*****

"Here." I took the phone from Ben's hand as he held it out to me while I scooped another spoon of cereal into my mouth. "Karabo, we're going site seeing. Are you coming?" Ben asked.

I looked up from the map as my mate walked in and slid keys across the table to Ben while shaking his head.

"I would but I have to make sure everything's planned properly for tomorrow," Karabo said as he took a plate from the shelf.

"Tomorrow?" I asked.

"Mate ceremony." I put my spoon down as I saw Ben straighten up curiously.

"Your pack does that? How does it work?" Ben asked. We had only ever heard of mate ceremonies, they were not something any of the packs in our vicinity at home did.

"Well... Everyone here only finds their mate when they've gained permission from the elders and current leaders. It's great because then everyone's in the same place and can find their mates immediately. If someone's mate isn't in the pack, we ban them and they go searching for their mate." He said.

"Ban?" I asked shocked. Karabo nodded. "You're joking." I narrowed my eyes. He grinned.

"Of course I am," He chuckled, "bottom line, we don't feel our mate's pull once we reach a certain age. We just do the mate finding ceremony every six years and it's tomorrow."

"When did you do yours?" Ben asked.

"Since I'm Alpha, sixteen. Two years before any other wolf is old enough to take part in the ceremony."

"So that's why Richard hasn't found his mate yet?" I asked.

"Yes." He nodded.

"So he's taking part in his own ceremony – wait, all your Deltas are too, aren't they?"

"They are."

"Isn't that unfair? Some of you have to wait longer than others to find your mates." Ashton said as he walked in. He must have been listening from upstairs. I looked behind him but my sister didn't follow him into the room.

Karabo shrugged. "We don't get the pull on our sixteenth or eighteenth birthday –"

"Eighteenth." I interrupted, he nodded.

"– like you guys do so no one has a choice. We just have to wait longer sometimes."

"I wish I could choose to wait longer. You two seem to be taking the mate thing fine but I don't want to end up like him." Karabo and I laughed as Ashton shoved Ben causing him to fall off the stool he had been sitting on.

"You're such an idiot, Ben," Ashton muttered taking his seat.

"Where's Tamia?" I asked.

"Upstairs. She's on the phone with Andrea and Bonnie." Andrea and Bonnie were some of Tamia's friends back home.

Karabo's phone buzzed and he looked at it before sighing and placing the plate of cereal he had just made but had not even gotten to taste a spoonful of yet in front of Ashton.

"Here you go."

"Yeah! Did you get served? I didn't think so." I frowned at my Beta as he smirked my way.

"I have to go. Uh, car keys –" He pointed at Ben, "Lock up. I'll see you guys later. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," I said. I understood how much work he had. 'You better be here tonight though.' I linked to him.

He smiled at me as he grabbed a couple of protein bars before leaving.

"Alright, where are we going?!" I looked at Tamia. She looked like she was heading to the beach in the crop top and shorts she was wearing... The beach didn't seem like a bad idea...

"Wow. Your legs look really long in that." I grabbed Ashton's shirt as he growled at Ben and Ben raised his hands. "I just meant usually she looks so much shorter."

I looked at my sister as she bit her lip glancing down at her clothing. I knew she was contemplating changing because she would not want Ashton to go off on random guys that would look her way today.

"Ashton, get over yourself." I said. They had been mated long enough for him to be able to control his possessive instincts and he had no reason to be jealous, she had been stuck with him her whole life and obviously did not mind. She adored her mate.

"Fine. You look pretty, Babe." He held his arms out to her and she immediately moved into them.

"I'll wait in the car." I made my escape quickly before their hug could escalate.

"I will as well." I heard Ben following me as Ashton and Tamia laughed.

-----

"So if I hit that, I can get that one?" I watched Ashton as he spoke to the man that ran the High Striker. We were at some type of market and we had reached a small gaming area. Ashton wanted to win Tamia a teddy because he's really cliché.

"If you hit that target, I'll give you two of anything you want." The game was rigged, it had to be. I had watched five people fail to reach the target in the past few minutes while we were in the line. No one even got halfway to the top. The last two men were pretty well-built and clearly did strength training but they only got a little above where the other two people had.

"Two?" Ashton asked excitedly.

"Of anything." The guy smirked, certain that he would not have to give anything away.

