someone to go to the ball with, has she found her dress yet?”

“I’m not sure I can ask her; do you want me to see if she wants to join us this weekend?”

“That would be wonderful honey. Why don’t you do that, we can make a day of it. Go do a little shopping, get some lunch, and have a girls' day.”

“Okay mom I will. I have a lot of homework to do, was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“Well, there is something, I know your birthday is just a couple of days before the ball and I know once you turn eighteen you have the chance of finding your mate, I just want to see…

I cut her off before she has a chance to finish that statement, I have a feeling she is going to try and give me the werewolf version of the birds and the bees.

“Mom, it's okay, I know. Take it slow, don’t rush anything, I know, I’m not worried about finding my mate right now, I just want to focus on school and get through that before I worry about finding my mate.”

She looks happy with my response.

“Okay Alex, I just wanted to talk to you about it and make sure you have your priorities straight, you have plenty of time for boys and to find your mate.”

“Yes, mom I know.”

She turns to leave but stops, she turns to look at me once more.

“I love you, Alex.”

“I love you too mom.”

She turns back to head out of my room and leaves me to sort myself out and try to convince myself that James isn’t my mate, and that Annie is just crazy.

I manage to get all my homework done and eat a quiet dinner with my parents before I make my way back up to my room to get ready for bed.

As I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I begin to think about everything Annie said today about how I could be James’ mate. I mean everything makes sense but why me? What makes me so great that I would be his mate. I can't be....he is such a jerk and thinks too highly of himself. He thinks he is the greatest wolf around with his dark brown hair and hazel eyes, a smile that everyone seems to think is a panty-melting smile, and his strong lean muscular body…no, stop thinking like that, he is a jerk!

“Yea, Okay.”

He just thinks he is the goddess’ gift to women, goddess knows he has been with every girl in school, even though he is dating Jackie, he doesn’t seem to care, he will still sleep with any girl who gives him the time of day. I truly feel bad for anyone who is his mate, He would end up having his true mate and a mistress. I feel bad for whoever ends up being his true mate. James’ isn’t worthy of the true mate bond.

UGH! James is such a sleazeball. I can't be his mate. There is no way. I roll to my side and try to drift to sleep but it doesn’t work.

“Dammit, Annie! Thanks a lot for putting this crap in my head.”

By the time I make it to school the next morning, I feel like a walking zombie, I’m so tired because Annie and her stupid theories about me being James’ mate kept me up all night and I have no patience to deal with Jackie and her crap this morning, but I know James will find some way to mess with me today. I manage to make it through most of the day with no issues with Jackie or James.

Thank goddess.

But the time I make it to my last class for the day I am sitting there with Annie, and we are talking about going shopping with my mom tomorrow and how much fun it's going to be, by the time the last bell rings I look up and James is standing there looking at me again like he is about to shift. I can’t take this much longer so I manage to hold eye contact with him and I raise my perfect sculpted eyebrow at him waiting to see what his next move is going to be, he clenches his jaw and flares his nostrils, and I notice from the corner of my eye that his fist clenches and unclenches at his side, but yet I hold my gaze not giving him any clue that I am going to crack or look away. He will not win.

Then out of nowhere, we hear little miss perfect. Jackie and he nasally voice trying to get James’ attention.

“James, baby come to sit down, I’m lonely over here.”

That seems to get his attention and is brought back to the here and now and breaks eye contact with me and strolls over to Jackie and her groupies.

Once I know he is seated and no longer aware of my presence, I turn to look in their direction and I see Jackie scowling at me like she wishes she could rip my head off. She must have seen the stare down James, and I just had. She thinks she scares me, but She is nothing, and I refuse to let her get to me and try to scare me. Her bark is worse than her bite. I then turn away and roll my eyes because she is threatened by me and the fact that James wants me.

Wait…. what? Where did that come from?

“Hey Alex, you okay over there?”

“What? Oh yea, I’m good. So, Annie, have you thought about what color you want your dress to be?”

“Of course, I want to find something ruby red and long with a mermaid tail style train. But not too long, I don’t want it to get trampled by everyone else walking around. What about you?”

“I’m not sure yet, maybe something blue since it is the Blue Moon Ball after all, with maybe some sparkle but it's got to be strapless.”

“Oooh, Alex that is going to be so pretty. We will find your perfect dress tomorrow. I can’t wait.”

“I can't wait until tomorrow either.”

By the time the bell rings to let us go home for the day, we have a plan to meet up for the time we want to start shopping, where we want to have lunch, and what style of dress and shoes we want for the ball. We make our way out to the parking lot and make our way to our cars.

Once we reach our cars that are parked right next to each other…as always. We make plans to text each other later after we get all our homework done and have dinner.

“See you later Alex.”

“Bye Annie.”

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