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Chapter Four
Eris
Days were long and filled with work. Legend claimed that once people had lots of free time to spend on entertaining themselves, but it wasn’t something I could relate to. Other than the rare feasts when the best part was maybe getting a little extra to eat, life was focused on survival. Even for those of us who were not yet considered fully adult yet.
A fact that, for me, was about to change. The day after the feast, I was summoned to the council of elders.
Traditionally, a person stepped over into all aspects of adulthood more or less simultaneously. And that meant I was about to be presented with my future. Not one I planned out, or chose, but one selected for me by the leaders of our pack. Most people accepted whatever was laid out before them, but most were not followers of the Prophesy.
As to the career they would present me with, I knew what it would be. Although the official statement was made at the summon, I’d been training to be a healer most of my life. It was a job that I enjoyed and that suited me. Taking care of our people was my pleasure and my calling. I held no anxiety on that front.
The summoning was the biggest event in a young person’s life, and I knew most were excited about it if not a little nervous. Because in addition to career and being assigned a home outside one’s parents’, they would be informing me of their choice of a mate for me.
And therein lay the problem.
And the source of all my worries. Unlike the rest of our pack, I was a follower of the Prophesy, and that meant that the elements of my life were determined by the stars. All of them, but in particular, mating. I did not pretend to be an expert or anything, but my reading led me to believe my job as assistant healer was the right one for me, and I didn’t really care where I was assigned to live. It wasn’t as if any of the housing available was great—it merely kept the sun off and maybe some of the cold out.
My steps lagged as I headed for the meeting. If only I could just turn and walk away, go in another direction and forget about all of it. But where would I go? We were surrounded by open land where nothing edible grew. I had no skills for hunting. And being all alone didn’t sound great anyway. People couldn’t survive on their own. Ask anyone…they’d say the same. It was only in a group that the bare necessities could be scraped together.
But did that mean I had to spend my life with someone not of my choosing? I believed that the perfect mate was out there, but he was not part of our pack. If he were, I’d know him. As I neared the shelter where the meeting was taking place, my panic rose. But I forced myself to continue on.
Once inside, facing the small group of men who ruled over us all, I regretted that I hadn’t just run out into the plains. I couldn’t be worse than this.
“Eris, we have excellent news for you,” the alpha, Nelts, announced, beaming. “You will serve the pack as an assistant healer until you have learned enough to achieve mastery.”
“Yes, I will.” Because I was already doing that.
“And you have been assigned a dugout on the west side of the oasis.” Where the afternoon sun would cook us and the winds cut through any crevice in the walls. And there were many. Especially in the one they referred to. It had belonged to an old wolf who had stopped doing any kind of maintenance years before his passing. But what did I care? I’d fix it up to the best of my abilities.
“Thank you.” Because what else could I say?
“And now, the best news of all.” He beamed with such joy that I knew my worst fears were about to be realized. “You have been selected to mate my son. He has expressed interest in you, and you have been found worthy.”
Worthy my ass. The alpha’s son was a layabout who waited for everyone else to wait on him. His mother ensured he got the choicest tidbits from what we had available, and he had no job at all.
Oh, I supposed he had a plan for the future. He often bragged that he would take his father’s place, but if he did, I feared for our people. In times where food and shelter were at risk, where things were worse every season, we could not afford to have anyone less than the best. We simply would not make it.
“Eris?” the alpha asked. “Did you hear me?”
“I did, and the answer is no.”
“No?” If it didn’t so critically affect my life, I’d have laughed. “What do you mean? No, you cannot believe you’re so honored?”
“I mean, no, I will not marry your son. I will mate only the one who the Prophesy brings to me.” I was speaking of something intolerable to the rest. They denied the Prophesy to the point that nobody was supposed to even bring it up. But I had to be honest about why I was refusing his son.
Why did he want me anyway? What did he think I could bring to the equation? Oh, he’d been sniffing around after me for years, but I never gave him the least encouragement. Not so much as a smile.
In fact, when we were younger, he’d grabbed me and tried to drag me into an empty dugout, and I’d blackened his eye. My feelings were no secret.
“Are you refusing the will of the elders?” he asked, his voice coated with ice.
“I am refusing to defy the Prophesy,” I told him. “Now, I need to leave. Carla needs me to change the bandages on her foot.” The older woman had a wound that was not healing, and most of the herbs that were good for that were simply not available.
“Eris, this is not a request. You will marry my son.”
“I will not.” I straightened, waiting to hear what the punishment would be for that. “I cannot.”
“If you are not ready to accept adult responsibilities, then there will be repercussions.”
Adult? Responsibilities? I’d been working for our pack since my first menses if not before. Without waiting for him to tell me how he would punish me for defying him, I turned on a heel and left.
