A Blessing or a Curse

Chapter One: Sweet Sixteen
I had every reason to be excited about my sixteenth birthday. You only turn 16 once, right? For most girls things like turning 16, especially when you’re having a gigantic party later on that night was exciting. But for some reason when I opened my eyes in the morning I didn’t have any motivation or drive to get up. I just wanted to close my eyes and act as if it were a regular Saturday morning.

I felt my new puppy Ting jump up on my bed and begin to lick my face with his tiny tongue. Ting was a grey Pit Bull Terrier and was only one month old; I got him as an early birthday gift from my aunt and uncle last week. My other puppy, which really belonged to my younger cousin who I lived with jumped up on my bed as well, she liked sleeping in my room because my cousin’s was a hot mess. She was a light brown Pit Bull Terrier named Aja; she was one month as well. I giggled and sat up. I took Ting into my arms and he nuzzled his wet black nose into my chest and I kissed the top of his head. “Good morning Ting.” I smiled down at him. He barked in reply. I didn’t have him very long but I was in love with him already. I placed Ting on my lap and kissed Aja and scratched behind her ear. “Good morning to you too Aja.” She barked in reply as well.

There was a light knock at the door, “Mary? You awake?” my aunt Lily asked through the door.
“Yeah, I’m up.” I sighed as let Ting jump out from my arms and off the bed.
My Aunt Lily and Uncle Phil came in with gigantic smiles plastered on their faces. My aunt had a large wooden tray, with a plate, orange juice and napkins on it. “Bonjour, Bon Anniversaire, chéri.” She placed the tray on my lap wishing me happy birthday in her most comfortable language French.
“Merci Tante Lily, wow this looks good.” I looked down at the plate which had scrambled eggs, bacon and a freshly toasted croissant with peanut butter on it; my favorite breakfast.
She kissed both my cheeks and so did my uncle. “Here, we want you to have this.” My uncle handed me a velvet blue jewelry box. “It was your mothers.”
“She got it on her sixteenth birthday and gave it to me on my sixteenth birthday. It was our mère’s before that, which she had gotten on her sixteenth birthday as well.” My aunt said through her incredibly thick accent. “Now we are giving it to you, mon chéri.”
I opened the box to see a round, gold locket, with intricate designs on it. It was beautiful. I took it out of the box and examined it closer. I turned it around to see small letters engraved in the back. ‘Espérer’ it meant Hope in French. I looked up at my aunt who had tears in her eyes. “Ouvrez-le” she said to open it, which I did.

There were two pictures on both sides of the lock. One was of my grand-mother in her early twenties; I’m assuming was in the sixties or early seventies. It was the same portrait that was hanging in the living room only smaller to fit in this tiny locket. The other picture was my parents. My father was hugging my mother from behind with his arms wrapped around her waist and was slightly hunched over his chin leaning on her shoulder and she had her arms on his and they both had huge grins on their faces as if they were laughing this picture. I bit my bottom lip and inhaled deeply.
They looked so in love holding each other and being in each other’s company. ‘Mates, True Mates.’ I thought to myself. Growing up and watching them together I knew there was nothing realer than their love for each other.

