I leaned into the old, but still oddly comfortable cushion of my favourite booth that was located in the very back while my hands gripped the edge of the table as though my life depended on it as I let out, yet again, another breath of air.

My back was stinging. I paid no attention to it. Not important.

The addicting aroma of strong coffee had already filled the entire coffee shop since it had opened this morning, I continued deeply breathing in the rich scent to calm myself down, I kept repeating, in and out, in and out.

My eyes scanned the busy area, glancing over the mismatched mugs that costumers held between their hands, steam blowing in their face whenever they took a sip, and I recognized the different chairs they sat on, nothing in the entire place was the same thing, even the couple of booths had their very own individual fabric design.

Amanda is quirky, a really unique person, I always said, so it's obvious that the coffee shop is a reflection of herself.

I kept my eyes on the door, my leg shaking up and down as I took another glance, the hundredth one in the past five minutes, up towards the bell hanging above it, waiting for it to ring, waiting for her.

She would know exactly what to do to make me not feel so nervous, so anxious.

Sooner than expected, my expert of a best friend came barrelling through the door with her hair the colour of coal pulled back into a tight, long ponytail, and I watched as she sashayed over to our table, her hair swinging back and forth behind her.

"Hi, my sweetie," she greeted as soon as she was close enough to grab my face between her long hands, I could feel the coldness of her ring-covered fingers as she began squeezing my cheeks together.

"This is very unprofessional, Viviana," I tried to say, but it came out as a messed up sentence of, 'dis is very unprofishonal, Vivana'.

"Alright, alright, alright-" Viviana sat down in front of me, shuffling into the seat before throwing her elbows over the table and resting her face in the palm of her hands, "-so, what made you change your mind about hanging out today? I mean, usually you don't want to see anyone on your birthday, but over the phone, you practically begged me to come see you."

"I know," I agreed with a groan, running my hands down my face, "but I'm not here for my birthday, I'm here to ask you some questions."

"Questions about?" She asked. In seconds, she no longer looked confused as her face suddenly lit up, her electric blue eyes brightened, and she stuffed her hand under her shirt, not caring that she was in public, then pulled out three pieces of hard candy, "Oh, and here-" she shoved the candy across the table and aimed it in my direction.

"Boob candy?" I questioned and raised my dark eyebrow, "This isn't my birthday present, is it?"

"Hey, be grateful," she laughed, her eyes widened playfully, and she leaned across the table as she pointed a finger down at the candy, "I finally got my nonna to buy something other than just butterscotch."

"So you stole candy from your nan's candy jar?" I giggled, grabbing the tiny pieces of cherry and green apple flavoured candy, thankful that she got two of green apple instead of just one. "And butterscotch is a classic."

"I know, I know," she agreed and placed her chin on top of the table, closing her eyes, "but it's that chewy kind and it sticks to my teeth so bad."

"The price you pay for joy," I joked, poking the side of her face, and she wiggled her small nose in response. I started lifting up her head from off the table while she continued to pout at me with her wide lips, "I seriously need to talk to you though."

She sat up straight in her seat, her shirt falling loosely over her shoulder to reveal a pinkish mating mark, the nearly white scar jumping out at me as I stared at the bite mark, "Shoot."

"Okay," I started, gulping before I looked away from her and towards the table, just like ripping off a band-aid, "it's about, uh, werewolves."

She smiled widely, showing off her post braceface, threw her arms back over the top piece of the booth and said confidently, "Well, you've come to the right place. What is it that you need to know, young grasshopper?"

"It's-" I lowered my head, looking around the room before I continued in whispers, talk about being suspicious, "-about mates."

She quirked up an eyebrow, "As in, human and werewolf mating?"

"Uh, yes," I answered nervously. "So, how does that work exactly?"

"I like to think of myself as a professional on this particular subject," she said nonchalantly and started making a face that I could only describe as a smug looking grandmother. "Anyway, it's literally almost the same thing as just regular mates, the same sparks, the same connection, same everything, but of course there is this big thing about werewolves needing their mate more, so a werewolf mating with a human is just a bit different when it comes to protectiveness, werewolves are like ten times worse when it comes to that because humans are just generally weaker." She leaned in closer and put a hand on the side of her mouth, before whispering, "Mine is like a cling on half the time."

Letting it all sink in, my nerves slowly began to go back to normal as she joked around with me, "Okay, so if a werewolf happens to find their human mate, will they go after them?"

