Titus and I arrived at my father's house to find the three leaders standing in the doorway waiting with annoyed looks on their faces. My father shot me a look of anger and disappointment that I had become all too familiar with throughout my teenage years. I had always been unwilling to bend to the command of those above me; I found pack mentality and tradition somewhat boring and useless; and I was never a spectacular student. I clearly was not the daughter that he had expected to have. Now, more than ever before, he looked like he was ready to lock me in my room for the remainder of my life.
"You took your time," my father grunted at me. "Alpha Eques, please follow me to my office and Liana," there was a sharp stare between the two of us, "please go to your room until we have finished."
I went to argue but there was a low growl from beside me that stopped me in my tracks.
Titus stood to his full height, towering over all of us, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him. In a nearly deadly tone, Titus took the argument on himself. "Liana is my Luna and she will sit by my side now, as she will in all Alpha meetings from here on out."
"She is not your Luna yet," my father spat back.
"She is as good as."
"Even then, Lunas don't attend minor meetings between Alphas. This is between you and me Alpha Eques and it should remain as such."
"Absolutely not. This is a meeting about my mate and her future role in my pack and yours. You think she has no right to have a say in it? And yet your second and third in command may attend?" Titus was fighting back a screaming match.
"This is a decision for the Alphas," my father stated plainly in hopes of ending the conversation.
"This meeting is a formality I am willing to accommodate; her presence with me is not an argument I willing to tolerate." My father looked stunned at the bluntness that confronted him.
"Very well, you may both follow me to my office." I could hear the anger and disappointment burning behind his words. Regardless, Titus and I followed behind my father, Thomas, and Mathias into his office. I was rarely permitted in my father's office but I was always shocked by the amount of power a room could project. The walls were deep and dark red with bookshelves filled with important titles on either side of his large mahogany desk. There were filing cabinets lining the other walls. A large painting of some great war in which our pack had once been victorious was hung behind the desk where my father sat himself down in his leather chair. Titus and I took the seats opposite him, while Thomas and Mathias stood at either side of my father.
"Liana is my daughter and I have made commitments to other packs regarding her mating," my father started. Titus tensed beside me but let him continue. "Philious and Blacknight pack are preparing for their wedding, mating ceremony, and crowning as we speak. I do not think that changing the arrangements for my daughter lies in the best interest of my pack and I am, therefore, unwilling to do so."
I was shocked at my fathers words. He was rejecting my mate for me? Titus was as tense as an over-stretched rubber band and already on the edge of losing his temper.
"You would have her married to a weaker pack, a weaker Alpha, and taken from her mate?"
"I would."
Titus sat back and crossed his leg over his other, there was a sense of curiosity in his eyes. "And why would you do that?"
"I told you. I have made a promise."
"So have I," I interjected. This caught my father's attention and pulled his eyes to me.
"Yes, you have Liana. Thank you," he said in a fake endearing voice as he turned to smirk at Titus.
"No father. Not to Phil. I have made a promise to Titus." His head shot back to look at me. I could see panic and anger flaring through him.
"And what promise is that?"
Titus stood and placed his hand on the chair behind me, he was ready if my father pounced. "We have accepted one another and made the promise not to reject each other," Titus answered for me. I smiled and thought that this promise was the only one that ever mattered.
"You did so without discussing it with me?! Without my decision?!" My father hurled his words at me knowing full-well that if he threw anything else Titus would consider it a threat.
"We can leave now if that would please you. We don't need a discussion or decision. The Moon Goddess has chosen our paths, we have accepted them. We do not need your permission to leave together and return to our pack," I shot back in a matter-of-fact manner. "I will pack my things and we shall leave tonight. Thomas, please inform Blacknight that our deal and truce has come to a natural end and my father will be pursuing other opportunities for peace, prosperity, and merging." Thomas nodded slightly.
Thomas left quickly. Titus and I rose to leave but before we reached the door I turned back to my father. "I am not a bargaining chip for you to hand out to whom you please. I am your daughter for fucks sake. I would have gone through with this wedding for you if Titus had not appeared in my life. But I would have hated you for it someday when my mate arrived and I was forced into rejection. Keep that in mind next time you're playing Moon Goddess Matchmaker."
With that, I turned and left the office without another glance backward. I headed straight for my room. I found my luggage and started to pack my things. I was ready to go to my new home.