Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“You did such a good job with them. I just know that you must be so proud.”
“I can’t believe how much time has passed already. This is so wonderful.”
The words came from so many people that I will admit they got a little blurred inside my head. I could tell you who all gave us positive words like that, but I couldn’t tell you what everyone had said. I think that was a sign that I was letting my emotions get to me.
After all of our invited guests arrived, which there were quite a lot of them, it was time for Riviana and me to address the crowd. Not just because we had kids that were graduating, but also because we were the homeowners, or castle owners. Oh, and let’s not forget that we were the hosts of the party as well as the king and queen. Of everyone here, the two of us had the most experience with addressing large groups of people. Though those on our council and those that were in our personal circle had addressed their fair share over the years, it still fell to me and my Little Bunny to give the opening speech.
After we both took a couple of deep breaths to settle our nerves, we made our way to the stage that was in the front of the ballroom. There were so many people that were here that we had needed to use the grand ballroom, the largest of them all, to host this shindig as comfortably as we could. It might be a little too big, all things considered, but it allowed the various families to have their own place to sit while they weren’t mingling with the others.
While holding hands, my Little Bunny and I turned on the stage to face them all. I think that, of all the speeches we had given over the last twenty years together, this was the hardest of them all. It felt harder than even the ones that we gave before battles started. Why? Why was this so hard?
“Welcome, all of you, and thank you for joining us here this evening.” My Little Bunny, always the regal one, started to speak while I was just staring at the crowd. “We want to tell you how happy we are that you have all come to help us celebrate this group of wonderful individuals.”
“Yes. There are so many here that have worked hard as they grew up and have made their parents proud, our children included. And now, as they prepare to go off to college next week, we are here to tell them how happy we are for them, and of course how proud of them we are.” I gave my best smile and looked around the room as I found each of the kids she was talking about.
I had seen all of these kids grow up. I had watched the progression of time with them all and it was to be reminded that so much time had come and gone. I mean, seeing these kids was what reminded me that I was forty-five years old now. And my Little Bunny was thirty-eight. We were not as young as we used to be, even if we both still looked like we were in our twenties. That wouldn’t change any time soon, but I still knew how old I was.
“Here with us tonight, moving into the world of adulthood, are twins Tyler and Charlotte, son and daughter of my trusted guard Vincent Collins and his wife Heather. There is also Luka, Levi, Alyssa, and Alexandria Asher-Conrad, they are the quadruplet children of Kings Dietrich and Shawn Asher-Conrad, my friends, guards, and colleagues. Kaiden is the son of Shane Asher and his wife Falena, Shane is my guard as well and twin brother to Shawn. Kaede is the daughter of another guard of mine named David Martin, and his wife Rawlynne. My best friend Juniper and her husband Paul have twins with us today, Rowan and Ilana. My personal friends and the doctors in our community, Griffin and Lana, have their twins Dominic and Vivian that have graduated and are heading off to England this week. Ella, a dear friend of mine and her husband Devon Scott, have their daughters named Sophia and Isabella. Rawlynne’s long time partner in justice and mischief, Jackson McIan and his wife Melita have Melody heading off to California. Cedar Woods, Juniper’s brother, has triplets with his wife Acacia, Beech, Cypress, and Ashle. My brother Noah and his wife Nikki have their oldest, Elias. And another of my nephews, Carter Jr., son of Carter and Emmalee is here to round out the group. Well, of course there are also my twins. Mine and Joaquin’s twins that is. Reagan and Rika Gray, my first born children that I love so much. This group here are the ones that we are celebrating. They are from that special group that just seemed to want to be born all around the same time. These young adults have grown up so fast, and they are the reason that we are here. Please, all of you, join me in applauding them.”
My Little Bunny gave the rest of the speech and the entire room erupted into applause. They had been welcomed into adulthood, they were being propelled into their futures and whatever it was they were going to do. And it was something that we all had been dreading for so long.
Now that the introduction and speech was over though, it was time for the party to commence. And even though Riviana and I were the ones that were hosting this party, it wasn’t for us. That means, for the first time in my memory, we weren’t the ones that had to walk around and mingle with everyone.
Nope, this time, it was the kids that needed to do that. Reagan and Rika and all of the others were the ones that needed to see to their guests. Each family had people that were specifically for them. They had their own aunts and uncles, they had their cousins and their grandparents, all of their family that had come to see them from so many different parts of our community.
“It’s in their hands now, Riviana. We’ve done our part. From here on out, it’s all up to them.” I took my wife’s hand then and led her back to our table that was sitting above all the others. This was where we usually sat, where we could watch over everyone in the ballroom.
“I am so heartbroken, Joaquin. I can’t believe that this is happening. Where did my little babies go? Why did they have to grow up and leave me so quickly?” She wasn’t crying, but there was sorrow in her voice.
