The Beast of Fox Hill

Forty

Cassander lead me through the large house but I could barely take in the details around me. We went straight for a back room like patio with glass walls surrounding it. We stopped right before the glass room at a door that lead into it, and I could see a lot of people standing in the back lawn. They were all smiling and chit chatting, waiting for their alpha and new female alpha to walk out the doors.

"You're going to be great," Cassander says to me.

"You two ready?" Booker asks with a smile.

"Okay, so the gamma walks out first, then the beta, and finally we make our way out," Cassander says to me and my nerves prevent me from doing more than a nod.

"Ready when you are," Zane says and Cassander gives him a nod signaling for him to go.

We step back and allow Zane to exit, and as soon as the door opens everyone stops and turns towards us and then separates, opening a path to a podium in the center of the yard. Zane walks out and everyone bows their head. Booker follows behind him, and the people in the yard get on their knees in respect.

"Let's go," Cassander says and he takes my hand and leads me through the door. We walk out of the glass room and onto the yard, following the parted sea of werewolves who remain on their knees with their head bowed. I feel a strong ache of anxiety, but in a way I feel powerful like this is where I belong, and my instincts are driving me at this point.

We walk up to the podium where Zane and Booker are already standing, looking serious and professional. Cassander leads me to the center of the podium and in front of a microphone sat perfectly in the center of it.

"You may rise," Cassander speaks assertively and within seconds, everyone in the yard has risen to their feet. "Thank you all for being here. It's been some time since we had a formal group meeting and I'm glad to see you all. As you all know, the day has come that I have found my mate," he says, gesturing to me. "This is your luna, Jasper," he states with a smile at me and the crowd begins to bustle with chatter.

Many people are looking at me and I can tell their inquisitive looks know that I am not like them, which is what Cassander begins to address next.

"As I am sure you can tell, Jasper is not one of us. She isn't a werewolf, and I'm sure this is going to pose many questions and I am sure I have the same ones you all do. Now, this makes her much more vulnerable to any of our enemies. That being said, I hope you all welcome her and protect her like any other luna," he instructs, standing tall. "Thank you for attending, and if you have any questions feel free to ask myself or Beta Booker," he says with a smile and the chatter begins again as soon as he nods his head.

He turns to me with a smile and says, "See, that wasn't too bad. Now you have to endure all the welcomes and new faces."

Within moments of him saying that, he escorts me down the stairs and into the crowd of werewolves. Everywhere I turn, a smile is seen and the words 'welcome, Luna' are spoken to me and 'congratulations Alpha' to Cassander. I smile and try to keep my social anxiety to a minimum but I can tell after this I'm going to be locking myself into my bedroom for a year.

It takes us around an hour to say all of our hellos and have small conversations with various people. My social anxiety begged me to leave and never come out of my house ever again. On another note though, I did feel somewhat comfortable despite all these people being strangers. It felt as though everyone had a strange connection with me, like they knew me and I knew them. We understood each other. I assumed that was another mysterious bond like the one Cassander and I had. I could not help but smile at everyone, especially the children that run up to me with excitement with sparkles in their eyes. I could just tell they adored me even though they had just met me, it was just the sweetest thing.