Chapter Ceremony
“So there is nothing sex-related in the ceremony just the biting of each other’s necks.” My dad clarifies.
“That is correct,” I say waiting for the next question.
“And your old pack may be coming to kill you?” my mom asks turning to look at Brett.
“More than likely yes.”
“And you will need to leave?”
“Yeah,” Brett answers looking down at the floor of my room.
“But mates can’t be separated and they shouldn’t be separated.” my mother concludes and neither I or Brett dared to say a word. my parents share a look and my mom sighs before speaking.
“Well, then I guess you both will have to go.”
“You are okay with it mom?” I say the shock evident on my face and in my voice.
“I have to It is the only way you will survive. If you stay and the pack comes they would kill Brett and you being his mate they could kill you too or you could die of a broken heart, we can’t ask Brett to leave you because you will both be in pain. Go do the ceremony with Arthur we will get some things packed for you.”
“We can’t bring too much with us mom, and I do have some things packed in a bag in my closet.”
“Okay, I will add some things that you may find helpful in the bag and get it all ready for you to go after you finish the ceremony.”
“Thank you guys,” I say giving my parent a hug.
“I know we love you but we can say goodbye later just go do the ceremony before it is too late.”
“Alright.” I took Brett’s hand and together we rush out the door downstairs and shift just outside the door taking off running in the direction of the den. We run as fast as we can to the den as we want a good head start on Brett’s old pack seen as we have no idea where they could be. We get to the den pretty quickly as we are both really fast, upon arriving we see Arthur waiting patiently on the pillows in the den. I follow Brett’s lead as he shifts back to his human form to talk to Arthur.
“Arthur this is Erica, my mate.” Arthur puts his hand out for me to shake and I take it.
“It is nice to finally meet you, I never thought I would see the day that Brett finds his mate he wasn’t really a believer in the mate bond.”
“It is nice to meet you too Arthur Brett speaks very highly of you I am sad we have to meet under these circumstances.”
“Yes, it would have better to meet prior to the ceremony so you could trust and approve of me.”
“If Brett trusts you I do too.”
“So shall we begin Erica do you know what you have to do.”
“A little but not exactly.”
“It is pretty simple you guys stand here and I say some words about you being true mates and then you shift to wolves as we have found it easier to mark each other as wolves then you will bite each other’s necks then you can feel free to shift back so it heals faster then I will say a blessing over you two as a newly mated couple.”
“Sounds simple enough,” I say turning to face Brett and he was already looking at me. Arthur cleared his throat and began the ceremony.
“It is a blessing that we have mates, one that is meant just for us to love and cherish till death and beyond. We are here to join Brett and Erica, two true mates that are lucky enough to have found each other at such a young age. Alright please take your wolf form.” Still looking at Brett he gives me a nod of reassurance as if he can sense my emotions but maybe he can.
“Alright, Brett place your mark on Erica,” Arthur speaks. Brett steps closer to me and nuzzled my neck in a comforting way as if saying that it was going to be okay without speaking. I move my head to the side so he can get to my neck easier and then he bites me. It hurts a little at first but then there is a warm tingling feeling that comes over me and soothes me in a strange way. He looked at me with concern as I realized I had let out a light whimper. I nuzzled him to let him know I was fine.
“Alright, Erica place your mark on Brett,” Arthur states getting my attention reminding me that we weren’t alone. Brett moves his head for me as I did for him giving me space to bite his neck. I hesitated for a minute as this was strange to me and I didn’t want to do it not hard enough or worse to hard and have it hurt Brett. I was about to step back and run off but sensing that Brett shifted and put his hand on my neck where he marked me.
“Erica there is no need to be scared you won’t hurt me everything will be fine trust your wolf to know what to do it.” I nod and he slowly removes his hand and shifts back to his wolf and bares his neck for me yet again. I take a deep breath and allow my wolf’s instincts to take over. And just like that, it was over and Arthur spoke up again.
