The Choosing

Tension

Sophie and Thaddeus entered the meeting room together. Thaddeus stood tall, raw power radiating from him. Sophie did her best to mimic this. The chatter came to a standstill and every eye in the room swung towards them. Sophie tensed and fought the urge to back out the door that she had just come through. Elliot Eversteen was the first to formally greet the pair.  Sophie remembered the first she had found out her Grandfather had once been as young as she was. She astounded by the idea. 

Elliot Eversteen was sitting on his favourite chair in the lounge room, his walking stick resting against the arm of the chair, just inches from his weathered fingertips. The sunlight filtered in through the window behind him, creating a halo around his steel hair. Sophie had been young, no more than six years old. Standing on the tips of her toes, with her arms stretched high, she managed to snag a photo frame from the lowest shelf. The people in the photo were unrecognisable. The photo was black and white. A young man and woman stared back at her with wide, toothy grins. They were beautiful, the woman had pale hair that was mostly covered in shimmery white cloth, her dress was also white. She wore pearls around her throat, the same that her grandmother wore now. The man had dark hair, combed back and gelled away from his face, and a soft dimple in his left cheek.

"Grandpa, who are these people?" Sophie asked, dashing over to the man she adored. The old man smiled down at her, his left cheek dimpling as he did so. 

"That's Grandma and I, the day we were married" Sophie frowned down at the photo in confusion, this wasn't a version of her Grandfather she knew.

"We all start out just as little as you Sophie, and one day, you'll be as big and grey as me"

Sophie tangled her blonde locks in her hair and frowned, how on earth would her hair change colour? Dropping her tresses, she grinned up at her Grandfather. 

"I can't wait!" She chirped scrambling up into his lap "because one day I'll have a pretty walking stick, just like you!" Her fingers traced over the golden wolf head that sat upon the wooden stick. 

Elliot Eversteen smoothed his hand over the small girl's hair, a heavy weight settling in his heart "I'm sure you will, my girl."

It still irked Sophie, even now, that once her Grandfather had a whole life in which she didn't exist. Although it seemed he'd always had a whole life that she had never been apart of, that much was evident. The man who stood before her was a man she had never known. There was no softness to his features, no cheeky light to his eyes. His face was set, as if chiselled from stone and his eyes were stern, void of any light. Despite needing to lean on his walking stick, with his fingers gripped tightly around the head of the wolf, he stood tall and proud. It seemed to Sophie that he was determined to show the other men in this room, that although he did not posses the same ability they did, he was their equal. Her Grandfather bowed before her and Thaddeus as if he had never met them before, as if Sophie wasn't his Granddaughter. 

"Alpha, Luna, thank you for inviting me into your home. It was gracious of you."

"Of course Councilman Eversteen, you are needed." Thaddeus' voice was firm and clear. That of a leader. Sophie didn't speak to him, she didn't know what to say. As his Granddaughter she would tell him that he would always be welcome inside her home but as Thaddeus' Luna, she was out of her depth.

 Sophie was wearing a dark blue pencil dress, in an attempt to look serious, someone who was worthy of standing by Thaddeus' side. Instead it made her uncomfortable, it clung too tightly to her skin and dipped too low beneath her collar bone. It felt as though every eye in the room was surveying her every move.  Sensing Sophie's discomfort, Thaddeus drew a burning hand around her waist and drew her close to his side. Sophie let out a soft breath, trying to steady her fluttering heart.  They had to appear to be a unified front. They had to look strong.