When we catch her in the periphery she's on the ground crawling away with her head down and the ax in her hand.

Murmurs are going through the crowd which the Wild growls low at...her jaw still holds the Savage, but her eyes see everyone.

Fingers travel the underside of her belly, to her flanks. They explore every curvature of the spine which puts her in a calming mood. Her viciousness relaxes with his soft, gentle, caring fingers.

She lets go of his throat, to nuzzle her head to his upper thigh, smelling the male entirely. Hands come to her face to pull her eyes to his. He bends himself down, and she does what she wants, licking his neck, his cheek, another nuzzle before flashing him one last side of fang.

She's ready to recede into the safety of skin...Nudging the door open, taking a piece of silk from the trunk gently in teeth that are sharp we head for the bathroom so we can shift ourselves to skin without him looking at my bare flesh.

It's a long shower I take, letting the warm turn cold, I don't move away from it, and the skin on my body hurts from how cold this water can get.

"Bessa, come out of the shower." The Savage's voice is soft, he sounds if he's in the same pain I feel right now.

I can't look at him when I do end up getting out. I just lay in my corner, closing my eyes.

Awake

Aware

Still

We both lay there without a spoken word, he's not left his spot against the wall, at times I swear I can feel the turmoil within him before other emotions cling to the inside of me through him.

Morning is silent...

There is no noise in the house.

"We are supposed to go our Celebration soon." He's just come out of the shower, the Wild's mark distorts the healing of the shiny skin.

"I have to get ready." He just nods. This time I take my supplies to the bathroom. Oils are rubbed into my skin, they hold the scent of fresh summer fruit of my land. A stain is used to make my lips deep red as if my heat has arrived. Eyes are painted with thick lines of black...it's always the eyes that hold attention, and I want all the focus on me. The gold bangles are next, slipping them on ankles and wrists. I don't cover my face, after all, I am his Breeder it doesn't matter if they see me now. I do cover my head with a sheer veil that holds the color of saffron. The last is the four knives to be placed in specific folds of silk.

The Savage sniffs after me through the house. His hands find the silk before he pulls them away. His body hovers close...so very close that I have to remember to take in air.

When I try to walk past him as he holds the front door open, his hand stops my progress forward. His eyes touch every aspect of my face that's revealed to him.

Engorging pupils shift his color away.

"I should have never put those tattoos on my body." He's apologetic without hesitation of sound.

"You did, and that's what matters to me, not the apology you're trying to give me." I have no apology in my voice.

Getting closer to a building that holds music and voices of many in conversation. The drums are felt through my bare feet. The best thing is that I smell so much food, not the kind that I am used to but it still makes my stomach tighten letting me know how long it has been without it being full.

The door is open by him to allow me to enter first, and every face turns to me.

I give them all a smooth smile that holds no violence. Even towards the female that looks as put together as me. Her hair loose and flowing, the dress dips low showing off her necklace with that green gem that I want to crush in my hands. Posturing to her, showing my marked neck with a natural lift of lip to say I have something that's even more valuable...the Wild's mark...that can't be crushed or destroyed, or taken off...ever.

My heart starts it's faster beating as I'm lead now to a female and male. The Male holds precisely the same tattoos as the Savage. He bears a resemblance to him. The Female gives me a kind, welcoming smile.

"Mother, father. This is my mate Bessa." A cheek presses against mine, "welcome to the Far North, Bessa." I can't even express myself because there is a lump that's lodged in my throat. I nuzzle back into her, the warmth of her surrounds me.

The Alpha is next, a quick nudge of cheek, "welcome home." Those are his words, but I don't recognize this as my home.

"We've been waiting for the both of you. It's time to start the food line then we can proceed with all the introductions. Why did you not bring anything?" Her anger barely reaches my ears, because the Savage takes it all.

"We had nothing to bring." Her eyes bore into his, he doesn't look away, he takes her sound without words being spoken.

I can feel his shame.

I'm given my own plate by him when we approach the table, the Alpha and Luna are behind us.

Silence, everyone is so quiet, even the music has stopped. I don't look around because my eyes can't stop looking at all the different food.

