Centuries Of Sin: Book II (Mature)

11

Elizabeth still didn’t know if she was expected to be there with him, or whether this would be anything at all like a human funeral. She decided to assume she was not required there until she was told otherwise but dressed in a plain black dress just in case she had assumed wrong.

When Sawyer finished in the shower he put his pants back on, but left the room with no shirt on in a way so casual that it reminded her this had been his home for most of his life. Elizabeth felt rather angry when she heard a group of women giggling at him, but he didn’t yell or even respond to it and it would probably have embarrassed him for her to intervene anyway. She wandered back over to the window, looking down at the main entrance to the house until her suspicions were confirmed when a group of women around her age exited the building trailing behind Cordelia. They reminded Elizabeth of a group of hyenas more than wolves.

She was rather jaded when it came to groups like theirs. She had been bullied by far too many snickering groups of women like that, and she had rather hoped puerile behaviour like that was something she wouldn’t have to deal with after high school. She realised rather quickly that people just seemed to band around certain people and laughed at what they were told to and scorned or mocked whoever wasn’t one of them.

She turned away from the window when she heard the door open behind her, and completely missed the fact Cordelia turned around to stare up at her in an attempt to intimidate her which resulted only in further annoyance when she saw Sawyer draw Elizabeth into a tight hug and then kiss her with a fervent passion that Cordelia had never elicited in him herself.

“That’s so f*****g disgusting. I cannot believe he flaunts his obsession with her like that; it’s unnatural.” She turned angrily away from the house. A couple of the women following her agreed loudly that it was wrong, but they didn’t all think that. They envied Elizabeth, but they would have envied whoever it was that won Sawyer’s heart, and they weren’t being obnoxious about it – they had been rather discreet so far, in fact. Cordelia was the one who looked up at the window and saw them during that private, intimate moment. They weren’t being openly se xual with one another in front of the pack or making a big show of the fact they were together. She continued her rant as she walked. “I don’t know what happened to Tobias, but if he seriously thought we should accept the way they are he was clearly going senile. I mean, am I really supposed to share my house with a human?”

“It isn’t your house, Dee-Dee,” she stopped in her tracks to glare at the woman who had spoken as she continued, offering a half stuttered explanation for what she had just said, “I just mean… it was Tobias’ house, and now he’s gone it belongs to whoever takes over as Alpha and… well, he had told us he wanted Nathan to take over from him so…”

“…oh shut up,” she hissed, “do you really think that he is going to be our new Alpha? Why should we all follow him just because Tobias said so? He’s dead now, it’s not like he can threaten us if we say no, is it? And isn’t it suspicious that Tobi is killed, he decides he’s willing to forgive Nathan, and then he gets killed within what – 6 weeks? I don’t trust any of this.” Cordelia looked back up at the window one final time, in time to see Elizabeth push Sawyer down onto the bed, before she turned away from the house and stormed off with the others obediently running after her.

Sawyer and Elizabeth were both oblivious to the small group of women talking about them outside. He had come back to the room wearing a sharply tailored suit and it was Elizabeth’s flirtatious comment about how good he looked that resulted in him kissing her and, eventually, to him taking a shower for the third time that day before he finally emerged from the house ready to get the funeral out of the way.

He shocked them all by bringing Elizabeth out with him. She had only left the house once since arriving, and most of them hadn’t actually seen her yet. There had been so many rumours about her since he first bonded with her that many of them were desperate to catch sight of her and stepping out of the house in the black lace dress she had worn the first night she met with Sawyer with her long hair cascading down her back in auburn waves meant that people like Cordelia’s group could no longer continue the rumour she was some hideous looking creature; she was undeniably beautiful.

She remained deadpan and silent beside Sawyer, and rather than appearing afraid or intimidated it seemed like she was above explaining herself to them. Her right to be at his side transcended her heritage, even without them knowing the complete truth.

The funeral itself wasn’t completely different to a human one; though Tobias’ body was still in his wolf form and had not been placed into a coffin. He was buried in a small graveyard in a clearing in the woods which seemed large enough that it had been used for years, but too small to house every fallen wolf from the pack. His pack wanted to see the evidence he was really gone, though seeing the evidence that he had been killed by another wolf only raised more questions.

After this was done, they would get to learn the truth from his son at long last. And at some point tonight they would decide officially who their new Alpha was.

