Impromptu Pack Meeting

Third Person’s POV
Emma was running again; not from Peter, but from the baying pack of animals who wanted to harm her. She hadn’t hesitated to flee, knowing to a wolf she is just prey.

However, in her mind, her destination was clear, Peter’s apartment, then a defendable position, maybe the cupboard in the playroom, or the en-suite bathroom... both had only one door to defend.

She couldn't remember the route they had taken on the way down, so she headed back to the main staircase, launching herself upwards two at a time. By the time she reached the second floor she was panting hard, her breath coming in could shuddering gasps. As no one seemed to be following her she slowed her pace; walking up the remaining two flights.

As she ran she mind-linked Peter… *I am going back upstairs, back home, I don’t feel safe in there.*

Peter hadn’t realised that when she had run it had left a sharp pain in his chest, until he heard her, reassuring him that she wasn’t leaving him. Thank the Goddess, he thought.

*I will be there shortly,* he responded gently then turned to the chaos before him.

Slowly Peter unfurled his Alpha aura, as his power trickled through the room, those assembled quieted. As he increased the strength of it, allowing his anger to seep in, those standing sat, many took up a submissive pose, exposing their necks to him. All were subdued.

He looked round the now silent room. He didn’t raise his voice.

‘Emma, is my fated mate, she is your Luna. Give me one good reason why this should not be the case.’

He looked round the silent room. Then a voice piped up bravely, ‘But she is human, no wonder the pack is cursed.’

The speaker was an older wolf, a man with greying hair, but his body is still hard and well defined.

Peter homed in on the speaker, Mark, one of the pack Deltas, a wolf with good standing in the pack. He is seated at the same table as Griffin, who actually growled at the older man.

Griffin’s unspoken defence of his Luna lightened Peter’s soul a little, some have faith in his mate.

‘Does Mark speak for you all?’ Peter asked the room calmly.

There was a shuffling in the room, and about sixty wolves, all older ones clearly side with Mark; the rest are trying to distance themselves from what they are sure is going to be bloody retribution.

‘If the pack is cursed then it is not from accepting my Goddess given mate.’ Peter continued. He looked round the room with fresh eyes. The room was all wrong, he could see many friendship groups, but not nearly as many couples or young families as he would expect. He has been gone too long.

‘How many here have mates or have been mated?’ he asked.

About half the adults in the room raised their hands tentatively, nearly all the older weres, and a handful of younger ones, the rest looked down and away.

‘And how many of you are with your fated mates?’ he wanted to know.

Not a single couple, not a single wolf raised their hand. An uncomfortable still settled over the room.

How is this possible Peter wondered. There should be more couples, there should be more fated mates, maybe the pack is cursed.

He needs more information, and there is nothing he can do before the morning.

He looked around the room again. ‘I expect the Luna to be extended every courtesy, I will personally punish anyone who disrespects her, as they also disrespect me.

Also, I will be formally binding her to the pack tomorrow at noon in the main hall, and the Luna ceremony on the next full moon,’ He informed them firmly.

‘A pathetic human isn’t strong enough to be our Luna,’ a she-wolf spat. Some of her cronies nodding in agreement, suddenly brave.

Before Peter could speak Barlas stood. ‘You have no idea,’ he yelled at her. ‘Her body might be weak, but her spirit is stronger than any I have every seen… Stronger than even a tsunami, she is a force of nature…’

Onan then spoke, ‘I have felt her power. She is my Luna.’ Decebal and Griffin echoed him.

Peter narrowed his eyes. ‘I will take applications to leave the pack tomorrow. You have tonight to decide what you think is best for you… Unless anyone here thinks they are strong enough to challenge me… This is not a democracy.’

No one speaks up, as the words hang in the air.

Peter then turned and leaves to find Emma. *I am coming my love* he links to her, and can feel her relief wash over him.

Behind him he heard the roar of voices as the implications of what he has said settle in, but tonight he doesn’t care, tonight his mate needs him, so he headed back upstairs, back home.
…
Once Peter has left Barlas stays standing, watching the pack in uproar, a clear divide showing the age-old prejudice against those who are physically weaker. Clearly this sentiment has grown while the pack as been without a Luna.

‘Order,’ Barlas shouts, rolling out his Beta aura. ‘ORDER’

Slowly the room quiets, coming to some semblance of order again, and with the zeal of a converted man he started to talk.

‘Friends, family, pack-mates, our pack is in dire straits, many remain unmated, including me, having not found their true mate yet; others who have chosen a mate have had their pups kidnapped.

When I first heard about Emma, she had abandoned our Alpha, leaving him half broken as he desperately searched for her. And I was angry. How dare a human do that to Peter. She should be honoured to be chosen for him.

When we did find her she had been attacked by familiars…’

The room hissed, engrossed in his tale.

‘…attacked by familiars, who she had broken free of, despite her human frailty. She had escaped into a storm, and when we found her she was so cold it was touch and go as to whether she would survive. She looked like a porcleain doll, and I was scared for our Alpha and our pack.’

He paused a moment and Jess dropped in.

‘I have watched wolves die when they have got that cold and exhausted, her body was battered, bruised and broken.’

Barlas then continued. ‘Peter got her to safety, although her attackers had escaped, and Jess treated her. The Goddess be blessed but the following day it became clear that she would survive, so I took Peter to task. I knew we needed him back, what with the disappearances and everything. And I thought a human Luna was the last thing we needed. Like you I doubted she had the strength to see us through our troubles.’

He paused again, lifting his glass to drink, and Onan took up the story.

‘We were all there, me, Decebal and Griffin. We saw it. Barlas had just told Peter about the pups when a ball of blind fury and will erupted from the room where the Luna lay recovering. It flew across the room, attacking Barlas. We were all frozen in place, then forced to our knees by her aura. Oh Goddess, her aura, I have never felt anything so strong.

She had heard us doubt her and we were sure that we would all be punished… but she didn’t care that we doubted her, all she cared about was the pups… your children and getting them back… she is the reason Peter has returned. And I believe that she will help get my little sister back,' a small sob escaped his lips.

‘And you know what else,’ Decebal piped up, covering his friends papable grief. ‘She forgave us… A Luna is not the physical strength of the pack, that is the Alpha. She is its heart, its soul… and a pack with a strong heart and soul can survive anything and grow stronger… I thank the Goddess for our Luna.’

‘All praise the Goddess and her gifts,’ echoed ritually from many of those gathered.

The men and woman who had defended Emma then sat, leaving the floor open to any who wanted to disagree, but no one did.

People sat and chatted amongst themselves, some clearly taken by the facts set before them, others still hanging onto their preconceptions. The young in the room were eager to believe and accept the new Luna, believing that maybe their fated mates might also lay outside of their species. Those who were parents of some of the missing children gather together, taking hope from Onan's words, and he had gone to join them when he finished eating. In the end, most were more willing to give her a chance, with just a few still scowling and muttering the pack was cursed.

Slowly the pack dispersed to their evening entertainments in a thoughtful mood.