I looked up at my aunt and uncle and forced a smile. “Thank you. I love it.” I gave them hugs and kisses on the cheek.
“Take good care of it, okay?” she said. I nodded. They left me and I leaned back on my bed and continued to stare at the locket. I felt tears threaten to fall down my face as I stared at my parents’ picture. It was my very first birthday without them. I sighed and looked at the back of the locket again. “Espérer” I read it out loud.
My mother always told me even if I had nothing in life, even if I had nothing left to believe in, to always have hope. No matter what.
“We’re going to get our nails done after you shower Mary, our appointment is at 12: 30, so hurry!” my aunt called from downstairs. I just shouted back okay and looked at the time. 10:55, I had a bit time.
I placed the locket on my nightstand and finished my breakfast, sharing a few pieces of bacon with Ting. When I was done I left the tray on the bed and decided to take it down stairs later. I hopped out of bed and walked into my own bathroom, which was attached to my bedroom and hoped in the shower. After cleaning my body, shaving and washing my hair I came out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my body. When I returned to my room the tray on my bed was gone, so I assumed Aunt took it.
I decided to put on black leggings, a plain white long-sleeved shirt and a dark blue Hollister sweatshirt over it and black combat boots. I put on mascara, eyeliner and lip gloss. I put gel in my rib-cage length light brown hair and scrunched it with some mousse so my curls would stay in place. I put on the locket and stared at it through my reflection in the mirror for a moment. I sighed and left my room.
When I was done I headed downstairs, it was only 11:40, so we had time before I left. Aunt Lily was cleaning up in the kitchen and my uncle was play fighting with my eight year old cousin Richard and Ting and Aja were barking happily and jumping around in excitement watching them.

“Happy Birthday Mary!” he gave me toothy-grin. He’s a pretty adorable kid. He couldn’t be a taller than 4’10 and he was bony kid with scabs on his elbows and knees and two missing front teeth and messy chocolate brown wild curls on top of his head and muddy brown eyes to match and pale skin. He resembled his father in many ways but got his curls from my aunt, a gene that ran strong in our family.
“Thank you Richie, how ya feeling?” I smiled down at him.
“I feel great!” he beamed up at me. “But Onda-dai keeps telling me to ignore you even though it’s your birthday. I’m not going to listen to him though.”
I frowned as he turned his back and continued to play with his dad who didn’t hear what he just said. ‘Onda-dai’ was one of Richie’s five voices that haunted him. Unfortunately he was cursed with the mental disorder of Schizophrenia. He’s such a happy and lively child, until his disease gets the best of him. He’s home-schooled because of it.
I sat on the couch and watched them wrestle around for a little bit until my Tante Lily called me.

