Before I Rise
The Pack

Quick Note: This is an added chapter. Things may be repeated in the chapters after if they have not already been updated. Thanks for reading!!

Em’s POV

The bedroom door slamming shut echoed around the room. I was still shocked at what had just happened when I accidentally touched Marcus’s hand. He seemed surprised by it as well. I had no idea what made that delicious feeling happen as Marcus ran out of the room instead of answering my question.

I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I was half tempted to run after him, but I thought staying here would be best. So that’s what I did. I just sat here waiting for something to happen. Part of me hoped he would come back and explain what was happening. Another part of me hoped he didn’t. I was too scared I would jump him just to feel that feeling again. And then there was the comment Alicia made. She called me his mate. I meant to ask Marcus what that meant, but I was so caught up in him. His voice, his smell, the way he looked at me.

I laid entirely on the bed, staring at the ceiling as my thoughts raced around. This day was definitely the weirdest day ever. Correction, it could be the strangest day ever. I had no idea if something like this had ever happened before in my life. That was another thing; I still had no answers to what had happened to me. I was starting to worry that I would never know.

I was all alone here. I had no one to ask for help or to talk to. No family, no friends, not even an acquaintance. I wondered if I could replace Alicia and speak to her. She was kind to me, a bit intense, but kind nonetheless. However, I had no idea where she would even be right now. Plus, I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to leave my room. I was scared if I tried that, they would kick me out, and I would indeed be all alone.

Tears began to silently flow down my face. Alone. My mind kept chanting it over and over again. I was alone, so alone.

Just then, a soft knock followed by a voice asking if they could come in had me abruptly sitting up and hastily wiping away the tears from my face.

“Come in!” I called out, wondering who it could be.

Alicia walked in with another woman following behind her. This woman held a gentle smile on her tan heart-shaped face. Her black hair was pulled into a messy bun that was placed on the top of her head. She held a relaxed posture as she walked in, and warmth seemed to radiate off of her.

“Hey, Em! Marcus let me know that you guys were done talking. I wanted to take the opportunity for you to meet Julie. She’s mates with Jacoby, who’s our Beta so that basically makes her the Beta female and my best friend. Since I have no doubt that you and I will be best friends, I wanted you to meet my other best friend. In fact, I think all three of us will be besties…. For life! Anyways, did you eat the sandwich Marcus brought? Because it’s almost dinner time, I wanted to invite you downstairs to eat with the pack members and us. Of course not sure how to introduce you yet, but who cares. I’ll just say you’re my best friend. So, you want to come with us?”

By the time Alicia was done talking, my eyes were round in awe at how fast she could talk. My brain was still trying to process everything she spewed out at me. I made eye contact with Julie. She looked like she was trying to keep herself from laughing.

“Don’t worry,” she said to me. “You’ll get used to the way she talks.”

Alicia rolled her eyes at Jules and waved a hand in the air. “I’m just excited. This is exciting, Jules. How can you be so calm in this situation? We finally replace our Luna, and I really like her!”

There were so many things that stood out to me from Alicia’s rant. For one, the word mate was brought up again, along with Luna and Beta. I had no idea what those meant and was unsure if I wanted to know.

“I get that, Alicia, but let’s not overwhelm her the first night. Why don’t we take it one day at a time?” Julie calmly said. She turned her full attention onto me and walked over to where I was still sitting on the bed. I got up the closer she got, unsure of what she was planning. She stuck out her hand towards me. “Hi, I’m Julie. It’s really nice to meet you, Em.”

I connected my hand to hers, unsure what to do with her outreached hand. She immediately clamped onto me and lightly shook my hand up and down.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Jules.” She gave me a smile as she released my hand. “You don’t mind if I call you Jules, right?” I asked, not wanting to upset her in any way.

She lightly shook her head. “No, not at all.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding in, trying to relax as much as I could, given the circumstances that I was in. The three of us all stood there, staring at each other for a few minutes, not saying anything. Awkwardness was beginning to fill the space between us.

“So….” I voiced out, not knowing what to say but desperate to fill the silence that seemed to stretch forever.

