Chapter 87: The Rites (2)
"Your Majesty. Blood." Emira watched as the Great Witch extended the ancient carved obsidian bowl towards the Crown Prince. She had never witnessed an initiation ceremony. There had not been any within the Pack that she knew of.
But as she watched, she was even more awed... The Alpha, ignoring the dagger on the side, simply shifted his hand into a claw and slashed the other hand, letting his blood fall into the bowl... Was there something like this? Someone could shift only halfway and then shift back?
So, in awe was she that she even forgot to notice that the Wolf’s fur was dark... like the wolf from her ’dream’.
As the bowl turned half full, the witch stepped back carefully and brought the bowl towards her. Emira felt a shiver pass through her as the witch took each step.. The blood... spelled heavenly. Like the grass after a first rain... Even her wolf seemed to get an alert at the sweetness of it.
And when the witch brought it in front of her, Emira had to physically stop herself from taking the bowl and sniffing it.
So entrancing was it that Emira almost missed the witch’s instruction to swear her allegiance. She looked up in confusion for a minute, and the witch gave her a glance as if calling her foolish and repeated the instructions.
"Let your blood fall into the bowl and then speak the words."
Emira’s throat tightened and she nodded slowly as she picked up the dagger that had been placed beside the bowl on the tray. This was the second time she had cut herself. But somehow, it felt different. The previous time had been desperate but this time, it almost felt as if this was destined.
Carefully, she pressed the dagger into her skin, letting the blood fall into the bowl and spoke softly, "I swear my allegiance to the Stormhold Pack. I swear to serve the Alpha, to protect the Pack, and to never betray the Stormhold Pack in any way. Let the cost of betrayal be extracted by the blood if ever."
The witch nodded once at the words, but then her eyes widened. Emira followed her gaze and almost pulled back her hand in shock. Suddenly, the flow of the blood seemed to have increased. As if someone was pulling it out of her body like a magnet. The bowl was almost full, and yet the blood flow kept increasing instead of decreasing.
"Miss?" the witch asked sharply. "Did you cut yourself too much? This is too much blood."
Emira’s eyes widened. She hadn’t cut that deep. Yet the blood kept running, faster now, streaming into the bowl until it reached the brim. The witch quickly pulled it away, almost spilling some as she backed off.
Meanwhile, Emira’s body went cold. Her head spun, and her knees weakened. She pressed her free hand to the table to steady herself, but it didn’t help as she felt her heart start to almost slow down.
She tried to squeeze her hand shut, but it only smeared across her palm and fingers. She swayed and then started to fall backward.
Before she hit the ground, a strong arm caught her. She gasped, and then froze at the next sensation. A warm tongue dragged across her palm. Rough. Firm. Heat spread from the wound, and in the next instant, the bleeding stopped.
Her head jerked up. The Alpha was holding her wrist, his eyes locked on her face. Her wound was gone. Not even a scar remained over her palm...
For a moment, everything went silent. She stared at him, too shocked to speak. His grip didn’t loosen right away as he stared at her, still holding her palm. His scent shocked her. Prince Kael and Prince Zen both had different scents and yet, both attractive and soothing to her, but Prince Lance’s scent was like a sucker punch to the gut, making her stomach tighten as her body seemed to go from cold to hot within a minute...
Thankfully, the witch broke the silence. She lifted the bowl high and said softly," Your Majesty, she is accepted!"
Emira blinked as Prince Lance walked back towards his chair and then hurriedly knelt down," Thank you, Alpha Lance."
When she looked up, she realised that Prince Lance had already turned away. The Great witch came forward and hurriedly helped her up, "Let’s go. I am sure there must be some other Omega waiting to show you around. Before that, Emira, can you tell me where you came from?"
Emira frowned at the sudden question but answered truthfully," I came from the Moonville Pack."
The witch’s eyes narrowed slightly, for a moment but then she hurriedly asked, "And your parents? Were they from the Moonvilla Pack as well? Where are they now? Did they also leave the pack?"
Emira stiffened at the sudden barrage of intrusive questions and asked cautiously, "Why?"
"It is just a question. Don’t mind an old woman like me. I live away from here and was invited yesterday so I was curious. So, were your parents from Moonville too? What were their names?"
Emira hesitated. Despite the woman putting on an air of calm, as if she was not dangerous, there was something in her gaze that felt intrusive and a warning went off in her head... telling her that this was not ideal curiosity.
She felt the hair on her arms rise and answered carefully, "My parents are dead. I’ve always been in the Moonville Pack."
She watched the witch’s eyes narrow at the answer and knew that the woman was trying to decide if it was the truth or not. But she had not lied so it didn’t matter what the witch probed or not.
She let the woman scrutinize her and continued to walk down the long hallway... wondering where she should go after this. Was she supposed to go back to the hospital? Or go to Prince Kael’s house?
Even as she thought of this, someone stepped into her path.