My Say

21

That first dinner had been two weeks ago and I was still in the room. Every evening he entered, got clothing, left, reentered showered and in his fresh clothing, we went to dinner. He never spoke about the fact that I wore pants under the dresses he laid out. He never spoke about the fact I only sat next to him as we ate and that as soon as I could I was out amongst the pack, speaking to the females and children. He never spoke about the fact that he returned me to the room, pushed me in and left me alone once more. We never spoke about anything of importance, but that changed tonight.

One of the things that had changed was the books. Elizabeth had brought me books to study. They included wolf etiquette, rules of the Blue Lake Pack, history of the Blue Lake Pack, things that would be helpful to a new Luna. But she also included, buried in the bottom of the book bags, books on how to control the links, how to block out someone, how to use the links for defense, fighting techniques for fighting as a wolf. These I studied far more closely than the Luna books.

Now was the time to test my new knowledge, "Elizabeth". Counting the seconds until someone answered.

"Paton?"

"Yeah, can you spring me?"

"I'm with Nate right now." She hesitated, "Is it important?"

"Who else is with you?"

"Red, several Deltas, and an Epsilon." When she didn't give me any more info I was forced to ask.

"What's it about?"

"This is about the security for the Alpha meeting this weekend."

"When was I to be informed?"

I could feel her shock, in that shock she left the link wide open and I could hear and see as she did, "Nate does Paton know about this weekend?"

"Who?"

"Your mate."

"You mean the creature who calls herself Rom?

She ignores his poking, I don't want to. I also don't want him to know I can do this yet so quiet I remain. "Have you told her about her duties?"

"She will not be attending." He is looking through paper ignoring the room. He has become everyone's focus. "What?" No one moves.

Red is the first to break the stalemate, "What will we tell the other packs?"

"Nothing."

"You can't do that. The word is out you've found your mate. Already there is talk about how you beat her and abuse her, that she's a mentally unstable rogue you have to keep locked up in the prison, or that you are so jealous that you've killed several of your top warriors for looking at her. Mostly they revolve around you abusing her and she can't come out because of the broken bones and such." The Epsilon looks sick, like he can't believe he just told his Alpha this information.

"Who told you these lies?" Alpha is scary when he yells but when he is quiet it's terrifying.

"My associates have been begging me for tickets to the ball. Everyone wants to see who you're going to roll out as your Luna." He swallows hard, it reminds me of the cartoons I watched as a child. "The heavy betting favors you don't bring her out at all instead bring out one of your favorite whores. But the whales are..."

"Enough", the quiet roar made my hair stand on end.

"Mother, you and Amelia get her prepared." Elizabeth shook her head but said nothing. I withdrew from the link. What the hell had just happened?