“Sorry, just trying to reason with Marcus. He’s being so annoying right now.” Alicia said, once again rolling her vibrant green eyes.

“How are you talking to Marcus?” I asked while looking around the room, hoping and scared at the same time that he would pop up from under the bed.

“Oh, it’s through the mind-link. It’s something we werewolves can do. We can talk to other pack members at any time. It’s typically nice to have, other than when your cousin wants to be super duper annoying.” Alicia frowned profoundly and looked annoyed.

“Well, do you really blame? You totally outed him when you revealed that he found his mate to the entire pack. I get the impression he wanted to keep that quiet until he figured out what he wanted to do.” Jules explained to Alicia.

Alicia dropped her mouth wide open and widened her eyes. “I already said that it was an accident! I didn’t know it was a secrete.”

Jules shook her head disapprovingly before crossing her arms across her chest. “Uh-huh, sure you did. We both know that’s bullshit.”

Alicia huffed in defeat as Julie read right through her. She didn’t say anything as she walked by Jules, stuck her head out of the doorway, and quickly swept the surroundings before promptly shutting the bedroom door and locking it.

“Okay, fine,” she threw her hands up and walked closer to us. “I did it on purpose. But, I had my reason for doing so.”

Julie uncrossed her arms and propped a hand on her hip. “Okay, what was the reason?”

“You and I both know he is hesitant on this whole mate thing. I’m just simply giving him a nice little shove for him to make a move. That way, he can’t just ignore it or pretend it didn’t happen. If I didn’t tell the whole pack, he would never even consider completing the mate bond with Em. I’m doing this for all of us.”

There it was again, the mate word. Before Jules could respond to Alicia, I asked, “What is a mate?” They finally turned to look at me, almost as if they had forgotten I was standing there. “It’s just, I’ve heard that word a few times, especially when my name or Marcus’s name has been said. So, what exactly does it mean?”

Alicia and Jules took a second to look at each other before finally answering my question.

“I think I should explain this if you don’t mind, Alicia?” She shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly before Julie continued. “A mate is a soulmate. We believe Our Moon Goddess chooses mates and creates the mate bond between two people. It is up to the couple to nurture that bond and allow for it to grow. When a new soul is formed, she will replace another one that matches it, like a puzzle piece. Your mate’s weakness is your strength, and your weakness is your mate’s strength. It’s a total balancing act. Mates can be werewolf and werewolf, human and werewolf, or werewolf and another supernatural being. Make sense?”

I nodded as I sat back down on the bed, trying desperately to make sense of what she was saying. For some reason, I felt slightly nauseous and a little dizzy.

“So when you say that I’m Marcus’s mate, that means….”

Jules nodded, “Yeah, you’re Marcus’s soulmate, and he’s yours.”

“Oh.” That was all I said in response. I was still trying to process everything. I had about a million more questions, and a killer headache began forming. I was starting to think I needed to lay down and hoping that once I did, I would wake to replace this had all been a dream, and I would be right back to where I was supposed to be with all my memories intact. However, I had no doubt that was wishful thinking.

“So, are we going to go down and eat. My stomach is going to start eating itself.” Alicia dramatically grabbed onto her stomach and pouted.

Jules shook her head again. “You are so dramatic. Are you hungry, Em?” She asked me.

I thought for a few seconds. I didn’t necessarily want to eat, but I also didn’t want to stay cooped up in this room alone.

“Even if you aren’t hungry, you can still come downstairs with us. We can show you around, and you can meet some of the pack members!” Alicia excitedly said, helping me make up my mind.

I stood up from the bed and placed a slight smile on my face while trying to feel confident about meeting a bunch of strangers. “Okay, that sounds like fun.”

“Yay! This is so exciting!” Alicia hooked her arm into mine before turning towards Jules and doing the same to her. “Let’s go!”

She pulled us out of the room while talking a million miles per hour. I could hardly keep up with her physically and mentally. I wondered if she ever got tired of talking. Though, it was nice how she filled the silence between us all and how she treated me like she’s known me her entire life. I was starting to believe she was right when she said we would be best friends.

