Isabel's Choice

Chapter 4 - Isabel

Place and time: same as in the last chapter 

I am often in the kitchen before the omegas.

In the morning the space is quiet, save for the discrete buzz of the fridges, and it is impeccably clean.

Most importantly, it is my sanctuary, because Owen never comes there.

While the coffee machine heats up, I take out the flour from the cupboard, the eggs from the fridge, and set some water to boil.

I watch the water slowly bubbling in the pan and when the little bubbles explode with a happy noise, I pour the sifted flour in and suffocate them.

Much like my chosen mate had done with my hopes and dreams.

I briefly mix the viscous dough and, while waiting for it to cool, I pour my coffee.

The sky is lightening up. It stubbornly does this every morning, throwing softly moving shades in my kitchen.

Mixing eggs - one at a time - in scalded flour is a good arm workout and an exercise in faith. In the beginning one has the feeling nothing is happening, the egg is only sliding on the surface of the dough. But then, by making gentle cuts with the side of the spoon and working in slowly the slippery mass, the mixture becomes shiny and elastic.

As I transfer the dough into a piping bag, I note that my muscles are relaxed and my heart rate seems to be a bit slower.

Baking is an efficient grounding tool. If I were to use it exclusively to survive being Owen's Luna, I could feed all packs in the Shifter's territory.  Luckily for the Land's health index, I do other things, like counting and cleaning, and my favorite one - washing and showering until I do not smell like the Alpha anymore.

Equally spaced, perfectly straight, sixteen lines of shiny dough enter the oven, to grow and expand like my soul never will.

***

Two months after Owen chose me based on my weakness and submissiveness, we did have a big party to honor his becoming Alpha of the Southern River Border pack, with the secondary effect of my becoming his Luna.

Abby would have liked to have a part of the ceremony celebrating our bond. Owen however laughed off her suggestion. He said that marked and mated as we were, we could skip that. For once, I was almost grateful for his decision. He didn't intend it as a kindness to me, but it was. It spared me the agony of standing in front of the pack, calling him my mate, and claiming we are one.

The pack transfer was only attended by the pack's allied Alphas and their entourage. My mothers were not invited, since Owen had been very adamant that he wanted me to have peace of mind on this important occasion. This was something I could obviously not attain in the presence of the women who had so violently interfered with our bond.

On the day of the ceremony, as I stood next to Owen in front of the large crowd of guests, I wondered if the Gods will have mercy on me and if any of them will challenge the pack transfer.

Nobody did, so he drew the blood from his father, as tradition required, and then, wrapped in his Alpha aura, promised the pack protection and glory. Willow howled in my head and then bowed sarcastically to Smasher, my mate's wolf, her leader and master, whom she disliked as much as I disliked his human.

We then walked through the crowd to shake hands and accept the allies' congratulations.

I didn't feel that Owen deserved congratulations for becoming acting Alpha just because he had marked and mated me in the park. But then I remembered what he had explained to me in more than one painful way in the last months, after my several escape attempts: I had marked him back.