Chapter 26

Octavia:

November Twenty-seventh.

It's my birthday... it doesn't feel that way though. It feels like any other Tuesday morning to me. Everything around me seemed quiet and peaceful, which is definitely a change from my previous birthdays. Back at home our house would be louder than a zoo. My mom and younger sister, Odessa would be gossiping and laughing loudly as they made the largest tower of pancakes I'ver ever seen. While on the other hand my father would be struggling to put up the breakfast decorations while Odin simply watched and laughed. Orion, the eldest, would be running all over the house to grab the gifts that they've kept well hidden from me.

I would wait in bed as tradition until everything was all set and they came up as a group to sing me happy birthday in bed. A sad smile takes over my lips as the fond memory dances through my mind. I miss them all so much. My heart weighed heavy in my chest, knowing they wont be here to witness my twentieth birthday. I'm no longer a teenager.

Rolling out of bed I make my way straight to the bathroom to perform my morning routine. I throw on a comfy outfit and head downstairs. Grabbing a breakfast bar from the kitchen I take notice again of how quiet everything is. I tune into my werewolf hearing, only to find the house completely empty. Well, then. Happy Birthday to me I guess.

I try my hardest not to dwell on the fact that its my first birthday without my family. In a way I had a new family. Christina, Alexander, Cipher, Ajax and even Sam. Sure, they did things differently but that doesn't mean they don't care as much as my other family does.

Soon I find myself standing outside of the Children's school. I still love to read and interact with them every once in a while. Children are just so pure, it was hard to feel sad when around them.

The moment I walk into the room, it goes completely silent. I had almost every pair of eyes on me and it felt extremely awkward.

"Children what do we say to the Luna on her special day?" One of the instructors says, sending warm smile around the room.

As if a lightbulb went off in all their little cute heads, a chorus of "Happy Birthday" and "Happy Birthday Luna" rang throughout the room. Although one in particular stood out. Her pigtails were bouncing wildly as she ran up to me.

"Luna, Happy Birthday!" Lola practically catapulted herself into my arms and if it wasn't for my fast reflexes I'm sure I would've stumbled over. She held a hot pink piece of paper in her chubby hands and a bright smile was plastered on her face.

I return the smile that graced everyones face and I was suddenly extremely grateful I was here. "Thank you everyone."

The children soon returned to their activities and I brought Lola over to our usual reading corner. She makes me read the same story about a lost puppy every-single time but I never get tired of it and neither does she. I take a seat in the rocking chair, placing the little girl in my lap.

"I made this for you." She hands me the hot pink piece of paper. In a messy hand writing it read "Happy Birthday Luna!" and there was a picture of what a think is a dog, a house, and a little girl.

"Wow, Lola, it's beautiful. Thank you."

Her chubby cheeks become a baby pink and I could feel my heart swell in my chest. I place a small kiss on the crown of her head, grateful for this little girl and the way she uplifted my mood. Wasting no time I begin reading her the story that she adores so much. Soon enough im reading the story for the third time. Other children have gathered around and sat on the floor just by my feet to listen to the story as well.

I would've read it twenty more times for them but they had to go to their lessons in just a few minutes.

"Luna, please don't go." Lola begged with her big bright eyes. I give her a sad smile and promised that I'll be back again to read her the story another time.

I place her down at a table with the other children who were playing with a wide variety of toys. Her tiny cheeks puffed out in disappointment as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I will see you soon Lola." I smile at her one last time before saying goodbye to everyone else and exiting the small building.

I had a sad feeling that would be the best part of my day. I haven't seen Ajax, Cipher or Sam all morning. Yesterday at dinner Christina warned me not to go into the pack house, she wanted the decor to be a surprise. But it can't hurt to just stroll by right?

Oh goodness if Christina catches me, she'll kill me for sure. I walk up to the pack house creepily and trying my best to make as little noise as possible. Feeling like an undercover spy or ninja, I tuck and roll over to the side of the house and press my back up against the building. I groan slightly and dust off the dirt that I got all over my pants. Gosh, why did I do that? Why can't I just be normal?

