Stubborn and the Mutt

thirty six | ceremony

Being a mutt.

As soon as the car comes to a stop, I grab my bag and almost teleport out the back. It's all in vain since I hear Julius almost rush out the car as well and speedily walk towards the front door of the mansion.

Nonetheless, I leave him to it; he opens the door and steps aside, giving me what I now know is a fake smile and gestures for me to get in.

As I do, I turn to him and frown. "I don't appreciate you speaking down on me, by the way."

Julius matches my energy almost immediately, though with his aura, yet he holds the smile and keeps his eyes neutral as can be. "I value this pack and the members of it. I am merely confused as to what he sees in a human like you, who knows nothing of the history of this pack, and yet somehow has the privilege to be in this house as though you are soon to be the Luna. To me, it's absurd, and if it was up to me..." he pauses, closes the door behind me and walks ahead, once again gesturing for me to follow.

I do. Even despite my heart pounding at the echo of his words in my head, and my hands clenched to fists, I follow him.

"If it was up to me," now, he stops and turns to face me. "You wouldn't have been a thought or possibility of being a Luna. But, my Goddess Luna makes no mistakes and so, a mere human is soon to be Luna. May I offer you anything to drink?"

My eyes stare at him for a moment. Within this moment, I contemplate all his words, consider his obvious feelings towards me, and question, then, how all of this would be okay with no hard feelings if... if I do decide to be Luna completely. Bear the imprint and be claimed by the entire back.

Despite all of that, he will be obligated to serve me, or at least do his duties but he will carry such resentment or dislike towards me. All because I'm a human? Seriously? If his Luna doesn't make mistakes, how come I'm not like them?

A wolf. One who would have been accepted by the rest of her creation.

I forge my own smile and shake my head. "No. Thank you."

"Well then, please do hand over your bag. I shall store it safely until you are ready to leave. You will find your mate at the back of the garden." I slowly hand over my bag. "Would you like to be accompanied?"

"No, thank you. I believe I know the route."

So, I'm off on my own and as I do so, I'm taking thousands of breaths to calm myself. To at least try ignore what he said. After all, it's what he believes and I can't change that. I'm not in the business of convincing. I did nothing wrong to him so if he simply dislikes me purely based off of me being human, then surely he's the one with the problem.

Or maybe it's because of the colour of my skin? I mean, I'm yet to see diversity in this pack.

The further away I walk from the back of the house, the deeper I walk across the open land of finely cut grass and closer to the forest. Chills run down my spine as I recall the last time I came here. I was chased by those wolves who clearly thought I was a threat.

Maybe they'll feel the exact same way again? Maybe they all aren't aware of my possible position in this pack. Or maybe they do, and that's what sets them off. I'm not one of them. I'm an outsider.

It has to be at this point, closer towards the end of the forest and to the other side, where I first hear it. Chants, echoes of voices of such coming from a distance. I assume I'm closer to where I was requested. I pass thick trees and trunks, lush bushes and randomly places rocks in the earth. I keep going straight, telling myself if I go off course, I'll simply get lost in here.

Very quickly, every tree looks the same, every direction looks the same and I'm only being lead by the voices I can hear.

I do get out the forest and back into the open after a few, and as I suspected, there's an entire huge group of people not too far. They are all faced in the opposite direction. Some walk about and many stand completely still. I immediately imagine it being a gathering of sort. A celebration maybe? A ceremony?