The door slams when he barges into my room. No that's not right. He comes into my room and flips me over so that my back slams the door shut, closing us in together. Not even a half a second later, do I feel his lips crashing into mine. A wave of emotions and electricity flow through me at the point of connection, and I immediately want more. No, I need more.

Barely breaking the kiss, I lift Julien's shirt off, but as soon as I fling it away, realization hits me and I push my best friend's boyfriend away. Oh goddess!

"Oh my god, Julien? What are you doing here? Is this really happening?"

Julien looked just as stunned as I do as he looks at me with his grey eyes. There's a yellow ring around the iris that I've always found mesmerizing, even in this moment. The mate bond that's already formed calls for me to go back into his arms; and I desperately want to. But I can't betray my best friend that way.

"I came up here first because Natasha told me you were planning on telling Linc about our plans. I was hoping to talk you out of it. But that went out the window when I started making my way here. I smelled this heavenly scent that's been driving me crazy for a while now and I just had to follow it. I followed it to you." Julien wastes no time pulling me back into his arms again.

Once I felt the electricity between us again, I fall into the passion of his kiss and match it with fervor of my own. My legs wrap around him when he lifts me up so that we're even in height. I can feel him walk us over to the bed, but he doesn't lay me down, just keeping me in his arms. So lost in the moment do we become that we're not even paying attention to the fact that we had stripped each other naked. No, that moment of dawning doesn't hit me until I feel him pushing inside of me. I clench my eyes shut in pain as my virginal barrier is breached.

Julien gives me a moment to get a feel for him inside of me, a moment that's littered with kisses along my neck where his mark will go. Finally he lowers me to the bed, not breaking contact at all, and begins to slowly move inside of me. Pleasure ripples through me, coming in waves as he pumps in and out of me. The ripples begin to ripple as though building me up, pushing me to an unseen ledge as he pumps faster and faster. I felt my fangs extend out, ready to mark what is mine for everyone to see, and my eyes are rolling behind my head as I begin to let go.

His body tenses up and I'm just about to jump from the ledge when there's a loud booming knock on my door. The only one I know who pounds like that is my brother.

It was a disappointing finish as Julien and I halt all motions and look at the door. I pray he doesn't barge right in like he normally does. But I'm happy that he's respecting my privacy for once and remains on the other side.

"Kai, you getting ready?" Lincoln calls out.

"Yeah, I just got out of the shower. I'll be out soon."

"Alright. Come find me when you're done. I'll drive us over there." We listen as he walks away from the door, probably heading towards his suite to get ready himself. But his presence effectively doused the flame that was once burning so bright between me and Julien.

His grey eyes meet my brown and we just stare at each other before he pulls out of me.

"We shouldn't have done this?" I whispered painfully at the lost and sudden distance between us. Julien begins pecking around my room, looking for his clothes that were strewn all around.

"We're mates, it was well within our rights. I haven't even marked you yet."

I only need to say one word for him to see where I'm coming from. "Natasha." I watch as the crushing flood of emotions crash into Julien. "You need to break things off before you mark me." It may as well be within our rights to start and complete the mate bond, but I couldn't do that to Natasha. We have to do this the right way and not get caught up in our emotions. Or hormones.

"Shit," his whispers match my own. "This will crush her."

"It'll crush her more if she saw your mark before you end things with her."

Julien was fully dressed now, but I longed to see and feel his body on top of mine again. "I know. I'll tell her tonight, after the party." I begin to protest but Julien lifts his hand to silence me. "If I do it before, it'll ruin your party and you know it. Shit," Julien put his head in his hands for a brief moment before looking back at me. "I didn't even say happy birthday to my own mate." I can't help but to smile at how cute he was being.

I rise up from the bed and try my best to do a sultry, seductive walk towards Julien, my mate. I'm not entirely sure if I succeeded since his lips curl up in a smile. He could easily be amused or embarrassed for me at my attempt. I lacked complete experience in turning on the charm for the opposite sex. His arms curl around my waist, bringing me closer to him. "We shouldn't let anyone know until you speak to Tasha. I couldn't stand it if she found out from gossip, before we say anything." I smile up at him and place a kiss on his lips. "I can't wait until the whole pack knows that you're mine," I say before placing another kiss on his shirted chest.

"Soon baby." Julien kisses the top of my head and I smile at the sweetness of it. "I gotta go take a shower before I see Natasha. And I definitely need to take care of this." He nods to his crotch and I can see the obvious evidence of him not being able to finish what we had started. However, the smile that was briefly shining bright dims with his reminder of what we just did.

Of course he would need to wash off my scent from his body. Unless he wanted to be cruel and let her find out that way, he needed to be squeaky clean when he broke her heart. They loved each other, and up until Julien and I found out we were mates, we had always been two people who were cordial because of the circle we were in. He was my brother's best friend and Beta, and my best friend's boyfriend.

The crushing guilt begins to eat at me. In Julien's eyes, we did nothing wrong, all because we were mates. Granted, we didn't finish. But, had it not been for Lincoln's untimely visit, we would have. And either way, girl code dictated that I committed a major foul. There was no such thing as she-wolf code, but as I rush to the shower in my ensuite bathroom, I wonder for a brief moment if I was in violation of that as well. Shouldn't it count for something that the mate bond practically dictated that Julien and I were in the right to behave as we did?

Ugh! What a mess.

