RISE OF THE LYCANS - Mates and Bonds

Selena

There was a new and unusual energy in Paris the last few days, making my wolf, Stella, restless. I tried to ignore it and continue my daily life, but it was impossible. Shifters worldwide have been flying in all week for the upcoming mating ball.

Some were enjoying the sights, dining out, shopping, or trying to blend in with the tourists. It didn’t matter how hard they tried because the one thing shifters couldn’t do well was blend in with humans. Especially not when they’re all hunting potential mates.

The idea of finding a mate at the ball made me nervous. The shifter community had a long-standing tradition of holding mating balls every few years to help unmated shifters find their destined mates. Elders from a few European packs had decided it was time to hold a mating ball, and what better place than the Palace of Versailles, where shifter balls have been held for centuries.

I had considered skipping the ball altogether, but my father was the Zeta to the Alpha King and would be here with my younger sister. After a great deal of begging, I gave in to my sister’s request and agreed to attend the ball. Sol was a few years younger and wanted nothing more in the world than to find her mate.

Sitting on the terrasse of my favorite café, I sip my cappuccino and savor the flaky, warm, crescent-shaped slice of heaven called a croissant. I looked down at my phone and found two messages from my parents, who arrived late last night with others from the pack. Shamefully, I was avoiding them by claiming I had class today. It wasn’t entirely a lie, but more of a stretch. Final projects were due yesterday, and we had to clear out our workstations today.

The truth is… I don’t know what to do now that my master's program is complete.

I had planned to return to New York and move to the city to work, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to return to the States. London was an option, but I wasn’t crazy about the weather there. I had given up the lease on my apartment and planned to move out next month, but I still had no idea what I was doing or where I was going.

Gaston was my regular waiter most mornings, but the young man who helped me today was new. I caught the sight of black slacks and thought the waiter was delivering the bill, but then I noticed the Berluti leather oxfords. No waiter in Paris, no matter how good he was, could afford to spend so much on shoes, let alone work in them.

My heart skipped a beat when his Alpha aura hit me, and Stella was alert.

“Ce siège est-il occupé?” He asked if the other seat at my table was taken.

“I’m sorry, what?” I pretended not to understand.

“Ahh, Americana,” he smiled. “Are you here for the ball?”

“Tell him we’re here for the croissants,” Stella snuffled.

“I’m just here to enjoy the croissants,” I replied, trying not to let his piercing green eyes affect me.

“Then allow me to buy you another.” He pulled the chair back and took a seat. He was an Alpha with a natural French accent, which meant he belonged to the Darc or Orléans family packs.

I couldn’t help feeling like we were being watched, and I quickly glanced behind the Alpha. I expected to find the Alpha’s Beta or a warrior with him, but I didn’t see anyone. If someone was there, they kept a distance from the Alpha. The city of Paris was neutral territory, and I wasn’t on pack lands, so I had made no contact with local packs or their Alphas in the fifteen months that I’d been here.

“Parfait!” He said, almost whispering.

“What is perfect?”

“The warmth of the morning sun caressing your beautiful skin,” he reached out, gently stroking the top of my arm. I don’t know if it was static electricity or the magnetism of this French Alpha touching me, but I thought I felt a zing pass through me. Or maybe it was a shudder.

“Do you come here often?” I managed to ask, wondering why I hadn’t seen or sensed him before.

“This is one of the many establishments owned by my pack,” he said. “How did you stumble upon it?”

I had rarely scented or sensed any shifters here, which is why I frequented this café. “There’s a bookstore nearby…” I nervously took another sip of my cappuccino. “Near Notre-Dame,” I managed to say without telling him I lived down the street.

“Oui, the Shakespeare and Company bookshop,” he nodded as he reached into his pocket and removed a handkerchief. “You must enjoy reading?”

“I do,” I smiled. I loved reading almost as much as I loved fashion.

“Allow me,” he reached with the small swatch of fabric and pressed it to the top of my lip. “A little bit of crème from your drink.”

I couldn’t resist the nervous laughter that erupted from me at the thought of this strong Alpha wiping my milk mustache. He was attentive and handsome, and I wasn’t sure what to make of him. Stella let out a low whine, and I instinctively scanned my surroundings again. Something was making her anxious.

“Are you expecting someone?” He asked, and my eyes were drawn to the cloth in his hand. A vintage Hermès silk pocket square.

“No,” I replied. “Well, yes, actually. I’m meeting my sister in twenty minutes for some last-minute dress shopping,” I lied, waving my arm to call the waiter over. “I was trying to get the waiter’s attention.”

“Your bill is on the house,” he waved off the waiter. “So, you’re dress shopping. Will you be at the ball tomorrow?” He was handsome in a classical French way, and his sense of fashion screamed old money. He appeared to be in his early thirties and was still unmarked.

“Why? Do I look like I’m in the market for a mate?” I asked before I could stop myself.

