The Rise of the Phoenix

Talk of the town

Chapter 2

So, in Elysium, your 18th birthday can be a very big day for men and women alike. It is the day most shifters discover their other half and shift for the first time. Other than Lycans, they do appear on the person’s 18th birthday, but lycans don’t shift until they are between the ages of 19- 21. I'm not sure why it is just the way it is.

The main thing that is the same no matter the species, is 18 is the age when you can first sense your mate, now not everyone meets their mates on their 18th birthday it is about half and half I would say. There are those very lucky ones who have mates in their packs, so know who they are straight away, but for the other ones, they had to wait for their mate to come of age to sense them. So I suppose if we think on those terms it would actually be more 70/30 split at least for the men anyway as they do tend to be older than their mates, except for in the case of same sex couples, then it’s just your luck that your mate has already reached 18.

I don’t really care too much about meeting my mate yet, I know I most likely won’t shift on my birthday, and there may be some who think that means I won’t and will reject me outright without delving deeper to find the truth. If I am being honest here, then I have to say I would happily accept their rejection as they wouldn’t deserve me anyway if they were so quick to judge others.

This past year I have just thrown myself into my training, having Ember coming to me earlier has definitely given me even more of an edge and my training and fighting skills have improved immensely, much to the disappointment of Chris. I know he is proud of me, but he secretly hates the fact that his little sister can kick his a.ss now. He had always seen it as a point of pride that he was the second strongest warrior in our generation.

Oh well, he can get his place back when I eventually move, as Calista was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to be living out my life here. So unless my mate is a complete a.ss who rejects me or I reject him, I don’t think I will be finding him any time soon.

Along with all of my warrior training mum and Queen Genevieve had me doing Queen and Beta female training along with intensive learning about all of the other species and their kingdoms, because you never know mixed matings are becoming more common.

It wasn’t exactly what I would have called fun, but if what Calista had said was true, then I suppose I had to be prepared for anything. I guess I can not attack my way through a dinner party or fight against a seating plan.

Katya on the other hand can not wait to meet her mate, yeah like me she is serious about her training and being a warrior, but she has always wanted that great love that we saw our parents and the king and queen had growing up.

She is really a soppy romantic at heart, even if she puts up with no sh.it and could take someone down in minutes with either her sharp tongue or fists, depending on how much they pi.ssed her off, decides which one she will use.

I begged my parents not to have a big celebration for my 18th birthday, finally they relented and we had a small gathering of just the ranked members and their families. Sirius has now been crowned, and our brothers have taken on their roles as his Beta and Gamma, but they all still made sure to make time to celebrate with me.

Mum and dad finally realised that with the unlikely hood of me completing my first shift, it would be better if it was just those who were closest to us. Along with the fact that most of our age mates were horny men or thirsty bi.tches who only cared about banging and capturing a ranked male, there was no point in the party anyway.

So my birthday was pretty uneventful, we ate, we drank, probably a bit too much, then the guys disappeared, most likely to get themselves some a.ss for the night. Katya and I drank more and did some girl sh.it and had a sleepover. We maybe should not have drank so much and tried to do some beauty treatments as we both woke up with face masks still on and our hair still caked in the deep conditioning treatment.

I think we both flinched and yelped as soon as we saw the other, and bl.oody Katya was a bit more awake than me and dashed for the bathroom first. I just hope that she is quick so I can get this cr.ap off of me. After I finally managed to shower my hair is like silk and I am grateful that having that green gunk on my face all night hasn’t caused any skin problems, I am actually glowing and Katya looks great too.

As far as I am concerned, it was the perfect birthday. Even if the first half an hour of the morning, I was more than a bit queasy. At least we didn’t have to put up with any low key bi.tches making any snide remarks under their breaths about me and my bestie while they tried to sl.ut themselves out to our brothers.

I mean on the whole no one makes up any sh.it about us anymore, they are too worried that we will beat the sh.it out of them, or even worse Sirius and our brothers will give them sh.it and not talk to them again and heaven forbid they won’t get the chance to get them between their legs.

Unfortunately that was just not quite enough for the gossip mongers to start up within a week of my birthday about the lack of seeing my dragon flying around. I mean we couldn’t exactly shout out loud that she was special, and that’s why she hasn’t appeared yet. I would be just as well painting a massive target on my a.ss and being done with it.

Unfortunately, in our world, being stronger than others or special in any way makes you a target to either be wooed or kidnapped, and I am not exactly thrilled about either option. I am not really bothered about meeting my mate yet, but I have no intention of being with anyone other than him. It’s not like I am in a rush to get my kicks like some women. My hand and vibrator will do me nicely until I meet the one meant for me.

So now I am basically the talk of the town, as everyone whispers behind our backs about the strong prized Beta’s daughter who is dragonless. They won’t dare say it out loud in front of any of the royal ranked members, no, but it doesn’t stop the rumours from spreading none the less.

They are just very sneaky about it, even the Lords and ladies of the kingdom they are wary to talk in front of anyone in case word gets to the royals, as all the royal ranked members are above the Lords and their second in command, so no one want to pi.ss off the my father or mother, and they know how close we are to King Augustus and Queen Genevieve. They may no longer be in charge, but they still have plenty of sway, and they know how protective my brother is and how the current King Sirius thinks of me as a sister.

For the first time in 2 years, I am yet again being spoken about and having rumours spread about me, as people give me sympathetic or disgusted looks as I pass by. Quickly rearranging their features as soon as they think I am looking at them. Not realising that I have already seen the look on their faces, so it is pointless to change it now.

Am I bothered about it? The answer is not so simple. On the one hand, I couldn’t give less of a fu.ck about what these judgemental idiots say about me. On the other hand, it is not just me they are judging, they are also judging my parents and what they must have done wrong to be given a dragonless daughter.

The thing is though, if they even took just a small amount of time to questions things instead of joining in to make sure the rumours are spread further, they would realise that with the strength that I possess there is no way that I don’t have my dragon or whatever Ember actually is.

It doesn’t seem to matter to them at all that King Sirius, and my brother have both said that I have my counterpart, and that my parents and all the previous ranked members have also confirmed it. People will believe what they like, and until they see me shifted, they will just continue to make up even more bizarre sh.it as the days go on.

I have made the jealous bi.tches that I went to school with year, they finally have something they feel is a fact to bring me down, and a very captive audience to listen to their utter bullsh.it. I suppose if they are talking about me, some other poor git is being left alone.