Wolven Rising: Untold Stories

GR-16: The Gala

Alana

"That one looks perfect on you," I said, as Kendria spun around in an emerald green gown. Harlie had decided that the three of us needed to go shopping so they could get dresses for the Gathering's closing gala, since they didn't bring enough formal clothes. I quickly learned that it wasn't so much that, but because Harlie could find almost any excuse to go shopping. Kendria truly did need a new gown, though, so that's what we were focusing on picking out.

"Really? I do like this one," Kendria said with a smile.

Harlie circled Kendria, a slight frown on her face. "Are you sure? Maybe we should look for one with a little more—"

"No!" Kendria interrupted loudly. "Alana's right, this one is perfect." She hopped down from the little pedestal she'd been standing on in front of the trio of mirrors in the changing area. "Can we go now?"

"No, we need shoes, too," Harlie said, already walking over to the display. Kendria groaned.

I also quickly learned the fact that Kendria hated shopping with a fiery passion.

Finally, we found shoes for Kendria, and Harlie picked out a new necklace to go with the dress she had brought with her. I, too, already had my dress for the evening, as well as my accessories, but as we approached the checkout counter, a flash of brilliant blue caught my eye. It was a pair of earrings, shimmery, iridescent, and somehow precisely the shade of Shasta's eyes. I paused, reaching out to touch one of the smooth glass beads.

Harlie looked back from the counter, then, seeing what had grabbed my attention, gave me a knowing smile. "Bring those up here, Alana," she said, beckoning me.

"Oh, it's alright," I said quickly.

Harlie marched over, picked the earrings off the display, and took them back to the counter. "These, too," she said to the cashier. "Put them in a separate bag, please."

"Wait, I can pay—"

"Alana, let us do this for you," Harlie said. "We want to. Don't we, Kendria?"

Kendria nodded. "It's the least we could do, after dragging you with us."

"Oh, it was fun!" I said. I meant it, too. I had never gone shopping with just 'the girls' before. I'd always go with my mom, or maybe sometimes my brother and Rowan. This was definitely not the same.

We drove back to Harvest Moon and parted ways, Harlie and Kendria to the guest floor with bulky bags containing Kendria's outfit for tomorrow, me to my own room, carrying my own little bag with my gift and token of the day inside. I knew without a doubt that, whether anything happened between Shasta and me or not, I would cherish the earrings for the rest of my life anyway.

---

Shasta

Everyone in my delegation was flying high right now. We were becoming a real pack. A real pack, after all these years. The Council of Elders shared their decision earlier this afternoon, and everyone had been in a celebratory mood ever since.

Except for me. Right now, I was feeling really something else entirely. The Moon Goddess must have put Alana on this Earth to torture me. That was it. She was seated right next to me at the round table, wearing a dress with a riotous botanical pattern in sage, blue, and gold, her copper hair curled and her eyes sparkling with laughter at a joke her brother had just told.

We hadn't spoken since my altercation with Fletcher the other day. I knew I'd lost my chance at even friendship with her, after completely losing it and punching an—innocent enough—person in the face right in front of her. I don't know if she'd actively avoided me or not, but either way, this was the first time I'd seen her since then. f**k me.

"As much as I'd like to accept your praise, it's Alana who did all this," Rowan was saying to Kendria with a wave of his hand. My brain, somehow by this point well-tuned to pick up any mention of the name 'Alana,' snapped to attention. "All I did was put her in charge."

Kendria, two seats to my left, smiled at Alana. "It looks wonderful, Alana. So did the banquet. I was in awe!"

I turned my head, finally having the excuse of the conversational topic to look at the one person I really wanted to look at. "Thanks!" Alana said, a faint pink tinging her cheeks as she accepted Kendria's praise. "I've always enjoyed doing projects that involve design and decor."

"You're truly gifted," Kendria said sincerely.

Conversation quickly moved on after that, and I went back to being glum and sneaking covert glances at Alana, who was studiously not looking back at me. Finally, the dessert course rolled around, by which time I was counting the minutes until I could leave this gala and go wallow alone in my room.