I shook my head. I couldn't be too bothered by what Ashton was doing. I had done it a couple of times before, these games weren't designed for werewolves.

Ashton stepped up taking the hammer and I tapped his shoulder to remind him the game wasn't that hard. He rolled his eyes before he hit it.

I watched as the weight lifted a little and sighed looking around. Where was Ben? He said he was getting doughnuts half an hour ago and I wanted some doughnuts... My attention turned to my sister when she let out a yawn and leaned her head on my shoulder.

"Tamia..." I said slowly. "Gross." She looked at me confused before punching my arm and I laughed.

"We stayed up late watching movies, Ben was there." She said. Ashton glanced back at us and smirked at me. I shot him a glare and he laughed as he swung the hammer again.

I watched as the weight went all the way to the top before I laughed at the vendor's dropped jaw when the music went off signalling Ashton's win.

"Yeah!" Ashton shouted happily as the people around us clapped. I noticed the vendor frown at the machine and nodded to myself. He had definitely rigged it.

Ashton let Tamia pick out a teddy and he got one that looked exactly like it before we walked away with no real plan of where to go next.

"Alpha, where were you and Karabo this morning?" Ashton asked.

"I woke up early so we took a run."

"You woke him up?" Tamia asked.

"No... Sort of. Where the hell is Ben?"

"Ben or the doughnuts?" Ashton asked.

"Obviously the doughnuts."

"Hey!" I laughed as Tamia swung her teddy at me but I dodged it. I stopped laughing as I spotted Ben. He had our doughnuts but he seemed quite engrossed in a conversation with a girl. I clenched my jaw pissed. That was why he hadn't brought the doughnuts?! I watched as one of her friends whined that it was time to go and she giggled as she fidgeted with Ben's phone before handing it back to him and then the pair of women left.

Ben chuckled to himself and turned to walk but his smile dropped when his eyes met us and I glared at him.

"Wait –" he began.

"Ben," I growled about to run at him but I stopped when Ashton spoke.

"Vampires?" He questioned in a low growl. I followed his gaze and found myself looking at the two vampires I had seen yesterday, they were at a stand and staring back at us confused.

"Calm down, they have permission to stay here," I said. I hesitated for a moment before walking over to them. "Hey." I greeted with a friendly smile.

They didn't smile back at me, the pair looked like they had their guard up waiting for my attack. We were in a public place surrounded by humans so it made no sense to attack them.

"We've never seen you around here." One of the vampires spoke. They looked alike and if I had to guess I would say they were related. The one that had spoken to us was probably older.

"We're friends of Karabo's," I said, "well, they are. He's my mate." I added with a grin, feeling rather proud to say that, and Tamia giggled.

"Oh." I watched them visibly relax, "We live here..." the older vampire drifted seeing Ashton frowning at them. We were really sceptical of Vampires. "I'm Vanessa, this is Paige."

"Hey, it's nice to meet you!" Count on Tamia to be super friendly no matter who we were speaking to. She began to introduce us and that's when we realised Ben was gone again.

I grit my teeth annoyed.

"I'm going to kill –"

"Alpha! I got us more doughnuts, these are still warm." I frowned at Ben and he smiled back at me before just shaking my head with a chuckle and took the box he held out to me to immediately pop one of the warm mini-doughnuts into my mouth. "I saw a –" he stopped as he spotted the vampire duo we had been speaking to and his eyes widened.

"It's okay, they're nice," Tamia informed him, Ben's expression didn't change and I froze.

You've got to be kidding... I looked at Paige who had shifted slightly behind Vanessa now as she avoided looking at Ben while biting her lip nervously.

"Stop that, you're scaring my sister," Vanessa said frowning at Ben.

"Oh – uh." Ben cleared his throat, "I... spaced out... Can we leave?" Ben's eyes moved from Paige and he looked towards the market exit.

"Why? It's still early." Ashton said. It was pretty late afternoon and the sky was almost dark, but we had nowhere to be.

"Yeah, and we –" My brows rose in surprise as Ben grabbed my arm and began dragging me away from the vampires.

"Um... sorry about that. He's probably not feeling well. Hopefully, we'll see you around again." I heard Tamia behind us before she and Ashton caught up to us as I pulled my arm from Ben's hand. He instantly began sprinting and I quickly followed.

