Into The Mountains(COMPLETED)

Ch 1

"Important?" I asked, not sure I liked the tone. Sometimes, rarely, Jisoo reminded me of my father and eldest brother. I was pretty sure it was all the guilt and responsibility Jisoo let weigh her down a bit. "Did you say duck?" Rosie asked, emerging herself. Her eyes seemed to jump to the bird and she snatched it from me, looking it over and licking her lips like she might eat it raw. "You said you wanted it, and I had the time and effort to spend." I told her, a little disturbed.

Rosie grinned at me. "Thank you! I'm going to pluck it and set it to go right now, it'll mean dinner will be a little late but I am not waiting until tomorrow, or burning it. Promise." Jisoo chuckled. "She really has gotten better about cooking. It has been well over a week since she has burnt anything." Her expression sobered a little. "Would you come have a seat with me, sister of my heart?" The term 'sister of my heart' was similar to sister-in-law, but I noticed Jisoo reserved the term for matters she considered deeply important. "Of course." I said, taking a chair but feeling awkward. She really did seem to be laying on the importance pretty thick.

I felt like I was about to be scolded for fighting in school. "Come on now Jisoo my friend, what's on your mind?" I asked cheerfully. "I have a matter of some concern, but no simple way to deal with it." She began, her tone somber. "I need a male or female...you....that I trust, and there are none that I trust more than you, Lisa. My sister, Jennie, was mated to HyunSuk when he took the Pack from my father. With HyunSuk's death, she has no mate, and by tradition she has become bottom rung of the pack pecking order. I don't allow the abuses that happened under HyunSuk to low rung females, but that doesn't mean her life is good.

She needs a male/female that is respected to establish her in the pack again. Lisa, I would like for you to take my sister as your mate." I was sure I looked shocked, very shocked. It seemed I was being married off for political reasons! The idea was both laughable and very serious. I settled my features as best as possible into a thoughtful expression. If I accepted this, it changed everything. I might make a trip home, but I wouldn't stay, I would have to return to my wife. Good gods, I'd thought I had another ten years or so of bachelorhood before I'd settle with some dainty, fun loving little thing of a woman.

I could feel the itch to take up Fenrick's sister, though. I imagined she'd had a horridly lonely time of it as HyunSuk' wife, and I had a problem with leaving lonely people alone. It was an oddly specific weakness and I had no idea where it'd come from. It was why Rosie and I had become close as children, she'd been lonely, excluded by our other male siblings. "Jisoo." I said, voice still carrying my shock. "I've never met Jennie, I don't know her, I don't love her, and I dare say she doesn't feel any of that for me. I mean I can try and make her comfortable, of course, but I don't know if she'll ever be really happy with me. Or I with her, to be honest." I knew that males at least sometimes took up secondary wives among the kin, but mating was also a strange thing.

Full moons drove the kin wild, and most matches were made during that time since breeding was guaranteed to have the result of offspring. I wasn't built like a werewolf, to find, track, and hunt down beast or mate. Jennie was, possibly, a very simple solution to the fact that I wasn't fit to find a mate the usual way werewolf men did., "I don't expect you to love her, or for her to love you. You don't even have to stay with her indefinitely, but right now having a respected mate will ease her transition into the new pack hierarchy." Jisoo looked a little sad.

"Jennie was taken by HyunSuk when she was twelve years old. She's had ten children birthed live, two dead. Only seven of them are still alive. She doesn't understand love. I don't even know her that well since she was taken away from me when I was so young. If you do this, you'll be walking into not only a wife, but seven children, some of which probably resent the fact that their father was killed by me. It won't be easy, and I won't force you to do this. My only other option is Moonbyul, but I didn't want to force her into anything so soon after . . ."