CHAPTER FIVE
744 Words
Silvia.
I hardly slept that night.
I paced back and forth in my room for what felt like hours. My bare feet made the path on the rug beside my bed. The rest of the pack house was quiet.
The coronation celebration had ended late. I stayed until it was okay to leave. I. Said the right things. Then I went to my room.
Now I was alone with a thought I couldn't say out loud.. It was worse.
The Moon Goddess made my mate a human.
I kept thinking about it. A human. One of them. The same kind of people who hunted us for generations. They made us hide behind walls and border guards.
The same kind of people who came into the woods on my birthday with guns. They left me an orphan before I understood what that meant.
I. Their daughter, the new leader of the Southern Pack crowned not twelve hours ago with the Moon Goddesss blessing. Was mated to one of them.
I pressed my fingers against my temples. Breathed.
I couldn't tell anyone. Not yet maybe not ever. It would be an insult to every wolf in this pack who lost someone to hunters.
"It would give the elders a reason to question my fathers bloodline " I thought.
"I could reject him " I thought. "Before anyone finds out."
Siennas voice was quiet but firm. "You reject him and the bond breaks. It takes time. Months, years. Before the pull fades.. While you are weakened those power-hungry elders will watch."
"They won't accept a human as their king " I said.
"They will have no choice " she said. "No one challenges the Moon Goddess."
I stopped pacing.
She was right.
"It has been a day " I said.
"You will think about it properly now and then sleep " Sienna said.
I climbed onto my bed. Lay on top of the covers. I stared at the ceiling. Thought about it. The mate bond, the human in the cell the impossible position.
Eventually I slept.
The nightmare came.
The boots. My parents voices. The rustle of leaves. The crack of gunfire. I hid beneath the roots of an oak. My parents fell.
This time the dream didn't end there.
This time I crawled out from beneath the roots. I moved toward my parents bodies. I knelt beside them. Couldn't look away.
A rustling in the bushes made me lift my head.
A figure stepped out of the tree line. A human, tall and dark with a gun. He looked at me. I looked back.
Then a strong hand closed around my arm. Pulled me away. Antonios grip. I woke up.
I sat up in bed with my heart racing and my hands shaking. The room was grey with early morning light.
I got up washed my face and changed into my running clothes. Toby was already in the corridor.
We ran the obstacle course that morning. I needed it to keep the dream from looping in my mind.
Halfway through it came to me.
I. Then stopped.
My parents went to the realm that night because they wanted to. They believed that understanding humans was possible.
They died for that belief. I spent fourteen years treating that fact as a reason to bury it.
Standing on the obstacle course I wondered if burying it was the right response.
The human in the cell looked at me without fear. He looked at me with curiosity.
I started running. Faster this time.
By the time we got back to the pack house my mind was made up.
I went to the sitting room where Antonio took his morning tea.
"I want a meeting with the council of Elders " I said. "Today. By noon."
He studied me for a moment. ". The subject of this meeting my Queen?"
"The human in our custody " I said.
Antonio was quiet for a moment.
He. Nodded. "I will arrange it."
"Thank you Antonio " I said.
I left him to his tea. Walked back, to my room. With every step I felt the decision settle firmly into place.
I didn't know yet what I was going to say to the elders. I didn't know what I was going to do about the human or the mate bond.
I knew I was done pacing the same stretch of floor and going nowhere.
My parents weren't afraid to look. Neither would I.
- Writer
