Another year and yet another ridiculous party that my father was throwing to show just how mighty and rich Angus Macalister and the Windcrest pack were. Sure, I was proud of my pack and what it had achieved over the last few decades, but I often felt that my father was losing touch with reality. We had many more pressing needs to take care off and instead he was spending money on decorations, fancy food and expensive alcohol. At least the latter was worthwhile.

I was nursing my whisky at the bar while the ballroom was filling up with guests. As I was standing there I was going over everything that we knew about the people that had injured my sister recently but that was not much if I had to be honest. It was driving me crazy as I felt like I was failing Natalia and my pack just as I had failed mother all those years ago.

On top of that my father was acting like he wanted to sweep the whole incident under the carpet. I had tried to confront him about it and the best I could get out of him was that I should drop the matter and forget about it. As if it was not my sister that was seriously injured. His only daughter and the man acted like he didn't give a fuck. Mad did not even cover how I felt about the whole thing but tonight I had to act all happy and polite as the son of the Alpha and the future Alpha of the pack.

"I always thought you had an alcohol problem but at least before you used to cover it up by drinking with someone else. Now I see that you have started resorting to drinking on your own, Rafe." I turned to my left and I saw my idiot of a best friend join me at the bar. "I'll have the same as him please." He ordered the barman and raised his glass for a salute once he was served. "What are we drinking to?"

"What is there to drink to? Same crap, different day. I can't wrap my head around how ridiculous my father, the Alpha, can sometimes be."

Aiden laughed and clinked his glass with mine. "If it makes you feel better, Cyrus is no different. I do wonder sometimes if he even knows what happens in the world around him."

"Hear, hear. Anyway, enough of the gloominess. I promised you that tonight we will have fun and I intend to deliver. If nothing else, let's at least make the most out of my father's egomaniacal spending."

I took another sip of my whisky and my eyes made contact with the busty blonde waitress on the other end of the bar. Amy, I think her name was. We had hooked up once or twice before and she was definitely interested in me but it was no different to what Claudia and all the other girls were. Sure enough, Amy was already trying to eye fuck me. Same story, different girls. But with the kind of frustrating few days it had been, I wondered whether a good fuck could help me relieve some tension. Before I could decide though, Amy went back to serving the guests and so I turned my attention back to Aiden.

"My plan is in motion."

My best friend looked at me confused as if he had already forgotten what I told him when he stopped by my house earlier this week. "What plan, mate? I get a bit lost with your crazy ideas sometimes."

"The plan of us messing with the new Moreau kid. Lucien's cousin that's attending tonight."

"Ah, that. To be honest, I had forgotten all about it. You are the one that's getting all excited over a prank. One might get worried that you have nothing better to do, Rafe."

"Fuck off, man. You know I've got plenty on my plate but if tonight we are meant to enjoy ourselves at this stupid party, I might as well have fun and mess around a bit. You know that I work hard and play hard."

"Chill, Rafe. I was just messing with you. I know that you need to let loose when you are off duty from your warrior and future Alpha roles. I get it- all that rigidity makes you want to break rules and let your inner wolf go wild wherever you can. You know I will have your back no matter what." Aiden patted me on the back to make his point.

"Did you get a degree in psychology or something?" I teased him, even though I knew that he knew me better than anyone else in this world. "Anyway, I swapped the places so that this Riley guy will sit between you and me, and then we can mess with him during the dinner. And don't give me any more of your prank lectures- the guy needs to be able to hold his own if he is joining us here up north. Consider it his initiation. Would you rather we leave him to James, Cyrus and Callum instead?"

Aiden nodded in disfavour. Good, it meant that he was finally going along with my plan. Not like we were going to harm the guy- I just wanted to see what he was made of. After all, it wasn't every day that we were getting a mysterious Moreau appear with barely any information on him.

"Come on, let's make our way to our table," I said, although I was already dreading it as I knew that we were seated with various uncles and aunts of mine. Unfortunately for me, it would have been too obvious that I had meddled with the seating if I replaced my whole table.

I looked through the crowd in the ballroom before we made a move and my eyes were suddenly drawn to a familiar silver-grey colour in the sea of people. My wolf came to the surface thinking the same. A shiver ran down my spine. Down, boy. What's wrong with you?, I said to my wolf who was suddenly feeling anxious. By the time I looked back at the crowd, I could no longer see it.

"Rafe, are you coming or what?", Aiden's voice pulled me back to reality.

We were barely sitting at the table for more than 10mins when I felt my whole body become alert like there was danger nearby, yet I couldn't sense anything around. I was so engulfed in surveying the area around that I completely did not see or smell the person who walked up to the empty chair between Aiden and me. I turned around to my right and the first thing I saw was a gentle hand on the back of the chair, ready to pull it out.

