A Sin of Her Own

Chapter 4

Males to the left, males to the right, and the most infuriating and irritating male sat opposite.

Titania was absolutely thrilled at the mass of male testosterone being continuously thrown around the room. What a waste of time, she thought, referring to the bickering already starting between the high rankers of multiple packs to her left.

Brett, the Alpha of the Shetland Islands- who, annoyingly had similar pack terrain, values and lifestyle as Titania- refused to remove his eyes from her. They had an alliance, of sorts, and his wolf had made his intentions for her clear. His Human, however, had never made such advances.

Not as if she was remotely interested but the similarities between their packs did slightly cause a lean to him. He was built like the mountains and cliffs that adorned his lands and, although his harsh exterior brought about a similar reaction from the city pack wolves, she understood the coldness.

The coarseness that wolves inhabiting extreme terrains and climates had. The wolves that suffered great loss at the heights taken to ensure survival. She always received respect from such wolves.

Alpha Brett, Alpha Fraser of the outer Hebrides (islands to the north-west) and Alpha Cillian of the Orkney islands all carried this understanding and together, had their own strong alliances with one another.

It was common knowledge that Scotland contained the harshest climate combined with land in the European continent alongside those in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. But those packs had been wiped out for years so, it came to no surprise at the deep connection these four wolves had.

The alliance only applied to extreme cases, as wolves as such did not like asking for aid; but the chilling winter two years prior had led to these packs all living together as one on Titania's lands.

They had suffered many losses that year, not that any of them forgot.

All four sat straight. The rugged appearance and cold exteriors off-putting to the majority of the packs there. But what those five packs lacked in social skills, they made up for in brute strength and many knew not to cross them, for they were Mother Natures own warriors, forged from iron, ice, blood, sweat and determination.

Titania watched the other twenty-four packs around the table, some from completely different continents, whitter about pointless things such as land and rolled her eyes. Why go on about land? Wasn't what they had enough? Clearly not to these packs whose values were only skin deep.

Languages such as Spanish, Latvian, German and French flittered around the table. Together with their sun-kissed skin, it made a nice change to Titania. She was definitely a people watcher. Their mannerisms, full of energy and life caught her attention for she was not used to such. It was clear they had not been accustomed to the life she had, full of death, struggle and destruction.

She watched as deep accents and tanned complexions from three Italian Alphas broke through conversation. She was familiar with the language and immediately recognised that their conversation was about her. 'Mountain Widow' 'surely not her' 'all a fairytale' paired with  darting eyes studying her appearance, didn't conceal the fear the wolves emitted. A smirk tilted her cherry lips. How amusing, even the Italians had heard of her.

Slow claps from the front of the claustrophobic room drew the crowds attention. Immediate silence followed. The Elder Council, which consisted of three males who had the most cumulative years of Alpha experience, around one hundred and fifty years combined, stepped forward and took their respective seats.

Curious eyes watched them, the question on everybody's minds: why had they sent for all the packs in Europe?

"Greetings, I'm glad to see that everybody is in attendance," the greying man eyed the crowd before smugly landing on Titania, "Titania, what a surprise. Among other business, I do hope you find a suitable mate here at this gathering."