When everyone was sat back, and the table was cleared, Julian shot a look at him.
‘I believe Leyth has something to ask,’ he announced.
‘Uh, yeah.’ How was he going to say this?
‘Leyth?’ Tam’s soft voice brought him out of his mind’s rambling, her beautiful green eyes searching his.
‘I, uh—’ He stood, taking a deep breath.
‘Alpha.’ He nodded at Julian. ‘My pack.’ He nodded at each of them in turn. They all straightened, giving him their full attention as he addressed them formally.
‘Brothers and Sisters of the White Wolf pack, I come to you and our alpha, to ask the pack’s approval.’ Hushed whispers filled the room as Leyth made his way around the table and knelt before Julian. ‘Do you give your permission?’
Julian nodded. ‘Yes, with the pack as witness, I shall give you fair judgement by the old laws and pack rule.’
‘My alpha, my pack,’ Leyth said as he rose to his feet once more. Pain twinged in his chest and his legs roared in protest as he moved, but he didn’t care. Some things were just more important.
‘I would humbly like to introduce you to my female.’ Leyth moved back around to Tamriel, who was sat with her eyes wide, mouth gaping at him.
‘My Tamriel, blood daughter of long-standing pack member John Chambers.’
‘Tamriel.’ Everyone in the room nodded at her, and she returned each nod, looking only a little confused.
‘My alpha, my pack, I ask that you honour me, and honour Tamriel, by accepting her into our pack. She has saved the life of several pack members, myself included.’ He nodded at Alison, who beamed over at Tamriel.
‘My alpha, my pack, will you accept Tamriel Chambers into our pack?’
There was a painful moment of silence where no one spoke.
Leyth wrapped his hands around Tamriel’s shoulders as she looked up at him.
‘I am Julian, pack alpha. I will gladly accept Tamriel into my pack,’ Julian boomed, getting to his feet and slapping a hand on the table,
‘I, of course, will accept you into my pack.’ Alison stood next to her brother.
‘Tamriel, I will accept you into my pack.’ Carl grinned. ‘Even if I’m shifter, not wolf, I’m proud to call the White Wolf pack home.’
Each of the people sat around the table spoke their words of acceptance, and though Tam held her head high, Leyth could see her tearing up.
When finally it came to Dax, the moody bastard that he was, the room fell silent.
‘You are one of the strongest females I have met,’ he muttered to the table. ‘I am honoured to have you at my side; I will accept you into my pack.’
As everyone clapped and cheered, congratulating Tamriel, she said her thank yous and hastily swiped at the tears she refused to let fall.
Leyth then cleared his throat, signalling everyone to quieten down once more.
‘I have something else to ask.’ Everyone sat down, looking straight at him. He heaved in a deep breath. ‘My alpha, my pack, Tamriel, my female.’ She looked up at him and he dropped a kiss on her forehead, walking around to the edge of her chair and dropping onto his knees beside her.
There were several quiet gasps from his pack members.
‘You are my heart, my soul. My heart is yours, my soul is yours, my wolf is yours. On this night, I ask that you become mine for ever. Will you consent to be my mate, both in skin and in fur?’
She looked at him for the longest moment; the silence hitting his ears was like knives against his heart.
As he looked into her eyes, his heart seemed to stop beating and he held his breath, waiting for the words that could make or break his heart.
‘Yes, Leyth, I will.’
He closed his eyes against the tears that threatened to spill. ‘Thank god. I love you.’
‘I love you too.’ She grinned, sliding off the chair and onto his lap, landing a huge kiss on his lips.
He stood, holding her in his arms and feeling stronger than he’d ever felt before; happier than he’d ever believed he could feel, and the most proud wolf that ever lived.
He addressed the rest of their pack: ‘John and Ellie Chambers, blood father and mother of Tamriel, I am Leyth Aera Grey wolf, born of the Metal wolf pack, son of Avor. I have devoted my life and soul to your daughter, Tamriel, and promise to love and respect her until the day I leave for the eternal hunting grounds of the Maker, will you give us your blessing?’
