"So let's start with the basics. In a pack you have the Alpha, Beta, Delta and the warriors. These four parties are the most important when it come to leading and protecting the pack." Rain explained.
She had taken Niel to the reading room, something the teenager found strange. They had already a library, so why a reading room? According to Rain it was simple, the library was to keep the books, the reading room was for, well, reading the books. Niel thought you could do both in one, but again the shewolf disagreed.
"Okay, what's the Delta for?"
"Let's start up top, shall we? First, the Alpha. He leads the pack, protects the pack and has the last word concerning pack affairs. He gets his position assigned by birth, although a new Alpha can always be challenged by a pack member to take his place. Most of the time this happens within the Alpha's family, cousin against cousin or brother against brother."
Niel tilted his head. "Why mostly within the Alpha family?" Sitting like this felt familiar for the teenager, like he would sit down with his mother to talk about the Bible. It both gave him a warm feeling of his old home, but homesickness as well. The memory of seeing his parents the last time was burned in his head and he felt the pain of that memory every single day.
"Because they all have an alpha gene, making them stronger than an average pack member. Sometimes a Beta can have enough power too, but they are far too loyal to the alpha's." Rain shifted in her seat, putting her legs over the armrest of the big, comfy armchair she was sitting in. The very same Niel was sitting in but across from her.
"Now, the Beta. He is like the vice-president like you humans have. He fills in for the Alpha when he is gone, he advices the Alpha and makes sure everything that is going on within the pack is reported to the Alpha. He, also, gets his position assigned by birth and can get challenged."
Niel nodded, trying to follow along everything Rain had said. She had pulled him from his room to keep his mind from everything that happened to him. Pushing Niel to know at least some of the customs and traditions so he wouldn't be so harshly judged by the pack.
"Then we arrive at the topic of the Delta. He is the one who commands the warriors – uhm, like a General commanding the army." Rain took a swig from the bottle of cola before she continued. "The Delta is responsible for the protection of our borders and also advices the Alpha, but only about safety measurements. Again his position is also assigned by birth. Ezra, that stone-cold man, is our Delta. If you were wondering."
Rain sighed as Ezra popped up in her head.
"The warriors are our soldiers carrying out the task of protecting the borders and keeping the peace within the pack, like... like the police. Does that make sense?"
The teenager looked outside, watching two warriors passing by. First Niel wouldn't even notice they were warriors, but after his visit to his hometown he saw some similarities in their dressing and physical appearance. They were all slightly bigger, more muscled, taller, broader.
In a way it felt good to know more about these people. Less questions, more answers meant less anxious. Still everything was easier if Niel didn't need to know about werewolves and their way of living.
Then heavy footsteps were heard and the door to the reading room was opened. Atlas entered, followed by some woman. "All right Rain, I think that's enough from you now. I found someone who is bit more suited to the task."
The young shewolf got up offended. "I am suited for the task, it went fine now, didn't it Niel?" Niel opened his mouth to agree, but Atlas beat him to it. "No need to drag Niel into this. Now Rain, if you please," The Alpha signalled his cousin to leave the room as he stepped aside and pointed at the door.
She muttered something under hear breath while leaving, which Atlas apparently heard as his expression turned sour. He sighed before he introduced the woman next to him. "Niel I want you to meet Charlotte. She is one of the Elders."
The teenager tilted his head in confusion, but let his questions slide not wanting embarrassing himself. "She is going to be the one to help your way in the pack and will prepare you for your role as Luna." A sudden wave of panic went through Niel. It was already hard to wrap his head around to live here, but now he had to be a leader too. If he couldn't be even capable of being a soccer team captain how could he be a leader like Atlas' mother described.
"I will leave you to it," And with that the Alpha walked away without any confirmation from Niel. So now he just sat there and he had no idea what to do or what to say.
The elderly lady looked Niel up and down and shook her head. Niel started to squirm in his seat feeling uncomfortable. The older lady reminded him of his weird neighbour who always screamed at him when he was playing outside as a kid. When he got in his teens she died, but there wasn't a day going by where he looked at least once over his shoulder just to check if she wasn't sitting in front of her window to spy on him.
"Well this won't do, let's go somewhere else," Charlotte tutted. "Up, up."
Niel hurried himself out of this chair and followed the Elder. They went to a conference room where a whiteboard sat next to the long table where at least ten people could sit at. Charlotte snapped her finger as she pointed at one of the seats. "Sit."
The teenager didn't question the order and immediately sat down. Charlotte walked over to the whiteboard and drew a pyramid. "I believe Rain Adkins gave a short overview about the pack's hierarchy, but there is more to those titles and positions. You need to know how to deal with people carrying a certain title... I heard you had no idea how to greet our former Alpha's properly and you were lucky it was them. Any other Alpha wouldn't be as polite as merciful."
The next three hours Niel was bombarded with information about werewolves, pack lifestyle, manners, traditions and values and history. And when they were done, Charlotte told him it was just the tip of the iceberg and much of the information he had already heard he needed to revise it according to Charlotte, to really remember it.
The teenager felt drained. All he wanted to do was to sleep, hiding away from everyone. And he did. He made his way to his room and plopped face down on the bed, a groan escaping from his mouth.
