07 Daughter of Fury

Paraded

Since the alpha had directed me to go back to the shack, the wolves grudgingly parted to allow a path for me to walk through but there was a lingering tenseness in the way they sat at the ready. Prepared to run me down if I jerked a little too fast.

My mother stood in the doorway of the shack. Waiting. And once I was within reach, she caught my scruff and pulled me backward until I was in the shack. She quickly closed the door. Separating them and me as if she intended to lock out evil, itself.

She rounded to slam her back to the door to demand. “What have you done, girl?”

I relaxed my body. Defeatedly letting me joints adjust and my shoulders pull apart as my figure changed back to that of a woman.

She was staring at me impatiently.

“I…” I hung my head because I couldn’t think of any good excuse for my impulsiveness. I had literally just felt as if I could no longer stand what I was feeling. I didn’t know how to describe it anymore than to say I was a ‘fool.’

“Everyone had nearly forgotten about you, and now you choose to emerge?”

I stared that the floor.

“We don’t have time for excuses now, anyway.” She dismissed. Shaking her head sorrowfully.

“Could we leave the pack?”

I could come back and find boy when it’s safe. I thought.

“That’s not an option now. They’re all out there, and they know about you. No one would let us leave, even if that was the best idea at the moment.” Frustration embittered her voice.

“I’m sorry…” I said weakly.

What have I done?

“What have you done to yourself?” Mother murmured, as if picking up on my thoughts. She stirred through a trunk in the corner until finding a dress that might fit me.

She looked from the dress, to me, and back. “It’s long enough but I’m afraid it will be rather tight in the chest.”

I looked down and noted that I had substantially more bust than she did.

“Fortunately, you’re only a little taller though. We should be able to make it work.”

It was a warm peach shade, a color unlike any dresses we had worn before. It had laces crisscrossing down the front and a slight ruffle at the bottom that made it sway when it moved.

I gaped at it, touching the hem in awe. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “Where did it come from?”

“Your father traded it from the humans. They make beautiful things.”

“Beautiful…” I echoed in wonder.

She gathered a washbasin from over the fireplace and a rag. Helping me wash myself from my run.

“Lift your arms, darling.” She directed.

I complied.

She helped pull the dress over my head. Settling it over my hips and around my legs.

I dropped my arms and she stepped forward to begin tugging the laces along the front. Closing the dress over my body. But when she reached my chest there was little she could do. The white lining beneath the pieces of peach cloth was stretched over their fullness and the laces refused to pull them together no matter how either one of us adjusted my breasts.

“There’s nothing for it!” She finally threw her hands up in frustration.

“Oh, no...” I bemoaned as I stared down at the rise of my breasts and the gaping cleavage pushed above the fabric. “What do I do?”

My hands fluttered around me in a helpless gesture as I gave her a pleading look.

“Nothing more we can do.” She gave me an empathetic look. “I thought we had more time.”

“I know!”

“You did this to yourself, you know?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Your wolf drives you, my girl.” She sighed. Her anger melting away. “Sometimes there’s nothing you can say. It just is what it is. She is who she is.”

“She?”

“Your wolf. She’s not exactly you, but she is a part of you.”  

Mama caught my curling blonde hair and pulled it from the neckline of the dress. Setting it to hang down the back of the dress where it could brush along the back of my thighs.

She drew a steadying breath as she inspected me from head to toe. Something akin to pride filled her blue eyes. But those suddenly filled with tears. An apology was written through them. “I’ve done all I could to keep you safe, sweetheart.”

“I know. This is my fault.”

“The time was always going to come, my daughter.”

I nodded, chewing my lip.

“Just remember the things I’ve taught you. And above all, use your head. These wolves are not like you. They’re crueler, harder. They’ve had to be, to fit into the strongest pack in all of Ferus. And please, baby girl, remember their kindness. Even through the ugliness and fear, they have protected us from rogues, from the plague, and kept us fed.”

“I will, Mama.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What do I do? What will they do to me?”

“You have to pick a mate. Choose one before the first Mating Moon so you have one to protect you against the others by the time the pink moon rises.”

“But-”

“Baby, you don’t have a choice.” She cut me off. She whispered. “Listen to me pick one male as a mate. Or many will take you.”

“Take me?”

“Deva! Listen to me.” She caught my arm. “Be sure to pick one…Before it’s too late.”

“I know what one I want.”

“Who?” She asked incredulously. Stunned to hear me say it. “How could you know that? You’ve been outside two minutes.”

She gestured to the door in confusion.

“There was a boy...When I couldn’t see.”

“A boy?” She rushed over to catch my arms. “What boy? You never told me of a boy!”

“He played in the hollow with me. He was my eyes, and my feet, and my nose.”

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know.” I stared at her a long while. My fists working in the white linen dress. “I never saw him, Mama.”

