11

Charlie

I was in Christina's room and to say it was huge was an understatement. She had basically in her room, and by that, I mean her walk-in closet filled with just her clothes and a whole other closet for Trey.

I was currently looking in the mirror and I was wearing a knee-length, baby blue, off-the-shoulder dress with pumps. It wasn't one of my favorite looks personally but it was all she had that fit me.

My hair is parted in half and pulled back into a bun at the back of my head. I had minimal makeup on, only mascara, eyeliner, and nude lipstick. I wasn't a fan of makeup but C wanted me to go all out tonight for some reason, but who was I to say no? Christina on the other hand, was wearing a long, tight, v-neck red dress showing cleavage, it was floor length and she was wearing tan heels. Her hair was pulled into a high pony and she had on mascara, eye shadow, and lipstick. Beautiful as always.

"Christina, I'm so nervous," I said walking out and sitting down on her bed.

"It's really weird. I didn't feel this way remotely close to Tyler. But I thought because the connection was so strong and I thought he felt the same way too. But I feel like he's not trying to put in effort at all." I told her honestly.

"I just thought that this time would be different?" I truly was slightly disappointed, I thought that life would be different. He would be consistent, and caring, and want to spend time with me. And he's not doing that.

"Look, I need you to understand that a lot is going on that you don't know. I can't tell you everything yet, and Damon can't either. But once he has that under control, then he is coming for you."

"Well, why can't he just say that then?"

I was trying to not cry, I don't know but coming here I have gotten extremely emotional and I didn't like it at all.

"Maybe he just didn't want to hurt your feelings. But let's not think about it too much. You're seeing him tonight which is all that matters. So enjoy that time you have with him okay?"

She grabbed my face and I nodded in agreement. She was right I needed to focus on tonight and being with him tonight. Cause who knows when the next time I'll see him will be.

"When was the last time you talked with your mom? I feel like she'd be able to give you more advice than I could."

Christina mentioned and that's when I realized...I hadn't talked to my mom in months. Since we moved here.

"I haven't spoken to her since moving here. I don't even know where she's at."

"How about tomorrow you and I try and find her, hm?" Christina suggested and I smiled at her.

"Okay, well we should start heading downstairs. You ready?" As ready as I'll ever be.

•••••

We made it to the dining room and Damon's scent covered this castle and yet he was nowhere to be found. Christina made a B-line straight to Trey of course, and left me standing there alone. I looked around and I saw few familiar faces, I needed to get better at putting myself out there and meeting new people. I felt awkward standing in the middle and moved to where I was standing next to the wall. I kept my eyes glued to the front of the room, hoping to see Damon walk through, but still nothing. I was starting to feel hopeless, how could he be late for his dinner?

"Um, excuse me, do you happen to know where the bathroom is?" That all-too-familiar voice filled me with joy. I turned around so quickly that I almost fell. There she stood. My mom.

"Mom!" I yelled as I wrapped my arms around her neck and pulled her into a much-needed hug.

"What are you doing here? Did you get a job catering?" I asked her before I even noticed what she was wearing.

I looked down at her outfit and she was wearing the most beautiful gown that I have ever seen. My mom was glowing. She looked amazing. She looked happy.

"No, not a job. Something else. It's the reason I haven't been around as much. And I'm so sorry about that but I kind of got wrapped up in the whole thing."

I looked behind her and an older man was walking towards us but his eyes were glued to my mom. He was tall and very built. Salt and pepper hair and a full beard. He grabbed my mom by the waist and she immediately melted into his chest.

"Charlie, this is Stephen, my mate." My jaw dropped. My mom found her mate?

"Mate? Did you find your mate? Like real mate?" I asked, I had to double-check.

"Yes, my real mate." She said, Stephen walked closer to me and put his hand out for me to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you Charlotte, your mother has told me so much about you." He gave me a genuine smile, as I grabbed his hand and shook it.

"Dad, what's going on?" Christina come out of the blue and looked at Stephen. And the plot thickens.

"Dad?" I looked at her.

"Yeah, who is this?" She asked pointing to my mom.

"This is my mom. They are mates" I told her, catching them up on the past events. At first, she was shocked, but afterward, his face lit up.

"Congratulations Dad!" She pulled her dad in for a hug and he immediately hugged her back.

"It's very nice to meet you, Christina." My mom added in.

"So, how did you meet?" I needed all the details...well not all.

