Fated Ties

Chapter One:Chancey

"Eight-teen!! Eight-teen! You were to find your mate at eighteen, no later than your twenty-first birthday; not only have you not found your mate, but you also haven't even shifted, and what puts the icing on the cake is... now you're thirty." Beta James screamed as he threw the small trinkets I had collected over the years across my bedroom.

Sitting on the oversized wing-back chair that my overly large ass has ever so often occupied, I watched as my father the beta of Pine Stone Pack threw a tantrum over something I had no control over. It took everything in my power not to snicker, as I watched the sixty-year-old grown man throw things about, mind you, things that did not belong to him. His oversized head matched the color of a newly ripe red apple, while his ears were just a shade lighter.

There was one time long ago when I admired my father—the man who used to come running into my room when the monsters loomed in my closet. The man who protected me from the rude comments and horrible rumors that went about when my mother passed, he even stood up to my stepmother once I turned eight-teen and still hadn't received my wolf. I was a late bloomer he would tell her, I still had three years left until anyone should worry. Sometime after my twenty-first birthday, he started to change. I honestly don't remember the day, but it started as backhanded comments, then turned into fits, and eventually the name-calling and the constant degrading.

How could he produce such a worthless excuse for an offspring, he couldn't fathom what went wrong and how I could be so incompetent, so pathetic, and just useless. The moon goddess had frowned upon him because he wasn't with his true mate, just a chosen mate and that is why he was never blessed, at least not until he met her. Juliana, the worst of the worst. She put Cinderella's stepmother to shame. The only difference between mine and Cinderella's story, mine didn't end with a happily ever after. No, mine ended with being screamed at and tormented because I was a loser, I had never shifted, and I had never met my mate.

Imagine that finding your mate was the only reason you were put on this earth. Just to find someone who has the other half of your soul. Quite frankly, I have a problem with that and all I have to say to that is fuck that. I will not be on this earth just to make someone else whole.

"Chancey Pearl!! Are you listening to anything I am saying to you?!" My father screamed in my face. Honestly, I stopped listening once my door opened and it was him who entered. Staring up at my father a small tick pulled at the corner of my lips. Chancey Pearl... I should have known the bastard hated me from the beginning.

"No, Beta Leon, I heard nothing you said from the time you walked into my room. I was honestly too engrossed in the fact that my belongings were being thrown across the room." Did I mention I had a smart mouth that went along with my over large ass?

The sound of his hand against my cheek echoed in the now-silenced room. I had it coming to be honest, I knew the moment my mouth opened I would end up with some kind of physical damage. Oh, that started about a month ago as I neared my thirtieth birthday, because now I was an old maiden who still lived at home with her parents.

Holding my hand to my cheek I glared up at the bastard that somehow produced me and asked. "What is it that I missed besides the daily screaming of me being worthless and a disappointment because of something I have no control over?" Another loud smack echoed through the silent bedroom.

Now I know what you are thinking, why is this big, backed woman letting this man put his hands on her like this? Why is she taking verbal abuse as well, and calling herself names? It's trauma to my ears, it's the only way I can keep from crying and letting this quote-on-quote man break me to nothing.

The ringing in my ears finally calmed down, my cheeks felt the afterburn and tingles, and my eyes well I'm not going to lie, they watered, but I'm not a little bitch made boy like the man that stood in front of me, and I held my tears in like any tough woman. I stared up at him blankly, not letting him see how much it hurt me, that he treated me this way.

"Tonight is Alpha's dinner if you do not find a mate tonight. You will be sent to Ellion's training program for people like you. You will learn to be a proper housemaid, cook, or whatever else he sees fit, then you will be assigned to a family. That is where you will stay and serve that family until the end of your days." His voice was cold, and his top lip curled back over his top teeth. It took all I had not to bust out laughing, the image of him like this reminded me of a jackass, and the image fit perfectly with him.

Standing up finally, my five-foot-eight height only coming to his shoulders. I nodded my head and gave him a curtsy. "If that is what you wish for father, then so be it." The acid in my voice leaked out as it curled around the word father. I wanted him to know, that I hated him, that if today he were to die, I would piss on his grave and smile while I did it. He muttered something under his breath that I didn't quite catch as he stomped out of my room like the overgrown man-child he was.

When the vibration of the slam of my door finally subsided, I walked over to my closet threw open the double doors and stared into the dark abyss of the walk-in closet. Most days I just wore what any normal thirty-year-old singleton would wear. I looked down at the too-tight light pink bodice and white skirt I wore. I was told that it would help give me a figure. Not that I didn't have a figure, to begin with, the bodice just pushed in, and I quote "unnecessary fat".

One could not simply deny that one was overly plumbed, but I enjoyed every extra curve of my body. I didn't want to be so skinny that the wind could blow, and I'd tip over, or you know maybe if I were to ever get kidnapped, they wouldn't be able to lug me into the creepy white van. With a defeated sigh I marched into my closet and began the long process of finding something suitable to wear to the Alpha's dinner.

Sitting in the back of the large SUV that drove us to the party I couldn't help but compare myself to my half-sister Janet. She was your classic beauty, blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a body to kill for. She has stuck to a workout routine since she turned twelve. If you asked me that was a bit young for someone to have such a rigorous workout but who was I to judge.



I had once asked her why she worked out so much and pushed herself into near exhaustion and regretted it as soon as the words left my mouth.



"I don't want to look like you." She had sneered.



I think that had hurt the worst, being shamed by my little sister whom I had adored so much until she had said those words.



Our drive was quiet, at least I was quiet. My stepmother, half-sister and father engaged in conversation.



"I heard that the Lycan Kings were coming!" Janet squealed out.



" Do you think that they may be looking for another mate? You know it's said that Lycans can have up to three mates if the Moon Goddess really smiled upon them."



My father patted my sister on her back, giving her the smile I used to get. A small pang in my heart twitched and I inhaled a sharp breath. They all stopped their conversation and looked over at me. Their once pleasant faces turning dark and angry. It was my stepmother who spoke first.



"Don't get any ideas in that muddled brain of yours Chancey Pearl. The Lycan Kings would never even look your way."



"And might I add you are wolf less and a bane to our existence. You've caused our father nothing but pain and anguish. Being that you are what everyone in our pack calls unworthy." Janet added in.


Tears pricked at the corner of my eyes as I looked over to my father. For some reason I thought he would change in this instance and tell the two evil hags to back off but of course he didn't. He narrowed his gaze at me then shifted. His back stiffened and his hands balled into fist and his mouth was pressed in a grim manner.


"As we all know Chancey has been anything but a stain on my name. After tonight she will no longer be with us. She will be joining Ellion's training program. This is her last chance to meet her mate, or if someone will take her as a chosen mate."

The tears I had been trying so hard to hold back slowly slid down my cheeks. I guess it was a good thing I decided to go with a minimal make up look tonight. I turned my head away from them and stared out the window as the night sky passed by.

*****

To soon the gates of Alpha Leon's manor came into view, and all I could feel was the anxiety swelling in my chest. My heart felt as though it would fall out at any moment and the lump in my throat that my sister had caused still had not gone down. Tonight was my last chance, my last chance to be free. Even if I didn't find my fated mate, hopefully someone would let me be their chosen mate even if it was only for a short period of time, just long enough for me to escape the future my father had planned for me.