My key 99
#Chapter 99: Goodbye Old Life
My senior year is a whirlwind. I'm in all advanced classes and spend a lot of time studying. When I graduate, I will have a Bachelor's of Creative Arts and Writing. That was my Epiphone. Just because I'll be required to love among and lead my pack, doesn't mean I can't still express my creativity.
In fact, my senior project is the play I began writing as a 17-year-old human with intense complexes and assassins on her heals. The story follows my own, sometimes a little too closely, but it seems like the perfect way to blend my two lives together.
Alex is supportive. So is my pack. When I approach the Council with the idea of working on the side as a freelance writer, they are supportive so long as the pack and our home remains anonymous. I tell them I will work under a pen name, and when I release my first play, Furry Butterfly I do so under a pseudonym.
It turns out to be a success, and the money I receive allows me to conquer my first project as Luna.
That summer, I officially join my pack and take my role as Luna. There is a large celebration, and several members of the Ayzena pack attend the ceremony and dinner.
It is a simple affair, that goes well into the night. We sing an old-world song that I spent months learning, and each family presents me with a gift. Mostly simple items, but all symbolic of their support.
Alex is also there, of course, and he uses this opportunity to throw me for a loop.
After the last pack member has presented me with a kerchief bearing hand- stitched initials, a horn blows and everyone parts, revealing Alex.
He's dressed up in a suit, and I'm immediately confused. Granted, I'm in a beautiful gown that resembles a simple wedding dress...
Aaahhhhh... I get it. My eyes well up with tears as his eyes lock onto mine. He makes his way down the center of the initiation party with another small white box in his hands.
My mind returns to the summer before college, when we returned from chaos and self-realization to my mother's house. When Alex gave me my promise ring. I absentmindedly begin rubbing it with my thumb. Yes-its' still there.
I use my kerchief to wipe at the tears obscuring my vision.
When he is only a few feet in front of me, Alex gets on one knee.
"Cynthia...my Cynthia. Ever since the first time I saw you, I have been drawn to you. When you were but a human, my wolf wanted to protect you and ... Little did we know, your inner wolf was reaching out to me. The first time you transformed, my heart almost stopped."
"Well, you were injured," I say with a smile.
He laughs, along with several others in the crowd. "And you rescued me," he agrees. "I have never recovered from the first time I saw your wolf. Mine has never recovered. It wants nothing more than to be by you, always. Forever. You are my fated mate, Cynthia-Dyanthiana," he adds with a grin, "my destiny."
He holds out the box with one hand and opens it with another.
"Will you be my wife, my Luna, to have and to hold until our spirits unite in the afterlife?"
I cover my mouth with both my hands to keep from squealing, my kerchief wet with my emotions. I finally manage to answer. "Of course, I will."
Alex sets the box down and removes the ring I'm already wearing, placing it on my right hand. Then he removes
#Chapter 99: Goodbye Old Life
the ring from the box and lides it onto my left hand. I stare at it. This one houses a small diamond in the center.
When Alex stands, we embrace and kiss. And everyone starts clapping.
"To the new couple!". someone calls out, inciting a chorus of howling. Music to my ears.
So...we may cheat a little. We're supposed to have a brief ceremony before we consummate our union, but Alex and I feel like we've waited long enough.
True to his promise, we're in human form the first time we make love, which he says means it's unofficial anyway. Cheating, right?
It's the same night as my induction ceremony, and I have an idea its coming. We have been talking about taking that step and Alex wants me to be prepared. I don't think he realizes I want it as bad as he does.
That night when we return to my house, I quickly realize it's time. Alex has littered the floor with rose petals, and there are candles lit all around my living room.
I look at him and bite imy lip, and Alex growls. He lifts me off my feet and spins me around as his tongue searches my mouth. The heat between us is an inferno because our bodies already know what's going to happen.
Alex sets me own on the table so that I'm straddling him. He looks into my eyes and brushes away strands of hair that have grown wild and wayward.
"Do you know what this means to me?" he asks, his eyes hooded, his voice husky, and his muscular body ready.
"Do you know how much it means to me that you waited for me?"
The electricity between us sparks and the feeling is like a thunderstorm. I don't know where he begins and where I end, but it is the most beautiful experience and I'm so glad we waited. And when we're finally ready for sleep, it feels like we have been this way forever.
My first order of business as a modern Luna, which is how I see myself, is to establish our own "social network" connecting the Malkeye and Ayzena pack members, or any who wished to participate.
The idea took some time to settle in the mouths of several of the Elders, but the youth were on board almost immediately. I assembled a committee of youth to go into town for short spurts, for their safety and that of others, to research what we would need to accomplish such a task.
Within a month's time, we had a very primitive version of what later will become the "Pack Life” app. Youth's are responsible to acquiring their own equipment and maintaining the app, though it quickly grows in popularity, and adults join the online community.
This also makes it easier for me to keep tabs on Alex when we're apart, which is almost immediately. My first few weeks are focused on establishing my pack's expectations for me, and getting integrated as a full-fledgednoveldrama
member.
It feels so foreign at first, moving straight from dorm life to living on my own, in my own house with privacy. Practically with a husband.
But I have Charles to help me transition. He is a God-send and I don't know what
I would do without him. I've also made friends with a few people closer to my age, though Charles reminds me to keep a h thy distance from then because of my position within the pack.
"You're not a queen, exactly," Charles reminds me, "but you're our equivalent to
it."
I know what he's getting at, and I make sure to head his advice. I think it will help
that I didn't grow up here and
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#Chapter 99: Goodbye Old Life
don't have those long-term bonds.
A few weeks after I'm there, Alex and I perform a traditional mating ceremony, which is held at the Ayzena pack, apparently because he's the male. But I'm not going to argue; I just want it over with so I can begin the last chapter of my adult life: Marry the man of my dreams.
The entire pack attends the ritual, as does my Council and several other members of the #V
It is a simple ceremony that begins with Alex's father speaking a blessing over us as we stand n front of the pack, similar to that of a human ceremony without spending all the money or half the pressure. There are songs and Alex and I exchange vows. The biggest differences the ceremony ends with us shifting in front of everyone and disappearing into the woods.
Jokes on them: We've already done this before. Today's Bonus Offer
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