"I was looking for a job and had been since being here. It was a real struggle. Then on top of that, I had no idea where you were. I couldn't find you. But then when King Damon joined the pack, everything changed. There was a new reform for all the unemployed wolves from our pack. The delta, Robert, become in charge of finding us jobs and areas that needed people. I went in for an interview to find a placement, and it just so happen that Stephen was the one interviewing me." She looked up at him with a sparkle in her eye.

"Then the rest is history," Stephen spoke up, finishing the story for her.

"Well, enough about me, how's Tyler?" She asked and we each fell silent. Well, this is awkward.

How could I tell her that my mate who was nice in the beginning wanted to reject me, but then didn't, and said he wanted to get back together, but it was a lie. Because I was also mated to his brother, who is a Lycan and now is the new king? Yeah. Exactly.

"Uh, well, there's a lot we need to talk about."

As soon as I said that, in he walked in. The most beautiful man to ever exist. His dark hair and bright eyes immediately caught my attention. He got everyone's attention and everyone swarmed him. One thing I noticed was that Tyler and Kenny were nowhere to be found. But I wasn't worried about them.

All I was worried about was how long it would take before he noticed me. So many people were in front of him that I lost view of him. At this point, my mom and Stephen had walked away and so did Christina, leaving me here again all alone. It felt like forever before I could get a good view of him, and his eyes snapped to mine.

Then he was zeroed in. No one could stop him or distract him from getting to me. He not once broke eye contact as he kept walking towards me. He was on a mission. And the mission was me.

"Hi." He said as he towered over me.

"Hi."

If this is all our greetings are going to be then we got to work on our conversation skills.

"You look beautiful." His words warmed my heart but when he grabbed my hand, his touch warmed my body.

"Come let's sit and eat. I want to talk with you."

He slowly pulled me from the wall and to the long dining table. His seat was of course the head of the table but he had me sit right next to him. Once everyone saw that he went to the table, they all started joining, getting seats of their own.

The alpha and Luna of course were there, and the beta and delta, and Christina and Stephen and my mom. They all sat closer to the end I was at with Damon. The alpha grabbed his glass and stood up and got everyone's attention.

"Thank you to all who came out to join us for dinner tonight. Luna and I are grateful to have our son back and all of you that came with him. Who knew there were this many lycans in the world?" They all laughed at that.

"So tonight, no politics, no talk about the Alpha position. Tonight is about family, friends, and love. Now everyone please raise your glass. A toast, to family, friends, and of course to love."

Everyone clanked their glasses and said cheers and all fell into their conversation.

"Is that your mom?" Damon asked as people started their conversations.

"Yeah, it is. It's my first time seeing her since being forced to move here." I told him.

"I want to apologize for my brother's behavior, his behavior towards you was executable. You deserve to be treated like the queen you are meant to be, and I intend on fulfilling that promise. But I will not apologize for what he did to that pack. From what I've heard it was well-deserved. And if I had been there, I know for sure I would have done worse." He smirked at me, and I immediately blushed.

"Look, I meant what I said earlier, I want to spend time with you, and if you let me I'd love to make up for lost time. I bet you have a lot of questions and I am willing to answer all of them."

"Why didn't you look for me?"

The question blurted out way faster than I had expected. But it had been on my mind. I felt as though if maybe Damon found me first a lot of things would have gone differently.

"It's not that I didn't look for you, I didn't know you existed." I looked at him confused and he caught on that I needed more explanation.

"Lycans were told that they only had mates that were Lycans. Now, understand my confusion when Christina is the only female Lycan, and I knew that my mate was not a male, but if he was I was open to it. But yet Lycan after Lycan that I found, none were my mate. I was so deep into the world trying to find any other Lycans I hadn't thought about coming home at all. I looked everywhere and yet nothing. Then I gave up. I believed that I didn't have one, I had found all of the Lycans in the world, and yet none were for me."

"So you can imagine my surprise when I found out about the curse between my brother and me and the fact that my brother found his mate. And at that moment, I didn't care about anything. I didn't want to find any more Lycans, I didn't want to be King, and I didn't care how Tyler felt about you. All I wanted was you. So I dropped everything I could to get back to you. But when I got here I expected smooth sailing, but I was met with a new set of challenges, hindering me from being with you."

"The challenges you can't talk to me about?" I asked him.

"I wish that I could, and one day I will explain everything to you. I just want it to be over with first. I want to give you my undivided attention. You have no idea how long I have waited for you, and I don't want to mess this up."

He grabbed my hand and moved it to his lips and set a soft kiss there. It set me on fire. I guess when he put it that way, it all made sense.

