NICOLA’S POV

　　Excitement is all I feel when I wake up just now.

　　Today is the day that I’ll leave my precious pack, the people I’ve known my whole life, love all of my life, to go into the wide world searching for my mate. I wanted to be well prepare, so I did my research among couples in my pack. Particularly how to find him, recognize him and the special signs. Ive heard lots of stories about a breathtaking and unique scent only mates can smell from each other. Girls were very open to describe the feeling of sparks and lightning rumbling through the body to the steamy, wet sex part of this connecting. Weird thing. I just wonder what part of all these stories are real. But if its true, I want to experience it all. Yeah, all of it, from the touching to the intimacy. Ezra, my bestie, who is mated to the hot 6 pack body new Beta Richel, lectured me that high ranked wolves won’t wait too long to mate and mark. “Make sure that when he mates you, at your peak he marks you”, Ezra insisted. “Girl, that feeling!! You won’t know what came over you”, she yelled in excitement. ‘Is that Ezra, my shy girlfriend?’. Astonishment was all over my face. Although mated to Richel for over 3 years, Ezra still has that innocent look. On second thought I remember her always smells sex. At least, most of the time. So they must go to it a lot.

　　So I’ll be on mission today, mentally fully equip with the whole baggage of information about mating. In my ‘mission bag’ there is also a territory map of the eight packs I planned to visit. Werewolves are very secretive of their territories so I won’t only rely on google maps.

　　Mind that I don’t want to risk to run pass my mate’s pack or even not be able to recognize him or even mistreat him. That would be a disaster. Here is where my insecurities slip in: ‘What if he already gave up on finding me and accepted a chosen mate?’

　　‘I’m 24 now. He must be above this age. Werewolves are supposed to find their mates at 18. Waiting for 7 plus years may be too much for him to bear’.

　　‘Get yourself together Nicola’, I instantly hear my wolf Maxine reprimanding, ‘Who doesn’t dare, doesn’t win’. Maxine is the name of my wolf, yes. Shes the best part of me, of great help all the time. We never disagree, so she is all up with this mission. “It is a risk you have to take to move on in life”, she reminds me.

　　So, that is today. I don’t have a plan B, because I don’t believe in second guesses. Always at plan A, is my life motto. Plan B is just a lousy gateway, an excuse to fail, that is what I believe. Sprinting out of bed, I rush to the bathroom to clean up.

　　Packing is done, since I started that a week ago. With help of Ezra. “Whoooooottttt”, escaped my mouth, thinking about the nagging of that girl. Last night was an emotional scene since she still can’t cope with my leaving. Afraid of never seeing me again, she clanged at my shirt, holding tight. If she wasn’t already mated, surely it would be the both of us on the road today. “Why do you have to pack all of your stuff”, Ezra complained too many times while I was folding one of my sweaters to place in the already stretched bag. “You’ll certainly come back, you have to. Tell mr. Right that I command so”, she stressed.

　　I sigh. This is not going to be easy for both of us. We know each other our whole life, we practically came into this world the same time. Our mothers were in the same delivery room pressing us out. Pack doctor Janet told us once that our mothers, between two contractions still got the energy to agree on matching up their babies if they came out as boy and girl.

　　The Moon Goddess save us in this. Two vagina’s after all. Lucky us, no arranged marriage here. I took my time to finish my business in the bathroom.

　　No, I really want to go, I promise. But still, thinking of leaving all this life if lived for the longest time behind, its still not that easy. In the closet I took the clothes I selected for my departure and put them on. I’ve chosen something easy for the road, a white tank top and olive green jegging with a black sweater wrapped on my waist. ‘You go girl’, I encourage myself looking in the mirror for the last time.

　　Back in the bedroom I throw myself on the couch and take out my phone.

　　Ezra is the first to inform that I’m ready. Alpha and luna are surely waiting for me in their office. “Best friend, are you ready”, I ask her as soon as she picks up her phone. “Be sure to be at the entrance of the pack house in fifteen”, I inform her. “I’m not leaving without greeting you”.

