In the heart of darkness

24

  Penny was just 21 but she had been waiting for her mate since 16 because she's Lycan. It's highly unusual not to have met your mate by now but dad thinks it's because she's not in a Lycan pack.
 
  "Just hold out a little while longer. I promise it's not too much longer"
 
  She frowns sitting forward
 
  "What does that mean"
 
  "It means your parents are right to have you wait. They are right when they say Troy is not your one. Just forget about it for tonight and have some fun with the family. Worry about that stuff tomorrow I promise it will be a night to remember"
 
  I give her a genuine grin she purges her lips watching me then she shrugs sitting up and taking a drink
 
  "Well in that case maybe you're right"
 
  Just then Ella comes from an adjoining room looking like the queen that she is. she stops shocked at us all just making ourselves at home in her room without her and she chuckles
 
  "Well hey to you all too, how do I look?"
 
  She does a twirl and her beautiful green dress flies up a little showing her green converse underneath, the girl is a girl after my own heart. We all tell her she looks beautiful, and she does. The dress looks amazing, her hair is in a messy updo, she wore all her moon jewellery including her mum's gold and green emerald crown. She comes and sits beside us and we all take some selfies as Archie arrives.
 
  He had grown so much and he was the spit of Mark's father noah who died before he was born. He had brown curly hair, it was long and all over the place giving him a skater dude look, his eyes were bright and brown and he was tall like mark. He comes to sit by us looking a little nervous
 
  "What's wrong?"
 
  He holds his hand out for me so I take it and read him. He found his mate but she is unsure of him because he wrecked a classroom in school with one of his moods.
 
  Archie is my Nephew, Ashley and Mark are his parents but Ashley was adopted into our family, her biological family have a thing called the curse of the black Lycan. It's a curse on the men and a gift to the ladies. If you're male in the family or mated to a female member when you are born you have an extra ability, it's another form, one that's uncontrollable and crazy unless they have the female that was born for them. They have total control over the beast.
 
  It's said that hundreds of years ago a large black Lycan wolf terrorised and slaughtered a Jewish community and his mate. It's said that God himself cursed that wolf and his lineage, making the men into a monster, making him dependent on the woman in the family, making him dependent on his mate.
 
  He would never again kill a Jewish person, a kid or a Christian. That the woman in the family and those mated to the family would have extra abilities to keep them safe. But if they did choose to stay with the Lycan wolf they would become soul controllers of him and if she died he would lose himself and go insane, people around them would have no other choice but to kill him the moment she died or he would kill everything in his path.
 
  Because of this, any of the males will meet their mate as soon as it's possible but if they get rejected they will slowly lose their minds. It's a complicated curse but when they do get accepted the beast becomes your greatest ally. Mark for example is and always will be an amazing addition to our family because Ashley can tame him. He's like a big kitten really.
 
  I flick through Archie's futures and in every instance his mate accepts him. I grin projecting my vision to him and he sits up grinning at me
 
  "She's here?"
 
  "Yes, go woo her"
 
  I wink at him and he hops up hugging me tightly. He is one of the very few people who are allowed to touch me.
 
  "Thank you"
 
  "Your welcome, now go find her"
 
  He kisses my cheek and fist pumps Carter then he runs out the door like a bat out of hell making us both laugh.
 
  "I hope she's in a good mood and let's him talk to her or this party is going to get a whole lot more interesting"
 
  Carter whispers into my ear I frown biting my lip
 
  "Oh shit"
 
  He snorts shrugging his shoulders
 
  "He will be fine, are you ready to go?"
 
  "Yeah, love you Ella. See you down there"
 
  "Yeah thank you"
 
  She hugs me, then she hugs Carter, she is one of the few who is allowed to touch us both. The rest of them roll their eyes, all annoyed at our connection. They all have the same connection with each other; they are just too silly to see it. We leave to find our parents. Daniel, Rob and Max are waiting outside the room with 3 other guards. They surround us as we leave and I roll my eyes as I nearly trip on the dude in front of me.
 
