He gave a chuckle with a flamboyant bow. 'Likewise, Roxy.'

Deciding she needed a drink to quench her thirst, she made a beeline for the refreshment table. A white-gloved waiter passed her a flute of punch and she chugged it down greedily before extending her empty glass for more, earning a disapproving raise of an eyebrow from the waiter.

'You try dancing non-stop for almost an hour.' Roxy raised a challenging eyebrow of her own as she drank her second drink. The waiter looked flustered and busied himself with serving another customer, leaving her to turn away with a giggle.

She continued to sip at the sweet liquid as she floated about the room. A sense of loneliness suddenly filled her as she looked at the people around her sitting at the numerous tables. It was obvious who had found their soulmates as couples leant close to each other, speaking with undivided attention and laughter that could be heard from the opposite side of the room. Some still danced on the dancefloor, their bodies pressed against one another as they swayed with looks of pure love on their faces despite the band being on a break. A smile filled Roxy's face as she watched them. That was what she'd dreamt of what it was like to find her soulmate. There wasn't any need for music. For as long as they had each other, they could dance right up into the clouds.

Their love was their music, for the rest of their lives together.

The stories of finding soulmates had been told to every werewolf child. While soulmates met in all different ways, the feelings they felt at the first detection towards one another was always the same. There would be the magnetic pull that would draw them to one another, the scent of them that making their heads spin and their skin would burn with the lightest brush of skin against skin.

The indescribable feeling of finding a piece to yourself that had always been missing.

A hopeless romantic, Roxy had been looking forward to this night for the past year, not that she would ever admit it to anyone. Almost every night she'd dreamt of what he'd look like, what his voice sounded like, what colour his wolf was, what region his pack was from and what he smelt like. Would she make the big move to join his pack or would he want to join hers? She couldn't wait to feel all those things, to be with the person especially created for her for the rest of her life, starting a family and raising children in the pack they'd choose to be a part of. A small part of her still held onto the fear that she wouldn't get a happily ever after, just like her poor mother.

Roxy's eyes slid away from the happy couples to focus on the people who'd faded into the background amongst the loved-up hype. They were sitting at tables alone, their sad eyes looking amongst the crowds with a sense of desperation. Their shoulders were slumped with what Roxy could only imagine to be defeat after living without their other half for so long. A wave of sympathy crashed through her while her breaking heart reached out for them, wishing she could take their pain away.

While she didn't know how painful it was to roam the earth craving someone she couldn't find personally, she'd seen her mother go through the exact same pain when her father had suddenly disappeared.

It'd been her older sister Cleo who'd raised her when the heartbreak of her father's disappearance had become too much for their mother. No one knew what happened. The night before his disappearance they'd gone to sleep as a happy family and the following morning the entire pack was out searching for him.

Murder. Kidnapping. They'd been the words which had been whispered around the pack. Roxy remembered her mum being locked away in her dark bedroom for most of the day in the months that followed. The only time she came out was to go roaming in her wolf form, searching high and low for the soulmate she'd lost.

While Cleo was going through the struggles of transitioning, she'd also had the task of keeping their household running by cooking, cleaning and teaching a curious Roxy about things their parents should've. Even more had been added to Cleo's overflowing plate when she'd become Luna of the pack after discovering she was soulmates with the then Alpha's son. Cleo was Roxy's inspiration. The kind-hearted but strong she-wolf she was today was all due to her older sister.