The Game Of Quadruplet Mates
(Bk 2) Chapter 49

Tedros, Day One

Dressed in all black with a cap covering my face, I welcome my seventh year in these d a m ne d Games. I am standing in line with a few dozen other guards, staring in

"front of a circular driveway and waiting, not so patiently, for our turn to be randomly assigned to an attendee that should arrive any moment. They come at different times, from different destinations and I can only pray that whoever I get isn't too much of a A car comes, followed by another and another, and my line moves forward.

headache.

Each time someone comes out of it, I thank the Goddess I'm not assigned to that one. Each attendee that came was either too loud, too drunk or too stupid.

There's a fountain that I have already memorized by now, spewing water as if today was a day of celebration and it is the only thing entertaining me at that moment, because if I think or do anything else than stare blankly, I am going to lose my shit. The line moves again, and again, and again.

And then I find that I am in front, standing beside my mother who is heading the entire Games.

She sees the sour look on my face and shakes her head."

This isn't a punishment."

But it is.

She knows it is... at least for me.

"We can argue about what to call it, but we can both agree that I shouldn't be here." I said without looking at her.

"For six years you were here and what did you do?" She questioned in that motherly tone of hers that meant I was about to get badly scolded.

I didn't answer her, staring at the gate of the Games with hate.

"You-spent all six years hiding in your room." She answers for me, this time much gentler.

"Avoiding everything and

everyone."

"I do not care for these kinds of Games." My eyes were still on the gate, quietly hoping to myself that whoever drives through that next is someone that won't be too unbearable.

My mother stands in front of me, blocking me from my view of the gate, her eyebrows furrowed. "You do not care to find your mate? You do not care that you're the next Alpha with no mate to carry your line? Do you not want a family for yourself?" I blew out a breath. "Adelle can carry the line."

She frowned at me but she wasn't disappointed in me... she looked disappointed in herself. "Why do you hate the Games so much? Have I done something-?"

"You didn't do anything, mother. Have you seen the attendees that drive through those gates?" I pointed to where the maze is. "Just now, that letter E girl from the River pack that walked in? She and all the rest are so desperate for a positior, for fun. They do not take this seriously. All they want is a good time."

"You Never gave it a chance." My mother reasons, her expression sad.

"Not all of them are like that. That's why

you have to get to know them, learn about them. Make an effort."

I hate to disappoint my mother, but there's nothing that can be done. I have done the full six years regardless if I didn't want to. It was all to please her and my father, who are hoping I find the happiness they have. "I've observed enough. You always say follow your heart and I did. It said no one in those six years was the one I wanted."

"Tedro..." She whispered my name, despite how I am only a letter since I arrived here.

"And now you have me back here again, wasting time when I could be doing more for the pack." All I wanted to do was be back home, in the mountains, but instead I am here for another seven days.

"You have already done enough. You're to be Alpha by the end of the month." She reminded me with a small smile on her lips. "All I want is for you to have fun, to see the Games differently this time around. Why must you see this as a punishment? Don't you want what your father and I have?

Don't you want to have children one of these days?"

I feel all the will to fight her leave my body. "I do, mother. I really do, but my 'June' isn't here. I can feel it. I felt it for those six years you've forced me here."

She playfully smirks, pushing back my hair into the cap." Don't be like Adelle and her impossible standards."

Ilifted an eyebrow, amused by my sister and having already heard of her long speech about what she was looking for that sounded a lot like the Beta's son from the city pack that visited us every other month. "I think I can learn from Adelle. Whoever I choose will be the next Luna.

Whoever she is, she has to be perfect. She has to be everything you are and more, mother. Don't you want that for me? Don't you want that for our pack?"

"I do."

A car had arrived at the gate, our eyes flickering there. The guards by the gate checked the identification of whoever it was that was going to be the attendee I was assigned to.

I held my breath, wishing for someone easy, someone manageable.

Someone...

And when the car drove in, going around the fountain that I stared at for hours and stopping in front of my mother and ... I could barely keep it together.

Don't be a headache. I chanted. Don't be a headache.

Little did I know, she was a headache, the biggest headache that I've ever experienced.

But she is my headache.

And she made it all worth it.

I remember how my mother nodded towards the guards at the gate, looking down at her list of attendees that she was expecting. She gasped a little at whoever it was that was in that car and I tried my hardest to turn my attention elsewhere, focusing on the fountain and already accepting the inevitable fact that my attendee would be a pain in my a ss and would no doubt drive me crazy.

"Interesting," My mother commented to herself. "I didn't think she was coming."

I remember thinking that it was only seven days... quicker if I could get whoever it is disqualified.

My eyes widened, realizing that I could get away with it and no one could do anything about it.

Rules are rules, after all.

Funny how that turned out.

"Don't even think about it." My mother scolded but was smiling, this mischievous smile that I didn't understand." You will be polite if spoken to and you will protect this girl if need be."

Girl?

I nodded, still wondering why she was smiling the way she was.

Whoever it is, she knows them.

My mother then gestured to the car. "Open the door."

The windows of the car were down and though I did not catch a glimpse of her, I did smell something... a scent so distracting that I almost fumbled in my step. The heavenly scent coming from whoever was in the car was like a gentle breeze, enticing me slowly, enough to keep me sniffing more.

When I opened the car door, it revealed a woman who knocked the air out of my lungs. It was a good thing these blasted uniforms had a cap to hide my expression because I'm sûre I was red in the face and gaping. Still, I couldn't help but stare at her from under it. Beautiful and ethereal, the girl was bathed in sunshine, glowing even if it was cloudy. She shines so brightly, it's as if I've stepped into the light. Warm and home. And with her baby blue eyes, it's like I'm frozen in time... of spring, where the sky is so perfectly blue. Her eyes were so soft, so beautiful and so hypnotizing. I wanted to fall asleep in their gentleness and never awaken.

I have never been interested in women and what they wear, but with her, I was suddenly very aware of it. The white dress she wore was simple and modest, hugging her figure and flowing all the way down to her ankles.

She was nervous. I could tell. But she smiled anyway, shy and hesitant, bright eyed and bashful, listening attentively to the instructions.

I couldn't look away.

It's like the sun is always perfectly angled towards her, gravitating its light around her and only her like she was the Goddess' favorite. She is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.

To the point that bored guards in line with me started to notice her, the staff and organizers in the area stopped to stare and gawk.

"So pretty," They whisper amongst themselves. "The prettiest."

Upon hearing this, a fierce possession boiled under my skin as the need, the knee weakening need, to protect her overwhelms my senses until that's all there is left of me.

*And I knew at that moment, I was going to have a very different time at the Games this year, My original plan to finish this as quickly as possible was shoved into the back of my head.

I never really believed in destiny and fate, but later in life, I would ask my mother about that first day if she and Larissa planned this to happen. The Games. Jewel. Her guard. Both would say in all honestly and with no secrets, that it was purely a coincidence. As if destiny itself made this happen; assigned me to the girl that would be my. mate, that I was placed in a line of guards, randomly and in no particular order, for a car that we didn't know the exact time of arrival to come at the right time when it was my turn. Fate,

That's what it was.

It wasn't planned.

It was only ever perfect.

I started to believe after that day. And I would teach this to my son and my daughter and to their younger cousin while I tuck all three of them in bed, telling them the story of how I met the love of my life and how it was destined and beautiful and how they will have the same too when it is their time to join the Games and they meet their destined mates as well.

Because it was back

Because the Goddess above has given her gift of love to us once.more.

And soon our children, including Adelle's son, will find their destined mates in the Games.