  "Seriously, are all these guards necessary?"
 
  I complain annoyed
 
  "Yes they are, there are a lot of packs that don't accept us, they hate us so they need to know we are protected"
 
  I roll my eyes taking his hand as we walk to the ballroom, my grandparents run towards us and the guards step out of their way immediately. They pull us both into hugs rocking us from side to side.
 
  "You both look so good. Damn I missed you both"
 
  Pops tells us as gran kisses my face like a million times
 
  "Ewe gran stop it Your worse than Tanner"
 
  Tanner is my new wolf pup (or the wolf I'm trying to take as my own if Carter would allow me) he is unruly and he breaks all the rules driving Carter crazy but I love his disrespect and he loves me. He won't be mine for long though because Carter always turns them into warriors instead of companions and when they do that they become boring and Unaffectionate. It's really rather annoying.
 
  "I'm sorry but I missed you both"
 
  She moves on to Carter who cringes as she kisses him everywhere
 
  "Where is Luke?"
 
  Luke is my uncle but he's the same age as me. He will be moving in with my parents soon because he doesn't live within the pack and wants to join us so he can find his mate.
 
  "He's with your parents, trying to convince them that he should be moving in with you both and not them because they would cramp his style"
 
  I snort looking at Carter, him and Luke were very close, he is actually Carter's best man. They always stayed Intouch and it would be nice for him to have a friend he can trust at home. Carter purges his lips
 
  "It doesn't bother me as long as he doesn't bring random chicks back"
 
  "He better not the wee shit was warned the last time"
 
  Gran rants making me giggle, just then my great grandparents see us and they jump running towards us but our guards not recognising them stops them.
 
  "Hey no they are my other grandparents, seriously Daniel can you stand to the front so you know who to stop"
 
  I scold pushing the guards away and pulling my grandparents into our circle. Grandad glares at them but then he sees me and he grabs me pulling me into a huge bear hug and lifting me in the air.
 
  Apparently my grandparents didn't have favourites but if they did I'd definitely be grandads. We just get on really really well, we love architecture and design and we both love video games. He's one of my best friends, and my greatest teammate when we play online.
 
  "Missed you princess"
 
  "Missed you too pops"
 
  "Ok my turn"
 
  Nan snaps, looking me over with a grin on her face. She was amazing. Kind and funny and so accepting. She had like a million kids that she adopted, she's the biggest heart and kids just swarm to her. She started a shifter orphanage in Africa and saved so many girls from being married off to old men. She kisses all over my face again and I swear if I wasn't surrounded by guards I'd be bright red with embarrassment.
 
  "Nan stop that's gross and so embarrassing"
 
  "Oh boohoo, get over it"
  
  She taunts moving onto Carter who cringes
 
  "Ok that's enough I'm meant to be scary and your making me look Offaly soft"
 
  He snaps at them pulling all there hands of him, Nan and gran both snort
 
  "You might be scary to them but you'll always be our grand baby, we use to change your nappy and help you get dressed and helped to toilet train you"
 
  "Oh my gosh someone take them away before I die of embarrassment"
 
  Carter pinches the bridge of his nose as our guards start to chuckle at him. Cleo laughs hysterically in my head holding her stomach as carter glares at them shutting all of them up, well accept for Daniel who all out hysterically laughs
 
  "Your both awful, come on let's get some alcohol in you both before the boy leaves and never comes back"
 
  Granda James tells them as he shoves them towards the bar. Granda drake gives me another kiss then steps back.
 
  "I want to hear all about the house later but I need to make sure grandma lilly doesn't drink to much"
 
  He runs off after her, grandma lilly was hilarious when she got drunk with her daughters. They were lunatics and always ended up on tables dancing and going crazy, grandma keagen was just as crazy. It's all very entertaining.
 
  "Your definitely his favourite"
 
  Carter whispers as we watch them go
  I smirk up at him
 
  "Yeah I know I am"
 
  He chuckles taking my hand and we head over to the table where my parents were, we great my aunts and uncles and then take our seat, Carter pulls me onto his knee