Chapter 68: Helena.
Arora
Time didn’t stand still, and I felt as if I just blinked, and it was Helena’s turn to turn sixteen! I couldn’t help but laugh at my darling mate who had turned into a real grumpy father. His little princess was growing up, and he had a real hard time accepting it. She started noticing boys, and he had a horrible time trying to accept that.
“I completely understand why your father wanted to choose your mate. There is no way Helena is going to mate an old guy like me.” He huffed as we watched Helena float on the dance floor in her ball gown. She looked all grown up. It was her first official ball out in society and, of course, every single male wanted her attention. While our daughter was being swept off her feet, Luke and I were dealing with parents who were trying to convince us that their son was the best for our daughter.
“The law has changed.” I raised a brow at one of the parents. I had been saying the same phrase over and over all night. Reminding people that it wasn’t up to me and Luke. Helena wanted to wait for her destined mate. Both our children did, and we weren’t going to force anything on them that they didn’t want.
When the time came, Helena moved to the center of the ballroom, and we waited with bated breath as the moonlight fell on her, and she shifted for the first time. Her silver coat made her look like she was the reincarnation of my mother. I could hear the murmurs in the surrounding crowd and felt proud of the way our daughter stood proudly in the middle of the room.
She bowed low in front of Luke and I before letting out a howl that sent a shiver down the back of my spine! She was glorious as she received a nod from her brother and turned to take her first run. Luke and I followed behind her, with our son right behind us. The rest of the pack followed, and we had a glorious time running in the forest.
As I slipped into bed later, I could still hear the music pumping upstairs. The young ones were having their normal party and I couldn’t help but smile. Luke kept huffing beside me and I knew he wanted nothing more than to go back downstairs.
“You need to settle down, my love.” I curled up in his arms. I could feel him relaxing underneath me, but he still wasn’t happy. From today, we seriously needed to let go of our daughter a little more, and he didn’t like that at all, but I knew that he would eventually come around. I still remember the day Helena went to school for the first time.
After second period, Luke disappeared and half an hour later, he and Helena walked into my office hand in hand with ice-cream. She apparently called him and told him her teacher was being mean and Luke being the hero to her that he was, he quickly saved her. I had to make it clear to the two of them that I wasn’t going to allow them to do that every day, which gave them the opening to do it sometimes! Helena no longer needed her father to save her. She was a werewolf now.
Time passed, and before we knew it, we were having her eighteenth birthday ball. Adam hadn’t found his mate yet, which was a little worrying, but Luke reminded me that males often found their mates when they were older. I was concerned that Helena might find her mate before Adam did, but I didn’t voice it. It couldn’t possibly make that big a difference, could it?
Helena was nervous and excited and looked stunning as she stood in the center of the ballroom on her eighteenth birthday. Her brother looked proud as they smiled at each other. The pack waited once again and as the clock struck the right time, Helena started to look at the single males who were in attendance.
“Mate!” Helena gasped, and I wasn’t surprised to see who it was. She had grown pretty fond of one of the young alphas who had recently taken over his pack from his father. They spent a lot of time together even though we tried to get her to spend some time with some of the other single males as well. The pack celebrated the fact that the princess had found her mate, and it seemed as though Adam was at peace with what had happened.
Luke, was something else. He was mumbling and grumbling the rest of the night. The one thing he feared most had finally happened. His little girl was no longer a little girl. She was a woman, and she had found her mate. I couldn’t help but laugh when Luke told the young man he would be in serious trouble if he hurt our daughter, and our daughter rolled her eyes at her father.
Helena looked so happy that I knew we would have to move fast if we were going to arrange her mating ceremony before she and her mate got down to business! That was yet another law that Luke and I changed soon after we were mated. We made sure that future generations didn’t have to adhere to the strict purity laws like I had to. I wanted the next generation to be happy. We might be the royals, but we are still human. We deserve to be happy just as much as the next guy. I also changed some of the requirements for the betrothal, so the couple wouldn’t have to wait as long as I did before they could be mated.
A lot has changed since Luke and I took over the rule of the kingdom. We were more a part of the pack than we had been in many, many years. That was how I trained Adam to rule. I wanted him to be a strong leader that could win a fight, but I wanted him to be kind and companionate. Thankfully, he took after Luke and we didn’t have to teach him a lot. After his rebellious teenage years, our son had also grown up, and I was proud to call him the future king.