Destiny's Tethers

Chapter 15 - Courtship

Stela cracked a smile. Once upon a time, she'd wanted to be a storyteller when she grew up, and as a child she'd narrated her books to not just her brother, but to her parents.

"So..what kind of books would you like to search for?" Elijah asked her. His hand was clasping hers, as he gazed at her expectantly.

Having that pair of hazel eyes gaze at her with such tenderness made Stela's heart melt, and Starr swoon with a soft purr.

"Uh...I guess the...classic literature section?"

Elijah smiled at her and pulled her over to the shelf in question.

When Aaron and Olwen were still mates - before all the things he did came to light - Stela had always been amused at how lovesick Olwen was with the future Alpha. A part of her had declared she wouldn't behave the same way when or if she found her own mate.

She had not expected the Moon Goddess to send her the man with hazel eyes, olive skin and ashen brown hair that was now holding her hand, with freckles that cemented him firmly halfway between adorable and hot. The moment their gazes locked at the east borders, with Starr on her paws and howling about their mate, Stela knew that she would do anything for her beloved. Even though she still didn't know what exactly - she wasn't an expert on romance or just interacting with people for anything other than pack matters. It had taken her a long while just to sleep the night before, and even longer not to dream of the Beta's addictive scent.

If it was any consolation though, Beta Elijah seemed to reciprocate.

He was patient as Stela went through the shelves of books in the classical literature section, and every time she pointed out a volume she was interested in, the next thing she knew was that said volume was in Elijah's grasp. As she casually spoke about why she enjoyed reading these books, he hung on her every word as the number of editions accumulated in his hands.

There were also two more observations that Stela made. Firstly, it appeared that Elijah had been truthful when he mentioned he was a frequent visitor to the library. He knew all of the librarians there by name and had a 'designated' table that he'd somehow managed to reserve. It was a swinging bench type seating that faced a section of the wall that was glass, giving a good view of the scenery outside. Once Stela had picked out all the classical literature she was interested in, Elijah had them deposited at his area before assigning a librarian to watch them and bringing her to another shelf.

Secondly, Elijah was incredibly open about him having found his mate. Stela was aware that some of the pack members had seen them being guided to Alpha Landon's office the day earlier - during which the Beta had none too subtly held on to her throughout - but even here, his body language and the way he spoke to her implied enough to anyone who saw them.

It made Stela flattered but also somewhat self conscious. She didn't need to zero in on any person's conversations within this building to guess that they were whispering about her.

But the library date in itself was...nice. Elijah himself had chosen some novels, and as they read their separate books, they made occasional and light conversation. The day before, they'd already shared the basic personal details, and Stela had dreaded that she would struggle to ask him about any other topic. Fortunately for her, their common ground in love for reading and apparently libraries helped to rectify this.

It was a couple hours later, and Elijah and Stela were in the midst of an...interesting discussion. Stela had been a fan of the Hunger Games books as a teenager, but hadn't really watched the films aside from the first one, while Elijah somehow had seen all the films but never read the books. With how passionate both sides were in this, it was a miracle that they weren't shushed by any librarians and still managed to maintain an acceptable volume.