Chapter 23: Chapter Twenty-Three

**Jaxson**

My Beta John and I are standing out in the back yard of Alpha Robert’s Pack house and watching as other she-wolves make eyes at us and try to come onto us, This Blue Moon Ball has been a great way to make new alliances and meet other pack Alphas and their pack members but so far, we have yet to meet our mates. Which means we are only here for one reason, and we have yet to find it.

We got this feeling as soon as the Ball started that they would be here we just need to find them, it is getting closer to end of the night, and I am beginning to lose hope.

“John man, this is hopeless, this whole night is beginning to look like a huge waste of time, I'm about to call it a night.”

He looks bummed out after what I just told him. I can tell he doesn’t want to leave yet; he hasn’t found his mate yet and I know he doesn’t want me to leave yet either, I know he is rooting for me to find my mate too.

“Oh, come on man, give it another hour, you never know she could be anywhere, this is a big house.”

I roll my eyes at him and decide I will give it one more hour, then I’m out of here and calling it a night. If I don’t find my mate in the next hour, I’m heading back to my room and packing my bag and heading home to my pack first thing in the morning. I don’t need to waste any more time being in pack lands that isn’t mine or my mates.

When I turn to look at John, he perks up and gets all tense. He must sense something. I wonder what has gotten into him.

“Dude, what is wrong with you?”

His gaze is glued to the back door to the pack house, and he won't even look at me.

“She’s here dude, there by the back door, she just walked out, and she looks beautiful, and she smells heavenly.”

I turn to look at who he is talking about, and I must agree she is very pretty, but just not my kind of beauty, but I am happy for him, he found his mate.

“Go talk to her man.”

He looks a little hesitant but none the less I encourage him to go to her, but he comes back with, “I don't need to dude, look. It seems she has figured out who I am as well, she is coming this way.”

Great now I’m stuck here having to listen to John and his mate make goo-goo eyes at each other all night. I’ll stay to introduce myself then, I’m out of here. At least one of us found our mate.

She makes her way to us and they’re talking and introducing themselves then my man introduces me to her, and I politely stretch out my hand to shake hers when I catch a scent of something amazing, its different from her scent though I smell some sort of Vanilla and Hibiscus with a faint scent of strawberries. It's very faint but I can smell it, I mind link John to ask him what she smells like to him, and he tells me she smells like a fresh rainstorm, so I know this vanilla and hibiscus is not from her, So I gently grab her hand and lower my head just a bit to get a better smell of this mystery scent and I ask her who she is here with tonight?

John looks a little miffed that I asked her maybe he is afraid she came with another male but I'm not going to tell him why I asked just yet. I have a hunch and I want to follow through with it first. I need to find out if my hunch is correct. I don’t smell a male on her, so I know she isn’t here with another guy, I smell something heavenly.

She looks tense as well, maybe she is afraid to answer but then she composes herself and tells us that she is here with a close girlfriend of hers, then she starts to look around but can't seem to find who she is looking for.

“Speaking of which, if you boys don't mind, I need to go find my friend, she went to use the ladies' room a while ago and hasn't come to find me yet.”

John offers for us to go with her to find her friend. As soon as we make it inside, I can smell a very faint smell of Vanilla and Hibiscus and I begin to follow the scent and they end up following me around the house and it leads us to a hallway of many doors and a few bathrooms, then we hear faint knocking and yelling from one of the closet doors and Annie runs to the door trying to open it but she can't seem to get it open, We are standing there trying to figure out how to get the door open when we hear whoever is inside yell for help and ask for Annie, this must be her friend inside.

Now that I know it’s her friend inside and I can tell the scent is coming from inside this closet. I need to get this door open and quickly.

My wolf is becoming more agitated by the second. With him acting this way it tells me that he knows something that I haven’t quite figured out yet. My wolf is on edge and I'm trying so hard to keep him calm, I gently slide Annie out of the way, and I hear John growling behind me, but I don't pay any attention to it because I know he is only doing it because she is his mate, but then I grasp the doorknob and give it a good tug and get it open like it was never locked, to begin with.

When I look at who is in the closet, and I see the beautiful girl standing there with her hand on her head and I hear my wolf repeating the one word I thought I may never hear. He keeps repeating the word mate, mate, mate in my head and I can't seem to form words to speak to her.

Meanwhile John’s mate, Annie gently maneuvers herself in front of me to get to Alex and she asks her what happen, and when I hear her tell us what she remembers, I felt the need to go on a rampage and to go find Alpha Robert and demand he tell me what the hell is going on, and how I just found my mate locked in a closet.

Goddess knows how long she has been in there, and if she’s hurt and when she tells us that someone knocked her out and locked her in there, my wolf is close to the edge and I'm having a hard time keeping him calm.

Then I hear Annie and my mate talking about how she was right and that she knew my mate would have another chance. Another chance at what exactly? I need to find out what she means by that, I mind-link John to ask Annie what she meant and to let me know later. He gives me a slight head nod in understanding.