“How many people will be there for dinner? Is it all pack members?” I asked as we walked down the stairs, more curious if Marcus would be there.

Alicia gave a knowing chuckle. “No, it isn’t all pack members. It varies every night. Only a handful of us lives in the pack house, mostly young adults that aren’t mated. Most of the time, they will have meals here. Some families will come over and eat with us as well. Dinner is the biggest meal of the day since Marcus will be there, in case you were wondering if he will be joining us. He always makes a point to at least have dinner with the pack.”

I tried desperately to not seem interested in the fact that he would be there and to try to stuff my nerves down as far as I could and focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

About ten minutes later, we arrived at what appeared to be a grand hall. Rows of tables and chairs were placed in front of us. Men, women, and children were seated already or looking for a place to sit. Everyone seemed to know everyone. Friendly chatter filled the air until we three stepped into the room. All eyes were suddenly on us…. on me. Everyone was looking at me.

It took everything that I had to not turn around and bolt from the room. Alicia gave me a reassuring squeeze and kept guiding me to a table in the middle of the room.

The same guy from the office was sitting on the side while both of the twins were across from him. The office guy and Gabe both sent me a smile, while Derek decided to ignore my presence completely.

“Em, this is Jacoby, our Beta and Julie’s mate,” Alicia said while pointing to the guy from the office.

“Hi,” I hesitantly said.

“Hi Em, it’s nice to officially meet you. Welcome to The Dark Moon Pack.” He stuck out his hand like Jules did early. I didn’t hesitate this time as I met him in the middle of the table and shook it. He gave me an even bigger smile than before.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Jacoby.”

“Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s eat!.” Alicia unhooked her arm from mine and waved her hand toward Jacoby dismissively. “Jacoby, move. That’s Em’s seat since she’s Marcus’s mate.”

Jacoby immediately shook his head. “Uh, I’m not sure Marcus would like that very much ALicia.”

She again rolled her eyes, making me wonder if they would ever get stuck like that. “That is technically The Luna’s seat. The Alpha sits at the head of the table, and the Luna sits at his left. Marcus is Alpha, and Em is his mate; that’s her seat. Now move!”

Jacoby’s eyes grew wide, but Jules interrupted before he could say anything. “Jacoby, you aren’t going to win this with her. Just let Em sit there for now.”

Jacoby let out a deep sigh, “Fine. But, if he gets mad, which I have doubt he will, I had nothing to do with this. I want it on record that I disapproved of this.”

Gabe let out a laugh and shook his head. “He’s going to be so pissed.”

“Shhh,” Alicia directed towards Gabe. “You all need to stop being so dramatic. Nothing is going to happen. Okay, Em,” she turned to me. “Have a seat.”

I looked at her, unsure if I should sit where Jacoby was. After a few seconds of staring at Alicia, I finally caved and walked around the table just as Jacoby stood up. I sat down, feeling increasingly unsure about everything that was going on. I did not want to make Marcus mad, and it sounded like he wasn’t in the best mood, given the circumstances.

Jacoby walked to where Jules was standing and kissed her forehead before both sat down in front of me. I suddenly noticed that both had matching marks on their left shoulders. It appeared to be a black outline of a circle. Curiosity grabbed at me.

Just as I was about to ask them about it, electricity filled the air. It was strange. I didn’t even have to look to see who had just walked into the room. It was like I had already known before he appeared.

In walked Marcus, confident and demanding. Everyone in the room seemed to take their attention off of me and turned it towards him. My breath caught in my throat as he made eye contact with me. Everyone else vanished in the room, just leaving him and me alone. It took everything in me not to jump out of my seat and run to him, to have him hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay.

And then, it was like an ice bucket had fallen onto me. He quickly went fms surprise and awe while looking at me to wholly pissed off in a matter of seconds. He sent a direct glare to everyone at the table before finally sending me one of my own. The room seemed to grow colder and colder before he eventually turned around and walked out of the room, leaving me feeling lonelier than before.