After the Alpha's departure, Fleur fled to her room in a failed attempt to settle her nerves by reading. Really she ought to have known that this desperate attempt to brush aside earlier events would be pointless. As soon as she thought she was in a comfortable position, intrusive thoughts would budge into her mind, and she would feel the need to shift around again.
Fleur had now found herself lying on her back, staring up at the wooden ceiling of her bedroom. Golden locks flared out on the carpet as cerulean eyes pinched together tightly. If Fleur had been asked last night where she saw her future going, she would have guessed that she would have moved back to the human settlement as soon as she finished High School to attend College there.
She would have wanted to study liberal arts to try a little bit of everything. She would have met a decent human man, someone calm and studious. Maybe even someone who saw their future in academia.
Her biggest dream was to go on a bookshop date. The romanticized idea of a relationship she had in her head was spending days reading and learning together.
Truly everything she dreamed of happening was, to its core, mundane. She probably would have come back to the pack now and then to see her mom, but she had always imagined her future to be amongst other humans.
All of a sudden, all those plans and presupposed ideas came crashing down. She studied werewolves and their pack structures before the move to Bennington.
Always overly prepared, she didn't want to risk being ostracized by the pack for any knowledge she was missing out on because of her human education. She knew the significance that an Alpha carried in the pack.
Although Fleur had never been largely interested in any form of celebrity culture, especially not the werewolf kind, she was also a teenager. She would be lying if she said she hadn't heard the Deveraux name before.
For all the fuss that was made about Theo, as she had been told to call him, seemed calm, but there seemed to be an ever-calculated presence about him. His eyes were intimidating and arcane; his gaze seemed ten steps ahead just as he was following conversation.
She also knew of the lives the Deveraux's lived; she had seen pictures of the private jets, the yachts, and the holiday houses. The countless events and balls they attended. She knew they were a tight nit family pack whose ancestry could be traced back to the first wolf men. They were a family steeped in tradition and burdened with history. Fleur just wasn't sure what her part in all of this would be.
Tears of frustration started tingling in her eyes, and she could feel her throat closing.
With a frustrated sigh, Fleur whipped the few stray tears from her cheek and sat up with a huff of annoyance. Hadn't she already cried enough today? And what the hell does someone wear to dinner with their supposed mate?
Trudging over to her closet, she stared at it blankly at the clothes before her. Fleur wasn't much of a fashion girl; she enjoyed wide pants and cozy sweaters. However, she had never been on a date before and was unsure as to how formal this dinner was anyway. She sporadically pulled out a few items of clothing before putting them back into her wardrobe, not feeling inspired by any of them.
She and her mom were roughly the same size, so maybe she had something that Fleur would be able to borrow later. After a couple of minutes, it was clear that this wasn't going anywhere so Fleur tumbled back to her bed in exhaustion. Maybe a nap would help clear her mind.
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Theo wasn't exactly surprised to open the door to his office in the pack house and find his nephew Johnny sitting behind his desk with a shit-eating grin on his face. The heavy scent of oak and cigars hit him as soon as he moved into the room.
The office of the Deveraux Alpha had not changed in generations, and Theo had vivid childhood memories of his grandfather sitting behind the solid wooden desk smoking while strategizing and scheming with his hoard of children and grandchildren.
The office was only privy to a select number of people as the Deveraux Alpha's tended to receive their visitors in one of the meeting rooms connected through a hidden passageway.
No one knew their way around the endless pack house like a Deveraux. Their kind had built this house; it was designed for an Alpha always to be one step ahead of its prey. In typical Deveraux fashion, it was a calculated and cunning masterpiece.
"A little birdy told me you decked your mate?" Johnny's voice was mocking as he moved to one of the dark green leather couches opposite the desk.
"Oliver?" Was Theo's short questioning reply, his face remained impassive as Johnny clearly wanted to provoke him.
