Ruthless -ON HOLD-

The Oath

Author's Note: Alright you guys, here's another rewritten chapter! This story is undergoing a major makeover and I hope you're enjoying it so far! I'm keeping to my promise of updating once a week so here's this one! I'll be starting on Leaving the Nest next! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this edit! Love you all! -Al

Every pack has its traditions, its customs for unions. City packs prefer to treat their unions like human weddings; dresses, tuxes, rings, and vows. They court each other and fall in love prior to mating like the humans do. Their way is considered to be very extravagant and privileged. An unnecessary show of glamour and a waste of money. That opinion of the City wolves' "traditions" is one of the few things that Common and Recluse packs agree on. It's really one of the only things we have in common.

Recluse packs vastly differ from us in practically every other aspect, especially with our traditions. Recluse packs are more savage with their customs. The males are allowed to take any unclaimed female in the pack he chooses for a mate. Unless they're paired by the Alpha himself when he selects two wolves who are likely to create stronger offspring. That's not even the worst of it. My heart aches and my stomach twists painfully thinking of all those poor females.

During the "ceremony" and I use that term loosely, the male marks the female by shifting into his wolf and biting the shoulder of the female in human form, just above the collar bone. The Luna of the pack forces the female to consume wolf's bane tea before the marking to prevent her from shifting into her wolf. She wolves don't always survive the bite. The pain is said to be as a white hot iron burning through flesh and muscle, leaving nothing but scars and agony in its wake. There is no guarantee that the women will survive the bite. It's not at all unheard of for the males to have another female prepared to take the place of the first one in the event that his chosen doesn't live through the marking. If the women survive the bite and heal properly they still aren't viewed as strong or worthy by the pack. They are still seen to be weak because they were "allowed" themselves to be claimed by a stronger wolf. Those females are pitied and revered by Common and City packs, but Recluse traditions are protected by the Alpha's Right to Choose.

Thankfully, Common packs have much more civil traditions. Mates are united in human form as well as in wolf form. Common packs are the only ones who incorporate both forms in the union, believing that both the wolf and the human should equally be committed to each other. We are our wolves, and they are us, we are never without the other. Our ceremonies don't wear extravagant clothing like City packs. We also don't go unmated just because we don't feel a connection to another wolf. When we are choosing our mates we do choose based on feeling, of course, but only to a certain degree. Mostly though, Common females choose their mates based on who we believe can provide the best future for us and our future offspring, and males choose based on who they believe will give them the strongest offspring. But it is a mutual choice. It is against pack laws to force another into mating.

In this instance, where two mates are coming from two different classes of packs, we must each honor the other's traditions without violating either pack's laws. I don't know which part of the ceremony Cole will choose to integrate into ours, but I hope to shit it isn't that fucking bite. I won't know until the ceremony what he's decided.

In the meantime, my mother is prepping me in accordance to our traditions. I have to wear a slip dress, in this case the one my mother and grandmother wore for their unions. It's not anywhere near as extravagant as City females would wear. It's silk and well taken care of but that's all it has going for it other than the ivory color, I realize as I turn myself this way and that in the full length mirror attached to the back of my parents' bedroom door. It hangs from my shoulders by spaghetti straps and falls to just above my knees. My mother's face appears above my shoulder in the mirror and she grimaces at my expression. "I know it's not ideal, Mel, but-"