I MADE AESTHETICS FOR MY LOVES (my characters). Here's Arlis

Melloni's house was warm and filled with glowing lights that heated up the atmosphere in bright smiles. Behind us, the door opened up and Chance walked in.

"Seriously? I'm always getting left behind in this." He shook his head at us, secretly upset. He'd get over it.

Arlis smirked at me, power waving through the air and over me. For a moment I had forgotten where I was.

"Hey!" Jonah shouted, raising a mug up in the air. "Well if it isn't my favorite older brother! You look like shit."

Arlis looked around, made sure no one was watching him, and then flipped Jonah off. "I dealt with Konr—"

"No!" Someone slapped the top of Arlis's head and when I turned around, Iris was standing there, a rolled up magazine in her hand. I thought about the irony of how my mom used to punish our first dog. "Arlis we will not say the name, we will not mind-link the name, and we will not mention anything about any of the wars. Current one included." She growled lowly, glaring at Arlis. "And I will know if something is said." She pointed at him with a strict finger.

"Yes ma'am." He said and sunk his head low. "Will do."

"Lighten up Buttercup! It's Christmas!" Chleo said, grabbing Arlis's shoulders and shaking him.

He looked to Chance and then back to me. "Who's that?" He whispered.

Chance held his hand out. "Chance." He said. "Kate's older brother."

All the conversations in the room stopped as everyone's eyes focused on Chance.

"I thought your family died, Kate." Someone asked from the room. I couldn't figure out who though.

"They did." Arlis defended. "Her parents did. Her brother caught word of her being my mate and came over." Arlis said, lying far to easily to his own family and friends. "He's been look—"

"Arlis stop." I said.

He looked to me and frowned. "What? Do you not want to talk about it?" I was... upset that he lied so easily but also secretly impressed.

I didn't like lying no matter how useful it sometimes was. I cleared my throat, gaining everyone's attention. "I am not who I have been saying I am. I am a human, born and bred that way." My palms sweated as a few people gasped. Others took a step back. Other widened their eyes. Nobody wasn't shocked.

"That's impossible." Maddison, Leif's mate, came up to me. "You can't be a human and have a mate."

I shrugged. "Well... it happened. On January 1st when I turn 20, I'll be a full blood werewolf. Until then I'm a human. I hope you all can be acceptable of it."

Melloni sat a hand on my shoulder and nodded to me. "Luna Kate."

"By all means you're not a human." Leif chuckled. "I thought you guys already had this figured out but apparently not. You're an underage. You aren't anything right now, human included. Fate only puts two werewolves together. You will one day be a werewolf so... the moon knew what she was doing."

Arlis began laughing. "You mean—"

"Kate, nobody cares what you're born as. Human. Witch. Hunter. You are one of us now. And that's what matters." Melloni chuckled. "We may be part beast but... none of are monsters." Two little kids ran past Melloni and nearly knocked her over. "Except for kids. All kids are monsters. Point being! We love you Kate, Arlis loves you. That's what matters."

Leif raised his mug up. "To Luna Kate!"

The rest of the people in the house raised their mugs up in following. "To Luna Kate!"

I laughed and blushed into Arlis's shoulder who laughed at me. "Come on, mom is right, it's Christmas and it needs to be celebrated."

"Happy Lunamis!" I joked and Arlis rolled his eyes.

Iris pulled me to the side and wrapped her arms around me as Arlis went to say hello to some of his friends.

"You did good kid, you did good. That was brave. I'm proud." Iris wrapped her arms around me and smiled. "Take Of Arlis, will you?"

I tilted my head when we pulled back. "Where are you going?"

She scratched the back of her neck. "Nowhere for the moment. I just know that I won't be here for forever, and I want to travel. Plus now it's your job to control his temper tantrums." Iris scoffed and put her hand on the side of my face. "You're smart and beautiful."

"And once you learn to be a Luna, you'll be a good one." I looked over at the new voice and saw Alpha Snow standing there, in all her glory.

