A Warrior's Fury

Chapter 3

Marius reaches out his hand to pull me to the front of the stage and I get on my knees. He takes my right hand and draws his ceremonial blade across it. He opens his own hand next and takes mine in it.

"Do you, Annie, accept the role of beta to the Blue Lake pack?"

"I do."

"Do you promise to honour the pack and protect it to the best of your ability?"

"I do."

"Do you swear to be loyal to your alpha?"

"I do."

"Then rise, beta Annie of the Blue Lake pack."

Just like that, the ceremony was finished and I became second in command of the largest pack in the country. Even though the past day has been weird, this felt like the right thing to do. Marius and I have been through so much together. It's only logical that I'd stay by his side, right?

After me, Dennis takes his oath as gamma of the pack and as such we become the three leaders of the pack, our members' most important protectors. Today, we celebrate with our own pack members, I honestly expect it to be a pretty wild party. Generally, when we're amongst our own, we're all pretty chill. Tomorrow, the real challenge will take place, when the alphas of neighbouring packs will visit to either acknowledge or deny Marius' alpha position. I don't expect there to be too much trouble, though, seeing as most alphas have already met with Marius. Strangely enough, I don't know many of them, or at least I haven't seen any in recent years. I've always been off doing other things when the neighbours' alphas were on our pack grounds. I'm a little nervous to see all of them again, though mostly excited.

I reach for a glass of wine when I spot Marius' arm hanging loosely around some girl's neck. At least he's enjoying himself, I think, feeling a slight pang of jealousy at the casual affection he shows other female pack members. I wish I could just do that, you know, give myself to some guy without worrying that my fated mate might see me. Though the way Marius has given up on finding his fated mate is quite sad too. Well, at least he'll have some fun tonight. It just might take his attention off of me for a bit.

On the other side of the room, Dennis has his arm around his pretty mate. Even after three years, those two are still in their honeymoon phase.

'Get a cave' I mind link Dennis and wink at him when he looks around to me. I sip my wine and enjoy the people dancing around me, getting drunk and having fun. Some males offer me their hand for a dance, but it's not until a particularly handsome one (I think his name was Jason) asks me after I had at least 4 glasses of wine that I eventually relent and take to the dancefloor. We dance and have fun and I'm not sure how much time had passed when I found Marius looking at me, and making his way over to take over as my dancing partner.

He smiles into my neck and breathes "Here we are now, you and I, alpha and beta, can you believe it?"

His arm wraps itself around my black suit and pulls me in for a hug. "I know right? The day's finally here!"

"The only thing that would have made it better is if... nevermind." I know what he wants to say, so I don't press the matter further. He knows where I stand in our friendship and how I think about the mating bond.

We dance for a while in silence, just enjoying each other's company. By the time we let each other go, most people had already left. I decide it's time to go to bed, so I lean over to kiss Marius on the cheek and tell him "Good night, alpha Marius. I'll see you again tomorrow."

He sighs and starts to say something, but doesn't. He kisses me on the cheek and wishes me a good night instead. Without further notice, I turn around and walk upstairs, back to my room.

When I walk in, I quickly get into my pajamas and into bed. It was a long day, but I just bask in the excitement of becoming beta. It takes a while to fall asleep, but when it comes, I have the strangest dream.

In my dream, I'm walking in the forest, where I come across a wonderful, enormous lake with the stillest water I've ever seen. I sit by a willow tree in the light of Selene and I find a book. It's called 'The History of the icy mountains' and inside I find a picture of a woman who looks like me. I'm almost certain it is a picture of my mom when she was my age. In the distance, I hear a voice breaking through the silence. It's a deep man's voice, calling my name, "Annie, Annie, Annie. Annie where are you?" Across the lake I see a figure, and a faint scent of lavender wafts my way. It's such a delicious scent. I don't recognize the voice or the man it belongs to, but I know I want to go to him. I know I belong to him and he to me. I run to find him, but when I'm close enough to make out his face, he vanishes.

I wake up from my dream and look at the clock. It's 3AM, and I really should be going back to sleep. I wouldn't want to appear weak or tired in front of the other alphas and betas. I squeeze my eyes closed and hope the dream will reappear. I'm in no luck, although the rest of my dreams that night are pretty peaceful, think bunny rabbits and rainbows. All in all, I don't think I had a bad night, though I wake up feeling quite tired and hot around 5AM again. Deciding I'll probably not be able to go back to sleep anymore, I get up, shower and head downstairs for breakfast.