He leaned back in the chair, crossed his arms over his chest, and studied me briefly before he replied. “You’re beautiful and unmarked. You didn’t cower from my Alpha aura and hold my gaze when speaking to me, which tells me you’re from a ranked family. Now, I just need to figure out who this pretty little wolf is and why she’s suppressing her aura.”

“I’m no one important,” I replied, trying to keep my heart from racing.

“It takes a strong wolf to suppress an aura,” he added. “Which pack did you say you’re from?”

“I didn’t,” I replied with a coy smile. This wolf was making me nervous, and his powerful aura was doing things to me—something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

“How am I supposed to find you again?”

“You can try sniffing me out at the ball, Alpha,” I replied, standing up to leave. “Thank you for breakfast. Au revoir!” I said goodbye in French and prayed he wouldn’t follow me.

“Challenge accepted,” he called out behind me.

I moved quickly to the corner and hailed a passing taxi. My apartment was around the corner, but I asked the driver to take me to a fabric store I frequented, which was ten minutes away. I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being followed, so I looked around at the fabrics to help me calm down.

“He was handsome,” I told Stella.

“He wasn’t our mate,” she replied dejectedly.

“Are you sure? When he touched my arm…”

“No,” she insisted.

I knew she was just as hurt and disappointed that Lukas wasn’t our mate. She had practically gone silent the first year after the devastation. Being in Paris and so far away from him didn’t help her either. She missed shifting and long runs with her pack mates, so I visited Valaria as often as I could get away. The pack territory in Italy was stunning. It was situated in the Tuscan Mountains and nestled against an ancient forest that always made Stella feel better.

The pull to Lukas had always been there for as long as I could remember. The energy I felt being near him, touching him, kissing him… there was no doubt in my mind what he was to me. I grew up knowing he was my mate and that when I turned eighteen, the mate bond would forever lock our hearts. Only it never happened, and the Moon Goddess had other plans for us… for him. I just wish I knew what her plan for me was.

I took the metro back to my apartment to ensure I wasn’t being followed. A young couple standing close to me embraced before kissing. He was tall and had dark hair that reminded me of Lukas. I swallowed the lump in my throat along with my feelings. Visions of Lukas at the ball tomorrow night floated through my mind. There was a good chance he would finally find his mate. The future Queen of our world. Some unknown female the Moon Goddess found worthy enough to bond with him. Someone strong enough to be his mate, Queen, and the mother of his pups.

The metro stopped at my station, and I walked absent-mindedly to my apartment building. I wondered if I would be able to feign happiness watching as he danced with his mate. To stay composed while everyone congratulated the happy couple.

“There’s also a good chance he won’t find her,” my wolf whispered.

I took a deep breath and tried to shake the feeling of dread as I entered my apartment building. I loved being on the top floor with my little balcony and having a beautiful view of the rooftops in Paris, but the climb to the sixth floor made me thankful to be a shifter. I took the stairs two at a time and stopped abruptly when I heard shuffling from the top floor. There were two apartments at the top, and my neighbor was on vacation in the south of France.

“Hold the light still. I almost had it,” I heard a familiar voice whisper.

“Hurry, Grandma,” I heard another say. “I really need to pee.”

“Honey, this is Paris, the home of wild peeing. Just go outside and pee if you need to.”

“Pipi sauvage is against the law now, and people get fined for public urination,” I said with a laugh when I saw the two trying to pick the lock of my apartment.

“Selena!” Persephone hugged me.

“What are you two doing here?” I smiled as I moved to hug Grandma Dori, who was quickly shoving a lock-pick kit into her purse. “Shouldn’t you two be at the hotel with the others?”

“Well, that’s a funny story…” Persephone started to say. “But if I don’t get to your toilet, there will be some wild peeing in this hallway.”

I shoved my key in the lock and realized that Grandma Dori had managed to pick it just as I arrived. Pushing the door open, I stepped back to allow Persephone the clearance to run for the bathroom. Grandma reached for a hot pink suitcase, and I wheeled the black one in behind her. Her silver hair had a light pink tint to it, and I couldn’t help suppressing a laugh because it was so perfectly spunky like her.

“Did you two carry the suitcases up the stairs by yourself?”

“Persephone insisted on carrying them both up,” Dori said.

“Why didn’t you drop the suitcases at the hotel before you came over?”

“We were hoping to crash at your place,” Persephone called out as she washed her hands in my bathroom.

My apartment was a small one-bedroom with a pull-out sofa. I’ve never had anyone spend the night except for Jose after working on projects or a night out in the city. His on-again-off-again boyfriend also lived in the Latin Quarter, so we spent a lot of time together.

“Woo wee, will you look at that!” Dori moved to the glass door of my small balcony. “I can see the top half of the Eiffel Tower from here.”

“It must look so beautiful at night,” Persephone squeaked.

“Are you hungry?” I moved to the fridge to see if I had anything edible in it.

“Starved!” Persephone replied. “Can we get some crêpes before we go shopping?”

