𝙴𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚜𝚎𝚍

Chapter Two

Before we left, I sent the girls upstairs to grab their hats and parasols from their rooms so I could have a moment alone with father.

Other than what had happened earlier with Mira, I had something else on my mind. Something that I wanted to ask him about privately.

I knocked on the door to his study, then called out, "May I come in?"

"Of course, Eliza." I could hear his smile through the door.

I turned the knob and walked in, relishing in the familiar smell of parchment, dust and ink as they wafted into my nose. I had always loved sitting in his study with him while he worked on his daily duties. Just the two of us, him scribbling and I page turning, not a word needed to have been spoken between us because we just enjoyed each other's company.

Our mother had died while trying to give birth to our fifth sibling. The baby, a boy, did not make it either. However, despite her being my mother, she never really treated me like I was her daughter. I spent years trying to figure out why she had been so standoffish with me yet had been so warm and loving with my sisters, and I still never quite figured it out.

So instead, to avoid annoying her or getting in the way, I spent most of my time with father. He was always so kind to me, him and his wolf Elix actually. Elix was a large beautiful brown wolf with glowing amber eyes. He had some of the biggest paws I had ever seen, and his teeth alone were enough to make you second guess picking a fight with him. How father was only a beta, I'd never understand. Because he and Elix came closer to the size of an Alpha.

Though, in the more war centered packs it was said that all of the males, and even some females, were that big and the Alphas even bigger. Part of me wondered if he had originally been from one of the war packs back in his day, but I had never thought to ask him whether or not I had assumed correctly.

"What is it, sweetheart?" He asked while glancing up from his paperwork.

"Is Luci really going to participate in the next Finding Ball?" I just came right out with it, there was no reason to beat around the bush, nor time. The girls would have been back down soon, and he preferred us to be straightforward with him anyway.

"She is." His face softened at the rather obvious look of hurt plastered all over my face, "I know how much she means to you, Elizie, but she wants to find her mate and now that she is old enough there is nothing that I can do other than support her."

"I know." I sighed, "I did not mean for it to sound as if I did not want her to leave." I fought the tightness in my throat that tried to keep me from speaking, "I was just wondering when that would be, you know, so that I can prepare myself. As well as know exactly how much time I have left to spend with her, just in case she does find her mate."

He sighed, then sat his pen down. "This Friday night."

"This Friday?" I swallowed my tears and dug my nails into my hands to keep from getting choked up, "That's only two days away, I-I thought I had at least another month."

"You would have, if it were not for the Alpha's daughter coming of age." Father closed his ledger then looked up at me so that I had his full attention. Though, in his brown eyes, was something that I just could not decipher, "You know, you could come with us, to the ball that is."

"I have no intentions of attending a pack event." I said curtly. "They would not accept me there anyhow."

"They will." He insisted, "You are a member of this pack, and you deserve the chance to find a mate just like any of the others."

"How do you know that I even have a mate?" I snapped. "I am a mutt. There is a good chance that I might not have been afforded such a wolfly thing."