“Cadence!” Finlay barked. “You can’t just tackle people.”
“I’m sorry, Alpha. I was just happy to see her,” Cadence said. He looked at me with his big, sad puppy eyes.
“It’s okay. I missed you too,” I told him and gave him a hug before placing him on the ground. “What have you been doing while I was away?” I asked and then I listened to him telling me about everything he had been doing. Finlay also listened patiently. “Wow, that was a lot of things,” I said when Cadence had listed everything.
“Are you going to stay this time?” the pup asked.
“I am. I just need to get all my things into my room,” I told him.
“I can help,” he offered. Finlay smiled and reached into the car and pulled out a small bag.
“Here you go. Be careful with it,” he told Cadence. He grabbed a stack of boxes of his own and I took one. Medow and Sam took a couple more and Martin came walking and joined in as well. Before I knew it all pack members in the area had grabbed a box and with the limited amount of boxes, everyone had to make one trip and then I was moved in.
“Thank you, everyone,” I said as they left the boxes in neat stacks in the corner of my room.
“I’ll see you later, Amie,” Cadence called out and waved as he left.
“He likes you,” Finlay pointed out.
“He’s a sweetheart,” I said.
“My aunt and Medow will stop by in a while. I asked them to give you at least an hour to settle in. But they are excited, so don’t expect much more time than that,” Finlay told me.
“I’m looking forward to it. And thank you for all the help.”
“Don’t mention it. Let me know if you need something. I’ll see you at dinner.” When Finlay left, I was alone and took a moment to look out the windows. I loved the view of the brook. I took a deep breath. I’m home. I found the boxes labelled ‘clothes’ and started unpacking. Finlay was right. Almost an hour on the dot after he left, Medow and Matilda knocked on my door.
“Do you have a moment to sit down and go over tomorrow's ceremony?” Matilda asked.
“It sounds like fun. Why don’t you come in? It’s a little bit of a mess at the moment. But we can sit at the table by the windows,” I suggested.
“We were hoping you would offer, so we brought snacks,” Medow said and showed me a basket. As I let them inside, she unpacked it on the table. There were cookies, fudge, cupcakes, fresh fruit and sodas.
“Tomorrow is the big day!” Medow exclaimed. Matilda smiled at the younger wolf.
“You will have to forgive her, she is young and full of excitement,” Matilda said.
“How could I not be? Do you know how long it’s been since we had a bloodening?” I laughed.
“I take it that not many seek out the pack to become members?” I asked. Both women shrugged.
“We haven’t ranked, which puts us at the bottom. Not many know about us and those who do, know the risk of joining a low ranking pack,” Matilda told me. I nodded. As a low ranking pack there was a real threat from other packs and rogues. Finlay and the pack had bought their land when they needed new pack land. Because that was who Finlay, and therefore the pack, was. But there were other ways to get pack land. If you were a new pack or a pack in need of more land, you could get it by attacking another one. You could, theoretically, attack any pack. But you would be insane to try and do so with one of the top ranked packs. Notonly had they proven to be stronger than all other packs, they also had more allies than anyone else. So, your best bet was to go after the lower ranked packs.
“I get that,” I said.
“Last to join was Gordon, but he didn’t need a bloodening as he mated Alica. He chose to join us rather then her joining his old pack,” Medow said.
“But it’s always a joyful thing to have a bloodening. It will do the pack good to celebrate,” Matilda added.
“You haven’t planned anything big, have you?” I asked, feeling a bit worried.
“No, no,” Medow said, waving her hand. I looked at Matilda.
“It’s a big occasion,” Matilda told me. Then they walked me through the plans. If I had planned it, I may have scaled it down a bit. But they did have a point that it was something worth celebrating. “How open do you want to be about your past?” Matilda asked. I understood the underlying question. Did I want people to know about my rejection?
“I want to be open,” I told her. I may not be latent, but I wanted my new pack to know me, know how I came to be one of them. Medow looked between me and Matilda.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” she said.
