On the other side of the door, the busy bee had no idea of her siblings' verbal exchanges. Having cleaned the leftovers from breakfast, Celia quickly made her way to her room. The pain had subsided somewhat, and she wanted to finish the dress she was working on. The second best thing she liked to do since childhood was designing clothes. In fact, most of her and her sister's dresses were made by her own two hands.

Her brother preferred buying his clothes, only for his birthday would she make him a shirt or a pair of pants. As for her mother, she preferred buying branded clothes, and her dad wore what her mother bought him.

After cutting and stitching for more than two hours, she stretched her hands and lightly tapped her shoulders massaging, glad she had finally managed to complete her sister's dress. The pink mermaid dress, with a high slit on the side from the ankle to above the thigh, was an express request from Brianna, who had insisted on this particular design.

She had tried to reason with her sister that such a dress did not fit her petite size, but the latter did not want to hear it at all. She had insisted on this particular type of dress, reasoning that she had to be the most astounding of all.

Every year at the Summer Ball, unmated wolves from the pack had a shot at finding their mates. And this year was particularly special, as the young heir to the alpha position would come home and would also participate. As was the custom, alpha heirs from every pack would leave their homes at ten years of age and would go for training until the age of twenty five.

Werewolves had particular long lives, with the minimum life expectancy being 200 years old. They aged normally until they reached the age of 25 to 30, then their aging would slow down, only to resume in the later part of their life.

And as they matured, they would usually find their mates, with the only exception to this rule being the current king of the werewolves, who for some unknown reason was without a mate even though he was already a hundred years old. So Rayan, the heir of their home pack, would most likely find his mate as well.

The future alpha's mate could not possibly be another woman other than Brianna. This was Brianna's firm conviction, as she felt it was her destiny, but even then she still wanted to impress him with her looks and gorgeous style.

Taking another glance at the dress, to assure she hadn't missed any pins in it, Celia gently hanged it, making sure it did not get any wrinkles. Only after this did she start making her own dress. She was not particularly interested in going to the ball, but unfortunately participation was compulsorily.

Luckily, her dress was less complicated than her sister's, so it took only a day to make, as opposed to the mermaid gown which had taken her 4 days. Not that she could make it more elaborate, even if she wanted to. The time it took for the everyday chores and Brianna's dress had her swamped with never-ending work. Moreover the ball was fast approaching as well.

Well regardless of the time, she did not like to stand out anyway, so it did not bother her in the slightest. The off-shoulder white maxi dress, which was tight around the waist where it was secured with a black bow before spreading wavy to the floor, was perfect for her tastes.

Some more hours later, having finally finished sewing her own dress, she hurriedly tried it on and went in front of the mirror to check if other fittings were necessary. Fortunately, the dress fit perfectly, her tall stature and narrow waist, making the long gown just right for her type of body. Satisfied with her work, she changed out of it, and placed it on a hanger next to her sister's.

Barely had she hung the dress, when an excruciating pang stabbed her heart and shortly after her abdomen. It hurt a lot, more so than the other times, causing her to feel as though her heart was getting ripped out of her chest. She could only collapse on the floor, when the pain became unbearable. Scrunching her face, as beads of sweat started to appear on the small head, she was confused at the repeated bursts of pain, not understanding their cause.

Crescent apologized again, she was also feeling the pain with the same intensity, but physically there was nothing wrong with their body. Celia knew that as a werewolf she was very resilient to pain, and even if she was not, her fast healing abilities should have resolved the issue if she truly had a health problem before. So the repeated cramps and aches were abnormal.

Not to mention, she knew for a fact that she was stronger than most werewolves, so her healing and resilience were even better. It was not because she felt confident in her strength or arrogant because of it, by being the daughter of the current beta.

No, the reason was simply because of the common knowledge that higher ranked werewolves would shift much earlier than normal ranked ones. So it was believed that the sooner a werewolf changed, the stronger it would be, and the proof of this was that alphas were the earliest to undergo the change.

They would shift for the first time at about 17 to 18 years old. Betas and gammas would normally shift at the age of 20 to 21 for the first time. Age 22 to 23 was common for normal pack members and 24 and older for omegas. In fact, her sister had just managed to shift for the first time only a couple of months ago, at the perfect age for a Luna.

The only known exception to the limit of 17 years old was the current king of all werewolves, who was known to have shifted for the first time at the age of 14.

So according to the common knowledge, her beta heritage should have made her able to shift at the minimum age of twenty, but as she shifted for the first time at age 13, and it was unknown for anyone to shift so early, she assumed that it could only be for one of the two following reasons.

One, it was because she was stronger than most werewolves.

Or two, the reason she was first inclined to believe, it was only an anomaly and it meant nothing more than that.

In fact, even the shift itself felt like an anomaly, as she felt as though she shifted twice before returning to the human form. She felt her bones cracking and rearranging two times.

So in light of those facts, she kept her shift a secret and did not notify anyone about it. Who would want to be labeled as an anomaly? Not to mention, she was used to keeping to herself, and would never confide in anyone.

As luck would have it, she was alone in the woods gathering berries to make jam when the pain of the shift hit her, so no one was around at that time to know about it. It took almost 4 to 5 hours for the shift to complete, but it was worth it.

Every werewolf that completed their first shift would immediately change for the better. Sight, hearing, smell, all of the senses would heighten. Strength, agility and regeneration would become unreal.

But what puzzled her most was that she retained a hundred percent of these qualities even after shifting back to a human. She was especially intrigued about this, when she learned in school that, when in human form, a werewolf usually retained only about a quarter to a half of the wolf form's senses and strengths.