"I'll leave you girls too it." Iris kissed my temple as she walked away, moving to sit in the living room.

Her nails were painted white and her blonde hair was pulled up into a tight bun. She wore no makeup and yet she was still beautiful.

I realized Dalia had gotten around to inviting her and her sister over for Christmas. However, I didn't see anyone around beside Haley. Maybe her sister didn't come?

I rolled my eyes. "Arlis keeps saying he'll teach me but... there's a bunch of things going on."

"Oh! Yeah. With Becker and Konr—"

"I STILL CAN HEAR!" Iris yelled from the living room.

Alpha Snow winced and then smiled blankly at me. "I have a Christmas present for you!" She held up a finger and reached down into her bag, pulling out a binder that I didn't need to hold to know that it was heavy.

She held it up in front of me and smiled a huge white smile. I held out my hands and she plopped it into them. "There's werewolves." She reaches back down into the bag and brought up another one, about the same size. "Here's Mermaids, Fae, And Weepers."

"Fae!?" I shouted but she ignored it.

"Here's witches, Vampires, and necromancers." She slapped an even bigger one into my hands.

"Necro—"

"And here's Hunters." She slipped a tiny, thin, binder with a puppy dog on the front of it on top of the other binders. My arms started to hurt. "I had people print these out for me. HAVE FUN! And give this to Arlis, it's a list of questions and concerns from my pack." She put an orange Manila envelope on top of everything.

"Will do." I breathed out and put it all on the counter behind me. "Is that it?"

She tapped her chin and nodded. "Yup! My papers are signed, I'm officially an Alpha. And when I find my mate I'll marry up to be a Luna. Do you smell that? It's like... chicken."

Chance walked into the kitchen. "And who are you?" He smiled at her.

She made eye contact and stiffened. She opened the oven to find chicken cooking in it and sighed. "Chicken. I thought I found my mate for a second you know? Chicken is like... the best scent everrrr." She walked up to Chance and held her hand out. "I'm Haley, Alpha of the next pack over."

Chance smiled at her. "Mmm. I'm Chance. You don't happen to have a number do you?" Oh boy. Here we go.

She looked him up and down and scoffed. "No but I can flip you over and kick your ass. Wait for your mate, slobber boy." She put her hand on his chest and pushed him over.

She walked out of the kitchen and smiled when she saw Chleo. "Hey! Chleo!" She went and hugged Chleo, smiling and lighting up the whole room. I looked to my stack of papers and smiled. How could you hate her?

Chance groaned and looked up. "Oh great. Another term that I barely understand and yet already hate." He wandered his eyes around the room and walked further into the kitchen, digging through the fridge.

Dalia walked into the kitchen and grabbed my hand, dragging me to the living room where everyone sat on the floor or on the couch, laughing.

"We got things to do and places to go! But let's OPEN these presents!" Dalia laughed and went and sat on Travis's lap.

Travis smirked at her and then looked back to the tree. Dalia peeked behind him, making eye contact with Leif and then turning away. They both looked upset... something wrong had gone on between them.

"Kate this is yours." Arlis handed me a little box. "Dalia..." He tossed Dalia a box that was obviously shoes. "Mom. Dad." He bent his arms backwards and handed them something wrapped oddly.

He held a couple boxes of his own. "Lil bro'." He tossed Jonah a box that had kiss marks all over it. Wonder who that one was from?

It ended up taking ten minutes to pass presents around. Melloni ended up having the most (from the kids and parents), Haley Snow ended up having the least (with only one, from Chleo.) Technically Chance had the least because he didn't have any but I didn't count him in. I knew my parents got him a bunch of stuff.

"So, alphabetical order. I go first." Arlis smiled and then went to open a present— that wasn't from me because I didn't get him anything. But judging by one of the five in my pile, he did get me something.

Of course, he had like ten things in his stack. "From little sis... which one?" He laughed, looking up at Melloni and Dalia.