"Oh no, Alpha, the video is all over social media; a bunch of news outlets have already picked it up" Theo got the impression that Johnny was just too happy about this whole situation.
It wasn't often that Theo Deveraux was in a position where he was not entirely in charge of the outcome. And really, who could have predicted that one of the most respected and photographed members of the werewolf upper class would get mated to a tiny human girl with cerulean eyes?
Those eyes hadn't left Theo's head since he had pulled away from the Sutton house. Neither had her scent, the memory of which had left his wolf pathetically panting. Theo's wolf was much like his human counterpart, a rather stoic being, and Theo had never seen him as stirred up as he had been when he first made eye contact with his delicious mate.
"I mean, it's no wonder the media is having a field day with this – tiny thing, isn't she?" Johnny spoke up again, his wicked smirk and sparkling eyes taking in the looming presence of his uncle, who sat at his desk deep in thought.
"Right, well, we need to get on top of this – Call your father and the high Betas" Upon his deep voice uttering his command, Johnny sprang into action immediately, mind linking all parties to assemble into one of the meeting rooms.
As his uncle lifted himself from behind his desk to make his way over to the heavy wooden bookcase which also held the entrance to the passageway. Seamlessly the door opens for the two looming figures of the Deveraux men to make their way to their appointment.
The meeting room, which faces the flower garden planted by the Luna Mother shortly after she had mated Theo's father, was one that Theo used often. He had fond memories of playing there as a child with his mother and brother before their mother left them to join the Moon Goddess. Looking at the flower garden while working allowed Theo to find some comfort even on the most challenging days.
Now he regularly consulted with the best florists in the country to keep the garden at its highest standard. It was a hard decision to open the pack house garden to the public for Theo, but he knew the beauty of it, and the vision his mother had created shouldn't go to waste.
"Your Majesty, on behalf of the entire Beta council, we want to congratulate you on finding your mate! Blessed be the Moon Goddess!" Beta Phillip Hunt spoke up as soon as Theo took a seat at the head of the conference table. His brother had taken the seat to his right while Johnny had sat to his right.
Theo only gave an appreciative nod in the direction of Beta Hunt, who sat at the other end of the table. Truly he should be the one to thank the Beta because had it not been for his annoying urgency to get Andrew Sutton back into the pack, he would possibly have never met his mate. But, instead, he would have to express his gratitude to the Beta; at another time, there were more important matters to discuss.
"My nephew has informed me that a rather unfortunate video is circulated in the media of me initially meeting my mate – Why has it not been removed?" Theo spoke with striking calmness as he held eye contact with all the men at the table.
"Alpha, Sir, If I may – the issue lies in the fact that students at the high school had recorded that video and sold it to the news agencies. It is, therefore, their property, and we cannot simply forbid them from playing it," One of the other Betas, Stephen Quinn, spoke up. Stephen Quinn was a fierce and rugged wolf with grey hair and wise eyes.
He was also at least thirty years Theo's senior, but he had been a council to his father before him, and the Quinns had always remained loyal to the Deveraux's, therefore, earning their most profound respect.
There was a pause in the room before Beta Quinn continued.
"Realistically, we can't make the video go away. It's been shared in such a frenzy if we take one down, five new ones will appear in its place. So we suggest that there should be an official statement made to get ahead of all speculation confirming that the Luna has been found but that the Alpha pair demands privacy in these crucial first moments to cement their new relationship."
Theo thought over what Beta Quinn had just told him. Quinn, ever the reasonable wolf, obviously had a point, but Theo was angered that he couldn't control how the world got to meet his mate. It was frustrating not only for him but also for Fleur that she was now just going to be thrust into the public eye without having any say in it.
"Thank you for your council Beta Quinn – this seems to be a reasonable suggestion. Have the statement drawn up and sent to my office for final confirmation"
"We should also discuss the issue of the Luna's safety – Theo, as soon as the press office release the statement, she will have a target on her back" It was his brother who now spoke up, and the room fell silent.
