"What do you think I should wear? This dress? Or" Mara held a red body-con dress from her wardrobe as she pulled another white dress from it. "This one?"

Her red curling hair was pulled back in a half updo m, her loose curls bounced around her fair face.

I peered over the book I was reading from where I sat on the sofa in her bedroom. I compared the two dresses as she switched them over her body in the mirror.

"The white one, it makes your hair pop," I told her smiling as she tossed the red one back in the wardrobe.

I turned back to the novel uninterested in the gathering our pack was holding tonight. I felt no need to go knowing I was a shameful excuse for a wolf.

My parents try every day not to show how embarrassed they were that their only daughter couldn't shift but I could see right through them. I never felt the need to go to these things knowing my mate would probably reject me the moment they met me. I avoided that confrontation like the damn plague, saving myself the embarrassment and rejection and saving them from being humiliated.

"Sera you have to come tonight. I don't want to go alone again, please come with me?" She begged to tilt her head in a pleading way.

"Mara, you know I don't go to these things. I can't shift. You're lucky I come over here to see you. Your parents are betas too and they don't even want to associate with me." I explained closing my book and placing it on the side table.

"What if your mate is going to be there, and you miss it?!" She pressed walking over to me.

"I'm not going Mara end of story." I was twenty-two, still a human with no wolf sense at all. I had no heightened sense of smell, hearing, speed, or strength. I was just Seraphina. A girl with a family that barely talked to her and a pack that wanted no association with me. I was practically alone, except for Mara. Even to this day, I couldn't wrap my head around why Mara wanted to be my friend still.

Mara growled annoyed with my same old response. I wasn't sure why she even expected me to answer any other way. This was me. This was how I've always been, a recluse.

"Fine." She huffed pulling her hair out of her updo and sitting at her vanity to get ready.

The sun was beginning to set as I looked at the time on my phone it read 6:34 P.M., I really should be heading home.

"I'm going to go home, Mara," I told her pulling my cross-body bag on and grabbing my book. Mara stopped me however with inhuman speed grabbing my wrist as I started to walk away.

"No, wait! What will it take for you to come with me to the gathering?" She questioned her grip tightening as I tried to pull away.

"Nothing I'm not going. I told you this already. No one is going to want me, let alone be my mate." I yanked my wrist free from her grasp rubbing the skin she held so tightly.

"Oh, come on Sera this isn't fair. I wanna prove to you that not everyone hates you." She tried to persuade me, but it wasn't going to work. I made up my mind already and it was best for me to just stay home.

"Everyone does Mara." Mara paused for a second, her head turning a little to hear something more clearly in the house.

"What if I bet you that not everyone wants anything to do with you in this pack. If I'm right, you have to come with me." She retorted putting on lotion and rubbing it gently into her face.

"You don't count Mara." I crossed my arms becoming exasperated with her attempt at keeping me longer.

"No shit. But do we have a deal?" I knew she'd be wrong I had yet to meet someone other than Mara that would talk to me even half friendly.

"Fine, whatever."

"Yay! Andy, you can come in." Mara said hearing someone approach the bedroom. I couldn't hear them obviously, so I was stunned when Andy walked in.

"This isn't fair Mara." I was angry now she had pulled a fast one on me. Andy's family back in the day had helped our pack by concealing us from the public with anything that seemed like our doing. They were the mayor's family.

Unlike most packs that lived in national parks and away from civilians our pack had our territory practically invaded over the years from suburb development. It was harder for us to conceal our identity. If it weren't for them, we'd have been found out by now. So, we've chosen to bring them in as peers of our pack. It was the least we could do.

"No, it is." She shot back turning back to her mirror.

"What isn't fair?" Andy asked closing the door.

"Seraphina said no one in our pack wanted anything to do with her and I bet she would be wrong. And she was, now she has to come to the gathering with me." She told him. Andy looked beside himself looking between Mara and myself.

Andy had always had the biggest crush on me, but I had no interest as my parents had pressured me to wait for my mate. They thought it was selfish to get into a serious relationship without looking for my mate, so I never got into one.

I was glaring daggers at the back of Mara's head wishing I could throttle her here and now.

"We don't have much time Sera put on the red dress we leave in an hour." She was so excited now putting on music and singing along all the while I'm about to have a panic attack.

I grabbed the red dress catching Andy's eye as I did so. He looked uncomfortable as he knew this would be the first time, I'd go to one of these gatherings. I'm sure he wished just as much as I that I wasn't going. Thanks, Mara, for that!

I had curled my waist-long blonde hair. Mara had done my makeup simply just as I had asked. I didn't want to bring any attention to myself more than the red dress already did.

I was still trying to get out of going trying to make up anything I could to sound convincing. Trying to sound sick or busy, nothing worked as Mara would growl, with every attempt I made, to shut up my lies.

The red dress clung to my body like a second skin. How I would kill to get this contraption of a dress off me.

"You ready Mara?!" I heard Lana's voice coming from downstairs, she was Mara's mother and beta female of the pack.

"Yes, mother and Seraphina will be coming with us," Mara called back standing up and moving to the banister to look down at her mom at the bottom of the stairs.

I stretched my neck to see the beta female and as Mara mentioned my name her face visibly fell. Their disgust of me was nothing new, no one in my pack wanted to associate themselves with a mutated wolf.

"Oh- I..." Her eyes fogged over, and I instantly felt stupid for going along with Mara's antics. They didn't want me around and the fact that my beta female is looking down at me even attending solidified my fears.

Tears pricked my eyes when I realized they didn't want me to shame the pack with my lack of wolf. I was a weak link in a pack that strived to be seen as impenetrable, Dark Titan pack was notorious for its ruthlessness. Little me with a nuisance in their eyes, I tainted their image, if it were up to them, they'd ban me altogether, the only thing stopping them was the fact that my father was one of the most respectable warriors their pack had ever seen.

Another reason I was a shameful excuse of a wolf. I couldn't even bring honor to my family.

"Come on Sera," Mara grabbed my hand yanking me to my feet as she pulled me out into the hallway and down the stairs. "Ignore my mother she's lost her manners as a Beta." She seethed as she tugged me past Lana's imposing figure by the front door.

I kept my head down as not to challenge the beta female, I didn't need her to snap under Mara's comment and lash out at me for her daughter's remark. Luckily, it seemed she couldn't waste energy to raise a finger in our direction. Relieved Mara and I piled into the car; Andy was just feet behind us sitting next to me.

His presence along with Mara's eased my apprehension as my palm visibly grew clammy. My heart was thudding against my rib cage as the engine of the car roared to life and we started moving along the gravel driveway.

Biting my life, I tried to soothe my nerves knowing damn well it would be useless. Until this day was over, I wouldn't be able to be relaxed not when I knew what could possibly happen.

My blood grew colder with every breath I took and every inch I drew closer to the gathering.