Zion |✔️ {featured on Wattpad Talent Scouts}

THIRTEEN

"You look tired."

I turn around, Penelope watching me as I stand on the balcony of the ballroom. "The last time I was in this room was when I was seven."

"How long ago was that?" I ask, crossing my arms as Penelope advances towards me, pulling her long and dark rich red hair back into a bun.

Penelope shrugs, picking up a vase from a stand, examining the designs of the storms upon the glass. "About forty years ago."

My eyes widen. "You look to be in your late twenties!" I exclaim, causing her to laugh. She smiles, standing beside me as we look out upon the sunrise. "How?"

"My best friend is a witch, Lady Sybil, she keeps me young looking. Quite a plus to our relationship." I nod, taking a swing of the alcohol in my glass, burning my throat as it goes down. "You don't strike me as the drinking type."

"I'm not," I mumble in reply, watching as she takes a step forward, looking over her shoulder to me.

She turns to face me, pulling her silky robe down in the front, revealing a set of breasts covered by a thin white bra. But something is off, how there's a scar between her breasts, one of a bite mark. "I believe Zion filled you in on my human mate." I nod. "Look at the scar."

I look closer at the scar, unsure of what she is showing me here. "A bite of a wolf. It's a mark, yet you are mated to a human." She smiles, pulling the robe back to cover herself.

"Good, you're not as dumb as I thought," she comments, pushing past me, setting the vase back down as she takes my drink. "So, by the drink? What is it for?"

"You didn't finish the story," I add, watching her raise her chin, nodding slightly.

"I like reasons to give away pieces of a story." She cocks her head to the side. "Why are you drinking? Poor little Sebastian doesn't want you around? Zion confuses you?"

"How do you know?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. "How do you know about Sebastian? Not even-

"Not even Zion could figure it out? I am a dear friend of Sebastian's mother, and word gets around. Besides, conversations are better in secret than hallways."

My body tenses. "I'm drinking-

"Because the big and bad King hasn't spoken to you since his outbreak?" She strikes a nerve. "You miss his company."

"I want my answers from him," I reply, "I want to know why I am here."

"So do I, Sybil, but it seems to me you miss his company."

I scoff.

"You miss him always saying you are his or how he flirts with you." My eyes roll, walking back towards the railing of the balcony, the lake below. "You miss his company."

"I miss my family," I snap, looking back to the Alpha female, her jaw clenching. "I want answers from him, thus, because I cannot get them, I am drinking." She rolls her eyes, shaking her head as I cross my arms, watching as she takes the last swing of my alcohol, throwing the glass over the railing and into the lake.

"I was eighteen when my pack's future Beta and I decided we would mate." I watch as her face turns sour, hurt flooding her eyes. "We did not have our mates yet, and thus, we decided to mark one another." I lean against the railing. "It turned bitter and I found my pack suffering because of it. Thirteen years after mating I found my mate while drinking at a bar in Spain. We had a one night stand. He was hammered. He could feel the pull."

"How old was he when you met him?" I ask, watching as a smirk crosses her lips.

"He was twenty-two and I was in my early thirties." My eyes widen at the age gap, through the King and I have one as well. "I left that next morning back to Canada where my pack is." I watch as she paces back and forth between the archway and railing. "Another two years and I was dying on the inside. I rejected my beta mate and made him rogue, then asked my witch friend to age me younger. After a week, I went back to Spain and found him, mating right away."