Beautiful Things

Chapter 16-Answers

"IT'S VERY NICE TO meet you, Bailey." Oscar's sister appraised me.

"It's nice to meet you, too," I grinned, happy I was about to get some answers about what's been going on lately.

"By the way, my name's Vienna. Just so you know-but you can call me Vee." She said, and all three of us-Oscar, Vee and I-sat down on the couches in the living area. "I know how confusing this must be! Plus, Oscar never was much good at explaining things, so I thought it would be good to reinforce some things. Is there anything you want me to start with?"

"Hmm... if you could, I'd like to know more about werewolves in general." I said, messing my with my fingers in my lap.

"Of course," Vee said, and animatedly began. "Werewolves are humans that are born with part wolf DNA, obviously. They are able to go from wolf to human and back again, however sometimes it takes years of practice to learn how. For Oscar, it took him longer than most," she chuckled, earning a glare from Oscar. "Anyway, there are Packs of wolves, but there are always loner wolves who are either born outside of Packs or who simply don't take to the structured life we provide. Anyway, the pack leader is called the Alpha. The second in command is Beta. We don't have an omega here, but some Packs do have them. They are treated like slaves.

"And then, we get onto the part that actually answers the questions I'm sure you have," Vee laughed, and all I could think was 'get on with it'. "Each wolf is born with a Mate assigned to them. The second the Mates see one another, their whole bodies are immediately transfixed on each other. If they go too long without being together, they slowly begin to shut down. Then, there's thing called the Marking process," she began, and I immediately recognized this as what Oscar and his Grandmother were talking about last night. My heart thumped as I felt Oscar tense beside me—there was something about this he didn't like. "The Marking process is probably the most difficult part for any Werewolf-human relationship."

I nodded attentively, waiting for her to continue. She sighed, closed her eyes, and spoke once more. "While the Marking process is necessary to complete the bond, sometimes the human is known to die. However, if the Mates decide to put the Marking process off for too long, the werewolf in the relationship will slowly deteriorate and be in great amounts of pain."

My eyes widened. Is that what is hurting Oscar so much? It must be. Vee continued, ignoring my surprised look. "The Marking consists of three parts: one, the first time the pair sees one another, two-this is the dangerous part-the werewolf bites the humans neck, imprinting their scent onto you so every other wolf you come across knows who you belong to. Finally, the last step is mating. After this process, the Mates fully belong to each other and their bodies are one hundred percent in tune with the other."

"Wow… that's a lot..." I whispered, and Oscar spoke up beside me.

"My fathers Mate died in the process," he said, "I won't force you to do it if you don't feel safe."

"Oscar," I hissed, "you'll die yourself if we don't. It's a chance I'm willing to take."

"Bailey, don't worry about me. Do you honestly want to do this?" Oscar asked, worry shining in his eyes. He really did care about me…

But I cared about him as well. "Yes. I do."

Oscar closed his eyes, and nodded curtly as he curled me into his arms. "If it's what you want to do, okay."

  "It is," I responded, wrapping my arms around him. It is.