Alex's POV
"SURPRISE!!" Everyone in the venue shouts. Even though it wasn't really a surprise to Ash and me thanks to our girl not knowing our secret, we were still shocked by the amount of people both human and shifter that were here.
"Sorry, to bring you both here under false pretenses but I promised your mom." Ellie whispers through a smile.
"It's okay Sweetheart, you and this dress make up for it, but you have to stay by our side the whole night." I whisper back.
"Wow, there's a lot of people here ." Ash remarks.
Ellie huffs out a breath, "Yeah, I tried to tell your family you wouldn't want a huge party like this but your mom insisted, said something about it being a tradition where you are from to have a huge 18th birthday."
'Typical Mother.' I link to Ash.
'No kidding.' He links back.
"It's okay Angel, we probably should have expected it, just didn't think it would be this grand." Ash tells her as we guide through the crowd.
We smile and thank those for coming and make our way to Mother who is smiling from ear to ear on stage.
"Surprise my pups." Mother says out loud giving us kisses on our cheeks. Then she links us both 'You knew.' Not a question a statement.
'Yea, Momma, Ellie did well with not telling our human selves but she couldn't hold in the secret and told the two "wolf dogs" she didn't think could ever spill her secrets.'
'She even practiced her poker face on us, not that we could tell her but even with practice she wasn't very good at hiding it.' I chuckled.
Mother beems up at us and shakes her head. Then she turns to our girl and thanks her for keeping the secret.
"It was harder than I expected," Ellie says shaking her head, "please don't ask me to do that again, I may actually combust next time." Earning laughter from everyone around.
We asked Mother through the mindlink about all the werewolves in attendance and she said they were sworn to secrecy about informing anyone from our pack and that they are all allies with Alpha Jaydon's pack so if they wanted to remain that way they wouldn't say anything. They had also been told since we had been living among the humans that there would be a decent amount in attendance and by law they couldn't reveal anything about our world unless they found a human mate but even then they had to do it delicately and not around anyone that didn't need to know.
Not surprising all the unmated she-wolves that were invited tried hovering around us but we politely told them we wouldn't sense a mate until after midnight since tomorrow was our actual birthday and that we will not be interested in anyone that is not our mate except our best friend and if they were only here to find a chosen mate in us they were barking up the wrong trees. Unfortunately that lead to them giving daggers to Ellie and our wolves very much wanted to rip their throats out.
"Why do all these girls keep swarming you tonight? They aren't even wishing you a happy birthday." Ellie said in annoyance.
"Jealous Angel?" Ash teased.
"No, just find it weird. Don't get me wrong you both are," she gives us a once over pretending like she's never felt attracted to us, too bad her arousal has given her away a time or two, "good looking guys but who comes over just to hover and doesn't wish you a happy birthday. It's rude." She crosses her arms over her chest and slumps back in her chair.
"Jealously looks good on you Sweetheart." I add to Ash's teasing from a moment ago.
"I said I am not jealous." She huffs again and turns her head. It's so cute Ash and I chuckle at her. Then she turns back, clearly not done ranting. "Also what's all this 'I hope I am their mate' stuff I've been hearing. I swear I heard about a dozen girls say that tonight. Some even swearing if they weren't 'goddess given' that they would try to convince one or both of you to choose them so they could be 'Lunas' whatever the hell that means."
At that Ash and I lock eyes, trying to think of a way to explain it to her without sounding crazy or even giving too much away about werewolves. Ash links Mother to let her know some of the she-wolves are already starting to violate the agreement and close to letting out the secrets of our existence to the humans while I turn to Ellie to try to explain.
"Well Sweetheart, in our culture back home a mate is a soulmate given to us by the gods, more specifically a goddess who pairs two souls together. It is said that on a persons 18th birthday they can feel a deep soul connection to their other half but only if both halves are 18, sometimes one half of the soul has to wait years before they find their other half, other times they find them as soon as they turn 18. Usually the finding of your soulmate means an everlasting love that can only be broken by death. Some people don't fully believe in soulmates so they decide to choose someone to live with for the rest of their lives, some make that choice because they already love someone else and others do it because they feel like they can gain something from it. Kinda like a political or arranged marriage where both parties gain something from the union."
"I guess that makes sense but what is with all the 'Luna' talk?" She questions.
"Well Angel, in our old home a Luna is the title of a female leader or boss. Instead of calling her a queen, madam president or first lady, they call them Luna, it just kinda sounds prettier and is also a homage to the goddess who does the soul paring." Ash jumps in after finishing the mind link with Mother.
"Ooh kay, but what's that have to do with these crazy girls wanting to be your soulmate." She asks incredulously. "Are you two suppose to be leaders or something?"
Both Ash and I scratch the back of our necks while I answer "Um, yeah, sort of. That is actually the main reason we have to go to the training program Sweetheart. Once we completed our training we will take over our father's business back home."
" He died before we moved here and someone else in the um, company took over. Momma didn't want to keep running the business without Papa especially since we were all so young and she no longer had Papa to help split responsibilities so that is kinda why we moved here." Ash embellished the truth.
"Mother was the Luna of the company since she was married to Father. A lot of these sh-girls think if they can marry us that they can be a boss lady like Mother. However some don't actually want to do the work of being a boss like Mother was but rather just get the perks like extra money to spend, respect even if it isn't earned, things like that." I add.
"Also Alex and I believe in soulmates, our parents were soulmates and we wouldn't settle for just anyone to marry. If we did take a chosen wife it would never be for a political or arranged marriage it would be because we genuinely love the person we want to be with. Someone who we trust and who knows us better than anyone even without a deep sould connection. Ash says while looking deep into Ellie's eyes. She blushes and turns her head.
Ellie clears her throat then just simply says "Oh."
A few minutes pass and Ash and I decide to break the tension that just built because of that conversation and we ask Ellie to dance. She agrees and we head to the dance floor. Before long we are all laughing and having a great time. As the night winds down Mother asks us through the link what we want to do when the clock strikes midnight and Ash and I told her we just wanted to dance with Ellie. We told her that we can do a moonlight run with the wolves once all the humans leave and we get Ellie home safely and she agrees and spreads the word.
Once it's a few minutes to midnight the DJ slows down the music and Ash and I wrap around our Ellie, all three of us singing the song that is playing.
Ellie looks up to the clock and begins a quiet countdown "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy Birthd-ohhh."