After we got our nails done she dropped me off at my best friend Ashelle’s house. I was going to spend the day with her and start getting ready at her house and go to my party with her at 6 o’ clock.
“Happy birthday Lolita!” my best friend gave me a bone crushing hug. I laughed and hugged her back. “Thank you Ash, but I can’t breathe.”
She gave me three hundred kissed on my cheeks and kept mumbling “Happy Birthday!”, “You’ve lived sixteen years!”, “I love you Lolita!” Lolita was my middle name and the name most people called me by that. My official first name was Marilyn but I didn’t like being called that, only adults really call me that, my aunt for example. She says the name Lolita has too much of a bad reputation to call me it. I didn’t care though.
I greeted her parents Hello and they wished me happy birthday. We went up to her room and she started blasting music.
“Gorgie texted me saying she couldn’t make it.” Ash looked up from her iPhone and at me. “Stomach virus.”
“Ugh, good. She’s annoying as hell.” I sighed in relief.
“Then why’d you invite her?” Ashelle looked at me amused as she ran her hand through her white blond hair and flipped it over her shoulder.
“Because she’s my chemistry partner and she was bugging me about the damn party for like ever and I finally gave in and invited the girl. I felt bad.” I shrugged.
Ash just laughed and shook her head. “Yeah, not gunna lie the girl needs to stop being so…how can I put this nicely…?”
“Clingy? Thirsty for attention? Friends?” I guessed.
“Yes, thirsty for attention and friends!” she plopped on her bed. I just smiled and hit her with a pink pillow.
“Hey, you know my aunt invited a few wolves from other packs.” I began slowly. “Like 10 or 20.”
“Yeah, so?” she sat up and looked up at me.
“A few guys, around our age she said.” I continued. “And you know them being wolves, they’re most likely going to be easy on the eyes.”
“Good, I’ll have many options to choose from.” She joked.
“What if one of us finds our mate?” I asked her.
She looked up at me and bit her bottom lip. “Then I guess we’ll have to look extra cute tonight.” She tried to lighten up the atmosphere. She and I both know that anything to do with our mates was nerve-wrecking. We were beyond petrified to meet them.
“Ash, seriously, what if they’re from a pack far from here? Then what? We won’t be able to see them.” I stated one possibility that could happen.
“I don’t know…”
“What if they are human?” I knew almost all of my human guest attending this sweet but my aunt did invite friends of her own.
“I don’t know.”
“What if they’re dicks?”
“Then we…” she started but didn’t finish.
“What if your parents don’t like him or my aunt and uncle doesn’t like him?” I questioned, I really wanted my family to accept my mate.
“Loli I seriously don’t know!” she looked down.
“What if they reject us?” I blurted out. I instantly regretted my words. We both know that that was our biggest worry out all of them. The one the haunted and scared us the most.
“Don’t Lolita.” She gritted through her perfect white teeth. Just last year her sister found her mate who just rejected her and her sister ended up committing suicide leaving Ashelle an only child. It wasn’t just the fact Roslyn was rejected which led to her killing herself. It was one big messy, sloppy and miserable story that we didn’t know that led to her death.
“I’m sorry, I just…” I chewed on my lip trying to find a correct way to apologize.
“I know…it’s what we fear most, hmm?” she gave me a sad smile. We watched Roslyn and her mate go through hell and her live an empty, damp life without her mate and we watcher her suffer till her suicide which scared the hell out of us.
“I don’t think I could lose someone else again so soon.” Ashelle choked. I grabbed her hand and looked at her with empathetic eyes. I knew exactly where she was coming from.
“Ash…” I smiled up at her.
“Yeah?”
“What if it’s a girl?”
She just stared at me and wacked me across the head with a pillow and burst into a fit of laugher. “I never really heard of that to be honest. Lesbian mates or Gay mates, there has to be some out there right?”
I nodded in agreement, “I don’t see why not honestly. I wonder how a pack would react to that…”
“It could be a forbidden love story!” Ash squealed.
I rolled my eyes, “Like many lesbian and gay relationships are now-a-days. But shit, what can a pack do? Love is love.”
“I hope my mate is sweet. I don’t think I can deal with anymore assholes in my life.” Ashelle leaned back on her bed staring at the ceiling. Although she was only 15, she’s been heartbroken by so many guys I’ve lost count. “I’m tired of the guy whose super hot but a player. I want a good boy.”
“I don’t know…” I laid down next to her. “Something about a bad-boy is such a turn on.”
“What?” she looked over at me. “Loli, all your boyfriends have been good boys and all of the sudden you want yourself a bad-boy?”
I blushed, “Don’t lie. You love them too.”
She sighed and looked back at the ceiling and closed her ocean, baby blue eyes. “Bad boys ain’t no good.”
“Good boys aint no fun.” I finished the quote.
“Careful what you wish for though Lolita. My mother always said, you may think you want something but you can be totally wrong.” She warned me.
I smiled, “My mother always said a wish come true can either be a blessing or a curse, you never really know until it’s all over.”
She flipped over to her side and smiled at me, “But bad boys are really fun and soo…dangerous and sexy and unpredictable.
I laughed, “They have this…” I paused looking for the perfect word to say, “this edge. Something that just draws you to them, ya know what I mean?”
We continued talking and messing around and her parents bought us Subway around 2:30 as lunch. Around 5 we started getting ready.

“Happy Birthday Lolita!” a girl named Trisha who was in my Spanish class came up to me and kissed me on the cheek. “Love you!”
Before I could reply DeAndra a girl on the dance team engulfed me in a gigantic hug wished me happy birthday as well. Then it was Brittany, Mackenzie, Ashley, and a whole bunch of people just kissing me and hugging me.
I had just made my entrance to my Sweet 16 and I was being greeted and hugged and kissed by friends from school and my pack. For once it was nice to see everyone happy to see me.