Peeking around the corner I notice five SUVs all lined up in front of the Pack house. Why are there so many? I shrink back into the shadows once I see my mate walk around the front of the first SUV to talk to the driver. He was dressed handsomely in one of his many suits that he despises. Sam lingered behind him a he scoped out their surroundings. They've been gone all morning, but where were they?

I watch carefully as Ajax makes his way back over to Sam. The driver gets in the truck and soon enough all of the black SUV's take off in the same direction.

"Go inside and watch over everything. I'll let you know when its time."

"You got it." Sam nods his head and disappears into the pack house.

What does Sam have to watch over in the pack house? They're only decorating... right? Ajax turns around swiftly his nose pointing up into the air just as the wind picks up. His eyes narrow as he looks over in my direction. Oh shit! I lean back further into the shadows and take a step back. Crap, crap, crap.

"Snooping isn't polite, Octavia." His voice travels clearly along with the howling wind. The days are only getting colder and I'm sure the winter is going to bring us plenty of snow.

I don't step out from my place in the shadows. Pressing my lips together I try to calm my breathing. Maybe he won't come over here and forget that he even thought I was here. Wrong. The crunching of a few leaves tell me he's on his way. I try to make a run for it but I dont make it very far as his large hand grasps onto my wrist pulling me back.

"Sneaky," He whispers lowly into my ear. "But not sneaky enough."

I huff out a breath of air in defeat and turn to face him. "How did you know I was here?"

"The wind shifted and I could smell you. How much did you hear?" His piercing blue eyes roam the length of my face. His hand moves down my wrist and into my hand, intertwining our fingers. A small electrical current shoots up my arm, causing me to shiver slightly.

"Not much. I only heard what you said to Sam." I shrug. I search his blue eyes for any giveaways. What is he hiding from me?

"Come on, I've got something for you." He says pulling me in the direction of the garden.

"What is it?" My curiosity peeked.

"A gift."

The corner of his lips turn up slightly exposing a small smile. I bite my lip trying to hide mine. It made me happy that he was happy. I don't know if that was because of the mate bond or because...

I shake away my thoughts and bring myself back to the current situation at hand.

"You didn't have to get me anything." Hell, I kind of expected him not too. It was sweet though. A few months ago if someone told me this would be happening I would've called them crazy. Heck, I would've thrown them in the loonie bin.

"Of course I did." He stops and turns to face me. I look around at the flowers. Some of them were beginning to wilt, I'm surprised they even lasted this long. The gardeners must have really green thumbs.

He releases my hand and I suddenly felt cold. I wanted nothing more than to grab it again and never let it go. Resisting the urge to hold onto his hand forever, I watch as he digs around inside his suit jacket for something.

When he pulls out a small black velvet box it takes everything in me not to squeal. How cliche is it for a girl to love jewelry? I don't know and I don't care. You could have on the simplest outfit ever and with the right jewelry it can make it seem like you really spent hours putting together a look.

Biting my lip even harder to stop my smile from exposing myself, I look up him. His crystal like eyes were trained on me, moving all around my face and finally landing on my lips. His free hand comes up to my face, his thumb tugs my bottom lip from the grasp of my teeth. "You're going to hurt yourself."

A small chuckle rumbles throughout his chest and quickly apologize in embarrassment. "I'm just really excited."

He opens the box slowly, causing all my attention to focus on the object in his hands.

"I saw this and I knew I had to get it for you. As an apology, but also as a promise."

I could feel my heart drop in my chest and my eyes widen in shock. It was a beautiful rose gold color. There was a rose in the center of the ring and diamonds surrounding the bud of the flower. The ring was so amazing it nearly took my breath away. I'm sure it went beautifully with the theme of my party as well.

"I'm sorry for the way I treated you when I first met you and when you first got here. I promise to do better and to hopefully learn how to open up and trust you with my past. I know you must have a lot of questions and I promise they will all be answered in time."

He pulls the ring from its place in the box and grasps on to my slightly shaking hand. I don't know what to do or even say. My mouth opens to form words but none come out. I'm sure I look like a fish out of water.