Melloni chuckled and raised her hand. "That's me."

Dalia shrugged. "I just put D, I was far to lazy to write out my name on everything."

Arlis smirked at her and tore open the wrapping, revealing a thing of black socks. "Yes!" Arlis looked up and groaned happily. "Socks! I really actually needed these."

"ME NEXT!" The kids yelled.

"NOPE! I ALREADY STARTED!" Jonah yelled and starting tearing at the box with kiss mark wrapping all over it. He did not seem like he wanted to be happy, but the smile onchis face gave him away. "Really? Mell Bell, dog toys!?"

Everyone erupted in laughter as Jonah held up a rope with a tennis ball on either side.

"Yup. But uh, crack open one of those Tennis Balls." She smiled.

Jonah rolled his eyes and walked to kitchen.

Kids started ripping into their presents. There was nothing spectacular, just toys and cute little stuffed animals.

After the kids went it was chaos. I ended up opening all mine saving Arlis's for last.

From Melloni was a small dog chew toy, seriously, this thing was made for a mini chihuahua, and flea soap. Of course, wrapped around the dog toy was a silver necklace with the letter K on it.

From Dalia was a pair of house slippers. Pink. Fluffy. Utterly adorable.

From Chleo was a pair of sunglasses that he also got for... everyone. Everyone now had a plain black pair of off brand sunglasses.

The fourth one was from Becker. And it wasn't exactly for me. It was for me and Arlis, the both of us. It was a HEAVY package that when shook sounded like metal and glass was inside of it. We looked at each other nervously and then tore the wrapping off. It was a plain brown shoe box with tape over it, keeping it shut. However, when we opened it, we saw hundreds of diamonds. It was a box full of money makers basically.

On the inside of the lid was a note in sloppy handwriting that said, "Here's to the first to marry, the deal we made all those years ago. xoxo- Becker."

Arlis began laughing loudly, shaking his head wildly. "Oh God, Becker. WHAT THE HELL." Everyone looked at the box and began laughing like they had never laughed.

I felt left out. "Wait, whats so funny? That's a lot of money in there in jewels and gold. Like thousands of dollars."

"Eighty."

"No, that's more than eighty thousand. There's diamonds. And a lot of them."

"Million, Kate. He meant eighty million." My mouth dropped the the floor as Melloni says this.

"Why are you all laughing! That's a lot of money, what the hell? That's not eighty million. How do you know? Where did Becker get this!? I have QUESTIONS." I looked at the shoe box like it was the key to the universe.

Arlis laughed. "It was a bet. That we made after Constance killed her husband. Becker said none of us would ever find love and... well I bet him eighty million dollars that one of us would. So the deal, was that whoever found love first got eighty million dollars."

Ummm okay. "Still don't see the joke. That can't be eighty million dollars."

"It is. There's four pounds of diamonds in here. Four. Pounds. I know because we weighed all of these." He smiled. "Becker collected and never spent any diamonds from the moment he inherited diamonds from his mom. People thought his mom was a Goddess and they sent her diamonds. From all over the world. Every time people payed Becker in diamonds for his services he kept them. I kept my diamonds from all my years. Connie stole her dads diamonds. And we put all of them in this box, robbed places for diamonds, put them in this box. Prices change and it might be more or less then eighty million now. But we averaged the prices." Arlis shook his head. "It's funny because money doesn't really... mean anything."

Chance coughs. "I'll take it!"

Arlis shook his head. "No my diamonds." He hugged the box. He narrowed his eyes at Chance. "Does anyone want a— A— diamond."

"Nah, I'm good." Jonah walked in and smiled. "Because I have a... Rolex." He grinned as he tossed a slobbery, chewed up Tennis ball into Melloni's lap.

"JONAH!"

"You bought it, love." She sat down next to her and kissed her cheek. "I got a Rolex." He mused again.