“Alright, you may take your human form again.” We shifted back and I noticed the mark at the base of Brett’s neck was a small paw print with my Initials inside it, and though I couldn’t see it I could feel where Brett’s mark was on my neck. “May you two live long happy lives with a pack to call your own.” That was the last word of the ceremony but Arthur spoke again. “I am sorry this was so rushed and I wish I could have done more to help you. I even wish I could go with you to be your guy’s new pack’s elder but someone must lead your old pack away from you.”
“Arthur you will always be apart of my pack you always have been even if it was never official.” Arthur gets down on one knee in front of Brett bowing his head which Brett had told me was a sign of submission.
“You are my Alpha and I am yours to command as long as I shall live.”
“Rise my brother you are welcomed to my pack. I trust you to be a loyal member until death.” Arthur stands and he and Brett clasp hands and put their foreheads together.
“I must go now before the pack finds us and you must go too,” Arthur says releasing Brett from their handclasp.
“Goodbye Arthur.”
“Goodbye, Brett. My alpha and goodbye my luna.” Arthur runs off in the opposite way of my house. Brett goes into the den and grabs a bag putting a few things of clothing and a few other important things we will need. We run off to my house where my parents are waiting with the pack in hand. I take it from them and put it on before looking back up at them.
“Guys I love you so much.”
“We love you too we are going to miss you so much.”
“I am going to miss you too but we will have our phones we can text you,” I say holding them tight in a hug,
“But can’t you be tracked through your phones?” My dad questions.
“We could but wolves aren’t very up to date with technology so they wouldn’t know that,” Brett explains to my dad. Brett says his goodbyes to my parents.
“You treat her well and keep her safe young man.” My father says sternly putting his hand on Brett’s shoulder.
“I would die before I let anything happen to her and I would never dream of hurting her myself I love her more than I love myself.” We finish saying goodbye and then Brett and I walk to the edge of the woods hand in hand when we got there we turned to wave at my parents one more time before shifting and running off. We run Brett in front of me a little leading to where ever he is going after several hours of running I hear a voice in my head Brett’s voice to be exact.
‘There is a small river up ahead we can use it to lose some of our scent.’
‘How can I hear you in my head?’ I ask
‘The mate link. It appears after mates have been marked so they can communicate without needing to speak.’
‘Does it work in both wolf and human form?’
‘Yes. We can talk about this later, get ready to wash off.’ As Brett says this we come to a river, he jumps in splashing water all over him he then lays down and rolls around I follow his lead. After a minute washing our scent away in the river, we climb out and continue on for a while but walking this time as we are both tired from running for hours. As dark fell I was getting tired and hungry.
‘Brett are we almost at a place where we can eat and sleep it is getting late.’
‘yeah a few more minutes and we should have a nice spot to stop for the night.’ we walk for a few more minutes as the wind picked up until we came to a very wooded area with a bunch of trees all gathered as if they were in a huddle. Brett looked around and then shifted he motioned for me to wait he stepped into the group of trees and emerged a minute later.
“it’s safe.” I shifted and followed Brett into the trees. “I think we can stay here for a few days it is getting pretty close to another pack’s territory. Alpha’s can’t get to close to another’s territory without an invitation or it is grounds for a pack war or the intruding alpha to be sentenced to death.”
“How close is too close.”
“Most of the time it is most respectful to stay at least 50 miles from the pack’s territory if you are an alpha Betas and lower raking wolves are okay to patrol areas that close to another packs territory but if there is a special need for the alpha to go there then they need to inform the other pack that is the general rule unless packs alphas have an understanding and are allies then it is different.”
“Okay well, I am hungry,” I say taking the pack off of my back and setting it down by the trees.
“Alright, would you mind hunting alone so I can put up this tarp so if it rains we can have a little more protection.”
“Not at all. And don’t worry I will be careful if I need you I will mind link you.” I give Brett a kiss on the cheek before shifting and running off to catch some food.