Annalise

Broken Promise

Besides the first night of second-guessing Cristian, and Amarog, I'd gotten used to the idea and did as told. I kept my feelings and emotions in check and became a shell of myself. There were no tears to cry, or genuine smiles, or laughter, or fear. Just Anna, who had no friends, ate in her room alone, and occasionally conversed with her brother about his new position, or mother about how worried she's been. I smiled for show, and spoke only when directly spoken to. Other than that I had nothing to say. I was afraid I would perjure myself and Cristian, so I kept to myself and stuck to my room. I avoided Eric when I could, and attended his functions only at my mother's urging.

We were expected to spend time together, to get to know each other, and hopefully work past our, issues, as the council put it, but our so-called time together was often filled with awkward silence, him dropping in to hang with Luke, or strange dates at the Alpha house, that involved him locking me in the room with a puzzle or book, while he handled Pack business with his father. He didn't get to know me any more than I knew him, and if you asked either of us what the others favorite dish, or song was, we couldn't say. What I knew about him was that he preferred black, often went commando, and had different personalities that surfaced based on the person he was encountering at the time. What he probably knew about me was I preferred my home, sweats, and Cristian. But once he was gone there were only the two, so his jealous nature subsided and I was allowed my privacy.

The full moon ceremony was here and I remembered Cristian's warning and my promise. I knew Eric, and even my mother expected me to attend, but I had other plans. I wracked my brain with excuse after excuse until I gave up and decided that being ill would be the more plausible one. I had reservations at first but it was either that or pretending to be grounded, but I was sure my mother wouldn't lie.

She was excited about attending. It might have been seeing her old friends at the last event, or the idea of getting back to herself, but Lucas and I agreed that we had not seen her enjoy anything involving the pack since we didn't know when.

I watched as she stood running her hands through the dresses strewn about her bed. The nude one she'd just tried on was on the floor, and a long flowing black one took its place. It was simple, completely black with sheer sleeves that flared at the wrist and the bottom. From the looks of her choices, I assumed the service was more formal than the last event, and that the guest wouldn't be in any jeans or boots tonight. "I think this is the one Anna," she said running her hands over her hips, "what do you think?"

I looked at her in the gown, it was beautiful, fitted and showed the outline of her body in all the right places. "That's the one."

She smiled and pulled on a pair of black heels, and admired herself. "Are you sure?"

"No doubt."

"Ok scoot," she nudged, "gotta do something with these curls."

I got up from the chair and sat on her bed as she pulled her hair into a neat bun and examined the style. "It would be really nice if you came tonight," she said eyeing me in the mirror, "At least make a presence."

"I'm not really in the mood to celebrate," I lied. I wanted to celebrate and had plans to, but that was months ago. It was supposed to be with Cristian and Lily, and our graduating class but what fun would it be now, and Cristian had warned me not to go, so that was that.

"But you're gonna miss the blood toast, this is your first year, and I'm sure Eric will be pleased to have you as a date," she winked.

I glowered at her and decided it was time to leave. "You look really nice mom," I kissed her, "Have fun okay."

I'd grown tired of people mentioning Eric, the engagement, and even my name in the same sentence as his, so I left. I couldn't believe my mother. She knew I despised him, why would I want to spend an evening as his date, had we not had enough of those already?