Zaira's POV
We, meaning Alpha, as well as Luna Heariv and I, stood on the stage which was at the other end of the room from the entrance. Which meant we first had to traverse the whole room to get to the stage. All of a sudden, my shoes became extremely interesting and I studied them closely, yet I felt the eyes of others in the room, which only added to my uneasiness.
"We warmly welcome you to this festive occasion!" Alpha Heariv's voice was powerful and firm, very alpha, but there was also something warm and secure about it. "As you all probably already know, today we will welcome a new member to the pack." His head turned to me.
I looked at Luna doubtfully and she understood my question immediately and gave me an encouraging nod.
I now looked into the alpha's gray eyes before anyone else. He smiled at me.
"Introducing you all to Zaira Nolan from the Darkmoon Pack." Luna put her hand on my back and pushed me next to her. My eyes did not fix the audience, but the Luna. I'd rather focus on her than chafe my fear of the pack any further. The Luna stood bolt upright, graceful and beautiful like a real leader. I admired the way she was brave and stood up for those she loved.
"If you want, Zaira, you can change that now. You can join our pack and become a full member of the Silverstorm pack." Now she stopped talking to the pack and turned to face me, her mate right behind her, his arm around her waist. "Zaira Nolan, would you like to join our pack, the Silverstorm pack?"
Now the moment had come, my decision was made.
I nodded. "Yes I would like to."
"Do you swear loyalty and honesty to the pack?"
"Yes I do."
"Then you're officially part of the Silverstorm pack!" Alpha and Luna Heariv took me in their arms and kissed me lightly on the forehead, greeting me to the pack in their lovely way, now allowing me to call them by their names and not their titles while the pack clapped, hooted and laughed.
It was unique.
After the ceremony we stepped down from the stage and I was glad that I wasn't at the mercy of all the prying eyes anymore. Now I could make myself unnoticeable among the many people and hopefully not disturb anyone. But I was too soon to rejoice, because as soon as I took a step on the ground, a small, curvy woman hugged me and poured out a torrent of words over me.
"Oh Zaira, what a wonderful name too! Welcome to the Silverstorm pack! I was so excited when I heard we were getting a new pack member, I dropped everything and was instantly tinkering with a feast, hopefully you'll like it." she looked at me from her plump face and shook her upper body in delight. "Oh, squeeze it again honey!" Her hug was so tight that I could hardly breathe. As soon as she let go of me, she started chattering again without a period or a coma. I struggled to even follow her ramblings, but it amused me a little, what a funny woman. I liked her straight away. "However skinny you are, don't you eat anything? Well, not in my kitchen, That will change from now on, my young lady, enough food is essential for us werewolves! I'll scoop you from everything and you'll eat everything, please!", a command that frightened me at first, but I didn't hear any dominance from the command.
When she took my arm and kissed my head, all my worries disappeared and I understood. It was her way of looking after packmates. She cared for them, and even if she took an order to do so, it wasn't serious, just showing the affection and concern on her part. And I was now also a pack mate, I belonged to it now. With a small smile on my face, I turned to Samantha who was standing next to her husband Isaiah and they both smiled at me.
The cook, I assumed, who told me her name was Deianira, continued to babble on, but I didn't mind. We headed towards a table where many werewolves about my age were sitting, my forgotten restlessness was immediately present again, I tried to suppress it as best as possible. They wouldn't hurt me, why should they? Everyone has been nice so far, so they will be too. I tried to calm myself and think logically, but I couldn't shake my fear no matter how many times I told myself it was ridiculous. Because it wasn't, I'd experienced it too many times.
Ignoring my erratic breathing or stiff gait, Deianira placed me next to a tall, slender girl with wavy brown-gold hair. I wanted to ask where she was going, but she already darted away through the swinging door into the kitchen.
I tried to make myself as small and invisible as possible, hoping that I would go unnoticed. puff cake. Goldie turned with a smile so huge that I genuinely worried her face would shatter at any chance.
"Hi, I'm Grace." She held out her hand. I hesitantly took it, but hastily pulled it away again. "You were in the Darkmoon pack hmm.. We've all heard about that pack, sorry you had to go through that."
I looked up in amazement and locked her eyes, sympathy shimmering in the light green eyes, and I knew instinctively that this wasn't a lie.
"It's not your fault." I said softly.
"I'm glad you're with us now. Come on, I'll introduce you to the others.", she gestured to the other people at the table, who now turned to us.
"Welcome to the Silverstorm pack, I'm Amber," said the beautiful girl sitting across from me. Her blond hair was artfully pinned up in a bun, but a few individual strands had come loose and softly played around her face. Her eyes sparkled a turquoise blue and I was proud of myself for having the courage to meet her gaze, for by her scent she was much higher in rank than me, she was a Gamma. But she wasn't upset about my behavior, just beamed at me in a friendly way.
Next to Amber sat an omega, he introduced himself as Jon. His auburn hair was a bit tousled, but it suited him well. He seemed nice and as well as Grace being an omega they both seemed happy and content here in this pack, no bruises or bruises to be seen. I let out the breath I had been holding unconsciously in relief.
"Ash, it's an honor to meet you honey.", the blond surfer boy smiled mischievously and winked at me, which made me blush. The girl across from him just rolled her eyes and snorted.
"I'm Bailey and I'm just ignoring Sunnyboy here." she coolly leaned back in her chair when Ash complained about her comment and simply raised an eyebrow in response. Grace laughed and I had a hard time suppressing a giggle too. Even when they bickered, you could tell how much the two liked each other.
"Here dear, eat everything up!" Deianira put a full plate in front of me and then stroked my hair. I thanked her before she sped off again. Since the others were all already eating, I didn't wait any longer and devoured the enjoyable dinner as well.
From time to time I looked around, wanted to see how the others in the pack were behaving. Was everyone as nice as these people at my table? Or were there others?
But no matter how much I looked around, I saw no aggressiveness, anger, or violence. I tried to identify all of the omegas among the werewolves, but was only able to pinpoint those closest to me, as there was too much scent in the room to pick out more distant omegas.
And they all looked happy. I now realized what Luna, Samantha, wanted to tell me. They took care of the pack in their own way. An omega poured some lemonade for a young dominant wolf as she was sitting at the edge of the table and the werewolves next to her were engaged in heated conversation so they didn't realize she was crouched there silently by herself. But the omega wolf noticed this and now she cleverly involved the woman in a conversation, thus preventing the dominant woman's pride from being hurt.
Another omega wolf was just laying her delicate hand on a gamma wolf's arm, calming it down. The wolf probably wouldn't have allowed that to a dominant she-wolf, because they didn't want to appear weak in front of another dominant wolf, that could be tantamount to submission, but an omega was submissive by nature and the hierarchy left no doubt as to who was the stronger both, the dominant wolf can calmly accept the reassuring touch and at most consolation without feeling weak.
So not only did I know what Samantha was trying to tell me, I understood it now. Omegas didn't work here, weren't condemned to toil and suffer, but were tolerated like everyone else. Because the pack needed everyone, otherwise it won't work. The Darkmoon pack was the best example.
Companions could be heard chattering in the background, laughter rang out from all sides, and children ran happily about and played together. We talked during dinner, and I occasionally added something, although not often. We laughed, mostly because of Ash and Bailey, and I enjoyed being with them, wishing that was really the reality.
The only thing missing was my mate, then it would be perfect.