~Ariana's POV~
I woke up at the sound of a knock on my door, popping one eye open, the knob turned and Mia walked in, I grumbled, shutting my eyes, she got on my bed, shaking me lightly.
"I know you're awake Ana, come on," I ignored her, turning on my side,
"come on Ana, the ball is today." she insisted, I groaned in annoyance, sitting up, I rubbed my eyes and turned to check the time, 7:05, turning to look at her in shock,
"It's 7 am in the morning Mia, what is wrong with you, it's a fucking saturday and the ball starts by 7pm, stop persecuting me." I complained, before dropping back into position and shutting my eyes.
"Ana..." She grumbled, I threw a pillow at her,
"shut up and get out please..." I whined, she laughed,
"No can do, we have a lot to do, hair, nails etc." she informed me, I gave her a confused look.
"And we have to start this early because....?" I trailed off,
"well you're still gonna want to hit the gym, which on a regular day you spend about an hour or two in there before you're satisfied, regular days are days you have classes, you spend more time holed up in there on Saturdays, so we have to get an early start at least." she explained, I sighed, realizing they must have noticed my frequent visits to the gym most mornings, it wasn't really a surprise though, they were wolves after all, they we're probably curious as to my reasons, I hadn't told them about the dreams yet, it just didn't feel right, surprisingly, I didn't have any dream last night, perhaps whatever it was was finally done messing with me, I hoped so at least, sighing again, I sat up, stretching with a yawn as I got off my bed, got changed and headed down to the gym.
After about an hour and a half, I was out and on my way to my room to take a much needed bath, I went straight to my bathroom and began filling the bath tub with water, I always used the shower on week days cause I had to hurry up so I didn't miss classes, but saturdays were bath days, feeling the temperature, I smiled satisfied, pouring in a generous amount of my favorite bath bombs, I turned on my mp3, gangsta by kehlani sounded from my speakers, and I smiled.
"perfect.", getting into the bath, I relaxed, laying my head on the head rest and shut my eyes.
After a while, the water began cooling and I washed up, got out and drained the bath. I grabbed a towel and dried myself up, before wrapping it around me, and heading to my closet.
I got dressed in a casual Jean pants and white tank top that had the word 'boss' boldly printed in black across the front, throwing on a jean jacket and a pair of sneakers, I picked out a small scarf, heading to the mirror, I wrapped it round my hair, leaving out the top afro, satisfied, I grabbed my phone and headed out.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I saw Mia had already prepared breakfast, explaining the delicious aroma I had been perceiving, Dan was already there scarfing pancakes down with alarming speed.
"slow down dude, you'll choke." I said with a laugh and he swallowed before flashing me a grin,
"Good morning Ana and that's highly unlikely." He said with a grin, knowing he was right I didn't argue, he always ate this way, his system was probably accustomed to his pattern of eating, shaking my head I took a seat, Mia set a plate of food for me, and I smiled in gratitude as she handed me the syrup,
"thanks hon." I said,
"you're welcome." she said with a wink taking a seat as well.
"So I already called my hair stylist and she'll attend to us the moment we arrive, so we can leave as soon as we're done eating, that's if your ready." she informed me, I nodded and she smiled.
"Alright then cool.". Dan decided to tag along, so once we were done with breakfast, we all headed out.
~Talon's POV~
Standing in front of my floor length mirror, I adjusted my tie, nodding in satisfaction at my reflection, I grabbed my coat pulling it on as I headed out, the pack house was already empty, everyone had left for the ball at the Blood Shadow Pride on time as my Dad instructed, well everyone except me.
I didn't wanna go there in the first place, I'd be damned if I spent more time there than was absolutely necessary, getting into my car, I drove out.
_______
I had arrived at the ball about 5 minutes ago, it was 8pm already and Jaylen was no where in sight, it'd been close to two years we last met, and that case was only because it was unavoidable, I guess I wasn't the only one doing the avoiding, it was a good thing, I thought nodding to myself,
"Try telling yourself the truth for once would you?, you're hurt at his absence, admit it." my wolf growled into our mind link, I ignored him, as I tuned back into the conversation my beta and third were having.
"So Talon, you know the human girl I told you about, Dante and Mia's friend, the one who knows about us, I told you she'd be coming today.", Cain reminded me,
"Yeah, sure, I know, bring her to me once she arrives." I instructed, he nodded.
"As you wish, however, I and Grey just wanted to let you know that she's a really nice person and her words can be trusted.", I looked up at him for a while, searching his eyes, I gave a nod.
"I trust your judgement, however I'd need to make my own conclusions, I'll bear that in mind though." I assured, they both smiled with a slight bow.
"That's all we ask." Grey replied and I nodded, looking down at the cup in my hand, suddenly I caught whiff of his scent.
I looked up sharply to see him walking in, his strides as dignified and powerful as it always had been, his head held high in confidence like the royalty he was, his face set into his usual cold look, beautiful blue eyes sharp, calculating and proud portraying his lion side and a cold, dominating, powerful and intimidating aura exuded from him, an Alpha through and through.
