- Genius
Rain
When I received a message from my family about pack dynamics, I knew I had to get serious. The first few months of being with your future mate are spent trying to figure out how to live together. Then came the coordination, aka finding a pack to join.
Usually, the mates chose between one of the packs that they belonged to, but in rare cases such as ours, we could make our pack. It needed a minimum of five wolves, which we had. Or we could join whatever pack our families belonged to.
I hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. My mind was mostly on trying to adjust to living with Lia and my boys. Then my hormones started taking over and 1 thought of the official mating ceremony where we would all exchange bite marks and blood with Lia.
It was one of the most important nights of a wolf’s life. Besides the coming–of–age ceremony and first hunt. Some traditions have changed as we move into modern times. For example, we didn’t have to live in dens and caves. Houses were preferred.
Packs would meet in a designed meeting space, often the Alpha of the pack’s home or wherever he or she preferred.
I should’ve spent more time thinking about it. But in my defense, none of my friends had brought it up either! They had failed to mention it to me so I just pushed the idea to the side, trying not to let it bother me.
The Celestial Howl Tribe was my pack and one my family had joined only about one generation ago. With dwindling pack numbers and no new cubs being born, the remaining members of my pack were forced to find a new one to join. Not all packs were willing to accept outsides, but the Celestial Howl Tribe was not one of those. Some more strict and centuries–old packs called ours too young or filled with silly, progressive ideas. If being accepting your fellow wolves and not forcing them out over an infraction was silly then so be it!
My pack leader was named Orina. She was a firm but open back leader who would do everything she could for her pack. I had spoken with her on many occasions, my cousin going on to mate with her daughter! The two of them had two cubs already with a third on the way.
The thought of Lia being pregnant with my cub almost made me go feral. Okay, not really. But I was overcome with the idea of putting my cub in her belly. All of us would want her to have our cubs. It was… going to make things awkward, but at least wolf pregnancies only lasted five or six months because of how fast the cub the womb.
grew in
It would be an hour to have Lia and my friend become a member of the Celestial Howl. The thing was… how would my other friends feel about it?
Jesse might not be so keen to join my group and the same with Matt. I think I could convince Colby and Lia… well I don’t know. She’s been so resistant to everything that it’s hard to say what she would do.
Groaning, I ran a hand through my long black locks in frustration. To add to my annoyance, my phone announced that my mom was calling. I thought about ignoring it for a moment but this was my mom. My mom. One didn’t ignore their mother and lived to tell the tale even if they were 21 years old, about to graduate from college.
“Hey Mom,” I greeted.
She growled. “You were thinking of not answering the phone were you?”
“What? No!”
+25 BONUS
- Genius:
‘Really? Because you answered on the fifth ring, just before your voicemail kicks in. How else should I take that?” Sweat broke out onto my brow. “Mom don’t do this to me. Do you know how much stress I’ve been under? Lia is still awloward as fuck around us and I’ve been getting territorial with the guys. Not to mention the fact that we have a big game producing scouts-”
“Rain, take a breath. It sounds like you’re gasping for air. I let you resemble a fish trapped on land right now.”
I greedily took a couple of gulps of air, feeling better in an instant.
“Mom, you’re a fucking genius.”
“Rain, language!
“Oops?”
“Rain, I called to talk to you about the pack and what you plan to do.”
I paled. “Well, I haven’t exactly talked to Lia or the guys about this yet.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said ”
“No, Rain I know what you’ve said. What I can’t believe is that you’ve said that. The five of you are supposed to be figuring this out!”
“Mom, we will! We have up to a year to figure out what pack we want to join.”
She sighed. “No six months.”
“What the fuck?” I blurted out.
“Rain! For fucks sake, language.”
“You just swore–”
This time mom growled. “All right, you have six months. They recently changed the law and if you don’t have at pack by then, the choice will be made for you by the werewolf council.”
Well, shit
When I grabbed my phone later that day, I thought about talking to Lia about figuring out what to do with the pack situation, but instead, I wanted to apologize for what had done about a week or so ago. It was about time I apologized anyway.
Hey. About earlier…. I wanted to apologize for kissing you. I wasn’t thinking straight, and it wasn’t fair to you. -R
It’s fine, Rain. Really. -L
Wait, is it fine? You’re not mad? -R
No, I’m not mad. If I’m honest… I liked it. -L
You did? -R
Yeah, I did. But—and this is a big “but“-this whole situation is complicated. -L
Do you mean, “complicated” like having four mates, all of whom have a history of tormenting you? -R
+25 BONUS
Exactly that. If this is going to work if we’re ever going to have any sort of peace you all need to have a good relationship with each other. -L
That’s easier said than done. You’ve seen how Matt and Jesse are. Colby’s always trying to boss people around. -R.
It doesn’t matter. This isn’t just about you. You’re all in this together, and I’m stuck in the middle. If you can’t figure out how to make it work, it’ll just push me further away. -L
Okay, that’s fair. I’ll try. For you. -R
Try harder than “try.” You can’t just sit back and make sarcastic comments every time someone does something stupid L
Are you accusing me of being the sarcastic one? Because Mit exists. -R
Rain. Focus.–L
Fine, fine. I’ll try. But you know, it’s not just me. The other guys must meet me halfway. -R
Maybe they will if they see you’re serious about it. -L
And if they don’t? -R
Then they’ll have to deal with me. -L
That’s kind of scary. But it’s also kind of hot. -R
Rain, I swear- -L
Relax. I’ll play nicely. You have my word. -R
Good. Because despite everything, I think you might be worth the trouble. -L
You’re making me blush over here, Lia. -R
You’re impossible. -L
And yet, here we are. -R
Yes… here we are. -L
I tried not to grin but the cheesy grin came anyway. Lia was slowly opening to me, something I never thought was going to happen. It was something that warmed my heart and scared the shit out of me a little bit.
Never thought I could feel this way about another person. Sure, we all heard the rumors of how it felt to finally find your match but experiencing it and hearing about it were two very different things,
But it also came with some tough decisions such as what we were going to do with our pack situation. As fussy as my mom was, she was right. The five of us did have to figure out what we were going to do. Either we joined one of the packs we were a member of or went ahead and created a new one.
A huge part of me wanted to stay with my pack. They had been nothing but warm and loving to me, always making me feel like I was part of a family. Why would I want to give that up? I want to share it with Lia and my boys.
Groaning, I wish it were that easy to figure out by myself, but I was going to have to talk to the other guys eventually. They were probably having conversations with their families about this as well.