Although Elijah Deveraux was the less menacing of the Deveraux siblings, he was still cunning and authoritative. He was probably also the only person brave enough to address Theo as such in public. Even his nephews tended to refer to him as Alpha in any formal capacity out of respect for the position.
"What do you propose, brother?"
"Appoint a Luna guard of maybe two individuals who can accompany the Luna daily to ensure her safety" Theo knew that his brother was raising an important point. While the Deverauxs were not in active conflict with anyone currently, the safety of his mate was not something that Theo would take lightly. He just didn't know how to raise this point to Fleur. He knew that their mating would be overwhelming for her, and now the fact that she had to be followed around by two strangers. Theo knew this wasn't going to go down well with her.
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"Darling- Are you almost ready? We should get going soon!"
The voice of her mother ripped Fleur out of her destructive thoughts. She was standing in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom, criticizing herself. Her long blond hair was braided back in a simple plait with a couple of loose strands framing her face.
She had tried to do something nice with it, but the more she tried to twist and tug at her curls, the more they would turn into a frizzy hive on her head. Perched on her nose were her thick brown glasses. Fleur had a hatred for contacts, she was pretty squeamish, and the idea of pocking around in her own eye revolted her. So although the glasses were disproportionally large on her small face, they were here to stay.
She was wearing a simple cotton black wrap dress she had borrowed from her mother. It was nice but not too much for the occasion, which a lot of the other dresses her mother had given her had felt like to her.
Fleur wanted something that wouldn't reveal her arms or too much of her legs and preferably something that wasn't any bright color, which limited the choice in Sabine's closet by a lot. A series of light knocks on the door alerted Fleur of someone's presence.
"Can I come in?" She heard her mother's voice sound, and Fleur immediately replied with an invitation to enter.
"My god, you are just the most beautiful girl – How did I get so lucky!" Sabine couldn't help herself but gush over her daughter. While Fleur felt very ambivalent about her features, her mother never failed to make her uncomfortable about her appearance.
"How are you feeling about tonight? I'm so proud of how you've handled all this" Sabine sat on her daughter's bed, turning her to get her full attention while holding her hand. Fleur stared down at their intertwined hands.
"I don't know, Mom, it all doesn't feel real yet" Her shoulders sagged as she pulled away from her mother to sit down next to her on the bed. Sabine gently takes Fleur's hand with the brace on it into her hand. "How can it be so easy? He smells me and knows I'm the one?"
"Trust me, Fleur, haven't a mate is not easy," Sabine says, laughing to herself lightly. "Initially, meeting each other might be simplified more for wolves, but it's still a relationship, and every relationship comes with its challenges."
Fleur only gave Sabine a tight-lipped smile in reply as her mother started to drag her up from the bed.
"Enjoy it, Fleur! It's just a dinner, and from there, you'll take it day by day" Sabine hugged her close. She always knew that Fleur would grow up eventually but knowing that in the abstract and then actually witnessing it in practice were two entirely different things.
She knew that Fleur needed her to be other things at various stages of her life. For most of their time together, Sabine acted as a mother, friend, confidant, and guiding voice but also the occasional lousy influence on her daughter to allow her to relax. Now she knew that was about to change. As Fleur would grow into her relationship with the Alpha, she would need Sabine less, and Sabine was fine with that; it would just take some getting used to.
She kissed her daughter's cheek sincerely before squeezing her tightly once more. The fact that children grow up was inevitable, but no one had told Sabine that it would be quite this bittersweet. She knew that regardless of how the dinner events played out, Fleur was going to lead a life that would be drastically different from the one that anyone who knew her would have imagined for her. But Sabine knew from personal experience that the moon goddess was right, and she was excited for Fleur to come to the same realization.
"Mom?" Fleur struggled to withdraw from the attack of affection, feeling crowded by the intensity of the embrace.
"Come on now, Fleur – Put on your shoes! Let's not keep that mate of yours waiting!"
A/N
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