He begins to tell me what each dish is as I place it on my plate. Coming to the end of the table I have food stacked on top of food, and I think to myself, I'm coming back for seconds. His voice falls when he comes to the last dish, he hesitates before taking the spoon in his hand.

"Do you not like the dish?"

Silence...

He looks to his side. She's there watching him.

"Did she make that?"

"Yes,"

Taking the spoon from his hand, I place it back into the dish. "What did she make you?" As we make our way to the head table.

"My favorite," he says nothing else while eating, his head faces forward and if this is a celebration, I would hate to see what mourning is genuinely like for him.

After my third plate, I can't eat anything else. I've been keeping tabs on her, she sits with three other females slightly away from the main group. They are leaned forward in conversation, but their eyes hit mine aggressively when they look up from talking.

Getting up with the Savage he begins with his brother.

"This is Bessa, my mate. This is my brother Luki." He bows towards me, "it's a pleasure to be introduced to you." His hands are behind his back.

"Is it a pleasure?" Asking with a raised brow, he brings his hand out with a pomegranate from the ship.

"I saved this for you until I was properly introduced." He's got a smidge of a smile that holds the corners of his lips upwards.

"You stole that from my basket."

"I did." He places the fruit in my hand and gives a sweeping bow that makes me smile and the Savage ruffle up.

Bringing it to my nose, I'm going to put it in the ice box to freeze it forever.

"Thank you for stealing from me. I won't forget that."

"Nothing is safe." He teases, and I smile.

"Bessa this is my best friend, and one of the future Beta's of the Far North. His name is Crayson." The introductions go on until the music starts up and wolves start to dance in a savage foot-stomping beat. The Savage does not introduce me to four females that I can hear at times laughing at the way I look.

"We are supposed to dance together." The Savage stands beside me looking on at the chaos of the dance floor. The beats of drums pounding into my chest. A hand goes onto my shoulder.

"Who are those three with your lover?"

"Those are the other three females that have been assigned to me."

"Do you share food with them, eat with them."

"Yes, do you feed them from your body?"

"Never."

"There breathing insults my ears." Taking his hand I smile kindly to him, the tremors are impossible to hide.

He leads the dance well. His firm grip tossing me around only to catch me. It's a barbarian rhythm that is easy to pick up, after all, I have been training all my life in the art of dance.

It's easy to get lost in the movement, letting this full grown male lead me around. All we have to do is dance.

"Did you dance with her?"

"I never touched her."

"Did you want to dance with her?"

"Yes," I smile while looking in her direction. The palm of my hand rubs his back, and his steps falter.

"Did you imagine yourself introducing her to the pack." Our movement intensifies as the music speeds up.

"Yes." I slide along the front of his chest as I'm put down on the ground. He's strong, lifting me as if I hold no weight.

"If there is a choice, who do you pick, her or me."

"You Bessa." The heat of his hand slips between the woven material of silk, to fan out across my lower back.

"Are you just saying that because I'm your mate, because you have to?" A series of hard foot stomps is exhilarating. The closer I get to her the louder I stomp. She dances with no one but she watches us, she can't look away even when that healer who loves crows approaches her.

They both look at me, and I smile at them. Trying to make my sound louder than the music, it's impossible because the Savage holds the most significant sound here as he presses his foot into the wood. At times I think the floor will give way to his force.

The place has been built well, the structure holds solidly.

When we take a seat, he goes to get us drinks. The female corners him, talking with her hands, wiping tears away from her face as he listens with his hands behind his back.

They head off to a solitary corner, her finger pointing at me. I don't like to be pointed at. If I am to live here, become the next Luna then rules need to be set.

The next time she points at me, the knife is thrown dropping that finger on the ground. If you don't have fingers, you can't point.

The scent of blood has wolves lifting noses in the air. The female is silent; no sound comes out a mouth that is clamped shut. The Savage looks at me in horror.

"Do you have your ax?" She shakes her head no with my question.

"You should have brought it." Letting my sound reach towards her like a finger she just lost. We both take our steps towards the other.

Rigid legs take stances of posturing to show great intent to harm the other.

