Bounds Of Love (BWWM) #Wattys2018

Chapter 5

Alpha Noah has given my parents permission to leave the pack to drop me off and help me settle into my new pack. Them being Beta Male and Beta Female, he's anxious to have them around in case anything goes haywire back home. Not that anything ever really happens in Oakwood, where the rules are a toddler's bedtime stories. Nevertheless, they can only stay with me for a few hours. Which means we are treating the car journey as a final goodbye.

The car ride down to the MiddleEast territory is full of singing and laughter.  The radio on our camper van is blasting at its maximum volume, spitting out summer song after summer song.

Mum is in the passenger seat, banging her hands on the dull dashboard to the bass of some human pop song that's repeating for the sixth time since the journey started. Her hair is mostly out, multiple grey grips at the back the only thing holding her curls up. The style mixed with her light attitude makes her look younger. Which is surprising, because as a 38 year old with the slower ageing skills of a wolf I didn't think she could look younger. Since her twenty-fourth birthday her ageing has slowed so every two human years accounts for one wolf year, as expected with wolves who have found their mates. But some days she looks her age - her human age. It makes me appreciate how taxing being a beta (second in command) must be, despite our pack's ease.

Dad refuses to tap a beat to the tune, obsessed with keeping both hands on the black steering wheel. But he's in good moods, dancing in the only way dad knows how; his head does an jerky sway from side to side in rhythm with the beat.

"So how long do you think you'll be staying at this new pack?" Mum asks. "Will you come back home after the year is through?"

"Of course she will." Dad scoffs, shaking his head. "My girls going to be the next beta female, right Ebony?" He gives a wink in the rear view mirror so exaggerated that his long lashes brush the top of his cheek. I'm momentarily distracted by the injustice of it; my dad has lashes longer than a dragon's talons whilst I'm stuck with stubs of hair growing out my eyelids that need a touch of mascara every other hour to be visible.

I tuck a loose curl of hair behind my ear, slowly rolling the flesh of my bottom lip between my teeth. My arms come up to rest on the back of their chairs as I lean forwards. "Probably... Maybe. Do you think I could really be beta, though?" Dad gives a look like a he's going to protest, so I hurriedly continue before he can interrupt, "I know you always say I have the 'potential'," I use air quotes as I say the word. "but I dunno, it just... Doesn't feel right."

An understatement of the year.  Being a beta to the Oakwood pack would be like being shackled to a moving cage, unable to ever chose my own path. I don't want to do that to myself, or my future mate - assuming he would assume my counterpart position.

"Hmm..." Dad considers for a moment. "Is that you, or your wolf talking?"

I go silent as I tune into all my senses and allow myself to fully envision my wolf's presence. She's bundled in the forefront of my mind like a silent observer, unable to truly speak but fully capable of drawing on our bond to project basic sounds, images and emotions. Her presence is easier to locate than my own thoughts sometimes, like she's more than an extension of myself – her presence goes so deep it's like she could physically be beside me. She's a friend, a confidant, a sister and an adviser all bundled into one.

I take a second to gauge my wolf's reaction to what I'm saying, and realise she feels the same. The thought of living life as a beta appeals to neither of us. "I don't want to be a Beta. It's just... Not something I want to be stuck doing for the rest of my life – no offence. But my wolf agrees."

Dad sighs. His thick fingers flex on the steering wheel. "Well, if your wolf doesn't gravitate to the role naturally, that's that, I suppose."

End of discussion. Whilst our human side may live life through experimenting, never really knowing what's right until they're doing it, our wolves live off instinct. They have a heightened intuition for where we are meant to be – and likewise where we're not. Other packs value the human solely, living more human than wolf, but we accept that our wolf is a part of us given by The Moon to better us. Our wolf is vital to our survival and we respect their judgement, as primitive as it may seem.

Mum laughs, stroking Dad's knee through his slate grey trouser legs in a soothing circle. "She'll still be our bossy Ebony regardless. Who needs a title?"

I squint at my mum. The light of the van becomes obscured by the tint of my eyelids as I process her words slowly. Did she just call me bossy?

My wolf huffs, partly in aggravation and partly in humour. I get her message loud and clear as she projects a small montage into my head:  such obscenity will not go unchallenged.

"Hey, who are you calling bossy? It's assertive, remember. Say it with me, a-sser-tive."

"I was kidding, Sweetheart. Laugh a little."

"A-sser-tive." I growl, or more like purr, quietly after the demand. Our wolf sounds don't come out quite right in human form.

"Ha, it's probably best you're not Beta now that I think about it. You wouldn't let the Alpha get a word in – would probably drive them up the wall." Dad says.

I roll my eyes. Alphas don't choose weak betas. They simply choose men and women with wolves less dominant than them. They need someone capable of challenging their thinking when they are in the wrong and defending their honour when they are absent. Betas must be strong and capable. Not meek and subordinate.

I know I would be perfect... If I wasn't so determined to run away from the pack which had been nothing but rejection.

I don't stop looking at mum until she rolls her eyes and repeats "a-ss-er-tive" with a joking smirk.

***

A/N:

Hey! How are you guys doing? Got any summer plans?

So, chapter five is here at last. Whoop! I finally wrote within my parameter for a single update. It's strange because my favourite chapter so far is chapter ten  (Or was it nine?), and it's taking so long to get there. *cries*

How do you guys feel about my updating schedule? Is it posted at an opportune time for where you live? I based my times off the demographics which suggested my readers were mainly American or Canadian but I've not checked in a while. Update me: where are you from? I'm from England (where we finally might get to the World Cup finals - fingers crossed).

So what are your thoughts? Likes? Dislikes? Suggestions?

As always don't be afraid to poke the wolf and give me any  criticisms or corrections.