"Okay, I understand. I'll be here when you're ready." I told him truthfully and his face lit up and a huge, breathtaking smile covered his face.

"I promise you, we will be together soon."

The night was half over and Damon and I continued having a light conversation and getting to know each other more. And the more I knew the more I like. He was open and consistent, sweet, and genuine. He truly wanted to know more about me the same way I wanted to know more about him. This is what having a mate is supposed to feel like. It was supposed to be easy and filled with love and light, and that's what I was feeling.

"I can't believe you don't like pickles!" I said to him laughing.

"Who wants something that has been fermenting?" Damon responded and started laughing but then abruptly stopped.

But not just him, all the Lycans stopped talking. They all became stiff, even the werewolves. I turned to Christina and see she is acting the same way.

"Christina, what is going on?" I asked her but she not once took her eyes off the door, but I could see the anger and slight fear in her eyes.

"Rogues are here, and there are hundreds of them." My heart started beating extremely fast, and my jaw dropped. I turned to Damon and he immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the seat and pushed me behind him.

"Stay behind me no matter what. Do you understand?" Damon's voice was low and husky, the growl was coming through as his fangs extended.

"Yes," I whispered to him.

Then all hell broke loose.

The doors crashed open and in walked Tyler with hundreds of rogues behind him. What the hell was Tyler doing with rogues? But just as quickly as it started, it was over.

Bodies were being thrown, blood gushing everywhere, and rogues dying left and right. I did my best to stay behind Damon, but he moved a lot quicker than me, and halfway through I lost him. The only thing I could think of was to go into the corner and try to get low so no one saw me. But that barely worked as I watched this giant man walk towards me. Fear filled my body and there was nowhere to run.

"I've been looking for you." He grimaced at me, showing his yellow teeth.

I tried mind-linking Damon I heard that mates can do that. But I had never tried. But it wasn't working, maybe our connections weren't strong enough yet. The man reached me and grabbed me and started pulling me to him. I started screaming as loud as I could trying to get Damon's attention until finally he looked over and started running toward me. I could see that's when he lost it and his Lycan broke loose.

Killing anyone who walked in his path or tried to attack him. The man grabbed me and wrapped his hands around my neck slowly choking me. I could feel my life slowly slipping away with each passing second.

"I wouldn't take a step closer Damon or I will kill your mate right in front of you." The man said not even turning to see that Damon was behind him.

Damon stopped in his track and his eyes were pitch black, fangs and claws extended.

"Do you think I won't hesitate to kill you right now?" Damon's voice was deeper than usual indicating that it was his Lycan talking and not him.

"Well, if you try to kill me, a hundred rogues that I have waiting outside will not hesitate to kill everyone here."

"How did you even get in here?" Damon yelled the anger flooding off of his waves.

"How about you ask your little brother Tyler? He came to me and told me his plan of how he wanted to be Alpha King and you and this female were in the way. He offered me and all the rogues the freedom to do whatever we wanted once he was king. If we got rid of you both."

I had almost forgotten that Tyler was the one the lead him in here. Yet amid the shuffling Trey and Robert were able to hear what was being said and immediately went straight for Tyler who was trying to fight off another Lycan.

"You have two options. You either let go of Charlie and you leave with your life barely, and the rest of you disgraceful rogues. Or I will kill you and summon the rest of my Lycan pack to kill the rest of you disgusting rogues."

He looked around and could tell he was nervous and didn't know that there were more Lycans. But that's also because Tyler didn't know there were more Lycans either. There were hundreds. And for everyone one Lycan they could kill 10 rogues.

His grip on my neck loosed and but my vision was slowly fading. The man looked around and saw how many of his followers were dead, and realized that this was not a battle he would win. He growled at Damon but as he did he dropped me and ran out of the room followed by the remainder of the rogues.

Damon rushed over to me as I fell to the ground and hit my head. Making me see black dots.

"Robert and Trey take my disgrace of a brother to the cells." He yelled as he picked me up in his arms, his warmth covering me and already making me feel better.

Damon didn't stay to see Robert and Trey take Tyler, or to see the bodies cleaned. He grabbed me and started walking somewhere.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, but it came out very incoherent.

"I'm not letting you out of my site again." That was all he said. I was way too tired to ask more questions and my head was pounding.

"Damon," I said slightly.

"Sh, sh, sh. Don't talk. I'm gonna take care of you okay? You're not going out of my sight ever again."

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