"Obviously-" she looked around the room, I assumed she was getting ready to order something, "-but I guess depending on their rank it will be different." She stopped looking around to focus back on me, tsking as she asked, "What, did you snag yourself a werewolf mate?"

"Shut up!" I whisper-yelled once a complete grin broke out on her face, one that was contagious as my lips pulled up into a smile, lowering my voice, "I'm still not quite sure if I'm even mated to him."

"Alright, I'll play your little game. Right, so, rank? Uh, a regular pack member will probably want to go through the whole accepting thing first so you have like a week tops," she explained, watching my reaction.

"Higher," I said, making a raising hand movement.

"Ah, a fighter," she winked. "A warrior will need barely any time to get things going so a definite three to four days maybe."

"Higher," I continued, my leg started shaking again as I waited for her to realize.

"Above that is a Gamma, all he has to do is tell his Alpha and you're already in, so I'd give you a day," she said and slowly clapped her hands, "you little minx."

"Higher," I continued, rolling my eyes and ignoring her last comment.

"A Beta? Girl, you are getting it! Get packed and ready to go because he's probably looking for you right now, searching these streets for his woman." She leaned up and started looking out the window that was behind me, "Don't you worry, I am on the lookout."

"Higher," I continued, looking down at the table.

"Oh, my Goddess!" I glanced up to see her looking proud as she watched me squirm in my seat, her lips moving fast as she went on and on, "An Alpha, Emery! Is he waiting outside? Who is he? Emery, give me details, for Goddess' sake!" Her eyes went wild as she gobbled up all this information, she was practically screaming 'I am beyond excited!'.

"Viviana, higher," I continued.

"What can be higher? Alpha is at the top of the ranks, babe, that's how far it goes-" she looked at me, her smile faltering, "-well, then technically it would be the Moon Goddess's son, but nobody even knows if he can have a mate, and-and he's kind of sleeping at the moment."

We looked at each other, communicating through shocked wide eyes and shrugging our shoulders repeatedly.

Neither of us had any clue of what to do next, or where to even start.

A tray smacked right down on the table beside me, causing me to practically jump out of my seat, but once I realized that it was just Amanda placing a full tray down on our table, I calmed down and glanced back at Viviana who also looked pretty surprised.

"Hi, girls," Amanda greeted with a smile, completely oblivious of the tense aura surrounding us, and gently placed two mugs in front of us, one French vanilla and one black coffee, "I got you two both your regular orders."

"Th-Thank you," I told her and smiled gratefully at her, taking my hot French vanilla in my hands.

"Yes, thanks, Manda," Viviana smiled and started tracing the doodle style patterns on the mug.

As Amanda was leaving, she called behind her, "Happy birthday, Emery!"

I eased back into my seat as Viviana started talking, "How did this even happen?"

Shrugging again, "I-I don't know, one second I'm visiting Mom and then the next I'm making out with a man."

"What!" She shrieked, lowering her head to avoid attention after a few people looked over at the sound of her letting out a tiny scream. "You didn't tell me you made out with him!"

"I thought it would be weird to lead off with that!" I explained, "He's practically dead!"

"Dead? Are you kidding me!" She leaned closer to me, nearly laying across the table as she calmly asked, "Totally inappropriate, but was he, uh, zombie-like or?"

"Okay, so not really, it's not like he was decaying or anything," I shivered at the thought. Not dead at all, more than alive. "Besides, it was just a tiny little thing."

"Oh, so what, it was just an experiment?" She raised her voice as she mocked, "I'm going to kiss this guy in a coffin just for fun, duh."

"Give it up," I laughed and pushed her away, back into her own seat. "I'm actually scared."

"Honey, I don't know what to tell you," she gave me this small and teasing smile, "you're the one out here kissing random dudes in coffins."

I groaned and threw my head back, "I don't know what to do, Viviana."

"Well, when did this happen?" She asked seriously.

"Like, thirty minutes ago?"

She stared at me blankly, "And you what, ran away?"

I couldn't help but giggle at her face, "Yes, I did run away, and I actually fell down at some point."

She leaned in again, wiggling her eyebrows, "Well, what was he like?"

I thought back to the moment I threw myself off of him, "He was kind of, uh-" I deepened my voice, "-Mate, mate, mate, mate! All demonic and everything."

She rested her face on her hand, "Well, sweetie, this is going to be fun."

"In all honesty though-" I took a sip of my French vanilla, "-how long do you think it'll take until he comes for me?"