The Shadow of Stars

Sixteen

We both filled in two sides of the board because I didn't want to list out my thoughts to him in case it led to even more argumentative negotiations. So we took different coloured markers and just wrote out a list of things that we didn't want to budge on. Mine was admittedly larger than Micahs but it ended up something like:

MICAH:

No dating other people
No suing each other
No investigating to leave the bond
No publicly speaking out against one another or the pack
Both put in effort to get to know each other

ATHENA:

Can leave the pack when I want
Can sign my own legal documents Don't need permission to work or get an education
Authority over where I liveAuthority over who I speak to
Authority over who I am friends with.
My family and friends face no punishments with anything to do with the bond.

I do not want to be marked. 

We both sat back and looked at the others list and made our own notes on pieces of paper. He notably was scribbling a lot more words down, his face cut with a hardened stare as he pulled together his case. My notes weren't difficult to make because his requests weren't entirely wild. I wonder if, after seeing my extensive list, he wanted to revisit his own.

"Alright, should we share?" He says, placing his pen down and I nod, watching him stand up to grab a red marker. "Okay, well I am going to kick this off then. First up, leave the pack when you want—this one is slightly more complicated given that it was my fathers command to have you stay, making it out of my authority. But I will continue to give you as many passes as you wish, personally, I'm fine with that. Though I would like to just add a courtesy message." He adds his appendix onto my note with a red arrow. "If either of us are going to go, then flick the other a message with just a where to and roughly how long. If my father does discover you out of the pack it will make covering easier and I'd also like to know."

A message to him every time I leave the pack. I don't need to tell him who I am with or why I am leaving just where and how long. "And you can't stop me from going somewhere if you disagree, not even if it's to another nation." I add to confirm and he stiffens at that. "Okay maybe within this nation a message and if either of us leave the nation we need to provide our itinerary and any other materials relevant to the trip. And either of us can stop a trip if it exceeds two months."

I mull over his counter-offer. Two months is a decent amount of time, and he said can stop, not will. So if I did want to leave longer I could plead my case. Plus, it's better than the current alternative, so I nod my head. He wordlessly adds the amendments in red and ticks the point.

"Can sign your own legal documents. This is pack law, it's out of my jurisdiction to change it," he admits with a heavy sigh, like he has read through that law many times to understand its complications. "But we can come to our own agreement that any legal documents you wish to sign, that do not counter other areas of our agreement or put you in any immediate danger, will be signed by me—no questions asked. And l thought to maybe even it out, I can speak to our lawyer and make you an authority over my signed documentation, until I become Alpha of course."

I don't really want to sign his documents, or care massively what he does and does not decide to do if it doesn't directly involve me. But it's the principle of the matter and I think he knows that. "Alright."

He makes the changes and then immediately ticks my following demand. "You can work or educate yourself as much as you'd like, I have no issue with that. And you may speak to whomever you please. Both of us can enjoy those rights. Living, I can agree to that and who you are friends with is fine with the exception of their nature. Anyone deemed dangerous under pack law or a threat to the safety and wellbeing of the pack you can't associate with, same goes for me."