Page 30 of Curvy Alpha Bride
She stares me down for a few minutes more, and I end up turning my face away from her. Even though my curiosity and frustration keep rising, I also don’t feel like challenging Serra.
“We’re heading out to the park,” Serra says. “Come on, Xavier. The whole town is waiting.”
I follow my aunts to the side door, glancing behind me to see Mabel walking with the other women. They seem reluctant to leave her alone, and the younger girls, in particular, glow under her attention.
I don’t know what’s going on there. I guess it’s sweet, but something about this still strikes me as weird.
Out in the glade, we’re greeted by a large crowd. I drop back a little so I can take Mabel’s hand, and we walk through them, treated with almost the same reverence as royalty.
Now it feels even weirder. The town was welcoming to me before, but since Mabel got here, they have shown me even more respect.
We’re led to a small table at the head of all the others, and platters of food are set out for us. Eventually, the crowd dissipates a little as men go back to grilling meat and women sit down in small groups to share wine and snacks.
“We seem to have been left to ourselves for the moment,” I murmur.
Mabel glances over at me, but doesn’t let her gaze linger. “Still very much in the public eye, though,” she notes.
That’s when I realize she’s only holding my hand for show, not because she wants to. The knowledge strikes me like a dart in the chest—a small but sharp wound.
“Mabel, I really need to ask you something.”
“Okay,” she says with a shrug. “I suppose this is as good a time as any.”
I take a deep breath and squeeze her hand a bit, hoping she’ll look at me properly, but she doesn’t.
“I know what we agreed on, but surely you can see how well you fit in here, and how much the pack loves you. Are you sure you won’t consider staying?”
Finally, she turns to look at me, and her dark gray eyes seem to roil like a breaking storm. “Xavier, it was your decision to end the relationship six months ago. You made it very clear you didn’t want me. Even if both of us wanted to stay together for the sake of these people, it would be nothing but torture.”
“Well, I don’t think it would be that bad—”
“Both of us are extremely lucky that we only have a week—less than that now—before we can break this contract and go our separate ways. I feel for the people in this town, I really do, but they deserve a luna who belongs here. Who really wants to be here.”
She turns away from me to look back at the happy scene spread out in front of us, and even though my mind races, I can’t think of anything to say in response.
If she really doesn’t want to be here, the best thing I can do for everyone is let her go…
“It’s so strange,” Mabel adds with a little frown. “There aren’t any children here. Do you know why?”
“It has to do with limited resources,” I answer. “They weren’t able to get out and hunt regularly, and being self-sufficient in town meant that pregnancy and childbirth could be very dangerous. I was told that welcoming a new pack member was a rare decision, one very carefully considered.”
“Interesting,” she mutters. She looks like she’s about to ask more questions when Dove and Lyssa arrive and ask her to go dance with them.
A few pack members have started to play jaunty music, all of them using handmade instruments. The sounds are completely unique because of this, and I don’t know the tune. Even with the cheery beat, it has a haunting tone, reminding me a little of the way the wind moaned around the house this morning.
The party goes on into the evening, with lots of dancing, singing, and games. The isolation created a strong sense of community within the pack, and I still feel like a stranger to it.
The way they treat me and Mabel doesn’t help at all. As if we’re above them, somehow, and not actually part of the pack.
As the sky begins to darken, I notice a change in the atmosphere. Everyone is looking up at the sky, towards the peaks, and starting to pack up in a rising frenzy of activity.
“What’s going on?” I ask Hector as he passes me with a stack of plates and cutlery.
“Party’s over,” he answers gruffly. “It’s a new moon.”
He keeps walking, delivering the line with finality, as if it needs no further explanation.
“Finnah,” I call out, and my aunt comes towards me through the crowd. “Is everything okay?”