That was the reason why the tracker and patrol werewolves would only be in wolf form on the job.

Strangely she did not feel any difference between the wolf form and the human one for the most part, but even then she was still inclined to think it was only an anomaly.

That was what she thought until one day when, as she went to the forest for a run, she was surrounded by 3 rogues that had breached the borders, at the young age of fourteen.

She was terrified in the mist of the savage and mad creatures that she could hardly identify as werewolves. Their unfocused eyes, their sharp fangs that protruded from their mouths, with saliva that flowed uncontrollably from it, their clawed hands... their entire appearance made them seem more like creatures from horror stories, rather than werewolves.

She was just a child at that time and, as she was thinking about what to do, her wolf took control of her body for the first time. The human side of her being, Celia, exchanged places with the wolf from inside her mind, becoming only a spectator.

Watching then how without even shifting, her body swiftly ripped the 3 rogues to shreds, she realized her assumption of being an anomaly was wrong, she was indeed stronger than a normal werewolf, but for what purpose she did not know.

Fortunately, she did not need to mask her scent in that place to keep her secret. Just when she was panicking on what to answer the patrol werewolves, who would likely come running to seek the intruders, a witch flew by.

The witch had a bubbly personality and, without even asking her what happened, cast a spell to remove her presence from the surroundings. Clarissa never asked her anything more than she wished to let her know, so she still remained her friend after all these years. Even at the moment, they regularly exchanged letters, and was the only one who knew of her strength.

As she was lost in her thoughts, her hazy mind suddenly became clear when she felt another sting in her heart, before it completely subsided. She was aware that the only kind of pain to keep on repeating to a werewolf without an actual cause, was phantom pain. There was no other answer for the unfounded ache.

But still she was reluctant to think it was phantom pain... phantom pain only occurred to werewolves that had met their mates, and one of them denied the bond, mating with others. The pain would be inflicted on the cheated partner each time his or her mate had intimate contact with another werewolf. Even a kiss was enough to trigger phantom pain.

As Celia had not met her mate, it was impossible for her recurring ache to be this kind of pain.

She sighed as the pang passed, and decided to not think of the matter anymore. Making the dresses, she had neglected her other chores and it was already running late, it was almost time to start cooking for dinner.

At the same time, Brianna was offering cupcakes to her friends. Everyone had a piece of the different arranged colorful sweets, but the girls kept on looking at their pieces, not daring to start eating them. They were so cutely decorated and not one cupcake resembled the other. If they did not know her better, they would even assume she had bought them.

"As always, you make the best desserts." One of her friends acknowledged smiling, while she was smelling the fruity scents of her piece.

"Hehehe... thank you for the flattery, but they were very easy to make. I cannot take your compliment." She bashfully replied, with a tinge of red dying her cheeks.

"Ohhh you... always so modest! If the cakes were easy, then what about the dress you wear? You do not know, how I envy your skills." Another girl pouted, finally daring to cut a small piece of her vanilla and blueberry cupcake.

"Really, if I was your older sister I would be ashamed! Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to insult her, but to be outshined by the younger sister all the time ... I would not be able to take it. Not to mention, you shifted at 20 years old, just fit to be the Luna, but she only managed to shift when she was 21 going on 22, almost two years longer." Another girl added, already eating her piece and eyeing another one.

Brianna did not bother to deny the insults, as she was enchanted by the words "just fit to be the Luna". If she had denied it, and said the one who baked all the delicious cakes was her sister, the one who did most of her school projects was also her, and the one who made her clothes, perhaps they would think her sister would be fit to be the Luna instead of her. It would be dreadful if that were to happen.

Anyway, by being her younger sister, it was only right for her to accept the compliments in her sister's stead. Because in the end, it was their own misunderstanding, she had never once specifically said she was the one who made all the things she was complimented on.

This was why even now when she was praised for the cupcakes, she only said that they were easy to make.

As she pondered more, she was also certain her sister wouldn't find out. Celia was a recluse, besides occasionally going to the woods, she never really went out. And, even if she found out about it, Celia was her big sister, so she would support her.

Another reason for not correcting them was that they were right about the part where they said she shifted first. Her big sister shifting at such a late age, the maxim rank for a mate she could only dream of, would most likely be a beta or gamma to be more realistic. In that case, why shouldn't she be allowed to gather more qualities for herself?

As they giggled and ate, they caught sight of some men talking. One, in particular, seemed to be the handsomest man they had ever seen. They kept stealing glances of him with bright red faces.

Brianna tried to appear the most collected of them, but she still had a tinge of red on her ears and cheeks. Soon seeing him even closer, one of the girls recognized him as Rayan, the alpha's heir that had just returned to their pack.

Now aware of that information, the girls sighed, resigning themselves. He would most likely be out of their leagues. So they kept nudging Brianna and teasing her, the highest ranked werewolf female that was in the same age range as Rayan, she would surely be his mate.

She felt shy under their teasing and their encouragement to go meet him, but she did not want to go to introduce herself, it was not appropriate.

In reality, it was not her actual reason, she just felt she wanted him to see her at her best, with the dress Celia made and a fancy make-up on.

With the glam of the ball, he would spot her as soon as he felt her scent, and declare in front of everyone she was his mate. It would certainly be more glamorous that way.

Her cheeks were a pinkish red and her eyes glowed as she thought about that moment.

Anyway it was only a few more days until the ball, she could wait for the dream like encounter.