John cleared his throat, ‘Leyth Aera, son of Avor, I am honoured to give you my blessing.’
‘As am I.’ Ellie beamed at her daughter.
‘Thank you.’ Leyth was grinning like a giddy teenager now. ‘Julian, my alpha, do you accept our mating unto the pack?’
‘I accept your mating unto the pack.’ Julian smiled. ‘And I think I speak for everyone when I say, congratulations!’
‘Congratulations!’ Everyone cheered, clapped and shouted ‘Hooray!’
The night was filled with drinking, dancing and laughing. Leyth couldn’t stop grinning, and spent most of the night attached to his female’s side, loving her, loving life.
Tamriel sat in her bedroom, smoothing her hair in a desperate attempt to make it look half decent. The last few weeks had gone so quickly; plans for their mating had gone into full steam ahead mode and, tonight, she would officially become a pack member and Leyth’s mate all in one turn of the full moon.
‘Hey, how are you doing?’ Sapphire poked her head in.
‘Yeah, good.’ Tamriel stood up and did a twirl in the mirror; the simple white dress she was wearing hugged her curves and flared out at the bottom. It was all she was wearing, of course, this was a wolf ritual after all.
‘Cool, everyone’s ready when you are.’ Sapphire walked over, idly running a brush through her hair. ‘You look fab!’
‘So do you.’ Tam grinned at her.
She really did, she was wearing pack colours; a white dress with white and red ties. Tamriel’s own dress was tied with brown and red silk, to symbolise her pack colours.
‘Tamriel?’ her mother called up the stairs. ‘You ready?’
‘Hell yeah!’
She and Sapphire walked down the stairs, to be greeted by her mother who was wearing a deep-red silk dress tied with white, and the three of them were joined by Alison, who looked simply angelic with her blonde waves and all in white.
They walked out of the house, not even bothering to lock the door. They were on pack-land; there was nowhere safer.
The night was cold, icy almost. Mind you, it was December and 11 p.m. Tam called to her wolf, reaching for the heat at her core. She came roaring to the surface, warming her from the inside out, and her bare feet melted the ice on the grass as she stepped on it, her skin glowing in the darkness.
As they crossed through the trees into the woodland, the silence of the night wrapped around them.
It truly was beautiful, the full moon swept through the trees, making the ice on the trees and grass shine, and the forest hummed with life though it was night. As they reached the lake, the moonlight illuminated the entire area, bouncing off the water and caressing the surrounding woodland. Up ahead was a large group of people, her pack. She smiled at the thought.
Sarah and her pack of half wolves stood in a group to the right. She grinned as Tam passed her.
The floor had been covered in rose petals and there was a circle of candles surrounding them.
In front of her stood the males, Julian in the middle looking large and proud, his blonde hair loose over his shoulders. He was dressed in a white linen shirt with a white tie. To his right stood her father in all his glory, also wearing his white linen, with brown and white ties.
And to her father’s left stood Leyth. He looked gorgeous. His scruffy black hair shone in the moonlight, his icy-grey eyes gleaming in his handsome face.
He too was wearing white linen, tied with grey silk and white silk, representing his birth pack and his current pack. The rest of the pack st
ood to attention next to them; everyone was there, even Dax. Tamriel came to stand in front of the males as Kaylee came to join the females.
‘Members of the White Wolf pack,’ Julian began, his voice reverberating throughout the night, ‘we are here today to unite two of our wolves.’
Howling, yipping and cheering came from the group, echoing throughout the forest. Julian grinned, winking at her as he cleared his throat to quieten everyone down.
‘Leyth Aera, Blood son of Avor Aera, please step forward.’ Leyth caught Tamriel’s eye as he moved forward, grinning.
‘Tamriel Chambers, Blood daughter of John Chambers. Please step forward.’ She did as she was asked, coming to stand in front of Julian and facing Leyth, females to her left and males to the right.
‘Tonight, beneath our Maker and the moon, do you accept each other’s trust?’