"I got eighty million dollars in diamonds so Ha!" Arlis shit the box and pushed it away from him, using it as a footrest.

I shook my head and looked at my last present. The one from him. I swallowed deeply and then unwrapped it.

I smiled as a picture frame shimmered. The picture Iris took all that time ago of us laughing on the ground.

The frame was black and white. Arlis grabbed it and turned it around and I— I froze. I froze because of four simple. Words. That meant probably nothing to him but... everything... to me.

I looked up, everyone was quiet. Like I was once again the only one who didn't know anything. And yet... I knew everything.

"Arlis?" I met his eyes, followed his hands down to a black box with a silver band in it. A single row of rubies ran across the top, one... diamond that now meant nothing... sat in the middle of the row.

"Kate?" He asked, smirking, but also worried.

I nodded and jumped into his arms. The picture with the words, "will you marry me?" still in my hand.

He took a deep breath and squeezed me in his chest. He pushed me back lightly, crying. "I guess it's a human thing to get married, right?"

I looked back to Iris. "I'm guessing... you had a part in this?" I questioned.

She shook her head. "Honest to the moon, he planned everything sweetheart."

I started laughing and when I looked back, he was in tears. "It's not funny, Kate. This was hard. I had to google what to do because we don't marry people here. And google is... I barely know what it is if we're being honest. I just knew I loved you and you don't understand mates that well. But you do understand marriage and I don't so here's your revenge... I love you and I just want you to be happy. For now, for always. It's fast, I guess, apparently. I don't know. Please just say yes."

I smiled at him. "Yeah, I'll marry you. Set the date." I said and he slipped the ring on my finger.

"How's that for bending tradition?" He asked and we laughed through his tears.

We stood up and everyone applauded.

"Okay, presents are opened, people are happy. Kate, are you ready to go get your parents?" He asked. "Lilly, are you still coming?"

She looked up, crying, from a locket that held her mom on one side and her dad on the other. "Thank you, Arlis."

Arlis took a deep breath. "You have people here for you. And you still have them."

When did he have time to do that? When did he have time to get any of these presents? Everything is so... thought over.

"I think I'll stay here with my brother." She looked over at her younger brother who was looking at Lilly's locket with curiosity.

Arlis nodded solemnly at her. "Alright. Have someone mind link me if you need me Alright? I'll turn around and come straight back."

She nodded and everyone in the room watched Arlis with respectful views and kind eyes.

He grabbed my hand as he waved goodbye to everyone. "Bye guys! See you all tomorrow!" He waved goodbye gladly, taking a deep breath.

He wrapped an arm around me and we waved goodbye.

"Wait! Where the hell do you think your going?" Chance stopped us at the door. "It's Christmas."

I gave him a deadpanned look. Couldn't he go back home? I love him but I really don't like him.

"Parents. Mom. Dad. Pretending things are normal." Did this... did none of this go through his... head? "You're supposed to be the smart sibling."

Chance narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm sorry. I forgot. I'm sort of dealing with my own issues. You know, Werewolves are real. I'm one. My sister is apparently an asshole. This is all news to me." He blinked his eyelashes quickly and tilted his head.

I wanted to attack him. "I'm just saying that you knew this."

He yawned. "And I'm just saying that I forgot amongst the drama. Excuse me. Go get mom and dad, be sure to tattle on me!" He shook his head at me.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Maybe I will, Poop stain!"

"Okay fart head!" He yelled back, sticking his own tongue out.

I groaned and walked out the door, leaving a laughing Arlis following me.

"Poop stain?" He laughed, opening up my door.

I flipped him off and sat down, shaking my head but smiling. As much as I hated my brother, I hated to admit that I missed him even more.

Arlis sat down in the driver's seat and smiled over at me. "So. Husband. Wife. Mates. Any other step we have to take?" He smirked.

I tilted my head. "I can think of one."

"Just one?"

"Just one." I said, and then he stepped on the gas to go pick up my parents. A terrible decision, really.