Myths & Rejections

Chapter 34 - Spy Games

Word Count: 5320

Just before Harper's call.

Celie sat Eden down on a stool in her studio and turned him around a few times, looked him over with a critical eye, then turned him around again before she sat down on her own stool.  She pulled over a cart out from under a shelf and arranged her pencils and erasers on it before picking up a large sketch pad and turning back to Eden. 

Eden watched her intently, happy with this opportunity to just sit and look at her.  She was mesmerizing to him; he didn't think she understood what a great beauty she was.  He'd heard refer to herself as the cute one and Harper as the beautiful one several times.  Though Harper always tried to correct Celie that she was beautiful, Celie always blew it off, clearly not believing it. 

But Eden thought so, he thought no other female could compare to her.  She had him sitting in a spot of sunlight from a large window and that light spilled like glory over her. It brought out the gold flecks in her hazel eyes and highlighted the smattering of freckles across her cute little button nose and cheeks.  She chewed unconsciously on her luscious pink lips as she turned the sketch pad this way and that, drawing in sure strokes.

"It's bizarre, don't you think?" Celie asked suddenly, meeting his eyes quickly, but not pausing her drawing.

"What is?" Eden asked.

"That all this craziness has happened in just a week and a half?" Celie said, this time looking up at him seriously as her pencil hovered over the page. "You've only been here for ten days, and already we've been attacked by tritons three times and we declared our intention to mate."

"You think it's too soon to declare our intentions, or too soon to have intentions?" Eden ask, his eyebrows drew together in worry. Was she changing her mind about him?

Celie grinned at him, shaking her head.

"No, I asked if you think it's bizarre that all this happened so fast?" Celie said. "Not that I think it happened too fast.  Wolves don't screw around with this long engagement bullshit. When we find our mates, we mate them. We don't wait around or date for ten years, we decide to make a commitment and we make it. Of course, most of the time there's the fated mate bond pulling us to mate immediately.  Wolves don't understand waiting, at all.  They think, 'I found mate, let's make pups' literally right then and there."

Eden stared at her for a second trying to figure out if she was serious.  His doubting look made her chuckle.

"I'm not exaggerating about that," Celie smiled. "But even when there is no mate bond, like if a wolf is rejected, or has no mate because their mate died before they met, they still don't usually see a point in waiting long to mate.  But then, we are wolves...so...we're not exactly known for patience."

"What do you mean their mate died before they met?" Eden asked.

"If your mate dies anytime after you get your wolf, you'll feel it, even if you're too young for the mate bond to have fully formed.  Some people say the mate bond is determined before you're born and you are born connected, some people say it's determined when you get your wolf.  I think it's probably when you get your wolf because before that you don't have a wolf to bond.  And humans or people who never get a wolf, usually don't have fated mates," Celie explained, going back to her drawing. "It hurts when the mate dies once they're paired, not as badly as it would be if they were bonded, but it still hurts. Second chance mates usually take a lot longer to find that a fated mate, so many wolves will have a chosen mate if theirs died."

"Fated mate bonding sounds so complicated," Eden sighed. "Every time we speak of it I find out a new rule or requirement."

"It can be complex depending on the situation," Celie shook her head with a small smile. "But we grow up hearing about it, so it makes sense for us.  We truly expect to find our mate when we're eighteen, mate with them within a week or two, then start having pups, and just live our lives.  Most wolves lives are very simple, we're devoted to the pack, we do whatever job is needed, we don't often go to college or have careers.  Some do, usually the lower ranked or weak wolves get education, the strong wolves are warriors who protect the pack."