　　“I’ll be damned if I’m not there”, Ezra replies. I can hear how she is trying to hold back her emotions. This will be hard for her, I know. But I’m so sure she supports me, wants me to find my mate, also experience the strong love she shares with Richel.

　　I whip the backpack to my side and roll the two bags together to the pack elevator. At the first floor an omega runs to me, taking over my bags. “Is my car ready?”, I ask him. “Yes Nicola, shining like a diamond, fully loaded with snacks and blankets. Liza made sure you won’t starve on your way”, he grins. “The Beta organized a full tank and a maintenance checkup for the entire car. All good”, he assures me.

　　I love my pack. I’m so proud of our legacy.

　　All ranks here are treated with respect.

　　Omegas are supposed to be the weakest of a werewolf pack. In most packs they’re treated very badly, being abused and enslaved. But my strong alpha made sure that everyone here is safe. No one is being discriminated nor abused around here. We are one big family, one can’t be of any worth to the pack without the other. It is a chain that keeps this pack running, us breathing. Discrimination is being punished severely, my alpha made sure of that by law. Also all kind of sexual orientation is welcome at the Crescent Moon pack. Not that you’ll find a lot of gays or transgenders over here, but it is all known within the werewolf community that they are welcome in the Crescent Moon.

　　All well, so now I’m knocking on the office door of alpha Florien. “Enter!!”, the powerful voice of my alpha sounds. He already knew that is me knocking. Of course he’d smelled me. We werewolves have an advanced smelling ability and every one of us has a smell of our own. “Alpha I’m ready, time to go”, I voice out excited. A low growl is being heard. No, alpha is also supportive but yet not very happy of me traveling on my own. We have discussed this several times. I’m a very experienced and well trained warrior. After the alpha and luna adopted me at age of 10, they started training me immediately. Surprisingly I appeared to be very talented and now I’m a prof in martial arts. Even the Beta has a hard time getting me down. Only the alpha himself is a match for me.

　　Alpha still struggles with the idea of me traveling alone without guards. But knowing how protective he is of me, I’m pretty sure he’ll send some warriors to keep an eye on me secretly. After long deliberations we earlier came to an agreement so he’ll be constantly up to my location and whereabouts. ‘Guess I’ll never grow up’, I mentally note. “Nicola, don’t forget the conditions we agreed on your leaving”, alpha starts his lecture. I roll my eyes. Here he goes again. I’m 24 for Gods sake. “Contact me or luna every five hours, no stopping for whatever or whoever along the road, no conversations with strangers, car always locked and gps on all the time”, he sums up, eyeing me above his reading glasses. Impatiently I fiddle with my fingers. We’ve been over this several times.

　　Luna Adel feels my mood and tries to soften the tone of her mate. “Sweetie, we deeply care about you. We want to make sure not a single hair on your beautiful head will be harmed”, she soothes.

　　“Please, take our feelings in consideration. What will we explain to the pack if they ask us about your doings and we can’t update them?”. “I certainly lose my position at once”, alpha jokes.

　　That does it!!

　　I jump out of my seat and run to my alpha. Luna stands up and joins us in a loving family hug. Tears keep running from my eyes as I put my arms around the two most wonderful persons on earth, who saved me when I needed it the most.

　　No tricky stepmom here.

　　Luna loves me like her own pup, she is always been there for me. Alpha fulfilled the fatherly role in my life. He leads by example. Also in his role as a mate and husband to the luna. Never one word of disappointment or judgement, always supportive. Two strong personalities who made me the woman I’m now. I’m so blessed. “Thank you both for what you’ve done and been for me”, I acknowledge them through my tears. “I’m forever indebted to you. I’ll never forget you and come back to visit you when I find my mate. I will take him to you”, I promise. “No, my child, no”, alpha hurries to ensure me. “We did what everyone would have done. You’re so easy to love. You never give us one moment of regret. No debts here”. Luna aggressively nods, emphases her mate’s words. “You’re always welcome here, whether you find him or not. We want you to keep that in mind”, luna urges. “Your room will always be tidied up, waiting for you, whenever you want to use it or not”.

　　Thank you Moon Goddess, for placing me in the arms of these two wonderful people. They are love. That is my little prayer.