Evelyn and Aria

Chapter 2: Aria

Aria looked out the window of the pack house. It was dusk, and the sun had just set behind the mountains outside, a tint of orange still left behind as it disappeared into the horizon. Her father, a few members of the pack and herself had just arrived on Silverclaw pack territory. From what she gathered, her father, Alpha Gabriel, was about to enter important discussions about an allegiance against the rogues with Silverclaw pack’s Alpha Evelyn.

She could imagine this discussion would not be an easy one – Alphas rarely got along, and allegiances were difficult to maintain when two leading wolfs were thrown in to the mix. However, she still failed to understand why her father had insisted she come along. She was not a high ranking officer of her pack, and as such, wouldn’t be attending the discussions. Anyway. Aside from serving as glorified décor of the room she was currently standing in, there was no point to her presence.

Aria sighed, looking at her reflection in the window. She had green eyes, full lips, and sleek blonde hair that cascaded halfway down her back. Werther here or back home, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter much. She lived in solitude most of the time anyway, as she had for the past twelve years, ever since her gift manifested.

A sarcastic chuckle made it’s way through her body. Gift. Yeah, right. When she first started being able to read people’s emotions at age thirteen, she became almost instantly overwhelmed. Walking into any room was like slamming into a wall of emotions, and it certainly did not help that they ran naturally high in wolves. By the time she was fifteen, she was able to project her own emotions onto the people she met, and by that point, nobody wanted to be in the near vicinity of her anymore. At least with solitude came peace and quiet from her pack’s emotions, and that was definitely something she needed.

Aria looked around the room she was in. A few men were standing in different corners, some talking, some absorbed in their thoughts, all of them waiting for the meeting to start. She could feel their emotions in waves. Nervousness. Lust. Fear. Distrust. Everything you would expect from a bunch of testosterone-heavy men about to enter heated discussions with each other. It was almost as though they were readying for war at this point.

A door opened, and a tall man walked in. Aria turned to look, and assumed he must be Alpha Evelyn. The man reeked of testosterone, and looked about as friendly as a grizzly bear. She’d overheard other members of her pack talk about him. He was known to be a tough leader to his pack, as well as for his manwhore tendencies. And he didn’t disappoint on either of those attributes: a single waive of his hand had all of the present wolfs move to follow him, and Aria could smell the scent of a she-wolf still on him. The scent was so overly sweet it made her feel nauseous the second it hit her.

As the last wolf left the room, the door closed behind him, leaving Aria alone. At least now she could stop dealing with everyone’s emotions, at least for a while. The gift of empathy really wasn’t all that it was chalked up to be.

Aria waited for almost two hours in the room, watching as the moon rose in the sky. She was busy making out the silhouettes of a few warriors in wolf form, patrolling the perimeter of the Silverclaw pack’s living quarters, when the door opened again. Her father beckoned her to follow him, which left her a bit perplexed. Why did he need her in there?

She walked into the room, in which ten or so wolves were staring at her as she appeared. Her father spoke first “This is my daughter Aria. As per our agreement, she will remain here in your custody until – “

“What?”, exclaimed Aria, “What do you mean remain in their custody? What are you on about here?”

“Aria, I need to travel to neighboring packs to deal with the rogues. You are a prime target for them, and travelling or staying home without my protection will expose you – “

“I don’t care! I’m not staying here with some unknown pack!”, interrupted Aria again, her voice becoming panicked. “I will not stay here. It’s out of the – “

“ENOUGH!” This time, it was Alpha Gabriel’s turn to interrupt. He had used his Alpha voice, which resonated in Aria’s head at the same time as he spoke out loud, forcing her into submission. “You will remain here, for your own protection. Is that understood, Aria?”

Aria nodded quietly. She could not disobey a direct order from her Alpha, no matter how much she wanted to. It was engrained in her, the same way it was for all wolves that were part of a pack. The only ones exempt from this were the rogues – wolves that had defected and been outcast, and who therefore no longer answered to anyone but themselves.

“Good.”, said Alpha Gabriel, “Alpha Evelyn will show you to your quarters here. I’m counting on you to respect and obey him as if he were your own Alpha. And you,” he said, looking sternly over at Evelyn, “you had better keep those hands of yours off my daughter. I can smell your female plaything all over you, and I want my daughter to have no part in that. Am I making myself clear?”

The tension was palpable as Evelyn nodded coldly. Aria could feel her cheeks blush after that outburst from her father. Why on earth he still needed to act as though she was fifteen, when she was really twenty -five and perfectly capable of avoiding almost anybody, was beyond her. In any event, she wasn’t going to go anywhere near Evelyn if she could avoid it, as the overly sweet she-wolf sent he carried on his skin still made her queasy.