Eclipse Child |✔|

|10|

Give me wings, 

burn them onto my skin

Ink them on my arms

Let them shelter me from harm. 

Give me wings so that I may try. 

Give me wings so that I may cry. 

Give me wings. 

Let me fly. 

-Far from the Maddening Crowd

***

Staying in this body for so long, is strange.

I don't know how the male does it.

I don't even know how long he has been acting this false part- pretending to be something he is not- and hiding within this pack.

I don't even know his name.

But then again, he doesn't know mine.

It doesn't seem real that he is my mate.

I feel nothing of what Aunt Quinn, Katie or mom described to me.

No fire, no heat, no spark of life or sudden revelation of knowledge.

I felt nothing.

In truth, I had expected this.

Because I had beaten my emotions down so much, for so long, I didn't think they would rise just by staring into another's eyes.

And my theory had been correct.

Or maybe it just didn't work on the fur side.

Maybe it had to be skin.

I had never heard of a mate story like this- where the meeting was done in the fur of the wolf instead of skin.

Staying in this body for so long is strange. It's wrong.

It feels wrong.

I watch the male. He moves with the pack like he has been a part of it for a long time.

They also move with him as if he is one of their own.

I can tell because they do not treat me this way.

They are still wary of my movements, and the weight of their gaze falls upon me if I stray or venture to close to one of their own.

It's not until the second day within this pack, that I finally realize something.

There is no Alpha.

Instead of having a leader, they worked as one. As a family.

The wolves themselves migrated with the following of the roaming elk. Taking note of their movements and copying where they traveled.

But each decision.

Each action and course of planning- was made by the group.

Even the male was allowed a say.

The oddity of the sight left me stunned for the rest of the day.

I could not comprehend such a thing, or even begin to wrap my mind around the information. Because there was no Alpha. No leader. They didn't need one. They didn't need someone to make the decisions for them. They could do it themselves. As a group. As a pack. As a family.