I’m not even mad about it.
“We have all week to talk, reconnect, and make our different perspectives heard,” Ty continues in that same powerful voice. “But tonight is the first night of our gathering. And it’s tradition to invite all unbonded and unmated females to come forward and make themselves known so that any male who thinks himself worthy can fight for their favor.”
This gets a cheer even bigger than before. Because this is whatpack first, pack forever—everyone’s favorite slogan—means in practical terms. This is how we keep the bloodlines spicy. This also means that we get to watch the males fight each other, always a good time for the spectators.
It also means that the party is starting.
Assembling the females takes a minute. There are always disputes. Fathers who don’t wish for their daughters to present themselves to agathering like this, usually because they have someone closer to home in mind. Other males who object to a specific female claiming that she is unbonded because he would like it to be otherwise.
In our little corner on the hilltop, my aunts are preparing food. I decide it’s better eaten with opposable thumbs, so I shift and sit there by our own cookfire, breathing in the wolves all around me. So wild and, these days, free. We had to be a lot more careful five years ago.
“These females nowadays,” tuts one of my aunts. “Taking such pleasure in making the males scrabble in the dirt for their favor.”
“That’s a strange way to say that no one was particularly interested in your favors, Sigrid,” replies another one of my aunts, slyly.
Aunt Sigrid laughs. “Some females know their own mind. I knew who I wanted to win my hand, and so he did. It didn’t require a pageant and an after-party.”
My mother sniffs. “Bastien snuck in under cover of night and stole me from my family, as is right and proper. All of you are soft, silly girls who needed proof. Bastien didn’t need toprovehimself to me. He saw what he wanted. He acted upon it.”
She doesn’t saylike a real male. It’s implied.
Both of my aunts become very concerned about the state of our cookfire.
I have to bite back a laugh. I never knew my father, but the man they tell stories about sounds like someone I’d admire. Maybe even love. I like to imagine that if a pack of trolls hadn’t gotten the jump on him, he’d be proud of me in return.
Johanna always told me I was stubborn like him. I always took it as a compliment.
I watch the girls as they climb up to one of the lower-level rocks that puts them on a kind of stage. They vary in ages, the only requirement being that each one of them is past her first blood and claimed by no male.
I try to imagine what it must feel like to stand up there, looking down as the horde of males begins to assemble. However those malesappear to them at first glance, one of them will be their mate. I’ve never heard of a mating ritual that ended with an unclaimed female. I wonder if they’re excited? Disappointed? If they regret putting themselves forward?
I never had a choice, and these females have a variety of potential mates to choose from. I try to imagine how that would feel. I watch the jostling males for a while, then look up to where Ty is lounging on his rock.
I’m not surprised when his gaze finds mine. Or that I feel it all over me, even from this far.
No,I think, while warmth spreads inside me.I didn’t miss out at all.
One by one, the females step forward to say their names and announce what pack they hail from. As they do, the males below them jostle some more, making noise and flexing their muscles. Letting the other males around them know that they are contenders.
When the females finish introducing themselves, Ty lets out a loud, long battle cry.
And the males begin.
Tonight’s fighting is more of a brawl—and mostly a show. Not exactly friendly, but not deadly either. Just various attempts to show dominance while trying to look good for the women watching above. A few punches. Some grappling.
No one is going for broke on the first night.
I see, with some surprise, that all three of my brothers are out there. They might be pains inmyass, but I also like their chances. When I make a sound, my mother looks at me.
I shrug. “It doesn’t seem fair to the other wolves that all three of my brothers are out there, making them look bad.”
Johanna isn’t much for smiling, but I swear I see the corner of her mouth indent.
When Ty determines that the show has gone on long enough—or is possibly worried that the males are beginning to make themselveslook bad in front of the females since they’re notreallyfighting, not tonight—he calls an end to it.
And then the real party begins.
Just as some packs came early to make a statement, others only arrived tonight for the same reasons. It’s all about clamoring for position and consolidating power, but this first day is about fun.
