Running with Wolves Ch. 07

"The only time a wolf can breed is when they have found and bonded to their Destined mate. We do not know why, but it is a common belief that it is to regulate our population. It is almost always two wolves that have this connection, however you three," she motioned to Dominic, Samantha, and Ben, "are different.

"There was a reason your souls were put into the bodies of humans, Dominic. Over time, a pack can become stagnant, genetically. Even in a pack as large as ours, most everyone is related by blood to some degree or another, and Luna, the Goddess we worship, never creates a pair that is more than fourth cousins, at the very closest. You and your friends are a gift to us that will keep our pack strong in future generations. That is why we will do anything we can in order to convince you to stay. Our future depends on it.

"However, being a human Destined will not be easy. You will be faced with challenges that a wolf would not have to go through. For instance, it is not our human selves that feel the pull of our Destines, but our wolves, our instincts. The fact that your instinct is so insignificant compared to ours means that you will not feel the pull to mate nearly as strongly as your wolves do. Because of this, if you were to create enough bias against your wolf Destined, out of fear or distrust or even hatred, whatever small amount of pull you feel to mate can be pushed down. Do not," she held up her finger, seeing the look in their eyes, "think that that is a loop hole you can jump through in order to get out of this. No matter what you do, the pull will still be there, no matter how small. There have been documented cases of humans coming back after 10, 15, once even 40 years to mate with their wolves and in every case they all said they regretted denying their true feelings and came to be extremely happy. Almost all human Destines come to love their new lives, even if it takes some adjusting.

"That being said, we cannot force you to mate with your wolves. The necessary bonds would not form and it would cause serious problems for the pair, but they do have the right to take you into isolation and do what they can to sway you. That is part of the mating rituals. Most are not required, but there are steps that must be taken in order for you to bond and become a full member of the pack. I will allow your Destines to explain these to you when the time is more appropriate.

"You also asked what a Sistama is. Simply put it is a group of unrelated humans that happen to be Destines. They are incredibly rare, almost to the point of being considered unreal, and we do not know for certain why they form, but that doesn't matter as of now.

"Does that answer some of your questions?"

Samantha leaned slightly forward in her seat. "What if we decide we do not want this?" There was an intake of breath from the two men behind them. "If after all of that we still don't want to become, mates, and we want to leave. Can we?"

Sol pressed a finger to her lips. "If you cannot be convinced to mate or your bias is to great to over come, then you will be allowed to live within a human population close by, under strict supervision by a member of the pack. Our secret is the most important thing to us and we will not allow it to be given away."

Samantha seemed satisfied with that answer.

Garrett asked his question next. "What are you wanting from the rest of us? Jarod and I do not have this bond you speak of, so what is it you expect us to do?"

"For now you will be left with the others to acclimate to our ways. After a time, we will begin introducing you two in controlled settings to the females of our pack. If my hunch is correct, you will both find your Destines in two of them."

"That isn't going to work."

"I understand why you may not want to find a Destined, Garrett, but I promise it will make your situation much easier."

"No, it's not that. Well, it is, but not entirely."

Sol looked confused. "I'm sorry?"

"I won't find someone among your women. Unlike Dominic, I'm actually gay. I would more than likely find someone within the male population."

There was a sudden tension in the room from all of the wolves. They could all feel it, and Dominic had a feeling this was going to be a problem. "What is wrong with Garrett being gay?"

Sol looked uncomfortable, so Orion answered him. "Gays... are a touchy subject for us wolves. Up until very recently, any wolf that was found to be gay was either immediately exiled, or, more commonly, killed by their packs."

A look of horror made its way onto Dominic's face. "What? Why?!"

"It is an old way of thinking that we have been trying to abolish for many years, but have had little success with. It has been the belief for thousands of years that gay wolves are a bad omen, a sign of hard times and tragedies to come. It has been documented in our history that when there is a sudden appearance of gay waves in a pack, that pack is plagued with misfortune for many years after. So in order to try and negate the bad luck, gay wolves were banished or destroyed. Those beliefs have evolved over time a bit, and now there are other justifications for the practice, such as because gay wolves tend to be Omegas and low level Thetas that do not reproduce, they cannot help the pack to grow and thrive, so they are cast out.

"We as the Alphas of the Five Rivers Pack do not believe in this practice. Nevertheless there are many even in our own pack who do. Unfortunately for you, Garrett, because of this you will be targeted. No amount of ordering from us can prevent it. There have been two gay wolves over the past five years in our pack, and both were bullied and attacked under different guises until they decided to leave on their own. They both live in the city now, separate from the majority of the pack. We tried to help them but..."

"The old ways are engrained in much of the pack. There were so many pulling for them to leave, we could not protect them from every instance of hatred." Sol finished.

Dominic felt his eyes go cold. "Then what do you suggest we do? I'm not going to stay here if we are not all safe. If we are going to have more incidences like the one earlier today-"

"It will be nothing like what happened with Lark." Sol cut him off. "You will be facing things that, because of your human nature, may not affect you as easily as the pack wolves were. Many of the pack will ignore or reject you from every day situations. There will be few that will treat you with anything more than the bare minimum of common courtesy, and many of those influence by the old ways of thinking with be particularly nasty towards you. To a wolf, being shunned by their pack this way is debilitating, and most choose to be alone rather than to be faced with it. I am sorry for this, Garrett."

Garrett looked worried for what he had to look forward too, but Dominic knew he had faced much worse when it came to his sexuality. "I can handle it. We have no choice."

"There is seriously nothing that you can do for him?" Ben was pissed from the idea his friend was going to be treated this way.

"We can order for no one to confront you for being attracted to the same sex, but those who truly have a vendetta can and will find ways around it. We cannot order them to accept you."

This was going to been an issue for them, but for now there was nothing that could be done. Dominic glared right at Sol as he spoke. "You do everything you can to keep him safe. Another attack and we will not take this quietly."

Sol stared calmly back at him. "We will do everything we can, but as I already told you there will not be another incident like Lark's. Now, I believe you have questions about your personal items, yes?"

"Yeah, we do. What gives you the right to decide to just toss it all? Those things belong to us." Jarod spoke up for the first time, sounding defensive.

"It is our way and I will not make any exceptions on this matter. Tomorrow, you will be allowed to gather the things dearest to you, but afterwards the rest will be discarded and there will be no more discussion of it. Are we clear?" Jarod went to argue again. "I asked you, are, we, clear?"

Begrudgingly, they all backed down. There was barely anything of value to them, it was just the principle of it.

"Good, now is there anything else that you would like to discuss now, before you are taken back to your rooms?"

They were quiet for a moment, not being able to think of anything else on the spot, so Sol stood and addressed them one last time. "This will be difficult, I know. But we will try to help you make the best of this and in time, I promise you will come to accept us and become a part of this pack. Pearl will not make the same mistake twice, and neither will we. Get some rest, and we will come to retrieve you after lunch."

With that, Thorn and Cascade came forward and began gathering them so they could return to their rooms.