“Shopping?” I was still slightly confused about why they would want to stay in my tiny apartment when the family had an entire floor at the Parisian Grand. They were royals in the shifter world, and every luxury would be available to them at The Grand.

“Well, since I’m a lycan, and I’m not twenty-five yet…” she started to say.

“You won’t be twenty-five for almost five more years…”

“Right… well, it’s not fair,” she continued. “Werewolves mature at eighteen, and so Cynder and Sol get to go to the mating ball—”

“We’re here to crash the mating ball,” Grandma admitted.

“Does the family know you’re here?”

“No,” Persephone shook her head.

“A bunch of party poopers, if you ask me,” Grandma said. “We had to sneak on the jet and hide in the closet.”

“Where do your parents think you’re at?”

“They think we’re staying with Uncle Poseidon,” Persephone replied.

There had to be more to this story. “And Poseidon thinks you’re where?”

“He thinks we changed our mind and decided to stay with Storm,” the sly old lady grinned.

“We promise not to get in your way,” Persephone added. “We just want to eat, shop, and take in the sights. Please don’t tell.”

This was Lukas’ great-great-grandmother who had helped raise me and loved me as one of her own. There wasn’t anything in the world I wouldn’t do for her, but I didn’t like the idea of her walking around Paris by herself.

“She’s not alone,” my wolf reminded me. “She has Persephone and us.”

“We’ve masked our scents with evve tea, and we brought extra tea with us. I can’t shift yet, and Grandma doesn’t shift anymore, so we should blend right in with the humans,” Persephone pleaded.

“I just wanted to see Paris while I still can. You know, the arthritis in my back has been getting worse, and I want to be able to enjoy Paris before I become wheelchair-bound,” Grandma sniffled.

I had never seen an elder werewolf in a wheelchair and wondered how serious it was if she was worried about a wheelchair. “Wheelchair-bound?”

“And don’t get me started on these damn cataracts,” she added. “I could go blind soon, and then I won’t be able to see the beautiful stained glass windows at Sainte-Chapelle. I hear it’s one of the most beautiful churches in the world.”

“Has my father given you healing? I can give you healing, too,” I offered. “Don’t worry. You will see Sainte-Chapelle, I promise.”

“You promise?” She sniffled again, pulling a handkerchief from her purse.

“I do.”

“Can we go now?” She smiled.

Sainte-Chapelle was a ten-minute walk from here, but I didn’t have time to play tour guide. “I need to go to school and clean out my station today.”

“Great, we can help you,” Persephone offered. “After we get something to eat, of course.”

Four crêpes, three coffees, two croissants, and one tartine later, we arrived at the Fashion Institute. Our special projects, showcased in a graduation runway show last week, were lined in the window and would remain on display for the rest of the year. Knowing this would be one of the last times I walked through these halls was a bittersweet moment. The Fashion Institute was my refuge. It’s where I buried my heartache when I arrived in Paris over a year ago.

“There you are!” Jose called out, waving his hand at us.

“And who is this handsome human?” Grandma Dori asked, and Persephone coughed at the mention of human.

“Grandma Dori, this is my friend Jose. Jose, this is Grandma Dori and Persephone.”

“Enchanté,” Jose said, holding his perfectly manicured hand out.

“Shantay, yourself,” Grandma clasped his hand.

Persephone burst into laughter. “Grandma, it’s pronounced on-sean-té. It means delighted to meet you.”

“Right, well, it’s a delight to meet you, Jose,” she smiled.

“I love your hair,” he grinned at Grandma. “Are you also attending the fundraiser gala?”

Most of the packs had accumulated wealth through established corporations and big names, so it was easy to pass the mating ball off as a corporate fundraiser for the elite.

“At my age, I’m here for the macarons, the sights, and to find out if Frenchmen are really hard-wired to flirt,” she retorted.

“Yes, yes, and yes!” He replied with a giggle.

Persephone helped me clean out my workstation while Dori chatted away with Jose. I returned general supplies to the closet and packed my personal items. This was it. Jose and I were officially done with our master’s program. The only difference was that he was going to stay and work for Balenciaga, and I was still trying to figure out where I belonged.

“I don’t understand how all these dress-form mannequins are all flat-chested,” Grandma Dori told Jose as she spun around a torso mannequin on wheels. “Are French women built like boys, or did tits go out of fashion around here?”

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Note: Oui - is pronounced "We" which is "Yes" in French.

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Hi, hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, Semana Santa, Ramadan, or April Fools Day. :)

I'm trying to write this series so that anyone can pick it up and read it without having read the previous books.

This is a new Chapter, but we still have some of our beloved characters along for the ride. And of course, there are always hidden Easter Eggs in my stories for those of you who have read the other books.

I'm trying to explain who's who as we read along, so I'm going to wait a few more chapters and am considering posting a quick reference guide so you know which pup is related to who. BUT... I'm trying to casually mention it, so hang in there, and let me know if you really do need the reference guide or if it's relevant to the storyline.

Paulina