"Jaylen." I whispered quietly in awe, his eyes flashed to mine immediately as if he had heard me, schooling my features, I gave a blank look, we stared each other down for a while, before his eyes took on an uninterested tint and as his second approached him, he looked away speaking with his brother as they moved further into the hall.
Turning around, I noticed the looks Grey and Cain were giving me, I raised an inquiring brow at them.
"Well the whole point of this whole gathering is to reconcile the pack and his pride, shouldn't you go talk to him or something?" Grey asked and I glared at him,
"Talk about what exactly Grey?" I answered with a question and he shrugged, I turned to Caine.
"I don't really question your decisions, we've been through a lot together and if there's one person who's judgement is always clear, it'd be you Talon, so I won't say anything." Caine said, I sighed, Caine was just like this, he always understood me even if I never explained and if he didn't understand, he just believed, he was an amazing friend.
"Incoming." I heard from Grey, looking up, I noticed Claire, Elder Mathias's daughter and her crew heading my way, I rolled my eyes in annoyance, but put on a slight smile as they got to me, nodding in response to their greeting, they giggled starting up a conversation with me.
~Jaylen's POV~
I stood off to a corner, leaning against the wall, watching quietly, there really wasn't much association as the few groups of both lions and wolves who would've been interested in trying were too scared to offend their Alpha's by mixing up, the hall was practically divided in two, apart from my parents and Talon's parents who were having a serious conversation.
'Talon.' I thought, looking up I saw him, my brows furrowed as I noticed he was surrounded by some ladies from his pack, and they seemed to have his full attention, I looked away, taking a sip from the glass of water in my hand.
"What did we expect coming here?" my lion asked in my head and I sighed,
"I don't know Alex, I don't know." I replied tiredly, he didn't respond and I was tempted to look up again, Talon threw his head back and laughed at something his third had said.
My breath hitched at the sight, he was beautiful, his aura was powerful, calculating, confident and dominant, much like mine, but whereas mine exuded danger, his had a comforting tinge to it that made you wanna be close to him, at least it used to for me, but now, it was just cold, turning away, I was just about walking out of the hall when I caught whiff of something, a scent, chocolate, roses and something akin to the woods after the early morning dew.
It was distinctly different from the scent of the woods on a rainy night, lavender and musk that Talon posessed, spinning sharply in the direction of the entrance, my lion growled out a word that had my mind spinning.
"Mate!" my jaws dropped open in shock at the sight before me, coming into the hall with two wolves was an angel, a girl so beautiful my breath hitched in awe, she was about 5 ft 9 tall, beautiful almond skin, perfect curves, and full afro hair styled in a way I couldn't identify, hinting at her African descent, she was wearing a floor length, long sleeve cut out detailed black dress that hugged her curves perfectly, a split up the left side of the dress revealed the smooth skin on her long legs and a silver heel.
I couldn't help imagining those long legs wrapped around me, as I took her on my bed, her perfect lips screaming my name, I groaned as I felt myself get excited, my groan turning into a growl as I smelt an arousal that should've angered me but instead, increased mine, I turned to locate the source, my eyes meeting Talon's, and I growled, my eyes then widened in realization as I searched his eyes, then turned back to look at the mystery girl in shock.
What in heavens name was going on here?, Talon's reaction to her was same as mine, which could mean only one thing, I turned to see the girl had noticed us both and had a look of confusion, I looked back at Talon only to see him making his way out the other door.
"Damn it!" I growled in frustration, as I followed him out, intent on catching up to him, getting out the door, I saw him running into the woods and I ran after him.
"Are we really gonna do this again?" I growled at him and he stopped,
"what do you want?!" he asked angrily without turning and I rolled my eyes,
"Are you actually asking me that right now?" I answered with a question of my own and he growled at me, I growled right back, seeing the look in my eyes, he sighed putting both hands up.
"I don't wanna fight you okay, chill." he said.
"If you want me to chill then we will talk about what just happened in there and we'll talk about it right now!" I growled, leaving no room for argument, he frowned at my tone, probably not liking being ordered, but didn't comment.
"She's our mate" I said with a sigh, he ran his hands through his hair, something he did when he was frustrated,
"You think I don't know that?" he asked and I frowned,
"what happens now?" I asked,
"I have no fucking idea, okay," he snapped,
"Don't give me that shit Talon." I growled out, he sighed softly at my words and my brows furrowed in confusion.
"My name...you used my name...without an Alpha before it, it's been a while I heard that." he admitted and against my better judgement my features softened.
"And who's fault is that?" I asked, he sighed looking up at me,
"mine, I know that, but I had my reasons and I still do." he replied, his features becoming distant again....what did I expect?
"Of course, still making excuses as usual, it doesn't matter anyway though, what matters is what we're going to do about this situation?" I said,
"she has to choose." he stated simply and I looked up at him in shock,
"you wouldn't do that, she's human, that'd mean a rejection from one of us, she can't handle that!" I said looking at him in alarm, he sighed leaning against a tree,
"I don't know what to do okay." he said in frustration, before I could reply, we both heard a beautiful voice,
"well, I know what to do." Talon's eyes widened and I turned to see our mate,
"I'm not gonna choose..."