I admire the ring that now sat perfectly on my finger. It was hard to tear my eyes away from it but I did. A large goofy smile breaks its way onto my lips as I look up at him. This is the happiest I've ever felt in a really long time. Which is strange because I was sure that today would be my most miserable.

And so I do the only thing that felt right to do in a moment like this. I stand on the very tips of my toes and wrap my arms lovingly around his neck and connect my lips with his. We've only kissed a handful of times and none of them have felt like this. I didn't really know how to describe it. All I know is that I like it... a lot. I like it way too much.

His arms wrap themselves around my my waist pulling me closer to him as his lips molded with mine perfectly. I never wanted this moment to end. Here in the garden, is a memory I'll never forget. Something changed in my mate I could see it. It was almost strange. A good strange. I just hope he does keep his promise.

"Well then, I can't wait to see how you react to your second surprise." He says after disconnecting his lips from mine slowly.

Huh? Another one? Okay seriously, who is this guy and what has he done with my mate?

"You really don't have to do all of this." I laugh nervously. What else could he have planned? Is that was Sam is watching over?

"Alright," He shrugs his shoulders. "I'll have it brought back if you really don't want it."

"Wait, no!'" I grab onto his wrist as he begins to walk away. "I want it."

He looks down at me with a boyish smirk. "I know. Let's go home I wanna take a nap."

His hand finds its way into mine and we begin walking in the direction of the house.

"I don't like naps." I cringe at the thought of sleeping for a few hours in the middle of the day. Anytime I've accidentally taken a nap I've always felt like a drugged zombie when I woke up.

"You're an alien." Ajax says as he shakes his head disappointedly.

"What makes you say that?" I was shocked as I tried to hold back the laugh that dared to escape. An alien? Me? No way. Maybe him. Yeah he's definitely an alien.

"Because you have bad taste in tv shows and now you don't like naps? Thats not normal ducky." He explains teasingly.

My laugh breaks free and I give him a playful shove.

"My taste in tv shows is much better than yours."

"Yeah, in your dreams baby."

I toss the blue dress back into the closet with disgust. Why did that dress literally make me look like a blueberry? I dig through the many dresses one more time. I've already decided that I'm not wearing the yellow one because I look like a naked bumblebee. I'm definitely not wearing the brown one, along with the purple one and green one. Which leaves me with red, black and white.

I begin separating the dresses by color and style. I begin picking and choosing, every-time I see one I don't like I throw it back into the closet.

"Happy Birthday!" The door swings open quickly and in bursts an excited Cipher. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders beautifully. She had on a pair of skin tight jeans with some pumps and a revealing top. She looks hot to say the least. When didn't she though?

"Thank you." I choke out as she wraps me in a suffocating hug. I have not seen Cipher since last night at dinner, when she was wearing an evil smirk on her face. She clearly knew something that I didn't.

"How's your day been so far?" She releases me from her choke hold and turns her attention towards the dresses. She sifts through the last remaining ones and pulls a black long-sleeved dress from the rack.

"It's actually been pretty great. Im really grateful for everything you guys are doing." I say. She moves into my closet and a few shoes come flying out. I duck quickly as a heel almost hit me in the head.

"Awe, Octavia. We'd do anything for you. We love you so much." She smiles lovingly at me as she walks out with a pair of thigh high boots. What is she doing?

"I love you guys too."

"I know, love. Now go put this on." She places the dress and shoes into my arms and begins pushing me towards the bathroom.

"But I didn't get to try the other dresses on." I say trying to look over my shoulder at the remaining dress that hung neatly on the clothing rack.

"Trust me. I'm a genius!" She laughs loudly and gives me one last push into the bathroom before  closing the door.

I stare at the closed door for a moment before silently laughing to myself. She's such a weirdo. I remove the bathrobe that I was wearing and pull on the long-sleeved dress she had picked out. It was short, but not short enough to expose anything. It was also very fitting, making it seem as though I had nice curves, when in fact, I don't.

