25 Harmony

♔ Eustacia (P.O.V)

The two of us stand at the entrance to his pack house, gasping for air after the brief running session.

"Were-" he breathes heavily with his hands on his sides, catching his breath, "here."

Before us, litters small apartment complexes. Four of them, white siding, and beautiful flowers adorn along the outside walls. All buildings are two stories, with maybe four rooms each. A single window decorates each room, both downstairs and upstairs.

Small stone pathways lead to each adjacent complex, and around a small but elegant fountain. The fountain, all white, had a howling wolf spitting the water from its mouth. Under the howling wolf, sits a smaller one with its ears held back, unpleased. The water fell on top of the wolf's head, as it then filled the bottom pool surrounding them. The assault from above could explain its annoyed appearance forever captured in the stone.

In front of the furthest right complex, three young women stand against the wall by the door, with clear wine glasses in their hands. All women are around the same age and height. A blonde stands in the middle between brunettes, each of their hair straightened, flowing behind them all different lengths. Each woman wears an identical plain navy sundress that stops right above their knees and safely hugs their collar bone. Their feet bare with no shoes, only navy blue painted toenails. However, neatly tucked a few feet to their right, three sets of black sandals sit snuggly on top of the freshly trimmed grass.

Directly in front of the three women, sits two basic black lawn chairs right beside each other. Inside their respective chairs, an elderly man and woman sit relaxed both with a flowing full head of gray hair. The man's styled short and effortlessly slicked into a swoop in the front, while the woman's formed a tight bun atop her head.

The woman wears a dark blue blouse with abstract blue and red shapes decorated across it, the long sleeves scrunched up to her elbows. The man wears a white button-up shirt its sleeves carefully graze his aged wrists. A large furry solid brown blanket drapes across both of their laps as the rest forms ripples against itself on the ground below them.

She sits forward, a retro circle pair of glasses sit on the brim of her nose almost sliding off. Her wrinkled hands work tirelessly crocheting a large white scarf that flows down the front of the brown blanket stopping right before the cold winter ground.

He sits casually with a sudoku puzzle book, the front page rolled behind the back the previous page already finished. For a split moment, his eyes graze over his elderly companion, a smile creeps across his face as he pushes the woman's glasses back onto the brim of her nose. She stops and smiles back sweetly at him, her cheeks a rosy red as her mouth moves with words I can't hear.

On the opposite side of the commotion, stood three men. A red-haired male stood with a lite beer in his left hand, a serious look stretched across his face as he watched the children. A blond-haired male stood around over a grill, a beer in one hand the spatula in the other. A black-haired male stood with a lite beer in his right hand as he talked to the blond.

Out of all the groups, they all seemed equally happy.

The environment just screamed warmth, something my pack-, no my old pack lacked. Something I lacked for the last few years, even more so the last few days.

A loud shriek of terror rings through the calm air, knocking me out of my concentration. My eyes fall onto one of the young boys, his water gun now at his feet as he trembles in terror. A small trail of liquid raches down the leg of his jeans, as the stench of urine, mixes with the barbeque in the air.

Within moments the entire warm atmosphere grinds to a stone-cold chill.

The red-haired male slings his beer bottle onto the ground and rushed towards the young pup, a dead ringer to the child. He swoops the child into his arms, glaring in my direction he rushes into the adjacent complex, all the children following them.

Thud! A loud slam vibrates the ground as the door is slammed violently closed. The blond and black haired male rushed in front of the elderly couple, a defensive stance ready. The women circled the back of the elderly people, ready to assist the men if needed.

"What is that doing here?" The blond hair male hissed, his eyes glowing a bright silver.

Fear rushes through my body, with no control I leap backward with my tail tucked between my legs. Why are they aggressive towards me? What could I have possibly done?

Am I that bad?

"She's my mate, Ivan," Tristen says, cooly.

Something touches the top of my head, shocking me, fear surges faster through my body as I jerk away in reaction.

"We'll she seems. . . off Tristen. No offense to you my King. It's just, she's a rogue," he persists, fear gripping his cracking voice.

I shake in fear, barely able to stand on my own. I look upward at the source of the touch, craning my neck so I don't lift it. The only object or thing close to me was Tristen. Relief floods through my bones.

It makes sense why the object shocked me, it was our mate bond.

For a slight moment, I forgot I was safe. I forgot that they had a reason to fear me because I am nothing more than a rogue to others now.

Tristen, whos a few steps ahead of me now, looks back at me meeting my eyes. "She's not a rogue Ivan, I'll explain that when I hold a pack meeting. Just know, she's not a threat," he states. It almost seemed as if he meant those words for me and not for him. I know he can't feel my feelings or read my mind because we arent marked, but somehow I feel like he knew.

"I hope you're right, but I'll support my King's decisions."

"Thank you, spread the word that the Queen has arrived. Once we get everything settled I'll introduce her to the pack," he smiles at me.

Warmth fills my chest at the sight of his smile. It's the greatest thing I've seen in a long long time, and I adore it.

Tristen closes the space between us and slowly sinks down to my height, his knees touching the ground. Carefully he holds my face in his hands, stroking my muzzle softly. "Hey, there's no reason to be scared. I promised I wouldn't let anyone hurt you, and I intend to keep that promise. Even if it means defending you against my pack," he whispers softly and gently kisses my nose.

He stands up and ruffles the fur on top of my head, chuckling softly. "Let's get to my office so we can hopefully get all of this sorted out."

Carefully, I lick his right hand, thanking him. Emotions and thoughts swirl around inside me like butterflies in spring.

He's saved me from a hell hole. A life that I wanted to end. The scars will forever litter my body, the emotional pain is still here. I wanted to love Flynn, even though he hurt me countless times.

My heart aches at the thought of him. Although it hurts, Tristen's smile and love. . . gives me hope.

I wish I could say or do more to thank him. I wish I could embrace this wonderful life I have ahead of me. I wish I could get these dark and sad feelings from Flynn out of my heart, but the truth is right now. . . I'm fragile, and weak.

What's worse is I may be stuck in my wolf form for the rest of my life, and I don't know if even Tristen would want to stay with me then.

"Eustacia?" Tristen calls out to me, he had already moved forward a few feet in front of me.

"Coming!" I shout, a bark I'm sure is all he heard.

Quickly, I run after him trying to catch up as we both make our way towards his office.