As Beautiful as a Rose

Rose-

“I will not be sold off to some spoiled, pompous asshole!  If you think for one second that I will ever agree to this, you will be more disappointed in yourselves than you are of me!” I yelled as hard and loud as I could.  My father’s eyes nearly popped from their sockets when he shouted back at me, “Roselia Maria!  You will not speak to us that way!  Go to your room before I lock you in there!”  His face had turned bright red and my mother’s jaw still hung to the floor.  I scoffed and stomped up the stairs to my room and slammed the door shut as hard as could.  I heard a thud and glass shattering, most likely a picture falling from the wall.  I would be paying for that later.  I threw myself onto my enormous bed and buried my face into the pillow.  I could not believe the audacity of my parents, as if I was some kind of mule they could trade away.  I laughed inside of my mind.  Even our mule had more rights than I did.  The mule had been in our family for more than ten years and belonged to my grandmother.  She would have a heart attack if anything happened to Petunia.  I sighed and got up to walk over to my balcony.

I loved to stand out here and take in the vast landscape.  I had the perfect view of the entire pack from here and could see the mountains and forest in the distance.  Our mansion was settled on top of a hill which made it look even bigger than it was.  It was a two-story house with thirty rooms and twenty-six bathrooms.  It sat on forty acres of land with at least ten other homes within the pack and was surrounded by an endless forest.  My parents were the Alpha and Luna of Blood Moon Pack and I was their burden of a daughter.  It has been the law for more than Goddess knows how long, that an un-mated Alpha could not take over a pack and, much to my dismay, these marriages were usually arranged.  Finding your fated mate had long ago died out and it was incredibly rare to come across now.  The Council reasoned that having two opinions in running the pack than just the one, would lead to a more just leadership.  If an Alpha remained unmated for so long, chances of his wolf going feral also rose, causing him to misinterpret right from wrong.  Since a mate was considered the other half of your soul, a mate, chosen or fated, brought peace to an Alpha Wolf, which allowed him to rule without clouded judgement.  But to make it even more awkward, the arranged marriage was usually someone from another pack, so as to keep things as peaceful between the packs as possible.  It doesn’t matter what rank the other person holds, but they usually tried to arrange between Alphas and Betas since they already some training on how to lead the pack. Basically, your future is decided before you are even born and there’s nothing you can do about it.  A few tears escaped my eyes before I quickly wiped them away.  I would not give in to this stupid tradition and was determined to rule this pack as Alpha, alone.  I’ve seen the men at my pack and there was not one I could imagine spending the rest of my life with. I could only imagine the men were just the same at other packs.  Even my personal protector was a huge asshole.  As future Alpha of the pack, I was not allowed anywhere alone, but that never stopped me from ditching him as many times as I could.  It wasn’t exactly hard, any how.  All I had to do was pass by where the omegas hung out and he got sidetracked.  I was determined to show them that I didn’t need a man to run this pack.  I was Nineteen years old with my birthday around the corner.  Twenty was the age you were granted a wolf and were finally able to shift.  This also meant that I was of age to take over the pack from my father.  With your wolf now present you would also be able to find your mate now, if you were so lucky to have one.  In any other case, you would be able to take a chosen mate, which is what they wanted me to do.  I walked back inside and got into bed.  I had training in the morning and I was going to show them just how powerful I could be, by myself.

The alarm went off at exactly 5am and I jumped out of bed.  I washed my face and got dressed in black leggings, sports bra and grey tank, tying my red hair back in a long braid.  I adjusted my favorite black baseball cap on my head.  It had been a gift from my grandmother when I was twelve.  She gave it to me for my birthday after my mother had refused to buy it for me when we went shopping for my birthday gift.  In the end, I was so upset she wouldn’t buy it for me, that it was the only thing I asked for.  She said it was not lady-like for me to wear a hat like that, that was for boys.  She instead bought me a huge sun hat with a big pink ribbon wrapped around it and a matching dress to go with it, both of which are currently still in the same gift box, tucked into the furthest corner of my closet.  My grandmother surprised me with the hat and the look on my mother’s face when I unboxed it was priceless.  Of course my mother didn’t have anything to say to my grandmother, so she just sat there completely mortified.  My grandmother was not very fond of my mother and it was safe to say my mother was deathly afraid of her, even at her seasoned age.  It’s the exact moment I think about every time I put the hat on and it instantly brings a smile to my stern face.  I was surprised it was still holding together as I made sure to wear it almost everyday, just to piss my mother off.  I headed downstairs and out the front door.  It was still dark out and everyone was still asleep as I crept across the landing.  Once I got outside, I sprinted to the tracks and started my morning run.  Sunrise wasn’t until another hour and a half, so I couldn’t start the course until then, when I could see a bit better.  No point in slipping and breaking an ankle when I could sweat out the extra time on the track.  The track was spread out within ten acres of forest and had many different trails within.  I wanted to prolong my run this morning, so I decided to try a different route than I usually take.  I started zig-zagging through the trails as I tried to keep my endurance up.  There were various markers along the trail letting you know how far you had gone from the entrance.  I kept my focus on running as I let the thoughts of yesterday’s heated argument sweat out from my mind.  I had just come home from collegiate when I heard my parent’s discussing my future in my father’s office….