“What did he sound like?” She asked urgently. Willing to do anything to me identify him now.

“I don’t know.” I gestured to my ears. Reminding her that they’d barely worked then.

She looked forlorn.

“His voice…It was notes that I couldn’t-couldn’t…” I floundered trying to explain.

“You couldn’t understand his pitch.” She straightened in shock. Her voice deadened. “You have a fortnight, Deva. If that, to pick a mate.”

“I only want him.”

“Deva...” She said slowly. “You’re going to have to catch onto to pack life very quickly.”

I didn’t know what she meant then, but we had ran out of time for explanations.

“Deva!” The Alpha hollered. “Emerge.”

***

I swallowed and put my hand on the door handle. Petrified of what I was going to face out there. I opened the door and immediately had to shield my eyes with an arm. Finding it blinding after the comforting darkness inside.

It was weird stepping out that door and knowing that I now belonged to the pack. Years ago that would’ve sounded like a dream. Now I was afraid.

The moment my eyes adjusted I was intimidated by the number of eyes roving over me. Caressing me from head to toe like hands.

The alpha stepped forward to offer me his arm.

I stared at it a long moment before hesitantly setting my hand on it. It was weird to touch another being aside from my mother or the boy.

Madrik had been our alpha for too long to be the child I knew.

I blew a long breath, trying to will the tension from my shoulders. I met his eyes and he lowered his head in greeting.

He led me from the doorway.

I chewed my cheek.

“Don’t let them see your nervous.” He whispered under his breath. “Chin up. Head high.”

I swallowed. Trying to ignore all the eyes as they separated to let me through.

I watched the alpha next to him, trying to match his air so no one would know how awkward I felt.

Though he was a far more imposing creature. Despite that he wasn’t overly tall, his broad shoulders and barrel chest gave him a mean build that was well-suited to the muscle he carried.

I glanced at the others, noticing how they averted their eyes as we drew near them. Ensuring they didn’t challenge the alpha. Though several gazes lingered on my cleavage.

My face heated and I wished that I’d tried harder to get the strings on the bodice tighter. I could feel the breeze brushing along that hollow and chilling my upper chest. I felt naked, but unlike the comforting nudity of having just changed from my wolf. Oddly, I felt more exposed now.

I was accustomed to heavier hide dresses. The sort I’d worn all through my childhood.

The wolves at our backs crowded in tighter. Their chests bumping against my arms and back as they moved to sniff me. Accepting me into their fold by sight and scent. Some blatantly stuck their noses into my hair to take in the smell of my scalp, closest to my skin.

I jerked my head away and spun to glare at them. But there were so many that I hardly saw their faces. As I scanned them all with a warning look.

“Look ahead.” Madrik directed as if sensing my discomfort. “Let them accept you. We’re almost to camp center.”

I looked ahead and saw we were only a few steps away now. Far from the shack already.

I stared across the space with the stage in the center. I met the dark eyed gaze of a man peering around a building to see me. He walked parallel to us and peeked around another one. Watching me. He lingered in the shadows as he kept me in view.

I watched him uneasily. Disliking how he crept around but I was distracted when a door near me was thrown open.

Only then did I notice that huts along the way were opening and people who hadn’t met us in the meadow were emerging to join our procession.

Mostly females and pups. I noticed.

Despite the alpha’s suggestion, I found myself glancing over my shoulder to see if they were I still there.

The only ones directly behind me now were the two alpha successors.

The larger one walked just to my right, flanking me. He stared ahead as if he’d rather look at any wolf than me. He wore a severe expression with a hardened jaw and sort of perpetual anger burning in his eyes.

Like it lives there. I thought.

When his eyes flicked to me, I noticed from this close a distance, that they weren’t as dark as they had appeared from a distance. They were actually a deep blue but with a large pupil and beneath a sweep of dark lashes and slashing black brows, they seemed much darker.

I didn’t know if this was Ajax or Jamie because I had never actually seen them before.

Over my left shoulder I saw the other one.

He was keeping a careful eye on me. He walked so closely behind me that I felt the brush of his long legs against the back of mine and his hip bumping into mine.

One further behind slid up close enough to give my hair another whiff. Bumping his groin into me in the process. I sent that one a withering look and an inhuman growl crept from my throat. Warning him to stay back.

That sound had the alpha’s skinnier son lifting his brows in interest.

The taller one’s blue eyes skid sideways to give me a disapproving glance.

Wolves were spanning out to encircle that stage expectantly.

There’s so many of them. I was surprised. I had guessed that the pack was much smaller.

I had spent so much time avoiding the other pups when I was young that I had no clue how many there really were. 

“Where are we going?” I asked the alpha as he led me.

“To present you to the camp.”

“Why?”

“So, they will have a chance to make their intentions toward you, known.”