It was only five minutes later a knock was heard. Niel hoped if he ignored it they would go away, but they did not. Another knock was heard and another one. "Go away!" Niel grunted. Then the door was opened. "I said go away, not come in." The teenager mumbled.
"The Alpha wants to see you." Niel turned around and saw one of his guards standing on the threshold.
"Tell him I will come later."
"He wants to see you now. He has other engagements later." The guard responded stoic.
Niel turned his back to the guard and tried to fall asleep again. "Othniel, I won't leave until you come with me and if you don't do it quick I will have to drag you."
The teenage boy sighed. "I don't care."
Suddenly Niel was hoisted up by the guard and levelled eyes with him. "You will care. You should be lucky to be mated to an Alpha, especially our Alpha, and yet here you are, whining like a child." The guard let go of him as he said, "We should have killed you all."
A shiver ran down Niel's spine. The venom with which the guard spoke made his neck hairs stand up. The guard didn't speak any further and left the room, assuming Niel would follow him, which he did.
They went to Atlas' office where the Alpha was still in, what it seemed, a very important conversation with the Delta, Ezra.
"Alpha, Othniel is here for you." Atlas' eyes snapped up and looked straight at boy. A smile settled on his lips and Niel didn't know how to feel about that change of behavior. Quick words were spoken to the Delta and he was off. Then when the other men left Niel was once again alone with Atlas.
The Alpha stood up and stretched his arms, sitting all day at his desk made him stiff. "I heard you had a great session with Charlotte."
Niel chuckled. "I don't know about that..." Atlas' brow quirked a brow and signalled Niel to take a seat as he did as well. "Why?"
"She... she was very judgy?"
The big guy laughed. "Yeah, she likes for people to know immediately what they hear and it doesn't help she isn't a big fan of humans... Just like many others here." He mumbled.
"Yes I noticed."
"Well, once you can impress everybody with your knowledge and stand besides me, I know for sure they will like you Niel. Don't worry."
Niel didn't worry about being liked. He worried about the mere thought of living here, fulfilling a job he knew he would be terrible at while at the same time having to come to terms with the fact he was paired with a guy who is a large dog.
"But that was not the reason why I called you here. There are two things, really. The first one is that in a month there will be a party with the neighbouring packs. The party is being held in the honor of a new heir from one of the other packs and also in the honor of... you." Atlas told Niel carefully.
"Me? Why me?"
"Isn't that obvious. You will be the new Luna of this pack. They want to meet one of the new leaders."
The teenager didn't want to linger any longer on that subjects and asked, "And the other thing was?"
The Alpha stood up and looked out of the window. He knew what he was about to say would make Niel angry, but he did it for his mate's safety. "I don't know if you have noticed but I moved your stuff in my room."
Niel stood up, agitated, as Atlas had predicted. "Why?"
"I want you closer to me and I think that is also better for you."
"How is that any better for me?!" Niel couldn't believe what was happening. His only place in this weird place where he could escape from it all was now being taken away from him. No, no, no! He thought.
"It's for your own safety." Atlas said sternly. "And that is the end of it Niel, don't fight me. Know your place." Niel felt small, so, so small. It was the same with his father all over again. "I believe dinner is ready, shall we?"
The teenager was stunned by the Alpha's behavior and let him take to the dining room where already some pack members were waiting, which were mostly family members of the top three wolves and the top warriors and their families as Niel had learned.
The boy wasn't hungry and mostly sat there, still processing everything that was said to him today. When dinner was over Atlas took both of them to, now, their bedroom. It was on the same wing as Niel's room was but only one floor higher. It was at the top of the mansion and Niel noticed the hallway the room was joined to belonged to only one room, which was theirs.
Upon entering the room Niel could see how grand it was, he had already supisions it would, but the reality was even more grandiose. It was almost the size of an appartement. It had a living room area with two couches an armchair and a big tv. Opposite to it was huge bed where at least three people could fit in. Grand windows lighten the place beautifully, looking to his right Niel saw a joined bathroom where the door of it stood ajar and the bathroom was just as luxurious as the room was.
Atlas guided him through the room and brought him to a walk-in closet. "Here I put your clothes, I asked someone to wash them for you. But, of course, they will not be enough, so I believe we have some shopping to do in the future."
Niel stayed silent as he walked over to his now freshly washed clothes. He took one of the sleeves in his hand and smelled it. It didn't smell like home anymore and a wave of sadness went through the boy.
"This is too much," He muttered. "I want to go for a run," He stated now more clearly. Atlas frowned. He walked over to his mate and lifted his shirt up without asking. Niel startled, just watched. "Your bruises look even worse today, you are not exercising anytime soon."
The teenager pushed the Alpha's hands away. "I am feeling fine."
"Still you are not going."
"Yes I am and you can't stop me."
Niel walked away but was stopped by Atlas, grabbing his arm. "Oh but I can and I will."
"Stop controlling me!"
Atlas had a hard time to push his rage down, he knew his mate didn't submit to him because he wanted to be disobedient. He just didn't understand yet. But it angered the beast inside of him. Niel saw the flicker of color change in the Alpha's eyes and tried to take a step back.
"I think you need a time-out." Atlas let the teenager go and left the room, but not before locking it. Niel was enraged by this. He wanted to scream, yell, throw the furniture around, only he couldn't. He just numbed his emotions and listened to music the whole evening.