What Has Befallen Dakota

Two

Dakota, in all her short-sleeved glory^

🐾

After Dakota left, my sister thankfully decided not to continue on with her rambling.

Instead, she started complained to my father, who'd just sat down. I pursued my dream of reading my imaginary book while Lilith gabbed with my dad. I couldn't have been happier for her sudden shift in choice of people to talk to, and the book was very exciting.

The celebration was about to start, as Dakota had said - the wolves that had been carrying scripts across the stage were nowhere to be seen, and I saw Alpha talking with people and given kids high-fives as he made his way to the front of the crowd. The sound of gentle country music drifted from the stage.

Within a couple of minutes, Alpha was climbing up on stage and making some last-minute fixes to his clothing; a pull at the sleeve, a twist of the pants. Finally, Alpha cleared his throat and held up one hand.

Immediately, everyone quieted.

"Good evening, everyone!" he said joyfully. The pack responded with a good evening, Alpha that was a little more than monotone.

"Welcome to the twenty-sixth annual New Moon Celebration of my lifetime! God, I'm getting old, aren't I?" Alpha asked. A few people chuckled, the laughter scattered throughout the crowd. I myself smiled. "Ah, I know you hate these intros, so I'll just get right into it!"

"We had forty-nine pups born last year. Of those, we had five pairs of twins and two sets of triplets," Alpha said. "If you all keep repopulating, there's not going to be enough room in this pack to house you all!"

A few people muttered.

"Our current population is five hundred and seventy-three. Of all of those wolves, fifty-six of you are celebrating your fourteenth birthday! Oh, I remember when I was fourteen, I was so excited to find my Luna that I passed every house in the pack in search of her. Turns out, she wasn't even of age yet."

I saw Alpha glance towards his Luna, Rose, with an endearing smile.

Alpha looked back at the pack. "So, I'd like to start initiation! We're going in alphabetical order by last name. I'll try and keep it short and sweet!"

"Ah, so first, we have a young lady born to Mr. and Mrs. Alison," he said. "And that is Candis Alison! I pronounce you of age. Welcome to the pack, Ms. Alison!"

Within a second of Alpha saying those words, a string of confetti flew into the air to my right with a pop! This was followed by several whoops and a smattering of applause from the pack.

I peered over and gave Candis a thumbs-up. She gave me a shy smile in return.

"Okay, next, we have a pair of identical twins that were born to Mr. and Mrs. Anthony, and they are Finn and Toby Anthony. I pronounce both of you of age. Welcome to the pack!"

There was a flare of light, followed by a series of loud cracks. The snapping caused several people to cover their ears and watch in annoyance as Finn grinned in the light of his homemade firework.

Both of his parents were shaking their heads, red-faced, as the crackling started to die down. What a pyromaniac, I thought.

With a ferocious roar of foot-high flames, the firework went out, leaving sour smelling smoke to drift into the air.

"That was...quite the show," Alpha said as people cautiously turned their heads away from the smoldering firework. "You should train as a fighter, Finn. You'd make fantastic explosives to use on the few enemies we have."

A few people laughed at Alpha's nonchalant attitude towards the firework show. This did not include, however, the Enforcers, as I saw one wolf that was ranked so standing on the stage, her tail flicking back and forth in anticipation.

"Ah, well, lets move on. Next, we have..."

I drifted into a trance as he announced more and more people, each name followed with a snap as confetti flew into the air, giving away the location of the newly initiated wolf.

I sat waiting silently, just anticipating the moment he would say my name, so I could try and get a guess on where my mate was.

God, I hope it's someone good.

🐾