The Blink Of An Eye.

Ariel kept on running despite all the yellings of her name from Cole who chased after her but she didn't stop. She had to get to the mating ceremony before it began so she would convince Carter to not reject Avril.

She ran and got into the flower garden through a back door she saw that wasn't guarded. She put on the hood of the sweatshirt and sneaked quietly into the flower garden where she found an empty seat and attached herself to it carefully without attracting unwanted attention to herself.

The mating ceremony has begun already and no one was meant to walk about, in order to not cause distractions.

"Shit" She cursed under her breath, watching Carter standing beside the elderly man that would perform the mating ceremony. If only Cole had let her go since, then she would have met with Carter in time before the ceremony began.

Cole entered into the flower garden through the same backdoor Ariel passed through and stopped, his eyes rolling over the whole place, in search of Ariel. He couldn't catch her scent too, caused by his clothes he gave her to wear.

"Ooh, this is so screwed up" He facepalmed, and went over to an empty seat and fixed his butt on it.

"Now it is time to welcome our soon to be Luna, Avril. Please put your hands together as she comes in" Ariel heard the elderly male announce, and everyone started cheering and clapping their hands in which she joined them in doing so before the others she sat beside would stare at her questionly or ask her why she wasn't clapping her hands.

"Wow" Ariel wowed Avril admirably, her jaws dropped open out of surprise and astonishment washed over her face. Avril looked really pretty in that dress, she looked so beautiful and fabulous.

Everyone kept on clapping as Avril walked on top of the white carpet spread on the bare ground of the flower garden. She walked and stopped right in front of the elderly male and turned to face Carter and that was when Ariel's heart started pounding heavily. 

The ceremony has officially begun.

The cheers and claps died down and everyone watched the two beautiful couples that were about to be fully mated happily, but it wasn't the same for Ariel who watched the both of them with keen eyes and saw how Avril was smiling at Carter but he wasn't doing the same.

Ariel could see the sadness written all over his face and saw him smile only when Avril touched his hand and intertwined her fingers with his.

"You don't look happy" A tiny sweet voice said to Ariel and she turned to her right to find out who, only for her to see a cute little girl smiling at her and she returned the smile with a bigger one.

"I am happy little one, see!" Ariel smiled brightly, using her hands to part her lips wide open to show the little girl she was happy indeed and the little girl giggled. 

"You are so funny" the little girl giggled cheekily and Ariel chuckled. The little girl amused her a lot.

"What's your name, little one?".

"I am Elena" The little girl responded and then she asked Ariel, "What is your own name?" Her sweet little voice asked and Ariel smiled again.

"I am Ariel" 

"Like the mermaid?".

Ariel laughed at the little girl's silly statement, the little girl was kind of funny and entertained her with questions making her forget totally about the mating ceremony she came for.

"You could say that, but I'm not a mermaid. I am a werewolf with a tail just like you and it's definitely not like the mermaids" Ariel said to the little girl and she touched her butt as if trying to find something, so Ariel asked her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to show you my tail" 

Ariel's brows furrowed questionly as she stared at the little girl she found amusing just about two seconds ago and now she was acting weirdly. Why was she trying to show her tail when she didn't ask her to?.

"Why would you want to show me your tail?" Ariel questioned the little girl who was touching her butt and trying to force her tail out.

"Because my own tail looks just like Ariel the mermaid's tail" Ariel shot the little girl who wasn't looking at her a deadpan look, the little girl was funny by trying to show her, her so called mermaid tail.

Well she was a little pup and that was how they always behaved, childishly. The little girl was still trying to bring out her mermaid tail so she could actually show it to Ariel and prove to her she wasn't lying when she said her tail looked like Ariel's.

"Okay" Ariel waited patiently for the little girl to bring out her mermaid tail just like she said and she laughed when she saw the funny faces the little girl was making as she tried forcing her tail out.  

Ariel adjusted a bit in her seat to feel more comfortable while waiting for the little girl when she felt sudden strange movements in her body. It was Dawn, her wolf. It was trying to connect with her and Ariel answered.

"Well, look who decided to pay me a visit" Ariel said to Dawn with sarcasm and scoffed. After all the silent treatment Dawn gave her when the insane looking guy Liam tried killing her. 

She finally decided to show up today.

"I just came to play my part in Carter's mating ceremony tonight and you are very lucky I decided to talk to you, Ariel, even though you haven't apologized to me" Dawn uttered and Ariel let out a muffled but sarcastic laugh at her statement.

"As you can see I'm kind of busy right now Dawn, and I made a new friend so I'm cutting you off now, bye bye" And like that, she disconnected from Dawn which got  Dawn pissed off, so she tried taking control but Ariel wouldn't let her.

"Why are you so stubborn, Dawn?" Ariel asked, observing Dawn was kind of vexed up, caused by the way she was trying to take control over her. 

"You made me that way Ariel!" Dawn growled angrily as Ariel felt a sharp flash of pain across her heart. Dawn was the cause of it, she was hurting and Ariel could feel it.

"See, I told you!" The little girl screamed happily and Ariel covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming further because some males and females in front and behind them stared at them, caused by the scream of the little girl.

"Okay, Elena I will talk to you later after the ceremony is over so let's be quiet for now, okay?" Ariel grinned and let go of the little girl's mouth as she nodded her head in agreement with Ariel but a scowl was visible on her face.

She finally brought her tail out after so many failed attempts of bringing it out to show Ariel, but Ariel didn't even look at it.

Ariel exhaled slowly, wondering where the little girl's parents were, to leave her all alone in a seat. 

"You said you wanted revenge Ariel, this is the right time for it. Carter can't have Avril as his mate when we are supposed to be the ones" Ariel heard Dawn say to her and she felt kind of guilty at that specific moment.

Dawn was hurting all this time and kept the hurt all to herself. She didn't want Ariel to feel anything and Ariel completely ignored her, she thought Dawn had finally forgotten about Carter and moved on like she did, but Dawn's case was different from hers.

Dawn only needed a mate, that's what she needed only but Ariel needed someone to love her for real. And now she has to choose between herself and her wolf.

"I'm really sorry Dawn but Carter isn't the right one for us. And we can't do anything about it. The ceremony has begun already and the blood covenant is about to happen" Ariel pointed to the elderly male about to slice Avril's palm open.

"Not if we stop it"

"We, what do you mean by we, Dawn?"

"Carter will pay for hurting us" Those were the last words Ariel heard from Dawn before she lost guard and Dawn finally took over.

Cracking of bone sounds reverberated loudly in the flower garden as a loud roar followed and just as the elderly male took Carter's hand and sliced it a little bit open and his bloods were about to fall into the bowl.

An angry white wolf ran with intense speed towards them and pushed the table hard, causing the bowl to fall to the ground as the blood inside of it spilled on the ground in the process.

And before the blink of an eye, Dawn attacked Carter.