Pulling my hair out of my messy bun I allow my hair to fall wildly down to my waist. I run my fingers through it a few times and added some product to it so that it didn't look like such a frizzy mess.

"Cipher I need socks!" I yell through the bathroom door. I wasn't going to put those boots on barefoot. That would be gross.

While I waited for my socks I decided to do something with my face. It looked very casual and boring, like I wasn't going to a party. I apply some illuminating moisturizer to give myself that inner glow type of look. Along with that I fixed my brows and carefully applied some mascara and lip gloss. I wasn't one to wear a ton of make up so this was enough for me.

Once I received my socks I slip on the very high boots and immediately feel ten times better about my appearance. Wow... I felt amazing in these boots. Omg, is that weird? I'm being weird.

I exit the bathroom to find Cipher picking up the random shoes and clothing items that scattered my once clean bedroom.

"Cipher you didn't have to clean up." I laugh as she turns around with a friehgetend jump. She had a few dressing laying over her shoulder and few pairs of jeans in her arms.

"Wow I really am a genius! You look so hot."

I remove the clothing from her arms and give her a thanks as I toss the items into the closet with the rest of the mess that I made. I'm definitely going to have to clean this up sometime soon.

"Alright sugarplum, I have to go help my mom with getting everyone at the party situated. I'll see you there." She presses a light kiss on my cheek and just before she walks out of the door she says, "I hope thats waterproof mascara." And with the wink she's gone.

I raise a quiz call eyebrow at her. Waterproof mascara? Oh no, were they planning on making me cry tonight? Hopefully it would be tears of joy and not some cruel joke they had planned. I don't think Cipher would allow that though. I head into the bathroom to read the label on my mascara and I heave a sigh of relief when I find out that it is indeed waterproof.

Digging through my jewelry I try to find pieces that would match my new ring well. I place a dainty chain around my neck and I pick up a pair of small earrings that glistened beautifully in the light. Although you might not be able to see the because of my hair.

"Octavia!" Ajax yells.

What the? Why is he yelling? I look over my shoulder at the slight opened door.

"Just a minute!" I yell back as I begin placing the earring in. I hope its not time to go just yet. I havent mentally prepared myself. Cipher basically implied that I might cry.

"Come down here!"

I roll my eyes and groan loudly as I make my way over to the door. I still have to put in my right earring.

"I don't understand why you just can't come up here. Or just yell whatever the hell you want to tell me." I complain as I begin making my way down the stairs and trying to put my earring in at the same time. Which is not easy at all. I make sure to focus on my feet, so I don't trip and fall like the klutz I am.

"I don't want to tell you something, they do."He speaks now in a normal tone and I stop in my tracks to look up. They?

My jaw drops and my earring slips from my hand as my eyes meet three pairs of green eyes and two pairs of brown ones. I blink of few times and pinch myself secretly. Is this real? Am I dreaming. I meet his green as they begin to water and I could feel mine doing the same. They're here?

"Daddy!" I cry out. The tears began to spill over as I raced down the steps no longer trying to be careful. I just needed to get to them. To him. To my dad.

I practically launch myself into his arms, giving him the largest hug. He's real. He's here. My back begins to tremble as a sob climbs its way out of my throat. Emotions overwhelmed my brain. Happiness and confusion were the strongest.

"Shhh," He hushes lovingly into my hair as he rubs my back soothingly.

"Give me my baby." My moms voice was strong and clear but her cheeks were tear stained. She had been crying before hand. I detach myself from my father and wrap myself around my mom. I hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to her. I was devastated and by the look on her face now I'm sure she was too. Even now, here in my arms, she seemed heartbroken and sad.

"I thought I was your baby?" Odessa says teasingly and I unconsciously pull her into the hug. They all smelled like home. Something that I have missed so dearly. This all felt like a dream.

"I'm clearly moms baby, aka the favorite child." Odin speaks up and I take a peek at him as he moves towards us joining in on the group hug.

"You're most definitely not the favorite." I say through my ugly crying. Odessa agrees almost immediately along with Orion.

