"Uh, Selena?" Melissa waved her hand over her face when she continued to stare blankly in space. "You suddenly turned pale. And you look like you're about to faint."
... Well, learning you died so suddenly, at the prime of your life, would make anyone panic. Learning you died and got reincarnated in one of your hated novels is just unfair.
"Ow! Why did you pinch me?!" Melissa yowled.
"Just making sure," Selena murmured before sliding down to sit in the tree's root. Melissa peered at her while chewing her lips. Selena absently noticed her friend's sharp canine teeth, which made her ran her tongue to her own sharp ones. Huh.
"...You know, I think the pack will... understand if you decide to sit the ceremonies out tonight. Take some rest, perhaps?"
"I'm sure they would," Selena practically scoffed. It's starting to make sense now. All those looks thrown at her, the wide berth, the basement room... It was what the female protagonist had suffered through from the beginning of the novel. "They hate me."
"Of course not!" her friend automatically responded, but even she looked unconvinced by her own words. From what she could remember, the pack's hierarchy placed great importance on one's designation, with alphas being seen as the strongest ones and hence viewed as leaders. Omegas, which were very rare, are often the most physically weak and are deemed submissive, and as such, are usually subjected to abuse. Nothing really excites power-drunk junkies more than gloating about their self-projected supremacy to others.
Selena groaned.
"Sitting out tonight sounds like the best idea," she sighed as she combed the hair out of her face. Melissa, however, suddenly gasped, then squeaked, and then sounded as if she was gasping for air in a span of three seconds.
"And who gave you permission to do that?"
The voice was so deep it almost sounded like a growl. Selena spun and gazed... up, at the now cross-armed Chase, eyes set on a sharp glare towards her direction. The 6'3" height was definitely not helping on her now frozen legs.
"W-we're n-not doing anyt-thing, sir!" Melissa wheezed, making them sound more suspicious that Selena wanted to flinch. "What she meant," she tried to explain, "Was that I was feeling a bit under the weather and suggested that I should rest."
Chase's full gaze turned to her, and she tried not to squirm. Still, she had to admit that the author certainly had great taste in men: tall, square-shaped face, clear blue eyes, and some very obvious muscles in the arms and chest area. Selena would have whistled if she couldn't be punished by it. Definitely a male protagonist vibe.
And, if she understood correctly about her role in this world, the two of them are destined mates.
... It really feels different now that she's living through the story instead of reading it and spewing complaints at every questionable choice the protagonist made. There was a certain sensation at the back of her mind, almost like a hum, that seemed to make Chase's presence more obvious, and she couldn't tell if it was because of being "fated" to each other or some other side effects of the accident. The book didn't even dive deeper into it, either, so she had no lens to compare it with.
"And," the man drawled, his voice sounding as if it's coming deep from his chest, "Did I ever say that you can?"
Selena blinked back to reality. "Sorry?"
"I said," he stepped closer to them, making them take a step back, and the air changed into something colder, sharper. "Did I ever say that you can skip tonight's ceremonies so you can rest?"
"Well—"
Selena felt the rough bark of the tree on her back, and an arm suddenly struck the tree close to her head, the sound making her gasp. She didn't remember closing her eyes, but when she opened them, she came face to face with Chase, who was now standing waayyy too close for comfort, his eyes shining gold. "The Shifting Ceremony and Ascension Ceremony are two of our most sacred rituals," he growled. "Have you lost respect for our traditions and decided to sink even lower, Omega?"
Selena couldn't answer, too busy keeping the whimper from coming out of her mouth. A small tidbit of lore flashed through her about wolves biting the throat of their enemies (not helpful!) and showing napes means signs of respect or surrender. Not keen on trying it but also not wishing for her throat to be torn, she shakily bowed her head to show her nape. She heard a rumbling sound from Chase's chest, and the man finally stepped back. When she looked up, she could see him smirking as he gazed down at her.
"I want you within my peripheral sight for the entire night. You are not to leave anywhere without my knowledge, got that?" Without waiting for an answer, he walked towards the clearing with a smug air. When he was finally outside earshot, Melissa quickly moved to keep the now tilting Selena upright.
"Oh, dear moon, are you alright?! I thought he was gonna bite your head off!"
Selena thought so, too. She was gasping for breath like she was on a marathon. "I'm huff gine— fine ! I'll just... sit here for a bit." She slid back down the tree and leaned her head on the trunk. Melissa quietly sat next to her, rubbing Selena's arm comfortingly. It made Selena want to cry; memories of their first year in uni flashed through her mind, filled with anxiety and unsteadiness. Melissa was the first constant she had at that time, and she's glad to have her best friend's constant now in this foreign world. She wasn't sure how she would fare well with her entire life being tossed out and replaced entirely by someone else's.
It made Selena want to cry. She suddenly felt as if she was homesick again, but this time, she didn't have any way of getting back. Her hands found the fabric of Melissa's shirt, and she held it tightly. Melissa merely laid her head on hers.
The air slowly started to feel nippy, but the pair only moved when the sounds of people became louder. The sun was already replaced by night, the sky breathtakingly clear, and the stars mapped its surface. Everyone was dressed semi-formally in dresses of all lengths and ironed shirts, though the elders, who were seated in a roofed area facing the bonfire, all wore full-on embroidered cloaks of rich maroon and golden threads. Three long tables were arranged in place: two situated on Selena's left filled with food and drinks, and a shorter one in front of the elders.
She spotted Tharen near the middle of the lined elders, looking as if he were carved from ice. She also spotted Claire on the far right, talking in a group of young ladies. She had her nose turned up as the ladies around her tittered that Selena half-expected her to float up with all the gloat.
At least she's on the other side of the table. Selena was famished.
She stuck close to the edge; less chance of bumping into people.
"Everything's meat, huh?" Selena murmured as she looked at the towering dishes on the table: pork, chicken, beef, even lamb. She did spy a few seafood, but it was completely overshado— "Wait, is that a leg ?!" She pointed at the far end of the second table, where a plate of what looked like a whole slab of roasted deer leg was placed.
"Oh, yeah, I think Chase and a couple of guys went out to hunt early morning."
"... Why didn't they at least cut the part with the hooves off?"
Melissa shrugged. "Well, you know how old man Cain is. The old man's got weird taste in aesthetics." She took a bite of one of the pork chops smothered in gravy and promptly groaned. "Great cook, though." A second later, though, she started coughing out hard. "Uh, Selena? Chase alert."
Said young alpha was standing close to the center of the clearing, surrounded by either sparkly or heart-eyed people. Even Claire managed to find herself a place at the young man's left and was trying to get his attention. Chase, however, had his piercing eyes on their direction, unmoved by the clamor around him.
"... He feels... really extreme, huh?" Melissa commented after audibly swallowing. "Is it just me, or is he a bit, well, more focused on you lately?"
"..." Selena was inclined to believe that it's probably the "bond," but the man's attitude made it a bit difficult to know. "I don't really know him, so I can't really tell."
Melissa inclined her head at her, a look of confusion on her face. "Really? Didn't you two use to play together as children?"
Selena blinked, shocked. She didn't remember the novel mentioning it before. Did she skim through it?
"... People change," she scrambled to reply before Melissa got more suspicious. It seemed that there was a lot more in this story than what she initially knew. One thing's for sure, though , she thought as she spied Chase still looking their way, I refuse to be tied together in life with that guy.