The night consisted of eating and dancing and laughing and just having a good time. Around 10:30 I broke away from the crowd and stepped outside for a moment. My dress stopped a few inches above my knee, it was a pretty modest length compared most girls at my party but I regretted how short it was when the bitter February winds blew ferociously through the night. It was 21 degrees out and there was snow stuck to the ground from a snowstorm that had occurred three days earlier.
As a werewolf my body temperature was extremely high and it took a lot to get me cold but apparently standing outside in this weather was enough.

“Lolita?” I turned on my heels to see who had called me. It was Damien, the beta’s son. “Why are you out here? Aren’t you cold?”
I smiled up at him. I had to admit I had a huge crush on him and whenever he came around I couldn’t help but smile or blush at his presence. “Oh, I just…wanted to get away for a second is all. So many people and I um, thought I could get a breath of fresh air.”
“Mind if I keep you company?” he took a step forward with a smile on his face. I felt butterflies creep up in my tummy. I nodded and he walked by my side and wrapped a long, muscular arm around my shoulder. I pressed myself closer to him which instantly heated my body and melted my insides.
“How’s your big birthday treating you?” he asked.
“I-it’s great. Thank you for coming. It means a lot.” I thanked him. I was worried he wouldn’t come and his appearance only made my night better.
“Ah, well where else would I rather be? No place would need me more.” He smiled at me again.
I felt my heartbeat quicken. I prayed he wouldn’t notice with him being a werewolf you’d be able to feel and hear it.
I harrumphed quietly and blushed. “So um…how’s senior year?” I attempted to strike a conversation.
He shrugged. “A joke honestly. I’m done with all college B.S., finished it all this summer, I know where I’m going and all I have to do is do homework and pass test and that’s it. It’s so easy, plus we get the most respect and life is just funner. Almost 18 can’t wait.”
“That sounds like heaven. My aunt is making me take these S.A.T. prep classes early, and I have my driving test in a few weeks and my uncle is forcing me to look even deeper into college and all that crap.” I pouted. “Sophomore year is getting stressful.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Junior year is going to be worse let me tell you. But don’t overwhelm yourself. Remember you need to have a social life and sleep too, if anything you don’t have to go to college right away.”
I nodded. “Life just gets harder and harder as we go along doesn’t it?”
“But there are always little moments that make it all worthwhile.” He whispered in my ear making me shiver. His breath brushed my ear and neck which practically made my heart beat so fast I could have a heart attack any moment. “Ones like this.”
“L-like what?” I looked up at him curiously.
“Me, holding you in my arms; this is most certainly a moment to live for.” He winked at me.
I bit my lip and blushed and looked down and he picked my chin up with his hand and made me look him in the eyes. “Damn, you’re really beautiful Marilyn, did you know that?”

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. I just stared at him in awe. He was absolutely gorgeous. All werewolves were. He had soft, brown hair that was short but always tousled and messy like now, blue eyes like the sky on a sunny spring day, sun-kissed skin and the cutest smile ever. He was tall too, 6’3 is what he told me and he had intense muscles that made me feel safe to be in his arms.
“So pretty…” he mumbled as he brought his lips to mine. I close my eyes and his hand gently caressed my cheek. He hesitated slightly as our noses touched and I felt his breath across my lips. “Pretty…” he mumbled his lips now touching mine. Ever so gently he finally puckered his lips and so did I as he kissed me. It was a sweet, soft and gentle kiss. His lips were incredibly soft. I wrapped my arms around his neck locking my wrist together and he brought his hands to my waist. My heart continued to beat uncontrollably and butterflies swarmed my stomach and my knees went weak. It really was an innocent kiss but I couldn't help but want more.
When we pulled apart I looked down a bit my lip. I felt his eyes on me but I didn't let my eyes leave the pavement. There was an awkward silence and I heard him clear his throat. “It’s cold…we should return to the party.”
I nodded my head and followed him inside. I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face I entered the party. Before we got to the crowd of people he looked down at me and smiled and said, “Happy Birthday and Happy Valentine’s Day.” After that we departed and started socializing again.
“Wow,” I whispered to myself. "This birthday wasn't as bad as I thought..."