Chapter 9

My way to our little community center was accompanied by a group of three warriors, one walked in front of me kind of opening the way for me, another one – Karina – walked next to me holding my hand as a sign of respect because she was supposedly guiding me and another one walked behind me, protecting me from any possible harm. If you ask me, the real reason why the person who was on their way to the choosing ceremony was escorted had nothing to do with protection, but rather reassurance for the family members because the person couldn’t run away since they had three pair of eyes on them.

Right before I entered the place for the choosing ceremony I caught a glimpse of Arden taking with Aldahir by the south edge of the forest, seeing them made my heart stop beating for a second because all I could think about was Aldahir’s reaction when he read the letter and it made me feel incredibly guilty. Aldahir seemed to have felt my eyes on him because he turned to look at me, we looked eyes for a second but I looked down at the ground right away and hoped he didn’t try to come and talk to me.

-At least try to smile honey - I heard my father’s voice next to me

His presence took me completely by surprise because he had managed to sneak up on me without me hearing him, which made me jump on my place, he laughed at my reaction but then smiled and hugged me.

-I thought I would see you inside – I said hugging him

-I wanted to see you before you walked in, check up on you and give you a little something – he said pulling away from the hug and handing me a tiny black box

I grabbed it looking at him confused wondering if I had forgotten a part of the Choosing Ceremony tradition were the father or one of the parents gives the person a gift, but I hadn’t and his little giggle while he waited for me to open the box made clear the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be doing that.

I finally opened the box to find a silver ring, I took it out to look at it better and my father grabbed the box from my hands.

-Is one of those um, stim rings? You can kind of unclip it and then clip it back – he explained with a smile

I immediately unclipped the top part of the ring and then clipped it back, that made me smile while I put it on my left middle finger and I did it again realizing it felt amazing and calming and it surprised me how quiet the clicking noise was.

-I knew today would be very stressful for you, specially what’s about to happen and I thought that could help you stay a little calmer – explained my father putting the black box in his front pocket

-Thank you dad, it’s… A really nice detail and it will definitely help – I said smiling while unclipping and clipping the ring

-Glad I could help somehow, by the way you look absolutely gorgeous Dhalia – he added looking at my dress

-Thank you, I really do love the dress – I said running my hands on the skirt

-And that necklace is beautiful, I assume is your suitor’s gift – he said grabbing the main stone between his fingers

-Yes, it is

-I know you choose the right one, I’ll see you inside – he said hugging me again

I returned the hug with a bittersweet feeling in my stomach but did my best to smile as he walked into the building. Once he wasn’t able to see me I took a deep breath to try and put my thoughts together, I closed my eyes for a few seconds and I opened them when I heard my mother’s voice announce my arrival.

I allowed Karina to guide inside the building and I turned around to face the place full of pretty much every member of the pack, all the members of the six pureblooded families were there dressed as elegantly as if we were at a wedding and in the middle of the place were standing Daiki wearing a super classic black suit, Charles wearing a dark blue suit and, finally, Alisha wearing the most gorgeous white bodysuit I had ever seen, she looked as if she had been pulled out of a fairytale.

I took a deep breath and used as an excuse the need to lift up my dress to not trip on it to not look any of them in the eye, I walked up to Daiki, we both bowed and after he looked around on my body not finding the hearings he gave me he turned his back to me. I then walked up to Charles, we bowed to each other, he looked around on me hoping to find the hair clip he had given me and after not finding it, he also turned his back to me.

I turned to Alisha finding her trying to keep a smile hidden, we bowed to each other, her eyes went straight to the necklace and she couldn’t hold her smile in anymore, I also smiled at her, grabbed her hands and she bowed making sure to put her head over our hands.

-Thank you so much for this honor, Dhalia Wards – said Alisha after getting back up

- If I must spend the rest of my life with someone I don’t love, might as well spend it with my best friend – I said doing my best to keep the polite smile on my face

Alisha giggled realizing she had convinced to pick her and then pulled in to hug me, as soon as we hugged everyone in the place erupted into clapping and yelling our names as a form of celebrating the soon to be couple. Even though I knew that would happen it still made me feel uncomfortable and recoil into Alisha’s body as if I could go through her and disappear, Alisha noticed it and put her hands over me hears in an attempt to shield me from some of the noise.