"I'm the first born child, which makes me the favorite. Now everyone step aside so I can give my baby sister a proper hug." Orion chuckles as he worms his way through the group hug. I pinch his side to which he jumps and giggles.

"I'm the favorite." I finally say as I smile through my tears and give my oldest brother hug.

"That's only accurate because you've been gone for almost four months." He says before turning our sweet hug into a head lock and rubbing is fist into the top of my head as a joke.

"Orion!" I shriek as I break free of his hold and attempt to flatten out my hair.

"Birthday punches!" Odin yells, causing me to take a step back instantly. He always did this to me on my birthday. Last year he punched me twenty times in the arm, claiming one was for good luck.

"No, no way. Punch me and I'll kick you right where the sun doesn't shine mister." I hold up hand signaling for him to stop as he took a step towards me.

"We don't have favorites." My father shakes his head as he looks over all of his children.

My mom makes her way over to me again and wipes the remaining tears from my face. "Happy Birthday, darling." She plants a kiss on my forehead and I instantly hug her again. I missed her scent. Her warmth. I try my hardest to hold back the tears that threatened to spill once more.

"Happy Birthday, Tavia!" The rest of my family shouts before grouping hugging once more.

My heart felt light and happy in my chest as I looked around at my family. We had moved over to the living room so that we could sit and chat for a few minutes before heading over to my party. Sometime in between all the hugging Ajax had disappeared. I searched for him through the house with my hearing, I think he's in his office doing paper work. A part of me wanted him to be down here so he could meet my family, my real family, not the ones who hate him for taking me away. Although the other part of me missed them so much that I wanted this moment all too myself.

Of course my older brother and father interrogated me about Ajax and how he treated me. I was honest but kept it light. They didn't need to know everything that took place in the beginning. What's important is that he treats me well now. They seemed skeptical, but left it alone.

That was until my mom utterly embarrassed me by asking, "Why haven't you completed the mating process?"

My wolf stirred in excitement at that question. She wanted nothing more than to jump Ajax's bones and bring him to bed. It was a constant thought of hers, something that I could never get out of my head.

"Mom." I groan and hide my now blushing cheeks behind my hands.

"It's a good thing they haven't mated." My father says quickly.

"Honey, if you wait too long your heat will come. You'll be in so much pain-"

"Mom." Odessa and Odin groan simultaneously.

"Alright, don't say I didn't try to warn you."

I push back all the thoughts of mating with Ajax as the topic shifts and we begin to talk about the SnowMoon pack.

Not long after Ajax made a reappearance. I couldn't help but greet him with a smile. A very large smile. He brought my family to me on the day I would miss them the most. On the day I needed them most.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but the party has started and we should probably get over there. The people are eager to wish their Luna a happy birthday." His deep blue eyes meet mine and I want nothing more than to touch him. To have some type of physical contact with him. My wolf was purring at just the thought of it.

"Very well." My father says getting up. He places a kiss on the crown of my head and they all head towards the door. I can't keep my eyes off of Ajax though.

I watch as he stands to move in front of me. Standing up, I place my hands in his. The contact immediately calms my rapidly beating heart. I'm sure anyone could've heard my heart pounding against my ribcage.

His lips connect with mine in a sweet yet short kiss.

"I have that earring you dropped." He smirks a little and pulls the small piece of jewelry from his pocket.

"You know you could've killed me with a surprise like that." I say teasingly, referring to my family.

"Yeah, it almost killed me as well." He pushes my hair behind my ear as I place in my missing earring. "And by it I mean your father."

"I know it must've been hard for you do that, so thank you. I really appreciate it."

"It's my fault you haven't seen them so don't thank me." He places quick peck on my lips as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Come on, the pack is really waiting for you."

You guys! Ive been working on this chapter all day because I was so excited that this story got over 2.8K reads. I know thats not even a lot but it still means so much to me.

Dont forget to vote and comment to show your support xx

There will be a second part to this chapter because it was getting pretty lengthy so I figured I would make it a two part thing so stay tuned.