Chapter 11
I shift uncomfortably on the balls of my feet. Entering was just as bad, if not worse than I thought it would be. Since all the others were already on the stage, we were alone as we processed through the crowd to the stage. A thousand eyes were immediately on us. People were staring, pointing and whispering because the only person who processes next to an alpha is his mate.
Even before I was mated to Keenan, I wouldn't have processed in with my father. I would have just joined the crowd. So, let me tell you, people were shocked. But, then, it got worse because Keenan's whole pack bowed and I hate it when people do things like that. I'm not used to it and it just makes me all kinds of uncomfortable. Right now though, is even worse than that. Because, now we are standing on stage in front of everyone and Keenan is giving a speech. In which, he will introduce me.
My eyes scan the crowd and lock with Hazel's. I expect her to look away–if she was scared of my rank before, I'd imagine she'd be terrified now–but instead she shoots me a reassuring smile. Surprisingly, that actually helps a lot and I feel a bit of the nerves die down and I stop shifting so much.
"As the alpha of the Blood Moon pack, I would like to welcome all of you to our territory and to the first Meeting in centuries," Keenan speaks into the microphone. "I, your alphas, and the Council agreed to pick up these Meetings in the hopes of bringing back interpack mating," Oh, no, here it comes.
"We are all proud to say that it has worked, much more quickly than we could ever have hoped for in fact. Today, when the High Families of the seven packs were meeting, I found my mate," he turns slightly and smiles at me, "Farrah Williams, daughter of the alpha of the Half Moon pack."
When he indicates my father, his voice grows steely, but I doubt anyone noticed because he just made such a major announcement. I pray to the Moon Goddess that Keenan does not feel the need to have me give a speech. I am a girl who knows her strengths and her weaknesses. One major weakness is public speaking. "So now, I ask that you mingle amongst yourselves and hopefully, by the end of this, more people will be experiencing the joy I feel right now."
Thank you, Goddess. That is the cue for everyone to go about their business, which thankfully they do. Although, by the frequent glances in my direction, I can tell that I am a big topic for discussion. Keenan turns the mic off and turns to me.
"What's wrong?" he whispers immediately, stepping close to me so others cannot overhear. Even with the drone of a thousand voices, werewolves still have crazy good hearing.
"Later," I tell him, because out of the corner of my eye, I see Lorenzo approaching us. He nods and moves away, his eyes trained on Lorenzo, who takes a step too far.
"Back up," Keenan growls. I roll my eyes at his possessiveness, but it is to be expected at this point. Lorenzo just laughs and takes a step back.
"No worries about me going after your girl," Lorenzo assures him. "I'm holding out for my own."
"Good," Keenan says, completely at ease now that Lorenzo took a step back. I get the feeling that Keenan is actually good friends with Lorenzo. I'll have to ask him about that later. "What did you need?"
"We are all going to go ahead and mingle with the crowd. You wanna come?" Lorenzo asks, glancing between Keenan and me, the question clearly addressed to us both.
"Umm..." Keenan trails off, glancing at me. He has clearly gathered that crowds are not my thing, but at this point, I would prefer a crowd to a stage. Besides, I can find Hazel that way, so I nod. "Sure."
"Alright, come on then." We follow Lorenzo over to the others and we all file off the stage and get swallowed in the crowd. Immediately, Keenan and I are stopped by two girls who drop to one knee in front of us.
"Alpha and Paene Luna," they address. I have the strong desire to ask them to stand up, but since I am with Keenan, I know it is not my place to do so. It is his call.
"You may rise," he says. They stand and with one last bow, they turn around and disappear into the crowd.
"Ugh," I mutter under my breath, but he hears me and shoots me a both frustrated and confused look. "Later."
"Ugh," he responds mimicking my tone.
I smile amused at him and he just winks and keeps leading me through the crowd. Actually, leading me through the crowd is no harder than walking down a hallway. People just immediately part for not only us, but the other alphas and their lunas as well. The only difficult part is that we get stopped every few steps so one of Keenan's pack members can bow to us. As we walk, I notice the food table and I get excited. But, my excitement increases even more when I notice Hazel at the food table. It would be really great to go talk to someone who won't call me Paene Luna. I tug on Keenan's hand to get his attention.
"I'm going to go over there," I tell him. He glances at the table and frowns slightly. "It's not that far. Besides, that girl standing there is a friend of mine and I want to go talk to her."
"That's the girl from in the kitchen?" he asks. He must have seen that in my images too.
"Yes," I respond. He glances over there and back at me, clearly weighing his desire to keep me close to him against his desire to make me happy.
"Okay, I won't be too far away," he places a quick kiss on my forehead and I let go of his hand and start to walk away. But, the moment his warmth disappears, even though I am still warm from all the other bodies around me, I start to rethink my decision. But, Hazel turns around and spots me and I know that I have to go through with it.
"Hey, Hazel," I greet cheerfully when I get over there.
She immediately drops to the ground. "It is a pleasure, Paene Luna." I groan and pull her to her feet.
"Don't do that," she shrugs apologetically.
"I had to. Your Alpha is standing over there staring at us and I would prefer not to get in trouble for not greeting his mate properly," she responds glancing nervously behind me. I follow her gaze and see that Keenan has not moved from the spot that I left him in. The only difference now is that he has a very stony expression on his face. I glare at him and he smiles unashamedly at me. When I take a step forward, intending to go chew him out for scaring the one girl who could possibly become my friend, he holds up his hands in surrender and walks away. Though he glances back at me a number of times before he disappears into the crowd.
"Don't worry about him, he's just being protective," I finally say to Hazel, who looks a lot better now that she doesn't have a six-foot-four hunk of man glaring at her.
"Yeah well, his protective is scary," she responds shivering slightly as if reliving the memory.
"I––" my response gets cut off when a scream rips through the air.
A scream so blood-curdling that it manages to silence a cafeteria jammed with a thousand people. My gaze snaps to the girl who screamed and I see it is a young teenager, maybe fourteen or so. Everyone near her follows her eyes to the thing that scared her so much. Just to the left of me is six wolves. They are like no wolves that I have ever seen. They are raggedy, missing patches of fur. Their eyes glow red and their mouths are practically foaming. Another scream cuts through the air. At first I think that it is Hazel, but then I realize that it is mine. Because those wolves are moving.
And they are headed straight for me.
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Cliffhangers suck, right? Don't worry though. The next chapter is due Thursday.
Don't forget to VCF.
~method_is_my_madness
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Child of Prophecy {#Multimedia}
Người sóiFarrah has spent her life being pushed around for the mistakes of her mother. Because her mother cheated on her father with a human, therefore having her, she cannot shift, and she is the scapegoat of her entire pack. Her mother left long ago, leavi...