-All right enough! – Yelled out Alisha and the whole room went quiet – let’s celebrate the proper way, bring in the food please! – She added making everyone laugh

She smiled and looked at me to make sure I was alright, I gave her a smile and started frantically playing with my ring, Alisha noticed it so she grabbed my right hand and guided me to the main table.

We were greeted by Charles Izmair Senior and Linnette Izmair-Hunt – Alisha and Charle’s parents – who congratulated bot of us, hugged me sort of welcoming to their family while joking about the fact that it should be my family welcoming Alisha into the family because she would become a Wards.

-Dhalia, I am so happy you picked my little sister – said Charles joining into the conversation

-Back off you weirdo – said Alisha pushing him jokingly

-I’m serious – said Charles – I may not have been the right person for you, but I will be the best uncle and genetic material donor you could ask for

-Thank you Charles, we appreciate it - I said smiling and grabbing Alisha’s hand

She smiled put her arm over my shoulders.

-Dhalia you have no idea how proud we are of you – said my mother joining in – I know you’ve never been exactly okay with this part of being a werewolf, but you still did it because of us, don’t think we don’t appreciate it – she said looking at my father who was standing next to her

-What else was I supposed to do? – I asked my mother – run away from here, risk getting caught by hunters or exposed by the humans because I’ve never been taught how to behave like a normal human… I’m not that stupid mother

My mother looked shocked about what I said, but I caught my father hiding a laugh with a cough.

-Keep those comments to Alisha later today Dali – said my father hugging me

At that moment I was getting quite overwhelmed so I decided not to hug him back not wanting to add physical touch to the long list of things overstimulating me, my father got a little hurt but he didn’t say anything about it, he just congratulated me and reminded me I had to talk to him when we wanted to start trying for a baby because of the whole fertility clinic thing, I simply nodded, thanked him for the reminder and went looking for Alisha.

Once I found Alisha I stayed by her side, as if I had been glued to her. Every single person who was there took their turn and their time to come up to us, hug us, congratulate us for our relationship and joke with us about the “two girls are having a baby”. Most of them had nothing relevant to say, but they seemed to be determined to drive me to having a meltdown, the stim ring was extremely useful and poor Alisha ended up my claws digging into her arm more than once, she didn’t complain once did everything she could to shield me from the people.

After we ate, Alisha and I were allowed to leave, which we did immediately and headed to the north edge of the forest were a cabin had been build for me and whoever I would choose. We walked into the cabin and Alisha started fantasying about how homie and beautiful the place will be, I simply followed her trying to match her energy, but failing miserably because I had no energy for anything other than stop the inevitable meltdown.

-I hate this color, how about Mint green? – Said Alisha walking around what would become the nursery room

When she turned around she found me leaning against the closet, with my eyes looked on a leave who was on the floor and my left hand scratching my neck.

-Okay, come to the floor, come on

As soon as I hit the floor the hand that was on my neck went into it, scratching it and the tears started coming out while me breath became heavier by the second, Alisha sat in front of me to make sure I wouldn’t start scratching myself and after a few seconds I allowed myself to have the meltdown so I could feel better later on.

I stayed on the floor, crying, struggling to breath, scratching the floor harder every time, trying to scratch myself but being stop by Alisha and with my brain torturing me with every little thing around me, suddenly the weight of the necklace felt asphyxiating, the sleeves of the dress closing around my wrists made me feel as if I had handcuffs, the hair strands of hair touching my face felt like sand paper and my shoes became painful.

After about thirty minutes my brain allowed me to come back to normal and after taking a few deep breaths I looked at Alisha silently telling her it was over.

-Great, do you want to head to your house to get your things? – I nodded – you’re not going to talk are you? – I shocked my head saying no – okay, let’s go

I allowed her to help me get up and went to both our family houses to get our things. When we got back to the cabin we didn’t really put anything together, all we wanted to do was sleep.