The Teacher's Beta

Chapter 31

Calli

“Next we will perform the Beta ceremony.” Ian announces loudly and Finn takes that as his cue to remove his tongue from my mouth. He smiles warmly at me and I grin back.

‘I love you.’ He links to me as he moves towards Cam.

‘I love you too.’ I answer as I let go of his hands.

Ian takes the place in front of me that Finn had been standing in previously and takes out the dagger again.

“With this ceremony, you will be bonded to our pack Calli. It is an honor and a great responsibility. Do you understand this?” He asks solemnly and I nod.

“I do.”

“Good. Now, do you promise to uphold our laws and our customs, to protect this pack and keep them happy and healthy to the best of your ability?” I smile at Ian and nod again.

“I do.”

“Excellent, please hold out your palm again.” I do so and he cuts a little more, not needing much since I already had a wound there.

Then he cuts his own palm and holds it out to me before chanting the same words again.

“With this blood do we bond.”  

I feel a surge of energy course through my veins, that grows the longer Ian holds onto my hand. I feel my blood begin to hum with power and the wolves in the front row bare their necks to me.

“You’re feeling Finn’s power.” Ian explains to me quietly. “The power of a Beta.”

He let’s go of my hand and stands to face the crowd while holding his hands out towards me.

“I present to you, Moonbeam Pack, your new Beta Female!” There are loud cheers and applause as the pack stands and welcomes me. I stand and smile at them all, trying to rein in this feeling in my blood.

I look over at Finn and his smile holds warmth, awe and pride.

“Now, let’s go celebrate!” Ian yells and the cheering grows impossibly louder as the pack filters towards the packhouse where grills and trays upon trays of food have been set up with numerous tables, a dance floor and a DJ booth that one of the younger wolves is stationed at.

Finn scoops me up in his arms and carries me straight to the dance floor where a slow song starts. He puts me down and wraps his arms around me as we begin to sway to the music.

“You look so beautiful, sweetheart.” He murmurs to me and I smile up at him.

“Not as beautiful as you. If I knew you cleaned up so well, I would have bought one of these forever ago.” I say and he chuckles at me.

“I think it’ll be more fun for you to take it off later.” He winks at me and I blush which makes Finn tilt his head back and laugh.

We dance and eat and laugh and celebrate with our pack. They are so warm and welcoming to me, hugging me and saying how happy they are with how we’ve been handling things so far. As happy as I am, I still can’t rid of this nagging feeling like I’m being watched. I look around the forest surrounding us, but it’s dark and I definitely do not have werewolf eyes, so I try to ignore it.

Penny and I drink a bit too much, always forgetting that we’re human and can’t keep up with the wolves and end up dancing to a song about windows and walls rather obnoxiously before I feel my eyelids begin to droop.

“Finn?!” I call out but don’t see him anywhere.

“Finny!”

“Finnius!!”