Zenah's drive home was uneventful. From Marquette to the den was a little under fifty miles, so she was just pulling into the drive as Zach was hunting. Pulling up to the gate, she sighed in uncommon contentment. The day had given her everything she could have wanted, okay maybe not everything, but it was a start.
She left the den that morning, hoping against hope that he had actually felt something. Now she knew he had. He might not have liked it, but neither had she at the time. The bonding didn't care, it never did. In all the research she'd been doing in the last couple of days, she'd found out that the bonding changed the pair at an almost cellular level. Each partner was fitted to the other, their way of thinking, how they acted towards the other.
When she had first read those words, how her fingers had trembled. She hadn't wanted to change, not for anyone, especially a cat. That was why she'd had to see him again. She needed to know if her view of him had changed, and how it had changed. It was everything she could do to not jump him and never let go. He was a cat. How could this have happened?
With all these conflicting thoughts rushing through her mind, she didn't notice the green light above the gate or that it had just begun to swing closed. Gunning the engine, she slipped her car through with inches to spare and sped up the long winding drive. From the main gate to the den was a little over three miles of well kept concrete. Smooth on the tires and winding to take one past some of the oldest trees on the four hundred acre property.
She'd planted some of those trees, watched them grow, ran beneath them. Where most of not all the pack always wanted company when they ran Zenah was different. She wanted solitude when she changed, choosing to run with the pack only when told to buy her father or mother.
In the distance the den came into view, a huge dark green edifice. A large wrap-around porch face towards the drive, lined with columns along its entire length. The den was three stories high and two underground. It housed everything they needed, from food preparation and serving, to training of the warriors. Every werewolf in the territory resided within this den, and the territory stretched from the Lake Huron coast, all the way to the western border of Minnesota, from north and south, her father ruled from the southern shore of Lake Superior to the southern border of Illinois, in all that territory, the only den was here.
Pulling into the seven door garage, she parked next to a very nice mustang convertible. Her bright red Volkswagen bug looking out of place. She didn't care; she loved her little car, and it had never let her down.
"Where have you been, it's nearly five in the afternoon?" A high pitched voice sounded behind her.
"Hi mom," she spun around and waved.
"Don't you hi me, young lady. I told you to give me a call when you got there and when you left. I haven't heard from you in over eight hours. I sent two of the scouts out to find you three two hours ago."
"You WHAT!" Zenah screamed. "Please mom. tell me you didn't."
Oh God, if they check the dojo they'll smell Zach all over it. They'll know there's a tom in the area, track him to wherever he is, and kill him.
"Why shouldn't I have?" Her mother asked, walking up to her.
"I'm trying to make some friends. How are they going to respond if two big goons in black suits come around asking questions? I'm enough of an outsider as it is right now."
"We'll I can't call them back. When they last checked in they were on their way back. They'd picked up cat scent, but they said it was old, at least two weeks. Now would you like to tell me what's really going on?"
I would love to mom. I went through the bonding. And he is magnificent. I want you to meet him, I really do, you'd like him. Right before dad rips his head off.
"What? Everything's fine here. The class was great, and my instructor, so cute!" Zenah smiled at her mother.
"Very funny, no human is that cute." Her mother shook her head. "And why would you want to make friends of humans? You know they live for no more than a hundred years. You're still young, what you need to do is find someone here you can grow old with."
Here we go again.
"Mom, I have touched every guy here, and you know what happened, nothing. I'm beginning to think I'm destined to be single my entire life." When her mother reached her, they walked together out of the immense parking structure. Taking the far left of the four doors, they went into the residential wing of the Den. As in all areas, the living quarters were set up in order of importance. The alpha pair had their room at the head of the long corridor, the rest in order of prominence had theirs one after another down the long spiralling hall.
Zenah's room was close to the middle of the row of doors. She wasn't as important as her brothers and the other warriors, but she was more important than the wolves that did the cooking and cleaning. She was content with her place, to advance all she had to do was bond with someone and have his pup, simple.
For most of her three hundred and twenty-two years, she'd been trying to do exactly that. Until she came to the realization that that was what her mother wanted, what her father wanted, but what did she want? She hadn't been able to answer that question. The only thing she knew for certain was that she wanted more than the typical life of a woman of the Den. Something called to her, something she knew she'd never find within the four walls of this place.
For the first time in her life, she knew she was right where she was supposed to be. She'd met the man she'd be with for the rest of her life. The only problem was that if anyone she knew found out about them, that life could be very short indeed. But what else could she do? Her entire beings was drawn to him, Zach was becoming the center of her world and it frustrated her. Sure, she loved having someone in her life, but to become a weak kneed pup when she thought of him, that was a little too much for her. But the way he smiled, the way he moved, the heat, his scent.
"Are you okay hon, you look flushed." Zenah realized they were both standing in front of the door to her room.
"I'm fine, it's just been a long day that's all."
"Zen," she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
Not this.
"I know mom, it's just I've got a lot on my mind right now. I'm fine though, really." The hand on her shoulder retreated, and she turned the knob on her door.
"I'm going to probably sleep in tomorrow. My next class isn't until Thursday so I'm going to rest tomorrow, okay."
"Sure honey, take it easy. We'll talk tomorrow." Zenah turned in the doorway and gave her mother a hug, a single tear sliding down her cheek.
Why did this have to be so damned hard?
Her mother turned quickly and walked away. She had seen the tear in her daughter's eye, there was something going on and it tore her apart inside. But her daughter would have to figure it out on her own. No matter how tempted she was to interfere.
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