The moment mom took her seat again, the muttering started. Fathers were hurriedly giving orders and instructions to their sons. I tried my best to ignore them. I tried to focus on dinner, focus on everything but listening to the other tribes talk about how best to have their sons woo me. Or if they even wanted their sons to woo me. I knew they would all decide that I was still eligible. Marriage to me was the only way to take over my Father's pack.

Eventually, they would all come to the conclusion that it was worth the risk, even if I was one of the Chosen.

I wasn't looking forward to the wooing starting. I wasn't opposed to dating, or getting married someday. I had even known most of these boys for my entire life. They had been friends, classmates. They were children of my father's friends. They were in our lives all of the time. Under the watchful eye of my father, though, they had remained nothing more than friends. They were very careful not to express interest in front of my father or brothers. I was too young, still a child in the shifter community. Until tonight. Tonight, I was magically old enough and had to deal with teenage boys. I had no idea what I was getting into. No one had prepared me for this night.

I understood that they hadn't trusted that I would take the responsibility. They were going to blindside me with it. I was blindsided and had no idea what to do. Dinner would be over soon, and then the socializing and carefully watched wooing would begin.

I looked over the crowd again as I worked to calm myself and figure out how to handle this new situation. I realized when I was looking over the crowd that I wasn't the only girl here of dating age. I knew all of the shifter girls even better than their brothers. There weren't many of us, so we were all close.

I scanned the crowd again until I saw Lily. She was a year older than me and we had practically grown up as siblings. I cursed myself for not thinking of her sooner. We had grown apart the last year or so when we didn't go to the same school anymore and she was being courted. She looked up at me and I caught her eye. She gave me a smile. I knew that she would help me. I just had to get ahold of her before the boys swarmed on us. She nodded and I let out a sigh of relief.

The moment dinner ended, she and the other girls came up to our table. I jumped up to greet them. There were hugs and giggles and excitement. The boys stayed away. I think they were too scared by all of the estrogen to get near.

"Help me," I pleaded quietly to Lily. She grinned.

"Of course!" Our gaggle moved a little ways away from the table. The adults were standing to gather and socialize as well. Most of the fathers were gathering near the group of girls, keeping a protective eye on their daughters.

"They aren't going to do anything tonight besides remind you of their names and express interest." Lily told me. I wished I had paid more attention to these events previously, instead of chasing my brothers around. "And their interest might actually just be their fathers' interest," she reminded me. "Don't take offense at that. They aren't scary. They aren't going to hurt you." She reassured me. I nodded and relaxed.

I made a note to myself that I needed to get back in touch with these girls. I hadn't realized how much I had missed them while I was so busy over the summer taking entrance exams and worrying about my own future. I needed to do better at keeping in touch with them. All of them, from little Kaylee who was only 7 and just wanted to hang out with the big girls, to Kim who was 22, graduating from college soon, and engaged.

"We better go reintroduce you to the boys," Lily grinned. The younger girls broke off to play some kind of clapping game near their fathers and brothers. For the first time, I went with the older girls toward the other side of the meeting hall where the teenage boys were.