It took me around 30 minutes to find my friends, they were chilling out in the cafe in the town center. They were chatting casually with an Omega who worked there. Normally Omega’s didn’t work, but if he was working that meant he was no longer living at his parents’ house to be independent, or their mate rejected them. Nowadays it’s the first one, the second really didn’t fit in with our pack, but it still happened every once and awhile.

I take a seat next to Raven and he throws his arm around my shoulder. “Well I heard that there are warriors transferring over to our pack from the one in Oregon. Their pack apparently got attacked by some rogues that also had some vampires working with them. Scary as fuck. Alpha Kent is going to be sending some of ours over seeing as we have older more experienced warriors in our pack than they do, they’re transferring their younger warriors as an even trade. Maybe one of them will be my mate.” The worker says dreamily. “Oh sorry about that, my name is Sammy.” He says looking me in the eyes. “Do you need anything?” I shake my head.

“So we’re getting younger warriors and we’re trading out some of our more experienced warriors?” I interject. “August by the way.” I state answering his question before he could ask.

“Yepparoo you’re right on the money!” Sammy smiled.

“Well maybe we can get a man in our lives!” Ella laughed. “Goddess knows my wolf will kill me if I go through another heat without a man I think my insides will burst open.”

Our heat cycles happen every three to four moon cycles. Luckily for me it’s every four, unlucky for Ella who has hers every three moon cycles. Usually we helped each other out during the treacherous times of our heat cycle, because no one in a five mile radius wanted a dominant wolf near an Omega in heat. It’s like all of the dominant wolves lose their sense of thinking when they catch the aroma of an Omega in heat. It was the desire of the wolf wanting to mount the Omega due to the scent that was released from our bodies while we were in heat. Once an Omega was mated their heat only happened once a year if they weren’t carrying a pup. There were cases back in the day where Omega’s would have kids with men who were already mated. Most of the Omega’s that had children with mated wolves, ended up getting denied by their mate every time. The older generation of Omega's that had kids before the mating process were single parents because of that.

There were medications that could be taken, shampoos that could be used to block out the scent, but it was to believe that they brought the fertility rate for Omega’s down a significant amount. So when we knew our heat was coming we would go to a cabin that was designated for unmated Omegas to come to while they were in heat. This had started less than 20 years ago when Alpha Kent had taken over our pack and it has helped a significant amount preventing unwanted pregnancies. It was considered a crime in our pack if a dominant wolf mounted an Omega that was not their mate. Dominant wolves are more conscious of what they’re doing when an Omega is in heat, and if they marked an Omega they would be punished by being kicked out of the pack, making them a rogue.

“Who’re you talking about girl, I’ve got what, five years on you?” Sammy puts his hand on his hip. “I’ve been ready to be mounted and have kids for two years now. But here I am, working to pay rent in the pack house.”

“Hey I’m almost 18, in February.” Ella pouts.

“Dude it’s September.” Sammy says.

“The end of September you mean.” She states, turning her chin up.

“Oh shut the fuck up,” Sammy says picking up Raven’s now empty mug off of the table. “I have to get back to work kiddos, talk to y’all some other time.” Sammy walks away heading behind the counter and into the back room.

“Well I really hope the new warriors are cute, I need some new snacks to look at.” Raven says finally speaking up. “Trust me Ella, I feel you on that.” Raven usually was reserved to new people until he got to know people better. In middle school he really wanted to be friends with people in our class but it turned sour and that’s where he met Ella and I. We’ve been thick as thieves ever since.

“Do you know when they’re supposed to come?” I ask since I had missed some of their conversation.

“She said in November.” Raven states. “I assume it's because of the warriors needing to move their whole life and get accepted into their new pack. It’s really going to suck losing some of our family, but I guess it's nice we’re willing to help other packs.”

“Yeah it’s cool that they’re doing it.” Ella says taking a sip of her drink. “Anyways how's your jaw doing?”

“Fine, does it look less swollen?” I raised my hand to my face, it was still a little puffy but the pain wasn’t as bad as it was before I had the sludge.

“Hella.” Raven says running a hand through his hair. “I’ve had enough socializing today, can we please go back to your place?”

“Actually can you take me up to the school so I can drive my car back home so I don’t have to walk to school in the morning?” I ask.

“I’ll spend the night again and take you to school in the morning, you can just drive it home tomorrow after school.”