Chapter 10

Another grandparent type wolf stood at the door, her blank eyes a ghostly white. I stood up quickly, but the wolf across from me looked a little disappointed at the interruption. 

"We are ready for you now," she croaked.

"Thankyou ma'am," I said and left the room without another glance at the Alpha's treacherous second cousin. I followed my blind guide a couple more yards down the hall until we entered a slightly bigger office with a table in it not unlike a conference room. How the blind wolf knew this was the right place was beyond my understanding. The blind wolf and I took our seats at the table where three other old wolves sat already. These must be the all of the Alpha's grandparents. 

"Introduce yourself she-wolf," demanded the elder that had led Rayven inside earlier.

"My name is Elma," I stated shortly. Customarily a wolf would follow this with a family name or pack name, but I decided to keep mine short. A moment of silence.

"What did she say?" asked one of the wolves who in their human form was bald. Another white haired male turned to him and spelled out something with hand symbols that I can only imagine was my name. 

"You must excuse them." said the female who from outside, "You see all of the Alpha grandparents besides me are cursed. This is the price of power on those of unpure heart."

I had never met anyone with a real curse and my eyes went big as I managed to nod solemnly.

"We aren't cursed we're just disabled. Ignore her she just wants to gloat about how well the years have treated her," controdicted the blind elder in front of me rolling her pale eyes.

"Is that ol'hag talking about how she thinks we're cursed again?" the bald one asked the room. 

"Don't let them lead you astray, heed my words of you want to avoid their fate," the female argued back. I really thought they would be asking me more questions in this interview. If they just wanted to argue amongst themselves then I didn't even need to be here. 

"I hope that when age one day curses me that I can show the same resilience I have seen here today," I smiled politely hoping that was the sort of answer they were looking for. The mute one translated my words into sign for the deaf one. 

"We are not cursed," the bald one now spoke to me his words stumbling clumsily out of his mouth because he could not hear them, "We are blessed. With patience, the world now shows it's true colors to us and I can see it as it is. It takes time and effort to speak to me now and therefore I am only surrounded by the patient and the true. My daughter was once chosen to become the Luna. I know what it takes." He reached over and gave the blind one a kiss on the cheek. 

"How do you communicate," I addressed the blind female, "Can you make signs without having to see them?"

"Marriage is all one long conversation. After fifty years of words we no longer need them to continue the conversation." she replied. 

I spent a moment puzzling over her words letting the depth of them sink in.

"We use pack mind speech," she finished anticlimacticly. 

"Oh" 

"I'll lead you out," said the female who claimed to be pure of heart taking once again to her unsteady feet. I followed her out of the room wondering how I could use anything I had learned to seduce the Alpha. 

"Its true, I hope you know, about the curses. I was once Luna myself, having that sort of fame and power puts a target on your back and the curses are soon to follow." 

"Who cursed them?"

"Oh anyone could, an old enemy, a double crossing friend, a child who felt like were treated unfairly, even your own mind. Struggles in the mind, not being able to let things go, all of this pays a toll on the body."

"But not on the pure of heart?"

She smiled at me now, "No, not on the pure of heart. You must let go of the things that trouble you or risk loosing yourself. You, dear, have a unique spirit. I can see this in you, there is a battle in you that you try to hide." 

A battle in my spirit? She must be referencing the secret of my family, but I feel as though I left that behind just by being here. I nodded, who was into tell a former Luna that she must be wrong.

"Make sure you decide who wins," she finished and I realized I was once again outside. The door shut behind me and the elder was gone. I looked around and noticed that I had been taken out a back door. That's how all the wolves went in and seemed to never come back out. I blinked in the sun and noticed a shirtless figure approaching me. I blinked again. It was the Alpha himself.

"Allow me to accompany you back to your cabin," the sun seems to shine of his teeth and made his eyes look to be the color of honey. He held out a muscled arm to me and I took it. My hand looked tiny compared to the girth of his forearm.

"Yes my Alpha," I replied.