A few weeks had gone by since new year, it was mid february so outside it was still cold and the wind blew a lot. The wounds inflicted by the hunters had healed completely, for both me and Eli. His leg had been broken by the trap the hunters had set for us, but even that had healed perfectly. Sometimes I really thought he had become slower, when we would go for our runs, but as soon as the thought would cross my mind, he would step it up and run right past me. Conner had been rejected by Alpha Scott and I hadn’t disagreed. Even though he had saved our lives, he was still a vampire and he could be very dangerous. He had bought a small apartment in the town nearby and Alpha had made peace with that. I could go visit, but only with Eli and at least one soldier. Two weeks into january Alpha Scott had decided it was time for him to take a step back inside the pack. He was getting tired and many things had happened during his reign. He was more than happy to give his title to his best in the pack, his beta for years now. Today, a month after the announcement, they would have a ceremony in the woods, to celebrate Wouter’s promotion. It would be strange at first, one of my best friends would become my alpha. I hoped he would not abuse his power, but knowing him, I highly doubted he would. We arrived at the clearing and I sat down in the back, with my dear Eli at my side. In the natural wolf world, a leader would be chosen by fighting. You could only become an alpha if you defeated the last one. In our world, the shifting wolves that is, you could resign and the beta would take his place. Unfortunately the old tradition of the natural wolves did course through our veins. This meant that Wouter would have to become superior to Alpha Scott.
Alpha Scott took his place, there was an old tree stump, he had his front legs on the stump and talked to all the wolves that had come to the ceremony. Which meant he was actually talking to the entire pack. During his speech, Wouter walked up to him and pounced the old dark wolf. Alpha got back up and they did a small fake fight. It was all part of the ceremony, at the end Alpha Scott let himself fall down on the ground ‘defeated’ by Wouter. Now it was Wouter’s time to take the stand, he put his front legs on the tree stump and started talking to us.
‘Dear pack members. It it a great honour to become your Alpha. I would have expected it to take so much longer before this would happen, maybe even until our dear past Alpha might have died, but I’m glad this is the time. Whenever I will have questions or need guidance I know I can rely on him to help me. Since there isn’t anyone else to now become my Beta by birth, I have the ability to choose whomever I seem fit. I have thought long and hard about this and I’m sure I have made the best decision, someone I trust with my and Keeley’s life. I choose Eli.’
Everyone looked at us. Eli got to his feet and all the wolves eyes were on him. I had the urge to smile, Wouter hadn’t even talked to me about this, probably to ensure it would be a surprise for Eli tonight. My beautiful mate walked over to Wouter and lowered his head in a sign of respect. The entire pack howled for a moment, including me. This way we payed respect to both of them and congratulated them at the same time. Now the time came we had to go back to the pack house. It was dark and I could feel by the place the moon had taken, it was nearing ten p.m.
As we were walking towards the packhouse, I heard Eli looking for me. Everyone tried to congratulate him in his thoughts. He almost always left his link open for me to hear his side. That would probably change. I was probably not allowed to hear important conversations between our Alpha and Beta. He was trying to make his way to me and I actually heard him gasp when his eyes caught mine. I gave him a cheeky growl and bolted. I knew he was jumping over the other wolves just to get to me, apologizing along the way. I had been walking all the way on the side, so he had to cross a lot of wolves. I was running through the woods and Eli soon broke free from the crowd. He was catching up to me, so I stepped it up a notch. Running all the way to the outskirts of our territory.
‘Stella, don’t go out of the territory!’ he yelled.
‘Catch me before I get there..’ I replied cheeky.
We both ran quite fast, but I was usually the faster one, I eased up on him. He reached me just before the line and pounced me. He didn’t anticipate that we would slide forward, straight over the line.
‘Eli, you pushed us right over the line, lets get back to the packhouse,’ I muttered.
I heard a soft hello, whispered. Eli heard it too, his ears went up and he immediately got off me. I got onto my feet and looked around.
‘Stella, that’s you and Eli right?’ the voice asked.
I sighed relieved, it had been Connor. I hadn’t expected him here, because we usually met up at his home, in human form.
I nodded my head, not seeing him just yet, but I bet he could see us.
‘I’m sorry to be here, I was taking a walk and I heard you run. I hid in the trees,’ he said, dropping down from a branch, quite close to us.
‘Would you meet with me tomorrow? I know you can’t shift now, so please?’ he asked.
I looked at Eli, he nodded slightly, so I nodded at Connor. I walked closer and rubbed my nose against his hand. He was becoming a friend, even though our entire beings should hate each other. Eli wasn’t yet as comfortably with Connor as I was. Because Connor couldn’t feel, sometimes I gave him the pleasure of a small hug or maybe holding my hand or arm. Eli was so jealous of these small tokens, others would describe as, endearing. So I had asked him, how he would feel if he couldn’t physically feel any touch. He had answered that he’d go insane. He promised it would always bother him, but as long as nothing really happened, it would be alright.
We had left and gone home. Eli and myself hadn’t talked all the way home. I could feel he wasn’t angry, he was jealous though. He didn’t want me to make it up, because he really wasn’t angry. That didn’t mean I didn’t want to make it up. We changed in the changing rooms and went home holding hands. Eli was still a little bit distant, but I knew how to change that. I still held his hand, I closed the door behind me and kissed his fingertips.
‘Don’t Stel,’ he muttered.
I knew our strong physical attraction was almost unbearable right now. The mere touch of my lips might drive him mad for me. I pulled him close.
‘Are you sure?’ I whispered in his ear.
‘Never..’ he muttered.
I gave him a small kiss in his neck and slipped my arms around his waist. He kissed my earlobes, making my stomach feel like a thousand butterflies were ravaging. It sounds horrible, but that’s how it felt.
