Kale-

Lucca has been gone for ages and there isn’t enough champagne at this party to even give me a buzz, while I wait for the night to finally be over. There’s a shitload of hours left until I can finally go to bed and have one of these days finally over, and time just seems to be moving slower than possible.

I hate this feeling that’s quickly growing in the pit of my stomach, a reaction from the feelings coursing through the bond. I know exactly what it is and it’s pissing me off. Jealousy.

I don’t want to be jealous of Lucca being with Makksi. If he wants to be with that cat then that’s on him. I mean I already rejected Makksi so I shouldn’t be feeling jealous at all.

I don’t understand why he doesn’t care, or why it doesn’t matter to him at all. It means a whole hell of a lot to me. And for a werewolf to be mated to a werecat; nothing good could come from it.

He’s so carefree and not picky with people at all, with who he hooks up with, so it’s not surprising that he doesn’t mind that his mate is Makksi, but still. You’d think that he would have some sort of morals.

I know that it’s my own fault that things are turning out as they are between Makksi and me, but I can’t bring myself to come to terms with the fact that I’m mated to a cat, like Lucca so easily can.

Maybe I’m being dramatic about the situation like Lucca is saying, or something.

I’m pulled from my thoughts when my Dad comes out from between a group of officials and heads straight for me. He glances around and when he’s finally up in my bubble, he leans forward and asks me, “Where’s Lucca?”

This sets me a little on edge and so I accidentally snap at him, “I don’t know. Probably somewhere fucking someone, like usual.”

Dad gives me a short glare and goes back to glance around the room. “You should mingle a little. It’s possible your mate is here.”

He IS here. But I can’t bring myself to tell my dad that my mate is a cat. And a guy. What would he think about that? I can’t help but think the worst. That he would shun me or hate me or something. Or I’d lose my status because of it.

“And try to stay out of trouble,” Dad says with a look that mildly irritates me. I mean, I’m not always ‘in trouble’ or some shit. Yeah, I’m a little hot-headed and that brings a little attention to me. But I guess I should keep it in check for this event. I don’t want to make my dad look bad or embarrass the pack during this important evening.

So with a sigh, I nod and turn around to ‘mingle’ and hope that wherever Lucca went, he’ll be back soon because I’m dying of boredom.

As soon as Dad leaves, I push myself away from the wall that I was leaning against and accidentally end up bumping into some dude. He spills his drink and I think nothing of it until he grabs my arm and spins me around to face him.

With a glare and a set jaw, he growls at me and I can already tell that I fucked up. Great, not five seconds after the conversation with my dad and I’m about to get into a fight with some other Alpha.

“Hey man, everything’s fine, right?” I say while trying to carefully remove his hand from my arm without offending him even further.

“Everything isn’t fine. You just spilled my drink on my goddamn shoes. Do you know how much these cost me?”

Great. So I profusely apologize to the guy in hopes that he’ll just drop it and, thankfully, he does when he glances behind me. I turn my head out of curiosity to find a tall woman in a shimmering red dress walking elegantly towards us.

The guy lets go of my arm and gives the woman a slight bow and, now that she’s closer, I recognize her as the matriarch of the hosting pride. With the Alpha next to me bowing to her, I take that as a cue to bow also; and so I do although I’m not entirely sure if it’s good enough since I don’t really remember what my Dad said about how to do this sort of etiquette.

The woman smiles shortly and also bows her head slightly, although hers is way more regal than mine and I’m left in awe at just how fluid and graceful her motions and posture are during the action.

She glances at the Alpha next to me and I feel him move away, but then she turns her attention back to me, clearly ignoring the guy when she speaks smoothly, “You must be the young alpha, Kaleb Geisthund of SilverMoon. I am Karissa of Cilese.”

I guess they don’t have last names? Or maybe I’m already supposed to know it, which, if Dad told me then I completely forgot or I tuned him out on this other bit of important knowledge. Apparently, I did that a lot, in the preparations for this day since I can’t remember a lot of stuff I’m supposed to do or know.

She leans forward and presents her hand to me and I’m again at a loss for what I’m supposed to do. I can practically feel just how cunning she is. This isn’t just a mere introduction. It almost feels like she’s testing me or something.

So I push my hand out and give her hand a shake which earns me a smirk from her. I know that’s not what I was supposed to do but I panicked. “Acceptable,” she says with a slight nod and a coy smile.

“E- excuse me,” I say, stumbling over the absence of my words as I’m suddenly filled with an odd feeling. So I panic and run to where I last saw a bathroom while trying to hide the growing god damn boner that decided on its own to come out of nowhere.