Claiming My Wolf
Chapter 21

~~Ava’s PoV~~

Sadie opens the door, her eyes wide and her hair sticking out at crazy angles. She’s obviously just got out of bed. “Emergency?” she repeats. “Is there another wolf attack?”

Oh, s**t. I didn’t mean to scare her. “No, no, no, nothing like that! Sorry. I just can’t find the earrings I was going to wear tonight.”

Sadie lets out a deep breath and glares at me. “Seriously, Ava? You had to wake me up for that?”

“I didn’t know you were still in bed,” I protest. “But now that you’re up…”

I hook my arm through hers and pull her into my room. Her eyes go even wider as she looks around.

“You’re surprised you can’t find your earrings? How do you find anything in here? It’s a disaster.”

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, I think, as I step over some piles of clothes. “I was trying them on the other night to make sure they went with my dress and now they’re gone. Please, Sadie, I need your help!”

She sighs but gives in, digging into the things on top of my dresser.

It takes us nearly half an hour but finally we find them as well as all my other accessories for the evening. I ask Sadie again what she’s going to wear but she just tells me I’ll see it when she’s ready. When I first heard Sadie was coming to live with us, I thought it was going to be fun having another girl in the house but Sadie seems to care less about clothes and makeup than Aaron does, and that’s saying something.

Sadie goes back to her room to get dressed for the day and I head downstairs where my mom is making a special brunch to celebrate our birthday.

“Happy birthday, baby girl!” she greets me with a big smile and a hug. “Are you ready for today?”

“So ready!” I promise. I have been waiting for this day for so long. By the end of the day I’ll have met my wolf and, hopefully, my mate too! Who wouldn’t be ready for that?

Aaron comes down soon too and Mom gives him the same hug, calling him her baby boy even though he towers over her now. He rolls his eyes at me but I can see he’s excited too.

When Sadie and my dad join us too we all sit down for waffles and bacon and eggs. “Exactly how many people are coming to this party?” Sadie asks.

It’s one of the first things she’s asked me about today, so I answer giddily. “Just about the whole pack! Even the Alpha is coming, you’ll finally get to meet him!”

I can see she’s curious about that. “Does he go to everyone’s birthday parties?”

We all laugh at that and Sadie looks confused. I try to explain it to her. “No, there’s way too many for him to go to all of them, but Dad is the pack’s head warrior. He works closely with the Alpha, they’re good friends, even though we’re not one of the ranked families.”

“Ranked?” Sadie repeats. “What does that mean?”

This is one of the things I’ve been willing to tell her about but she hasn’t asked me until now. I’m glad she’s finally taking an interest.

“Well, I already told you about how the Alpha is a hereditary position, right? So are the other highest ranks, the Beta and the Gamma. Those positions usually stay within the same families unless something happens, so those families are ranked as most important in the pack. Then there are other positions like the Epsilons and the warrior roles like Dad’s that are earned by merit.”

Sadie wrinkles her nose. “It all sounds really old-fashioned. Why should someone get to be in charge just because they were born to particular parents?”

“It’s in their b***d,” my dad steps in to explain. “Humans have evolved in a different way where the b***d isn’t so important, but for wolves our b***d gives us different abilities. An Alpha’s bloodline will be stronger and bigger and more powerful than other wolves so they are naturally more gifted to lead. It gives the pack greater stability than if there were constantly people fighting over the position.”

Sadie looks conflicted. “I guess that makes sense, I just think it’s kind of sad that you don’t get any choice. You have to be whatever position you’re born to, you have to marry whoever your wolf says, it’s like you don’t get to make any decisions for yourself at all!”

Her voice raises at the end and the rest of us all exchange glances. Maybe she’s not taking the werewolf news quite as well as we all thought she was.

“Maybe you could talk to Logan about it,” I suggest, remembering how he gave Sadie his number the other day. I don’t think she’s reached out to him yet, but he would be a good person to explain how the whole rank system works. “As the Alpha’s son, he knows more about it than anyone.”

Sadie looks at me with wide eyes. “Logan is the Alpha’s son?”

Didn’t I ever tell her that? I try to think back but I can’t remember for sure. I guess not, then. “Yeah, so he’s going to be the next Alpha. He can tell you all about it.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” my mom chimes in. “Ava and Aaron, you can go with your dad to set up everything for the party, and Sadie, you can invite Logan over here if you want to.”

We agree and as soon as brunch is over, we all split up. I give Sadie a hug and tell her I’ll be back later so we can get ready together. Hopefully by the time I see her again, she’ll be feeling a lot better about the whole thing.