“It wasn’t quick, Riviana, it took years.”
As I said that, the two children in question came running up to the platform we were on.
“Momma!” Reagan called out to her as he rushed to hug her. He had always called her that. “Don’t cry.”
“Yeah, Mom, don’t cry.” Rika hugged her as well.
“We’re not leaving you.” Reagan added as he pulled away. “You will see us every day.”
“I know.” Finally, my Little Bunny smiled with all her heart. We hugged as a family after that, one last time before Reagan and Rika went to mingle with all of their guests.
****
Rika
****
It had been three days since our graduation party. Reagan and I were going to be starting our classes at university in just six days, and right now, we were taking part in the freshman tour of the campus. It was us and a group of the other freshmen. And a good chunk of this group was made up of people that I had known my whole life. Levi, Luka, Alyssa, Alexa, Cypress, Beech, Ashle, Ilana, Rowan and lastly my cousin Elias. They were all here with us and about eight other people that were touring the campus as well. With the twenty of us, there were four tour guides.
I was excited to see this campus and what it was like. This was the school that my mom and dad had gone to when they were younger. Or as Reagan would joke once in a while, back in the age of the dinosaurs and cavemen. I know he was referring to that super old cartoon that M贸ra铆 had shown us when we were little. It was something like the 鈥楩lintrocks’ or something like that. It had Flint in it, that was all I could remember. If I had Talia’s memory I would know it right away, but it didn’t matter.
No, what did matter today was that I was meeting other people. People that hadn’t gone to the supernatural school in Riviana Falls with us. People that I hadn’t literally known my entire life.
I had told my mom once that I didn’t want to experience my dad rejecting my boyfriends when I was growing up. In truth, it was just that I wasn’t attracted to anyone in school because I had known them all for so long. Now though, I was ready to have a boyfriend, even if he wasn’t my mate. I just wanted to start living a normal life and not the life of a princess.
…..
There were a couple guys in the group that were with us today. Three of them to be exact. And while I was ready for a boyfriend, that didn’t mean that I was going to be picking him from this group. I didn’t know them for one thing, and for two, they were definitely humans. Well, at least they all seemed to smell like they were humans. That meant that I would need to be careful with them. And unless they were my mates, I shouldn’t date humans. That would just break their hearts when I did find my mate.
Just because I didn’t expect to end up dating any of these guys, that didn’t mean that Reagan and I couldn’t be friends with them. It was always fine to have more friends. That was why, as I walked around with Alyssa, Alexa, Ilana and Ashle, we were talking about befriending as many people in our group as possible. Including our upperclassmen that were showing up around.
The guides were twenty year old Justin, twenty-one year old Grant, twenty year old Olivia and twenty year old Penny. They were all nice and seemed to really like this school. Those in our freshmen group were Aloisius, Clovio, Gunnar, Armina and Lovisa who were all from Germany. There was also Evelyn, Harper and Macy who were also in our group, and they were more local. And by local I mean that they were all from Colorado, but not from within the city. All of them would be living in the dorms on campus, so that was one of the stops that we were making. We weren’t going to be exploring every dormitory, but we would be seeing how they were all typically set up.
While we continued to walk through the campus, the three guys from Germany kept looking over at me and my friends. I could tell that they were wanting to talk to us, but they probably felt self-conscious about it. Or so I thought.
After looking over at me for a minute or two, one of them broke away. I didn’t remember which one he was, but he was kind of cute. He was on the tall side, maybe around six feet tall. He was shorter than Reagan, but taller than me of course. I was only around five feet seven inches tall. I was taller than my mom at least. And even though I was tall compared to the humans, I was on the shorter side for the wolves.
The boy that came over to me though, he had dark hair like mine and some pretty nice green eyes. He looked like he had worked out a lot in his life because he had a lot of muscles, but I was used to buff looking men. They trained a lot at the castle.
“Hallo, there. My friends and I couldn’t help but think that you are so beautiful. Are you perhaps a model?” The guy was looking right at me when he spoke, so I knew who he was talking to. That left me speechless for a moment. I couldn’t believe that he just said that. And that accent, it was so thick. Thicker than Uncle Dietrich’s accent. Then again, Uncle Dietrich was almost five hundred and fifty years old, so he has had a long time to lose his accent.
“No, I am not a model.” I blushed a little despite myself. I can’t believe that I was letting his words get to me like that.
“Oh, well you should be. I think you are the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen in my life. Meeting you here like this makes me know that I am going to enjoy my days here in America.” He grinned at me then, revealing his perfectly straight and sparklingly bright white smile. He was very good looking, in a sort of boyish way. Even though his face was slender and lean, it was soft and sweet as well. He was like the perfect mixture of a man and a boy. Though, I had a feeling that he would lose that boyishness over time, but for now, it was working for him.