‘I do,’ Leyth choked out.
‘I do.’ Tamriel smiled at him.
‘Tonight, beneath our Maker and the moon, do you accept each other’s love?’
‘I do,’ they said in unison.
‘Tonight, beneath our Maker and the moon, do you accept each other’s wolf?’
‘I do.’
‘Then I ask you now to bring your packs, your hearts and your souls together, in blood, body and spirit before your pack and your kin.’
The entire group was silent as Raught, the pack elder, stepped forward. In his palm he held a very worn-looking silver ritual knife; it had various engravings on it, most of which Tam couldn’t understand.
‘I ask you both to reveal your palms.’
Tam and Leyth both held their hands up, palms facing towards the moon as instructed. ‘Beneath the Maker, by the power of the moon, I bind you by blood.’
On cue, Raught brought the silver blade across Leyth’s palm, slicing deep. Blood welled to the surface, seemingly black under the dark night, glinting red only when the moon bounced off it.
The pack elder then flipped the knife over and with the other side of the knife, in one swift movement, sliced into Tamriel’s own palm. She breathed in deeply, but refused to show any reaction on her face.
Leyth, for a split second, looked angry, worried and kind all at the same time, making her smile. As soon as her lips moved, he relaxed again, grinning at her.
Julian brought their hands together so they were palm to palm. ‘Beneath the Maker, by the power of the moon, I bind your packs.’
Tamriel’s mother and father stepped forward and handed Julian two strands of silk in brown and red. He took these and wrapped the ends around Tam’s wrist, winding the soft material around their joined hands and, finally, finishing off by wrapping it around Leyth’s broad wrist.
Carl stepped forward, handing Julian two more strands of silk; grey and white. He repeated the motion, wrapping the fragile material around their joint palms until they were tied together with all their pack colours.
‘With the Maker’s blessing, beneath the moon, I now unite your human souls, to be mated as one until you move onto the Maker’s eternal hunting grounds.’
Yips and howls erupted around them as their pack cheered. Tamriel’s mum was crying, her dad heartily clapping, as Julian held his hand up for silence once more.
‘I now ask you to bring your wolves forward as one,’ he requested.
Tam concentrated; this was going to be the most difficult part of the ritual. Sapphire and Carl stepped forward, slicing the material on their shoulders and undressing them as they stood there, palm to palm.
Finally, under the moon, the two of them stood naked as the day they were born.
She and Leyth both called to the wolf at their core, their bodies heating up in unison, their bones cracking and reshaping, their skin stretching and reforming, together they sank to their knees, keeping their joint palms in the air and bracing their free hand on the floor. It felt as though it took hours before finally the layers of fur emerged from their skin leaving Tamriel’s black and red wolf sitting on her hind legs, paw to paw with Leyth’s gorgeous black and grey wolf.
‘Your wolves must accept each other beneath the Maker and the moon,’ Julian announced, unwrapping the silk binds.
They stood on all fours; first they rubbed faces, accepting each other’s scent, they then rubbed noses, accepting each other’s love.
Finally, Leyth dipped his head low enough for Tamriel to reach the back of his neck. This was the part she was truly scared of; she didn’t want to hurt him.
She hesitated before finally stepping forward and giving his cheek a little lick before tenderly biting down on the scruff of his neck; his fur sank into her mouth and she pressed her canines down harder, breaking skin as gently as she could until all four canines had made deep holes. His blood filled her mouth, bringing blood lust roaring to the surface, but she resisted. She then removed her teeth and licked his wound before stepping back.
Julian bent down and rubbed salt roughly into the wound to keep it from healing properly. In human form this would leave four dark, perfectly round marks on the back of his neck and the top of his shoulders, the equivalent of a wolf wedding ring.
As Leyth brought his head up, Tamriel dipped hers down, and he edged towards her, rubbing his nose across her face.
Slowly, he gently sank his teeth into her own neck, all four canines sinking through her skin.
It was an odd pain, but she cherished it and everything it meant.