"What the hell?" I asked when Ben finally stopped running once we were out of the market and down the street. He turned to me wide-eyed.

"She can't be my mate, right? That-that – that's impossible. She's a vampire, she can't... she can't be." He shook his head, "There's no way. Oh shut up!" I watched him grab his head; he was probably speaking to his wolf who refused to quieten in his mind because it was a bad idea to run away from your mate unless you want to piss your wolf off.

I knew it.

"Wow, this place is just full of surprises. Two Alphas and a Vampire. I think we should get out of here before it turns out that you can have more than one mate." Ashton said stepping closer to Tamia.

"You left your mate?! Ben, you should go back –"

"Ha! To a vampire?! There's no way she's my mate. Let's go."

I grabbed Tamia's wrist signalling for her to leave him alone. "Alright, let's go." I nodded. He could try to find her once he calmed down.

----

Ben was still completely distressed when we got back to the house. It was open so we walked right in and I smiled spotting Karabo on the couch.

"Hey, guys." He turned around.

Ben waved him off and immediately headed upstairs. My mate looked at me questioningly raising his brows.

"It's a short story, but I'll tell you later. Come." I said.

"Where are you going?" Tamia asked.

"Walk," I replied. Karabo chuckled as he followed me out of his house.

"Can't you let me rest? I just got home," he said as we walked.

"I could go home and you could get some rest." I looked at him after the reply to see him roll his eyes and I laughed.

We walked to the area we had seen early that morning while avoiding anything pack related in our conversations as usual. He was shocked when I explained Ben's mood and ended up telling me about Paige and Vanessa. They were sisters, Vanessa was older as I had guessed and they were vampires by birth. He said Paige was really sweet, she was usually quiet though.

When we got to the place I let him lead me around because he seemed to know what was going on. There were a lot of other people around and he knew the less crowded routes.

"They never change the way it's set up." He explained.

"This place is really colourful." I chuckled. I would have said 'beautiful' but I didn't want to look less masculine to him, it was stupid but I couldn't bring myself to express it.

"Right?" He glanced at me with a smirk like he knew what I meant anyway before quickly planting a kiss on my cheek, right at the corner of my lips. My eyes widened as I watched him skip ahead like he hadn't just randomly kissed me and I tilted my head. A skipping Alpha. He was so fricking adorable... and his lips felt nice... Why had he given me such a playful and small kiss?

"These are my favourite trees here. This one..." I watched him stop at a tree and place his hands on empty spaces of the bark before chuckling as I walked up to him.

When I was a few steps away he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to a circle of lights surrounding a small tree, his eyes sparkled as he stared up at the blue and white lights explaining why he liked this one so much. I couldn't bring myself to look at the tree for longer than a couple of seconds though, before looking back at him. I stared at the broad smile he had while explaining and felt my heart race. He was so goddamn perfect... I studied his excited face as he pulled me over to more trees and explained the stories behind the lights surrounding them. He was so happy. He had a childlike happiness at seeing these lights that made me forget he was a strong Alpha. While we were there, he was just someone that really liked trees and lights, just someone dragging his mate around to share his love and I loved it.

I looked down at our hands as he pulled me over to another tree before my eyes moved back to his eyes as his moved over the current tree. "I brought my mom here and this was her favourite tree, but I don't like it that much. It's too –" he turned to me and was cut off by my lips pressing against his. I felt him gasp slightly against my lips and I smiled as I broke apart, his eyes were wide and confused.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself." I watched as he grinned and felt myself get happier with the thought of how glad he seemed because of me. I moved to kiss him again and this time I didn't receive complete shock in return as he leaned into the kiss. It was casual, slightly playful as we were both still smiling and it matched the night we were having playfully. When we broke apart he looked back up at the tree.

"This is my new favourite tree." He mumbled. I chuckled.

"Mine too." Even though I had barely looked at it because my eyes were stuck on him the entire time. I tried to kiss him again but he pulled me away from the tree. "Karabo," I growled his name annoyed and he laughed.

"We're going to miss the show of lights."

"I don't care." I groaned.

"It's really cool, I promise." He laughed. "You'll be glad we didn't miss it."

I sighed before giving a smile and letting him drag me wherever he liked. I guess it did not matter where we went, I was just happy to be with him.

*****