What the hell? Where was the Moreau guy? Did he swap with someone? And who is she? All of that was until I saw her hair and my mind just froze. It was the silver-grey colour that I had seen earlier in the crowd. The exact silver grey colour as the fur of my wolf. My gaze moved across her face and landed on her beautiful eyes- blue with yellow inner rings around the irises. Aside from being unusual though, what struck me was the blue in her eyes was the same blue as the eyes of me and my wolf. Who was this woman?

I couldn't give in to the confusion though so I tapped into a more familiar side of my personality.

"Well hello there. Can I help you, miss?" I asked and was surprised by how easily I found myself trying to flirt with her. There was something very intriguing and appealing about this woman. So much so that my wolf felt ready to pounce on her. Luckily, he was not in control but I still couldn't help to put my hand on top of hers.

"Not really. I was just trying to take my seat." She removed my hand and pulled the chair out.

This was new- usually, girls were looking for constant excuses to touch me and this woman seemed to be interested in anything but having physical contact with me.

"Here?"

"Does it look like there is another free chair at this table?" she said mockingly. Interesting, this girl had some fire to her.

"Maybe you got the table wrong, sweetheart. Or were you just looking for an excuse to sit next to me?" I smirked. I was now curious to see how far she would get before giving up.

"Ha, why on Earth would I ever want to do that? I don't know you and I have already figured out that sitting next to you this evening must be my punishment for some sin in my life."

I couldn't help but chuckle at her last words. This woman was as fierce and ballsy as she was beautiful- certainly a breath of fresh air in comparison to the girls that usually surrounded Rafe and me. In fact, half of the reason why I was finding this so amusing was that Rafe always complained about the fact that women never stood up to him and here was one who clearly didn't give a shit who he was.

To say that I was intrigued was an understatement. I was curious to know who she was, especially as I couldn't get any scent of her. In many ways, she reminded me of the woman I briefly saw on the road the week before but her hair was completely different. I did feel an unexplained pull towards her though, just like I had with the other mysterious woman before.

Speaking of her hair, it was the exact same colour as the fur of Rafe's wolf, which probably explained why he was thrown a bit off his game with her. Well, that and her being a spitfire.

"You have to forgive my friend, miss. He thinks that he has a way with words and yet the lack of basic manners makes me wonder sometimes why we are best friends." I said, trying to save Rafe's arse, as usual.

The more I looked into her eyes, the more I realised how fascinating they were. She had inner heterochromia- the unusual condition that caused one's eye to have two different colours. While this was rare amongst humans, it was even rarer amongst shifters. It wasn't that what had fascinated me, however- it was rather the fact that her eyes appeared to be the exact mix of eyes of Rafe's wolf and my dragon. Sure, blue and yellow were not very rare colours, although how many humans ever had yellow eyes. But the shades of blue and yellow, practically golden, that our animals had, respectively, were very particular to Rafe and me. And yet, her eyes were a mix of the two.

"You don't need fancy words and etiquette on the battlefield, Aiden, and that's what counts. People here forget that they only get to enjoy these pompous events because warriors like me keep things under control and remove any threats to their previous lifestyles." Oh Goddess, why was it that every time I tried to help him, he always thanked me by digging himself an even bigger hole. The beauty in front of us was not impressed and, frankly, nor was I. Rafe should have known better.

"A skilful warrior will know how to strategically act in and out of the battlefield, and how important it is to blend with the surroundings until it is time to strike, even if that meant demonstrating some manners at an important event. Then again, you strike me as the kind that might blow out too quick." Touché, my lady.

This girl really was something. She turned to give him a smug smile, exposing her back to me. As she swept her ponytail to her side though I saw something that I hadn't expected- a tiny dragon-like birthmark just below the hairline at the back of her neck. What the hell? What did this mean?

"And what would you know about one or the other, little girl?" Rafe's voice interrupted my thoughts, bringing me back to the verbal sparring between them.

"Little girl? You can't be more than two-three years older than me. And if you think that age beats brains or experience, you clearly are lacking more intelligence than I thought. Not to mention that you are talking to the Blackwood Head of Security and Training, so if you ever need someone to show you how to have your arse kicked by a woman, I would love to help you out. As for your other skills, I have my doubts that you would be able to deliver an impressive performance there either, contrary to what your bimbos might be telling you to please you."

I should add passionate to her list of qualities as well, although I was ready to cover her in gold just for the simple fact that she had rendered Rafe Macalister speechless. That was a something that many people would have probably paid to see.

Still, I had to cool things off between them, especially if I wanted to find out more about her. "This is truly entertaining to watch but perhaps I should clarify that Rafe here was caught off guard as we are expecting a guy from the Moreau family to join, so he didn't know that he would have his arse handed to him by a beautiful, fiery woman instead. And this is really a compliment that fire dragons rarely give out."

"Yes. In case you haven't noticed, the name tag on the table says Riley Moreau, so unless you happen to be him, I stand by my earlier statement that you have the wrong table." Rafe pipped in. I really wish that he could stay quiet sometimes.

The beautiful woman in front of us looked from me to Rafe and back before she started laughing, stretching out her hand. "Aurelie Moreau, at your service."