Chapter Ten

**Bastion's POV **
"Hurry the hell up, man." I complained over mind link, tapping the leather dashboard of my midnight black Tacoma.
Seconds later I saw my childhood best friend, Brett Lawson, bounding down the pathway of his family home, clumsily pulling his t-shirt over his head.
"You literally have the worst concept of time. We're going to be late." My complaints seemed to strike a familiar chord and he glared at me as he lifted himself into the truck.
"I know, I'm sorry, okay? I had a late night studying for exams. I fell asleep this morning."
"Yea, well you're lucky I woke your sorry ass up. I could've just used your poor planning as an excuse to miss myself."
"And break your pops heart? Come on, Bas, that wouldn't go over well."
I growled at his retort. I knew he was right.
My dad had been freaking out about me attending this year's Eclipse since the previous Christmas. I thought he might just be anxious to get me going steady, but last night he decided to drop some more of his crazy prophecy bullshit on me too. Something about a King and the hybrid, I wasn't sure. I zoned out after he mentioned the name Aria.
Shit, with the way he talked about the girl, I was convinced he liked her more than me. I agreed to go on the basis that he would drop all the crazy, and he surprisingly complied. Now, I was stuck attending an event that I had dreaded every year since I turned eighteen.
Five years and not a whiff of my mate. I was not looking forward to a sixth.
It took about fifteen minutes to arrive at the large event center. The ceremony hadn't changed for the last six hundred years, something they bragged about with a large banner on the front. Each year, all of the unmated she-wolves that had come of age would be placed in a private room connected to a large corridor.
I guess the privacy was important because each wolf set had varying levels of attraction upon meeting their mate, and they didn't want people fucking out in the open for their families and loved ones to see just because their bond overwhelmed them.
I heard some women say that the rooms were beautifully decorated, and filled to the brim with delicious treats of all kinds. Pretty sure this was to soften the women from complaining that this was basically one big meat market, but I didn't have the heart to tell them.
Once a stupid speech was made about the power of the mate bond, the unmated men would be allowed to walk the corridor, waiting to be possessed by love or some shit. Possessed was the most accurate word to describe it. I had seen men in the past straight up transform on their way to their mates. It freaked me the hell out. It was like they had no control anymore, and that was not something I liked to consider.
That a woman could bring a strong warrior to his knees was a major flaw in the mating system, which was partly why I didn't bother placing all my eggs in that basket.
I had earned myself a bit of a reputation in the pack for being fuck buddies with various she-wolves, but it wasn't because I was insatiable like people thought. I just preferred to find love my own way.
After witnessing my parents sorry excuse for a marriage, I didn't trust the Moon Goddess to pick my spouse, but after all these years, I didn't really trust myself to pick one either. Every girl I had been with had been high maintenance and half were only with me to feel rebellious or some shit.
Regardless, they always found their way to their real mates in the end, leaving me alone once again.
My friend nervously ran his fingers through his jet black hair, trying to style it to look like he didn't just roll out of bed. This guy's mate actually mattered, since they would become future Luna of our pack.
That's right, Brett was Alpha Lawson's eldest son and future boss of the big shebang.
He deserved it.
The guy was crazy smart, studying both Business and Civil Engineering in college. He wasn't as strong as me, but what else were the warriors there for if not to make up for our Alpha's shortcomings?
"Still hoping to be mated to Rose?" I asked, cocking my brow while keeping my eyes on the broken pavement.
"Of course. She's smart, caring, strong... she would make a great Luna. Fuck, she would make a better Alpha than me." He joked.
He had had a crush on Rose Pennington since the fifth grade and nearly died of excitement when he found out that earlier this month she turned twenty-one. I was happy for him, and if they didn't end up mates I really would lose faith in the Moon Goddess' ability to pick partners.
The two would be perfect together.
I shut off the engine, stepping out of the cab while twirling my keys on my finger and whistling along to ACDC's Back In Black playing in my head. We missed the speech, but I didn't care. It was the same every year.
"Hey man. Just letting you know, if you start acting crazy, I'll trip you on your way to Rose's suite."
I laughed when he gave me a playful shove, stopping abruptly and jerking my head towards the hall when I felt Dorian squirming inside of me.
"She's here." He whined, eager to be let free. *Shit.*
Suddenly, it felt like all of my senses were numbed to the outside world, the people around me being drowned out by the all-consuming cries of my wolf in the recesses of my mind and the sweet smell of peaches.
*Mate.*