“I really like the Alpha from Crescent Moon, darling.  Don’t you think?  He’s ranked top in training.  He’s top in his class at university.  I mean, he has many more achievements compared to the others,” I heard my mother’s voice coming from the office.  She was holding a blue folder in her hand while reading some of the information aloud.  My father had various folders opened on top of his desk with his reading glasses on as he bit the back of his pen.  “Yes…put that one in the ‘yes’ pile,” my father responded.  I instantly grew hot and my parents sensed my aura as they both whipped their heads to me as I stood in the doorway.  “I thought we agreed that I would not be needing to marry,” I stood there with my hands shaking, trying to hold myself back.  “Sweetheart, you know the rules.  You have to be wed or you cannot lead the pack,” my mother said quickly.  I completely ignored my mother and shifted focus to my father, who looked very disgruntled at being discovered reviewing suitors.  “Roselia, I never agreed…..” he started to answer, but I could contain my rage no longer.  “FATHER YOU AGREED THAT I WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO LEAD THE PACK ALONE,” I shouted as hard as I could, my chest pumping with air.  “I did say that Rose and it’s true, you are strong enough to lead alone, but you know that it cannot be that way.  It’s against the law,” he spat out before I could cut him off again.  “SO I’LL CHANGE THE LAW!” I bellowed.  “The only way, you can do that, is if the council approves it, and I will not” he said folding his arms to hide his trembling hands.  He was trying to remain as calm as he could, feigning my outburst meant nothing to him.  “AND WHY WON’T YOU?” I asked, searching his eyes for answers.  “You are our only child and I know you better than the back of my hand.  You will die an old maid and leave the pack without an heir.  I am doing this for your own good,” he replied earnestly.  He had a point….

I had been running harder it seems that when I finally snapped from my thoughts, I had no idea where I was.  There were no markers on the trail and this part of the forest seemed very unfamiliar.  I stopped and turned back around, trying my best to hurry back.  If I had accidentally wandered into someone else’s territory, they’d consider me a threat and could kill or imprison me.  The sun was already about a quarter way up the sky which meant I had been running for well past 6:30am, when everyone would already be at training.  My father would be worried and angry I hadn’t notified Garrison that I was leaving the house.  I tried to follow my tracks back the way I came, but it seemed there were several other tracks mixed with mine.  I kept my eyes on the ground trying to differentiate mine from the others when I slammed into something hard and fell back onto the ground.  I saw a big pair of feet in front of me and followed them up the muscular legs, all the way up this towering body.  I stopped when I met a pair of golden eyes staring back at me.  This man was enormous.  His chest was big and wide.  He had black hair and a scruffy beard.  He had on a white muscle shirt that revealed his muscular arms, the sweat glistening off of his bronze skin.  He definitely was built like a bull, three hundred and fifty pounds of muscle.  His shirt was soaked in sweat which probably meant he was out here training as well.  My heart stopped for a split second.  I couldn’t decide what his move was going to be.  Would he let me leave or kill me here and now?  I saw his eyes look me over before he finally spoke.  “What are you doing here?” his voice sent shivers down my spine, but I pretended to be unhindered.  “I…uhh…I was running and I got lost” was all I could muster.  “Where are you from?” his facial expression still had not changed from his stern look.  “B..Blood Moon” I replied quietly as I braced for his reaction.  He simply nodded and held out his hand for me to grasp.  I hesitantly reached out and he took my hand impatiently and hoisted me up to my feet effortlessly.  My hand felt tingly, like I had been sitting on it and it only occurred to me now that I could smell fresh rain.  I stood only inches from him, but my body felt like it was moving on it’s own, gravitating to his person.  Maybe I shouldn’t have skipped breakfast, I was feeling lightheaded.  I planted my heels in the ground and spoke sternly, “Thank you.  I will be on my way now.”  I looked at his expression, but it was still unchanging.  He simply nodded, again.  I began to walk when I suddenly remembered that I had no idea how to get back.  I stopped and looked to him.  He raised his hand and pointed to the left of me.  I simply nodded to him, as it was his favorite thing to do it seemed.  He started running down the trail opposite me, just as I heard thundering in the distance.  I hurried along, not wanting to train in soaked clothes with the impending rain nearing.  When I finally reached the training grounds and heard the sound of my father’s voice, I was already dreading the earful I would be given.