Flora's P.O.V
"Oh my God," Ruth whispered, shaking her head frantically. She pointed behind us, toward the tree line marking the exit to the woods. "Let's get out of here."
I nodded silently. We dropped to our hands and knees, scrambling toward the back of the clearing. Suddenly, a pair of sneakers blocked our path.
My heart hammered against my ribs. I followed the legs up, past the jeans, until I looked directly into the angelic face of Clay Scotsman.
"Up," he said, his voice hoarse.
Ruth and I scrambled to our feet immediately.
"Good." Clay crossed his arms. "Now, would you ladies mind telling me why you were pretending not to see anything when you clearly did?"
"We didn't see anything, I swear," I said quickly. Clay gave me an exasperated look, so I added, "I swear on the honour code."
I thought Clay might be angry that I knew about the honour code. Instead, he barked out a laugh and patted my head lightly, ruffling my hair.
"Good girl," he said, looking at me with eyes that had suddenly gone wolf. "Now get out of the woods."
Ruth didn't wait a single second. She grabbed my hand, and we sprinted out of the woods into the clearing behind our school.
"Fuck!" Ruth cursed as she collapsed onto the ground. "Why is that guy so intimidating? Don't you feel intimidated by him at all? I could hardly open my mouth in front of him."
It was true. Alpha wolves, or even future Alphas, contained a lot of power. Normal wolves like us usually felt overwhelmed in their presence. But...
"Riley's the Beta, remember?" I reminded Ruth.
Because of my brother, I was used to that shove of power against my senses. Even if it wasn't as vast as an Alpha's, it had helped me build a tolerance. Plus, my parents were two super dominant wolves. Having a house full of powerful wolves could be a bummer sometimes—that constant pressure an onslaught against your senses—but over time, it allowed me to build up an immunity.
It was actually shocking that in a house filled with dominant wolves, I turned out to be submissive. Well, not exactly submissive, since I was the future Healer. Healers were gentle and caring by nature, someone approachable by everyone in the pack, even the most submissive members.
"Fine, I'll give you that." Ruth patted the seat beside her.
I plopped down on the ground, folding my knees up against my chest so I could rest my chin on them. "But what the hell is this honour code?"
"It's something my brother and his friends came up with while they were in college," I told her truthfully. "It's when you catch a higher-ranking wolf in some kind of compromising position, you keep quiet about it. It comes with some sweet talk about them honouring you for your shut lips by being your guardian, or some stuff like that. It's something like a favour for a favour."
Ruth gave me a wide-eyed look. "Wow! We never had anything like that in our old pack."
"Don't get too excited, Ruth." I shook my head. "It's just some shit they made up so they could hook up with anyone they wanted without facing any serious consequences. Well... that's before they meet their mates."
"Well, that's fucked up." Ruth shook her head. "What if your mate's a virgin who's been saving herself only for their mate?"
I gave her a deadpan look, to which Ruth burst out laughing.
"Yeah, right!" She sniggered. "I forgot that for that, you'd have to be younger than sixteen."
"Those are rough two years." I shook my head as I took my lunch box out of my backpack. I offered Ruth a slice of my sandwich before digging into my own lunch.
What Ruth and I were discussing wasn't an exaggeration. Wolves were very sensitive creatures that needed continuous touch from their packmates. It didn't usually have to be sexual touch, but wolves were also very sexually active in their juvenile years, especially from their sixteenth to eighteenth years. This period was usually called the Heat. It wasn't like someone couldn't resist the sexual urges—they could—but for that, you needed nerves of steel and very strong determination to stay a virgin for your mate.
And unlike what romance novels made it look like, wolves found their mates at or after their twenty-eighth birthdays, when the wolf was mature enough to understand its responsibilities. It was usually the male who found their mates first. Females couldn't usually sense who their mates were before the male had matured. Sometimes people claimed there was a spark, a chemistry that led them to know beforehand, but that wasn't true for everyone.
I sometimes felt like it was an unfair advantage that the Moon Goddess had given the male wolves, but it wasn't like we could do anything about it. What was set in stone couldn't be changed. Just like the mating bond itself. Once you felt the pull of the mating bond, you could never look at anyone else. It did seem unfair to me, almost like an arranged marriage where you didn't really have a say in the matter and were forced to love the person who was chosen for you, even if said choosing was done by a Goddess. It felt more like a beautifully decorated cage.
When I told Ruth about my theory, she just shrugged.
"I think you're right about the part where we don't have any choice, but it saves us a lot of work," she said, biting into a spring roll while offering me one of those crispy fried goodnesses. "No matter what happens, your mate will always be faithful, always love you more than anything in this world."
"I guess you're right." I bit down on her spring roll. The spicy filling blew my head off, distracting me from my worries for a brief few minutes while we ate lunch and talked about all sorts of things.
Ruth's mother, Armina Summers, was an amazing cook, and it was no surprise that she often found that half the pack had invited themselves over to her place for lunch, dinner, or some snacks in between. But Auntie Armina loved feeding people, which was why she was always inside her kitchen, making up delicious snacks for anyone who wanted to drop by. I'd never once seen her complain.
But even as thoughts of mates and Moon Goddesses swam through the back of my mind as I finished up my lunch and went back inside the building to head to my next class with Ruth by my side, I was unaware of the wolf that had followed us to the clearing and was keeping an eye on me all throughout.