The Lycan's Choice

Prologue

          In the four years since I've taken lead at the Archives, I have never worked a shift that was as much of a shit show as today has been.

           And there have been many shit shows in this library. Like the time Blessing and her friends spilled 5 cups of coffee across the center table in the study area and I had to clean it up. Or, the time Alpha Maxton and his friends broke a chair in an arm wrestling competition.

No, I still have no idea how they managed to do it but, I had to discard all the broken pieces all while battling the splinters that felt like they wanted to take residence in my palms. Or, even the one time a mother brought her toddler pup to read some stories and the pup put on a show and took a real explosive shit right in the middle of the children's section. And guess who had to clean that one up?

    That's right. Me.

         Not that I mind it. I love my job, even if it sometimes involves arm wrestling mishaps and downright bio hazards.

         But, despite those being annoying and just a tad bit digusting (okay, maybe really disgusting), they were still easy to clean up and forget about. I can wipe up coffee, I can pick out wooden splinters in my hands, hell, I can even clean up toddler shit!

        But, this shit show is different. Because this is the one shit show that I can not fix with a clorox wipe. No, this shit show has to do with the one and only Alpha Maxton Briar of the Rolling Woods Pack.

Yup. The same one who broke the chair while arm wrestling.

He also happens to be my mate.

         Wolf-shifters can find their mate after they turn 18. But, my 18th birthday came and went without so little as a sign of him. Mates tend to be found near each other, usually within their packs. With packs today being so large, with hundreds of wolves bonded together through a pack bond, commanded by the Alpha, Beta, and Theta, it was definitely a surpise that I didn't find him. But it wasn't that unusual, so I figured he was in the surrounding packs. I attended mate balls, frequented every restaurant in the area, and volunteered to travel to other packs to train budding archivists. My 19th birthday passed that way...And so did my 20th and then my 21st. At the age of 21, I has calmly resigned myself to life without a mate.

Okay, maybe calmly is a bit of a lie.

I cried. A lot.

         For the past 3 years, I begged the Moon Goddess for a mate. Every night, I'd pray. I went to the Goddess Temple at least once a week. I wept myself to sleep more time than I could count. All I wanted was a mate. Just one person who would choose me. Someone would pick me every time. Someone who I would love, take care of, talk to. He'd be my first choice and I'd be his. It felt unfair. Watching all my pack mates fall in love with their mates and be happy. And I don't want to sound ungrateful, although I am sure I do. I have a roof over my head, two parents who care about me, an 18 year old sister I can coexist with, and a job that I enjoy.

          So imagine my surprise when I found out Alpha Maxton was my mate this morning. It made sense that we never knew. He had left the pack before his 18th birthday to undergo alpha training. I don't know much about what they do in Alpha Training but it's a long process that spans across 4 to 5 years. From what I've heard, they travel to Greece to train the Lycan Palace under the King's Guard.

          Growing up, I spoke to him twice. The arm wrestling incident in which he apologized for destroying Archive property was the first time we spoke, 5 years ago. The second time was when he made up some lousy excuse as to why him and his friends couldn't clean up the mess they made, leaving me to do it. Besides, with him being 2 years older than me and the Alpha's son, there wasn't much room for him to befriend a common Archivist. And the couple of times he was able to come home and visit the pack, I was away for work.