19

Are you doing okay ? I know that this is a lot, especially in just two days time, he asks, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
I’m okay, I’m just very tired, I tell him as I shut my eyes.
He pulls me down into his bed and I realize how big it actually is. It seems like you can fit like eight people on this thing and it not even be too crowded. I curl myself around him so I can lay my head on his chest to feel his heartbeat against the side of my face. He puts on Friends since that seems to be the show we always watch together. After about 15 minutes of him running his hands through my hair, I fall into a much needed sleep.
I wake up to hear yelling and someone wrapping their arms around me to pick me up. From the sparks, I realize that it’s my boyfriend and I start to freak out because that’s how everyone sounds.
What’s going on ? I whisper, holding onto Joey’s neck before he sets me down gently on the soft couch. I open my eyes to see his worried look and I immediately wake up because something serious is going on.
He kneels in front of me as I see Cody kiss Melissa before running out the front door. Listen to me, everything will be fine, I promise you. Just stay here with Melissa and my mom and don’t move. I’ll be back when I can, okay ?
Wait, what’s going on ? I ask again as he gives me a rough kiss before running out with his father. I can hear screams and howls from outside before I look over at Lila who just watched her two boys walk out into whatever was happening.
Melissa reached over and grabbed my hand. There’s a rogue pack entering into the camp and them and the guards have to push them back before something bad happens to anyone else in the pack.
I try to stand up because he just ran into a small war basically where there is a probability that he could actually die, but Melissa pulls me down while Lila stands up to probably guard the door if I do happen to get away somehow. Kade, you can’t go out there, it’s dangerous.
What if something happens ? What’re we supposed to do ? Just sit here ? I ask, feeling devastated at everything that just happened.
We can’t do anything, but trust me, if there was anything we could do, we would in a heartbeat. We have to sit here and wait and hope for the best, Melissa tells me and I sink down to put my head in her lap as Lila sits on the other side of the sectional before pulling a blanket over her legs.
So are you confused by anything that Joey told you last night ? Lila asks me, probably trying to get my mind off of what was going on.
I thought for a minute because we had went over alpha stuff, rogues, and mates. But we didn’t talk about the things he lied to me about these past few months because there has to be a lot since this is a lot. Does Conner actually work for a company and that’s why he has the apartment ?
Lila chuckles, shaking her head. No, that was definitely a lie. Conner has never worked for a company because he became alpha when we were just 18 and we have the apartment because the pack can become a lot at times and there is actually a lot of paperwork with the job, so we needed a quiet place to do it. What did Joey say about the company he worked for ?
I thought back and basically slapped myself with how stupid he is. He called it an alpha company and I assumed it just meant that it was a start-up or something, but now I realize how much he made up as he went.
The two girls chuckle as Melissa’s nails rub against my scalp as we hear so much going on outside while also trying to distract ourselves from it. Lila clears her throat and I look up at her. Well, all three of us were lied to in the first few months of our relationships. It’s just what werewolves have to do.
The picture of Lila and Conner’s wedding pops into my head because now I’m not so sure that the guy standing behind them was actually a priest. Who’s the guy in your wedding picture ?
Did Joey talk to your about elders ?
I shake my head. Not that I know of.
I sit up, knowing that she’s about to explain to me what an elder is. Okay, so elders are basically the politicians of the supernatural world. For each pack, there are between 3 and 10 elders assigned and they basically look out for us. If there was something bad going on, they step in to help when they can and help kick people out of packs before we go through with it.
How do you know who’s an elder ? I ask because I wonder if they look different from other wolves or if they look the same and just have the title of ‘elder’.
You can’t tell from just looking at them because they look the same as normal werewolves, but every 10 years, there’s an election just like the presidential election where everyone who wants votes on who they want to become an elder because there’s lots of people who have dreamed of becoming one, but it’s actually really hard to do, Lila tells me.
Are there campaigns ?
She shakes her head. Not really, but I guess you could say. The already standing elders comb through all the applications until there are only six left and they’re announced to the pack and they basically have to learn about the applicants through their profile that we release with all the necessary information everyone needs. Then after about two weeks of everyone learning about each applicant, they all get a five minute speech and voting begins until one is added to the elder council and the oldest elder is forced to retire if they haven’t already.
Whoa, that’s so cool. When was the last election ?
Three years ago and that’s when Elder Reynolds was added to our pack council. Since we have a medium sized pack, we have six elders assigned to us. There’s Collins, Raphael, Blount, Tandler, Tai, Stevens, and Reynolds.
Which one was in the picture ? I ask, coming back to the wedding picture that’s proudly displayed in the apartment that I’ve spent so many nights at.
Elder Collins because he was the newest elected elder of the time of our alpha ceremony, which is the other picture that you’ve probably seen and since he did the ceremony, we also wanted him to do our wedding. He’s definitely the elder that the whole house is closest with because he likes to know what’s going on just to help out when he can.
I look at Melissa who’s also listening to Lila talk and when she notices me looking, she turns to me with a soft smile. Cody never really explained elders to me when he told me about all the werewolf stuff. I just know who Elder Collins is because he’s here quite a bit and some of the other elders, like Elder Gee.
A confused look appears on my face as I look at Lila. Gee wasn’t a part of the elders you named.
Oh, Elder Gee is the head elder of Virginia, which basically makes him president of this state. There’s only 50 head elders and how they get elected is once the current head’s term is over, we elect one of the other elders that is already standing on council.
Are they head elder for 10 years or do they retire or something ?
She shakes their head. Their term is for 20 years, but just like with the regular elders that if they ever would like to retire, then they totally can.
So if there’s seven elders for this pack and a new one is elected while one leaves every 10 years, then an elder can be there for 70 years, right ?
Yeah, so with our pack, some elders are there until they feel like they can’t do it anymore, so sometimes between the 10 years, we lose an elder or two because of how old they have gotten, so we do encourage an earlier retirement, but we also love when they stick around for their entire term, Lila explains.
I rub my forehead as it starts to pound with a massive headache. This is way too much information to take in in these two days.