Their society wasn’t democratic, and it didn’t pretend to be – but it was nonetheless important to acknowledge who they would be following as Alpha from then on. It was a lip service that meant no one could be held to blame if the new Alpha was not competent. They had a chance to voice their concerns or grievances with the new Alpha ahead of time. It also meant that there was a chance for anyone to try to claim the role for themselves through challenging the presumed Alpha, or for the pack to give stipulations that the new Alpha had to meet for them to be accepted. If Tobias’ younger son had still been alive they would likely have agreed on an intermediary who could lead until he was old enough.

Where Sawyer was concerned, things would be far more complicated. He didn’t want to be their Alpha, but they were naturally drawn to follow him. And yet, they expected him to take a mate they would consider acceptable.

He wished he had more time to talk to Elizabeth about all of this privately, and he regretted not asking his sister to join him with Selene. But he was more concerned for Selene than he would openly admit to, and he felt so gut-wrenchingly awful about the fact she had lost her mate at the hands of his father that he wasn’t brave enough to look her in the eye yet. He had let her down; not only her, but Robin and their child, too. He didn’t even think he deserved to be Alpha to her, let alone this number of people.

Elizabeth brushed her hand subtly against his, trying to remind him she was there for him without making the gesture overt. He surprised her by lacing his fingers with hers and gripping her hand tightly.

She wasn’t sure if it was the sight of his father’s body being slowly covered in the grave or the thought she had picked up on, but she was glad she had been able to offer him some small comfort during a difficult moment.

It didn’t go unnoticed by the others.

Sawyer wasn’t afraid for them to see he drew comfort and strength from Elizabeth, and she wasn’t afraid to offer him that in front of people who in some cases had been openly hostile to her.

He turned away from the grave before the body was fully covered and started the trek back to the house.

Every last member of the pack came into the house behind him, and she felt like running away to the bedroom. He squeezed her hand: a reminder that he was there for her, too. It gave her the courage to stay beside him, for now.

This was just like a human wake, she thought, as she noticed that there were some trays with food and drink around the large entrance hall.

Sawyer didn’t talk to anyone, he just stayed positioned at the bottom of the stairs surveying the room.

Elizabeth was trying to make out what people were discussing, but she kept on getting distracted by Lynette. The woman was stood alone, shuffling around the fringes of various groups without really being acknowledged.

They all seemed to have frozen her out. She wasn’t respected at all now her son was dead. Elizabeth planned on catching her attention and encouraging her to join them, but before she could do that Sawyer had begun walking away from the entrance down the corridor they had first entered the house through. She followed him, not really knowing what to expect, until he stopped outside of a door, pushed it open, and revealed some kind of office or library with bookshelves on every wall filled with old leather-bound books with gold-leaf lettering down the spines. There was a large table in the centre of the room which was made from a dark wood – most likely Macassar ebony-  and in conjunction with the 12 matching distinctively Art Deco chairs around the table it was apparent the room had not been renovated since the house was built. A single chair at the head of the table was clearly intended for whoever was in charge – until a few days ago, Tobias.

Nine of the thirteen total chairs were occupied; the large chair was not one of them, but the two seats closest to it, on opposite sides of the table, were occupied by Andrew and Cordelia.

They all stared at Sawyer when he entered the room and watched as he walked slowly over to the large chair, and rested his hands on the back of it. Elizabeth was stood silently behind him, waiting for some indication of what she should do or where she should sit.

After a few awkward moments of silence, the group shifted their gaze from Sawyer to Cordelia. She pretended she hadn’t noticed.

Another agonizing minute passed, and Andrew finally spoke.

“Dee-Dee that seat is for the mate of the Alpha. You know that.”

She ignored Andrew, staring up at Sawyer as she answered.

“I know.”

She pushed the chair very slowly back from the table so that it scraped noisily against the wooden floor, and then walked slowly around to sit in the empty seat beside Andrew – the seat which was hers by custom as the mate of the Beta.

Had she been trying to tell Sawyer she intended to pressure him into taking her as a primary mate if he was going to be their Alpha? Or was she hinting that she had other plans? Elizabeth wasn’t sure, but she took the seat anyway. Even if Sawyer didn’t stay as their Alpha, she enjoyed knowing how upset it made Cordelia to see her in that stupid seat.

As soon as she had tucked the chair in, Sawyer sat down at the end of the table.

The room fell silent, and they all looked expectantly at him.

“I suppose you all want to know how he died.”