After the quickest shower ever, I quickly moisturize and blow dry my choppy bobbed hair straight. The box that sat on my bed contained the dress that Natasha expected me to wear tonight. I could only pray that it wasn't anything too revealing. So consider me surprised when I opened the box to see a black silk chiffon dress with long sleeves. It had a high neckline that didn't show one iota of my cleavage. The hemline had an alternating triangle pattern. Not counting the floor length fringe, when I held it up against my body it fell about mid thigh. It wasn't as long as I would have hoped but it was a guarantee that it would still be longer than whatever Natasha choose for herself. The other box that was on my bed was a pair of black strappy sandals.

No sense in letting the sensible dress go to waste. However, as soon as the dress is on, I notice a snag in my plans. I hated makeup and any other time I was forced to wear it, Natasha always did it for me. I could always ask one of the other she-wolves to help me out, but something felt wrong to me about cheating on my makeup artist just because she was mad at me.

The vanity in my room held all sorts of stuff that Natasha had me purchase. The only two things that I recognize and were comfortable applying, are the mascara and lip gloss.

"Alright. I'm all set." I tell myself as I find an old clutch and add my phone, some money, and identification before heading out the door.

I assume my brother will be at his bedroom suite and head down the hall of the third floor of the pack house that was set aside for the family of the Alpha. He practically had a whole wing to himself, what with the way my room was positioned in the house.

I hardly have the chance to knock on his door when he brings it open in front of me. I take a moment to appraise how handsome Lincoln is and I honestly can't wait to meet his mate. I pray often to the goddess that I would be there to see the look of surprise and happiness on her face when she saw who the goddess paired her up with. He's never treated me less than a princess should be treated, and he was destined to treat his mate better than he did me.

I smiled at the thought. Julien was now destined to care for me the way I knew Lincoln would treat his mate.

"You look pretty, you ready?" Lincoln closes the door behind him and we walk side by side down the winding staircase. When we hit the first landing, I take a quick peek down the hallway, hoping to catch a glimpse of Julien since the second floor is where he and the other ranked wolves and enforcers live. "You're gonna have fun tonight Kairi," My brother's voice pulled me from my thoughts as we continue to head down the steps.

"Yeah, sure," I say, still dazed in my longing for my mate. "Hey, have you talked to Julien?"

"No he hasn't come to me yet. I told him over the mindlink that I would just see him at FANG. I can just pull him aside into my office and talk to him." Lincoln pauses when we reach the first floor and looks at me. It's a little weird to see him growing his facial hair out when normally he was adamant about shaving. However, the little bit of stubble on his face looked good on him. "Why?"

"No reason, I just wanted to know how to engage with Natasha. That is, if she even shows up." I'm not sure why I don't tell Linc that Julien is my mate. I try telling myself that it's because he doesn't need to know just yet. "Besides, now that I'm thinking about it, Julien has a good head on his shoulders. He's probably thought about it during his time away. You might not even need to talk to him." If I am honest with myself, I can definitely say I'm not sure why I don't want Lincoln to even know I spoke to Julien. I guess it's possible I want him to think the first time I see him will be in the club.

As much as I love Natasha, I wish Julien was never entangled with her to begin with. I was never jealous of their relationship until the moment the I saw him outside my bedroom earlier today. Now, all I can remember is Natasha telling me of her first time with him, and how every kiss made her feel. I hate that she touched him. I hate that he touched her. But at the same time, I'm not mad. It all happened before any of us knew any better. I'm sure if Tash knew that Julien would end up being my mate, she never would have gone for him.

If only the goddess blessed us with foresight.

As soon as Lincoln starts the Navigator, the both of us start singing Versace on the Floor by Bruno Mars since the album is currently on constant rotation in his car. It's not really a party song, but it is definitely one of my favorite songs from the album. Considering the song content, it's a little weird singing with my brother, but our harmonies compliment each other so well, that I overlook it. As soon as it's over though, I quickly switch to Perm, another favorite.

Other than Natasha, I can easily say that my brother is my best friend. Even when I was annoying him, I'm pretty confident that he would say the same thing about me. Though he never really cared for Natasha, but he would never say why. He just hated that I spent so much time with her growing up. Lincoln hardly voiced his opinion, but I could see the disdain for her etched in his face when she was around. I wondered if he hated even more that she was dating his best friend.

Julien was a senior in high school when Natasha and I entered our freshman year. Lincoln was already away at college, and even though he was two years older than Julien they were already best friends from the moment Julien could walk and talk since Julien's parents were the Beta pair of the pack. When our parents died, and Lincoln took over as alpha, Julien's parents, Victor and Victoria stepped down to allow Julien to step up as beta. Victor still helped out as an advisor of sorts for both Lincoln and Julien, in order to provide advice and guidance.

Lincoln parks in the parking space that's reserved for him in the employee lot and we hurry through the side entrance. Lincoln makes a pit stop to his office and then to check on his club manager before enjoying the night.

"Go on and head up to the VIP area, or you can just wait for me at the bar," Lincoln instructed. He's inserting his key in the door to his office, but he still hasn't taken his eyes off from me. "Or if you want to help out in here..." He lets his words trail off as he indicates to his office. I peek beyond the door and see that his office here at the club is just as immaculate as the one at the pack house. Knowing him, he didn't leave anything that was pressing that needed his attention tonight so I doubted there was anything for me to help out with. And even if there was, he knows good and well I wanted nothing to do with club business.

"I'll go upstairs." Lincoln nods and turns to enter his office. I'm almost at the end of the hallway when I hear Lincoln's voice call out to me, even over the thrum of the bass that's pouring through the speakers.

"Kai, have some fun while you're at it." I give him a smile, one that's true and genuine, and nod my head. It's my birthday party, of course I'll have fun.