Chapter 9: Chapter 9

ELEANOR

~Knock, knock.~

“Come in, Eleanor,” Samuel’s voice called.

I opened the door and walked in.

“Please come in, and take a seat,” he said.

I closed the door behind me, walked toward his desk, and took a seat in front of him.

“Do you need me to do something as a part of my beta female duties?” I asked him.

He shook his head as he pushed away the papers he was reading and looked up at me.

“You’re not officially a part of the pack yet, Eleanor,” he stated the facts, and I remained silent.

“And you didn’t bother to come and ask me to include you in this pack.”

“I think I will just stay like this, Samuel. I’m only going to stay here for six months, so I don’t think I need to join. It’ll just add unnecessary layers later,” I told him, but he shook his head.

“Six months is a long time, and anything can change,” he said.

“Xavier made it very clear that this was a contracted arrangement and nothing more.”

“You know you are practically a rogue right now, right?” he asked me.

The moment I left my father’s pack, I did technically become a rogue.

“Can’t I stay this way?” I asked him.

“Look, Eleanor. I know this is a weird situation. We’re navigating it with you. But you’re under my protection, and if you are a rogue, that could put you in danger,” Samuel explained.

I let out a sigh. He was right. Even if I lived on pack lands, rogues aren’t protected by pack law.

“I can initiate you into the pack right now if you want,” he said.

“Doesn’t that require a ceremony or something?” I asked him with a puzzled look on my face, and he shook his head.

“If you want a ceremony, then that can be arranged. But it’s not necessary.”

“No, that’s all right. Can we start the process now?” I asked him.

He nodded his head. He got up and grabbed a wooden box from a nearby cupboard. Then he placed the box in front of me.

“You do know how this happens, right?” he asked me, and I nodded my head.

He opened the wooden box, and inside, I saw the ceremonial dagger wrapped in a blue velvet cloth. Samuel took the dagger out and stepped away from me. I stood up preparing for the pain to come.

“Are we doing this without any witness?” I asked him.

“Nope. Witnesses have been mind-linked and will be here…” Samuel stopped talking when the office door swung open.

Marquez and someone I hadn’t met yet waltzed into the office.

“Great timing, boys. Now that we have our witnesses, shall we begin?” Samuel asked me, and I nodded my head while nervousness set in.

Samuel began speaking in Latin before he walked toward me. Using the dagger, he sliced his palm and handed the dagger to me.

I looked at the blood dripping from his palm, and I gagged a little.

“Shall I help you make a cut?” Marquez asked me but I shook my head.

“Thank you, but I can do it,” I told him as I took the dagger from Samuel’s hand and made a deep cut on the palm of my right hand. I felt the cold blade dig deep in my skin, and I tried my best not to flinch.

My mind drifted to my first initiation ceremony and all the hurtful words that my father said.

“You are fucking weak. Just like your mother,” my father spat out when I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down my cheeks.

I still felt the wound on my palm burn. Alpha James quickly finished the process, but my father wasn’t satisfied. I remembered how pissed my father looked.

“Eleanor?” I was brought back from my thoughts when I heard Marquez’s voice.

A proud smile appeared on my face when I realized how much I’d grown from the weaker version of me to the confident and independent woman I was today.

“Are you ready?” Samuel asked me. I nodded my head, and we joined our bloodied palms together.

Samuel started speaking in Latin again while I felt a rush of energy pulse within me, and then our energies clicked into place.

“Amazing. We’re done,” Samuel said as he let my hand go.

Marquez gave me some cotton balls to wipe the blood.

“Thank you,” I mumbled as I pressed the cotton to stop the blood.

“Anything else you need before I go back to work?” I asked.

Samuel nodded his head. I walked out of his office and made my way to mine.

I threw the cotton ball in the trash and sat back on my chair. I looked at my schedule when I noticed that I was booked to be at the hospital to help out in the maternity ward. I grabbed my handbag and left my office.

“Miss Amato?” a nurse greeted me as I entered the maternity ward, and I smiled at her. “Are you here to help out?” the nurse asked me.

Even though I was shocked to hear what my job entitled me to do, I made sure to conceal my emotions and nodded my head.

The nurse looked really cute in her white and purple dress, while her blonde hair was in a neat and tight bun.

“Well, Alpha Derek told me that I’ll be working in the maternity ward. But trust me when I tell you I have no experience in this field,” I told her honestly.

“Don’t worry, I can guide you,” she reassured me with a sparkling smile. “Anyway, my name is Holly,” she introduced herself.

“Eleanor Amato,” I told her.

She guided me toward the maternity room. When we entered, my nostrils were filled with the scent of newborns and blood. Strangely, I liked the smell of the newborn.

“What am I supposed to do here?” I asked Holly while she showed me everything that was in the maternity ward.

“You’re supposed to arrange the initiation ceremonies for the newborn,” Holly explained when my steps faltered as I came to a stop in the middle of the empty hallway.

“Wait! Initiation ceremony?” A shiver ran down my spine when she said that.

Poor babies! I didn’t know they performed the ceremony so young.

“Don’t worry, Miss Amato. It’s not like the initiation ceremony that we have. It’s more like a naming ceremony where the alpha and the beta females would be present. Alphas generally use a strand of the baby’s hair for the process.”

“What does that involve?”

“I guess you’ll have to just wait and see,” Holly told me as we came to a stop in front of a white door that had my name written in a silver nameplate.

“Who did that? I have an office at the pack house,” I said as a look of confusion crossed my face.

“Oh, Alpha Derek asked us to place it here. We have the extra room so it’s no big deal,” she said.

She showed me inside the sparse office. Then, after Holly showed me the rest of the things in the hospital, I got to work on the latest naming ceremonies.

BETA XAVIER

“~Can’t you see Eleanor is nothing like her!~” my wolf, Kyle, reasoned with me, but this was only causing a headache.

“~Would you just fucking shut up! Just because she made breakfast doesn’t mean she would remain loyal to us, Kyle. She’s trying to play with our feelings~,” I told him.

I walked into the kitchen to see that Eleanor had already left the house, but her scent of roses and oranges remained in the air, irritating me further.

I was hungry from my workout this morning, and so it was too hard to resist the cooked breakfast. Turned out Eleanor was a good cook. I was finishing up washing my dish when a mind-link came through.

“~Marquez, what is going on?~” I mind-linked him.

“~Oh, Eleanor was just added as the newest pack member,~” he replied.

This made my hand tighten around the plate.

While I tried my best to keep her at arm’s length from me and my pack, my idiotic friends were doing quite the opposite.