Free Bound by Fate (Moon Bound Series Book 1) by Mandy Lou Dowson Page B

she knows much more than she lets on? Beth wondered.

     
     
     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    Two days, she reflected, go by so quickly when you’re dreading the end of it.   She had arisen from her bed sluggish and downcast, to the joyful face of her Den Mother and the equally downcast expression of her Den Father.  Something was afoot.  She didn’t care.  All she knew was, whatever put a smile on Bea’s face would no doubt build a scream in her throat.  So she didn’t ask.  She didn’t want to know.  Let it all happen around her.
    She’d had her breakfast and her lunch, and before she knew it she’d spent the whole day moping and reflecting and wishing things were different, and now it was time to get ready.  Bea was in her element.  It was the Den Mother’s responsibility to present her to the ceremony, a vision to heat any man’s blood, mated or no.  It was said if a mating ceremony didn’t heat the blood and stiffen at least one mated male, she would have no luck with the un-mated ones.
    An excuse for an orgy, if you ask me, she thought bitterly.
    Suffering the vigorous ministrations of her Den Mother, as she scrubbed and brushed and sorted the many tangles from her hair, Beth floated in bitter indifference.  “Stand up.  Tilt your head back.  Close your eyes.  Don’t bite your lip.  Stay perfectly still while I…got it!  Now don’t open your eyes yet.” 
    On and on and on it went.  The ghastly primping and pampering that any mother does for her daughter on the eve of her wedding, but this was vastly different.  This was no wedding, but an auction – no matter how she wished it weren’t true – and this was no mother, but a woman relishing the thought of being free of a troublesome girl.  So Bea would work miracles on Beth this evening.  And Beth would look exquisite, no doubt, drawing envious glares and heated glances in equal measures, and Bea would be free of her in less than a week.  Perhaps the whole pack would be free of her.  Gareth too, would be free of her.
    Maybe it’s all for the best.  I never really did belong here, she thought sadly.  But I will miss David.  And my creek.  And yes, even stupid, cruel Gareth.
    “ You’re ready,” Bea declared with a half hour until moon’s rise.
    No, I’m not.
    “Don’t touch off anything or you’ll ruin the whole thing!”  Bea smiled broadly.  “What a magnificent mate for any male lucky enough to claim,” she breathed.  “If I hadn’t done the work myself, Beth, I wouldn’t believe it was you,” she laughed, shaking her shoulders with mirth.  Beth thought it was the first time in a long time she’d seen Bea laugh without guile when it came to anything Beth-related.  It suited her.
     
    There was a very good reason for the wolf dance.  It drew potential suitors to her.  Those who desired a mate fair of form and strong of body would instinctively be drawn to her power.  For power would ride the moon tonight.  Patina was not only a teacher of dances, but a wielder of the oldest magics left to any wolf pack. 
    She would call on the moon to draw out potential mates, whether they wanted to be drawn out or not.  The moon would pull on them relentlessly, using the power of Beth’s own wolf, until their desires were out in the open.  It was unfair and indiscriminate and merciless – it would not leave any potential mate untouched.  There were no secrets during a mating ceremony.
    Her Den Mother walked along the path, her hand at Beth’s back, lest she decide to make a run for it.  They would enter the clearing when the Alpha called for the drums to beat.  Somebody else was working the drums tonight, Beth noticed.  Patina would be busy working her lunar magic.  Beth took a deep breath as the drum picked up a slow and steady beat to which she was supposed to make her slow procession toward the camp fire.
    Bea released the clasp of the cloak that had covered Beth’s body up until now, and the cloth