Chasing Death

Chapter 5 - Chasing Death

Reaching the dining room, i realised that many people were already seated. I sat down in a seat that Josh directed me to before leaving me and sitting in the big chair at the end of the table. I couldn't help but notice that the chair to his right was empty.

"Josh. I hope you don't mind me asking, but why is there an empty space at the side of you that everyone avoids sitting on?" I don't usually speak up in a room full of strangers, but i was really curious and it got the better of me.

All of the table seemed to be amused at my question. Was it really obvious? We never had this in my old pack. I was starting to feel really uncomfortable with everyone looking at me as well as finding what I just said funny.

"This is the seat that can only be taken by my mate." He spoke, a small smile on his lips.

"Oh..." Was all that came out of my mouth. I guess that means that she will be along any minute. I was starting to feel quite bad for keeping him from her now.

"I don't have a mate, yet." The amusement on his face grew. I seemed to feel relieved but assumed it was just that it made me feel slightly less embarrassed. "Marie, the girl you are sat next to, is my girlfriend at the moment, but I haven't proposed mating to her. That is why she sits near to my end of the table, but not in my mates seat." Again, embarrassment rose in my entire body.

I turned to the girl, Marie, and smiled warmly at her. "Its nice to meet you." We both spoke at the same time which caused us to let out a small laugh.

Just then, hands came from behind me placing food on the table. It made me jump a little but I soon calmed down and tried to cover up what i had just done... by pretending it hadn't happened. I looked around to see that everyone has started piling food onto their plates and eating. 

Feeling slightly awkward, I reached out and put some food on my plate. "C'mon girl! Surely you're more hungry that that!" Marie grinned and offered me a bowl of other foods to add to my plate. "You haven't eaten in over a day! Here, try some of this, wouldn't want to waste anything now, would we? Michelle wouldn't be happy about that. Shes the pack chef. She makes enough to feed an army! Though we are a bit like an army because we have quite a lot of members to the pack." She kept smiling and handing me more food as she spoke. She spoke a lot, it made me smile back at her.

When I looked back at my plate, it was heaving with loads of different foods so I decided that starting to eat it now would be better as it would take a long time to eat the majority of this. At this point, Marie also began eating but that didn't stop her from talking. "You don't talk much do you? Though I suppose that makes me and you balance. I talk a lot, you don't talk as much. You should sit with me every dinner! I'm sure I could get you out of your shell! If anyone can, its me. Isn't that right Josh?!" She looked at him waiting for his answer. He just laughed warmly and nodding. He obviously understood why I was so shocked at how much one person could speak.

After listening to Marie chat for half an hour, the table began to empty as people finished and went back to doing whatever they were doing before dinner. Marie noticed that my plate was empty and began to pull me up with her. "Let me just put our plates in the kitchen and then we can go to my room and chat for a bit." My eyes widened, there was more chatting to be done?! Hadn't she said everything over dinner? I had never known someone talk so much. The weird part was, she hadn't annoyed me one bit, just intrigued me. 

We walked through a door, into a very large kitchen, where Marie proceeded to scrape wasted food into a bin before placing our plates into a dish washer. "Lets go shall we?" She grabbed my hand ad tugged me in the same direction as my room. She stopped a door before mine and swung the door open before racing inside and jumping on the bed. "Shut the door while you're there and come sit." She smiled as I did what i was told. "So, Bobbie, I heard about what happened with your old pack and so I thought maybe you'd want to know more about ours. It might make you feel more safe and secure staying here."

After that, she began telling me about the traditions of the pack which, I must add, were very different to my old pack. They didnt use 'The Chase' as a method of mating. They went about mating like any human would. Dating until you fell in love and then proposing. Proposing for werewolfs here was more than just marraige though. The proposal included marraige, mating, having pups and growing old together, even if you didnt find your true mate. This also meant that if it wasnt your true mate that you proposed to, cheating became very common. Due to this, the Moon Wood Pack were very strict on mating laws and prefered to make sure false mating was less likely to happen by establishing a boundary of dating for one whole year before the proposal was legal to any couple. This lead her to tell me that her and Josh were half they there - The 6 months marker.

Her words made me feel more comfortable as it also meant that rape was illegal here and very uncommon unless someone wished to face the penalty of being kicked out of the pack or, in some cases, a death penalty. The death penalty arose when any individual raped the partner of a very important pack member, for example, the Alphas partner. This made Marie feel more safe than ever as she was protected by this law and it was one thing she always feared as a child. She was only 17, but she had witnessed this happen once as a child.

Her sister had been in a similar situation as me - minus the running away part - and had never been the same again. This was what drew Marie to me in a friendly way. What had happened caused her sister to take her own life and she wanted to prevent the same happening to me. I felt touched. "Dont worry Marie," I spoke up for the first time. "I wont ever do that. I ran because I wanted to live. I want to experience life to the full. I dont want it taken away from me before ive had a real chance."

Marie smiled at me and after that, we stayed up talking to eachother like good friends until we both fell asleep on her bed in the early hours of the morning.

[A/N] So now you know who Marieand some of her story :) there will be more to come about Marie as she develops a nice friendship with Bobbie :) 

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