Suddenly, I overheard Rowan and Kendria starting to whisper dirty things to each other right next to me. "Before you two start going at it, you should remember you're in a crowded room," I muttered, feeling even more discouraged being seated at a table with multiple other happy couples.

"And you've never been overly flirtatious in public?" Kendria shot back, her cheeks red with embarrassment.

Shit. "Touché," I laughed a little too loud. Harlie must have kept quiet about what happened with Fletcher, then. Knowing her, she made sure he kept his mouth shut, too. He was also ignoring me from across the table, but I was glad about that, unlike the same treatment I seemed to be getting from Alana. When I glanced at her again, her expression was carefully neutral. Almost as if she didn't care whether or not I was flirtatious in public. Was she really done with me, then? The thought made me feel a slight twinge of panic.

Before long, the music started, and couples started making their way to the dance floor. Maybe now I could make my exit unnoticed.

"Do you want to dance?" Came the last, sweet voice I expected to hear.

I looked over at Alana, who was looking at me expectantly. "Me?" I asked, unable to believe she was finally talking to me, let alone asking me to dance.

"Yes, you," she said, smiling. I felt the heat of anxious embarrassment creeping up my neck and ears.

"Uh...sure. But I don't really know how," I blurted out. I never learned to dance properly. One of the many things that my parents didn't have time to teach me before they died.

"That's alright. I can teach you," she said kindly, tilting her head to the side and extending her hand. Her earrings, which were large flat blue glass beads, caught the light and seemed to change colors as they swayed.

I glanced around. Rowan and Kendria were off in their own world, and Mason and Harlie were practically glued together on the dance floor. "Okay," I said, rising and allowing Alana to lead me to the dance floor, her hand warm and comforting in mine.

I had no idea how I was going to get through this. Forget trying not to humiliate myself, I couldn't see how I could spend any amount of time in close proximity to her, touching her, holding her, and not do something stupid about it.

Alana turned to face me, the skirts of her dress swishing around. "So, the song is a waltz, so the steps are in counts of three."

"Counts of three," I repeated. She looked so exquisitely beautiful under the twinkling lights. "Got it."

"You start by stepping forward with your left foot," she said, waiting until I followed her direction. "Then you step your right foot up and out, parallel to your left foot. Step your left foot together with your right foot, then step back with your right, back with the left, and step together again. It's like a box, see?"

"I—guess," I said, stumbling a little as I tried to copy the steps.

"For the hold," Alana said, clearing her throat. "You'll put your right hand on my back, sort of by my shoulder blade." I reached tentatively forward, then settled my fingers on her back, startled to feel her skin due to the open back of her dress. She rested her left hand on my bicep, and extended her right. "Now take my hand," she encouraged softly. I complied, loving that her small hands seemed to fit so perfectly into mine. "And now, we do the steps."

She stepped back and I tripped, immediately stepping on her toes. "Oh, f**k. Sorry!" I said hastily as she winced.

"It's okay," she said, lifting the injured foot and rotating it a few times. "It didn't hurt much."

"You don't have to do this," I said, even though I didn't for one second want to let go of her.

"It's okay," she said with a comforting smile. "I want to. But maybe let's try it at half time?"

"If you're sure..." when she nodded, we started again, this time much slower, with my eyes glued to my feet to make sure I didn't step on her again.

"You know, it actually works better if you look up," she said after we'd stepped in a somewhat clunky box formation a few times.

I did look up, only to find that I couldn't look away. The world melted away as I looked into her eyes, which seemed to change from blue to gray to green and back again as we moved. If only I could figure out what she was thinking behind those eyes.

"You're doing it," she said softly, the corners of her lips turning up. I looked down and realized we were waltzing along with the other couples now, blending right in. Wow.

You're welcome, Hunter said smugly.

Shut it.

"I had a good teacher," I said as we continued dancing. Her expression grew shy, and I drew her ever so minutely closer. "Listen," I started, wanting to clear the air. "I'm really sorry for the other day. I misread the situation, and I blew things out of proportion."

"It's okay," she said with a small sigh. "I mean, it was quite a shock at the time, but I've had time to process, and I know you only did it to protect me."

"Still, it was out of line," I insisted.