Flash of fang, lifted lip, the Wild within torments the inside of the dwelling with her sound. This is my great grandmother's silk I have on, and she would be proud of the way I will ruin it.

"Stop." The Savage says instantly. 

"Let them fight." The Alpha trumps his first born's command.

The wolves press against the walls. Bold language comes from her chest, while death seeps from my eyes...

We maul into the other, trying to see who wins the art of violent intentions. I follow her movements like she follows mine patiently. In a flash, she attacks throwing me with the ease of a practiced fighter. The Savage takes a step towards me, and his father holds his shoulder.

Survival of the fittest I think before a fist lands against my jaw, 'it's you who needs the ax." The female seethes. Another agony of a hit that directs itself against ribs.

Her breath shifts, my hearing growing acute to notice everything, closing my eyes...The current of air comes before the hit, which only meets air.

The alarm is instant on her face when I open my eyes back up to smile with my teeth.

Bristling intent.

A snarl, the Wild within will not stop until we gorge on the throat of life.

No time wasted, our bodies crash into the other as I try for her scrawny throat, while she has full intentions of going for mine.

There are fists that hurt, teeth that tear away chunks of flesh.

My sight is singular, focused, tuned into the language of her body. Struggling with the defensive, to the offensive she tests everything that I have ever been taught. Just like me, she bleeds as well as I test her education of defense.

Madness and anger mix together in a surrounding stink of jealousy that guides me blindly. I'm not sure how long it goes for, but in between hits I whisper to her how I will give him his heir, how he will beg to slip into my bed. How I will be fed by him tonight. Goading her, enraging her, festering her hatred for me.

Her hits become crazed, frenzied, blindness in a fight to the death only brings death. It's just luck that I am able to wrap my legs around her waist and twist her neck to break it...she will heal if I let her...I don't show any weakness. Instead, I drag her body out of the Celebration. An older female follows us, tears in her eyes.

"Please, show mercy." The female quietly says through a choking throat.

"I will give her the mercy she needs." The feet drag limply in my grip. The Savage follows, his feet seem to drag as well. His steps sway his body, but his spine remains straight.

The pack follows I don't look back. My focus is on the wooden spike made from their table.

She's still breathing when I pick up the ax making a small hole in the top of her skull. The Savage almost falls, it would be a kindness to take her throat, but I don't. The wooden spike sinks into the base of her jaw close to her spine. With a shift of my weight, I embed her skull on the wooden spit so the tip comes out of the hole I made. Her eyes open big one last time....before the glaze of death brings her the mercy she does not deserve.

Taking the ax, I chop away her body from her head. It will remain there as a welcome sign to all that visit this house. Her body, I toss on the rubbish pile.

He's looking at her head.

Great waves of despair slosh through the entire foundation of who I am. I'm not the one feeling this, and for a moment my Nature wants to comfort him...show him a form of sympathy, but my kindness has died...so I go into the house to wash myself off leaving him to himself.

Pain hurts my stomach, not my own...his. It's almost crippling the way I'm breathing.

When getting out and dressed he's not in the house, I can hear wood being chopped. Looking out the window he has his back to the house.

Pain, lots of unrelieved pain hits me in waves, getting stronger and stronger with each ax hit against the logs.

The pieces fly up and down with the force of his hits. When the ax cracks against wood, I can hear even in the house with the windows closed his cries.

It's almost dark, and he still hasn't stopped chopping the wood, the pile growing but his pain is not relieved. It's acutely attacking the inside of me. I grab onto my lower stomach and throw up in the sink because of the force of what I'm feeling inside from him.

He wobbles to fall on his knees, his head hanging low, as his shoulders trembles. He stays there for a few minutes, I can't take my eyes off him until he turns to look at me...I thought I have seen despair in my lifetime.

I was wrong...

He tries to stand, he falls back down to stand entirely on his second try. Coming into the house, he doesn't look at me.

"If this was reversed and I had a male like you had that female what would you have done?"

" I would have killed him." I don't recognize his voice, it seems to hurt his throat to talk.

"Then you understand why I did what I did?"

Silence erodes the space to push all other sounds away.