Finally, he removed his teeth, licked her wound clean and stepped back so Julian could rub salt into his bite marks. She winced as the salt hit it, biting back a whimper. She was not going to look like a wuss at her own mating!
Finally they stood nose to nose, as Julian’s voice roared into the night once more.
‘With the Maker’s blessing, beneath the moon, I now unite your wolf souls, to be mated as one until you move onto the Maker’s eternal hunting grounds. Face your pack and be proud, you are now one, mated for life as wolf and man.’
The pack erupted once more, cheering and howling in excitement; one by one, they stripped off, shifting and changing and becoming the wolf half of their soul. Even Sapphire and Carl, the two shifters, became their own variations of wolf. Julian was the last one remaining unshifted, though he’d stripped down so he only wore his skin.
‘Tamriel Chambers, do you accept an invitation unto this pack?’ She sat on her haunches and howled, long and hard, placing a paw in Julian’s hand.
‘Pack members of the White Wolf pack, do you accept this female unto your pack?’ They all howled in response, in unison, long and hard.
Julian bent down and tied a white strip of silk around her neck.
‘Welcome to the pack, Tamriel,’ he said as he began to shift. Julian then brought his paw up to his mouth, clipping it with a sharp canine. He placed the bloody paw on her neck where the white silk had been wrapped, and then on her forehead, leaving his blood on her. It was the most respectful thing an alpha could do.
Tamriel held her own paw up, the cut Raught had made earlier still present, and brought it together with his, uniting them as pack members.
In turn, each and every wolf repeated the process, leaving the white silk at her neck red and her forehead sticky. Tamriel loved every second of it though; here she truly had a home.
When all was done and the ritual was complete, the pack set off at a dead run into the forest, leaving their candles and clothes behind. They ran as a unit, every one of them hunting down animals, playing, chasing one another, some even dived into the lake.
Tamriel and Leyth ran, nipped each other, pounced on each other and generally had a good time until finally slipping back to the house, leaving the rest of the pack.
They reached the porch and shifted back into human form, sitting on the step of their own home.
‘Tam, I really do love you. My mated female.’ Leyth grinned at her.
‘I really do love you too, my mated male.’ Tamriel leant in to kiss him.
Epilogue
How romanti
c, Alison thought as she wandered through the woods. She was still in human form; she hadn’t the strength to shift. With her soul bound and unattached from her body, she wasn’t even sure she could shift. Her wolf had gone so far into hiding that she could barely even feel her.
As the rest of the pack were running in the woods, she kept out of their way, not wanting to bring anyone down with her illness.
Memories of what the Circle had done to her rose like bile, sending fear wrapping its way up her spine. Even though he was now dead, the High Lord’s voice still rung through her mind like acid, scolding her. You are mine. I can rip your soul from your body and you will spend eternity walking the grey plane. Unable to move on.
The night chilled her to her core, but that was nothing in comparison to how she felt without the heat of her wolf. Her soul was restricted in a way no one would understand.
The High Lord had taken control of her body, and though it was hers for the time being, they could possess her at any point. And even though the bastard who tuhrned her was dead, she had no doubt that the Circle could tap into that magic. Could tap into her soul. And it terrified her.
She just had to hope that no one realised she was alive and bound. Her bones ached, her skin felt like ice and she hated herself for being so weak.
Sighing, she pushed the memories away, thinking instead of Tamriel and Leyth. Those two had truly been made for each other. Leyth was a wolf of honour and she’d never seen that male so happy.
Tamriel was possibly the strongest female she’d ever met, and she would be eternally grateful for what she’d done. She was so glad to have her by her side, in the pack, and as part of her life.
She was truly happy for them. Maybe one day she would find happiness like that. No, she thought, not with a body that’s slowly dying and a soul held captive by the Circle.
The bushes behind her rustled, making her jump. ‘Oh, you scared me! Who’s there?’ she asked, laughing. It was probably one of the cousins, Reylix or Taevyn. Those two didn’t know when to give up a joke.
There was another rustle and Alison made her way around them, trying desperately to see who was there.