"Shasta," she said, my name tumbling from her lips for the first time in days. "It's okay."

The song ended, and so did our dance. "Do you want to go out onto the deck?" Alana asked. "It's getting a little crowded in here."

I was all too happy to oblige. Anything to keep spending time with her. We went out to the wraparound deck and stood by the railing, looking out over the fields to the east, the packhouse in the distance. The moon was bright and full, and rising to its zenith for the pack run later that night.

We stood next to each other in silence for awhile, until I got the courage to speak again. It was time to address the elephant in the room. "So...about what Fletcher said about me...I'm sorry about that too."

Her forehead wrinkled in consternation. "Sorry about what, exactly?"

I sighed. But it was only right for me to have to own up directly instead of copping out with unfinished apologies. "What Fletcher said about me is true. At least partially. I haven't gone all the way with anyone. But...I have done some things with girls in the human town. Things I'm not proud of, because I should have saved them for my mate." I should have saved them for you.

"Uh huh..." Alana said, trailing off and keeping her eyes trained on her hands, which were now gripping the railing. "I figured it had to be at least partially true, when you didn't contradict him."

"Alana."

She kept her eyes downcast.

"Alana, please look at me," I begged. Finally, she slowly drew her gaze up to meet mine. "If I could take it all back, I would. I wouldn't have done anything like that. Goddess knows my wolf hated it. I just...please don't hate me."

"I don't hate you," Alana said.

"You don't?"

"No," she said, looking like she was choosing her words carefully. "At first, I was angry, because you had just told me you liked me, and I made myself vulnerable by sharing my feelings with you, too. It felt like a betrayal that you didn't tell me sooner, that I had to find out that way.

"But then I realized that we have no idea whether or not we are mates," Alana continued. "And as long as my mate, whoever he may be, loves me and cherishes our bond going forward, should I really hold his past against him?"

I breathed out a sigh of relief. She really was more than I could ever have hoped for.

"But let me be clear," she spoke again, and I focused on her once more. "It still bothers me. Rationally, I feel that it shouldn't matter. But, irrationally, in my emotional heart, I'm upset by it. If once I turn eighteen and we find out we are mates, there will be a part of me that will wonder if you're comparing me to the others you've been with before—"

"I wouldn't," I said fervently.

"Let me finish," she said with a sharper tone than I would have thought her capable of. I pressed my lips together. "I'm also upset because, from when I was a very little girl, and had the sanctity of the mate bond drilled into me over and over again by my family and at school, I dreamed of having the perfect mate, one with whom we would share all our firsts.

"It was a childish dream, I suppose," she said sadly. "But it was one I held onto. And if you are my mate, I already know in advance that that dream is already at least partially gone."

I bowed my head. This was hard to take. But I wanted her to be able to get it all out. I needed to hear it.

"But the thing that I keep coming back to," she said, a single tear forming in the corner of her eye. "No matter how hard I try not to think about it, is the fact that you didn't tell me yourself. And it makes me wonder if you ever would have, or if you would've always kept it secret from me. If you would continue to keep more secrets in the future. Whether you're a friend or more than that, I don't know if I can trust you. And what would we have without trust?" Her voice broke, but she remained remarkably steadfast, staring out into the night.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, I forgive you," Alana whispered. "For the reasons you think you need it, and the reasons I need to give it. But beyond that, I'm not sure where we stand. Where I stand."

Before I could think of anything to say, Mason and Harlie came running up. "Shasta, we have to go right now!" Harlie whisper-shouted, her eyes wild.

"Huh, why?" I asked, my mind catching up to her demeanor a second later. "What's wrong? Where's Kendria?"

"We can't say anything here," Mason said urgently. "We just have to go right now."

"Should I come too?" Alana asked, looking worried.

"NO!" Mason and I said at the same time. I had no idea what the problem was, but I knew that if it was this imperative, I didn't want her anywhere near it. It was probably dangerous.

"Come on, Shasta! Now!" Harlie cried, pulling me away from the railing, away from Alana.

I took one last look at Alana, all alone on the deck, the moonlight both brightening and taming the color of her copper hair, before turning and running after the other two.