My Dad sighed and took a deep drink from his coffee mug, "Today is a busy day for you, Anastasia. I don't want your head in the clouds, do you understand?"
"Yes, Father."
"Good," he gave me a nod and then continued, "Aspen has come to meet you, he just arrived this morning and will be here to have dinner with us. I also hired more guards, one of them will be personally responsible for your welfare. He will be going with you when it is time for you to be with your mate, and he will stay until after the mating is successful. Then he will return here. His job will be to protect you and to eliminate any obstacles that may get in your way. You know your responsibilities, and how important this is to our family, and to our pack."
"Yes, Father. I know."
I watch as he nods to one of the guards who brought me here, the guard nods back and then leaves the room, we wait a few minutes but all I could do was look at my plate. It's always the same day, every day for me. Same conversations, same duty, same guards even if they're new faces. I look back out of the window and watch as the wind blew the branches of the tall pine trees, rain drops slowly made their mark down the window. Heavy footsteps came closer and closer until they were in the room and abruptly stopped.
"Onyx, this is my daughter Anastasia. Anastasia this will be your personal body guard who will take my place when you leave this house. He graduated top of his class so I have no doubts about your protection with him."
I didn't look away from the trees, I didn't want to look at a stone face void of any emotion. It's the only thing I see these days now that my brothers are older and are out living their lives with their friends.
"When do I leave?"
"We will discuss that over dinner with Aspen, but if all goes well. In three months."
My throat constricted and a ball formed in my chest, while tears pricked my eyes. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath.
"May I be excused."
"You may," my father responded as he continued with his breakfast, oblivious to the fact that I never touched mine. I slowly stood from the table, my eyes never leaving the floor as I walked towards the door, the guards immediately stepping into action leading me to the next area of the house where I'm supposed to be.
"Take me outside," as hard as I tried to sound confident, my voice came out broken. But they listened to me and lead me towards the back door towards the garden. I didn't wait for them to check the area considering the property is littered with guards. I broke away from the guards and towards the grassy area of the yard, taking my heels off as I walked. I placed my shoes neatly on the edge of the wooden deck and carefully began taking off my dress, folding them neatly and placing them next to my shoes, I repeated the same process with my bra and panties. The guards always gave me my privacy, but at this rate I was completely comfortable being naked in front of people thanks to their constant supervision. I walked further out into the yard and then began to shift, I could never get used to the feeling of my bones breaking, to be honest I don't really think anyone ever did.
When my bones were done taking shape, and the pain had gone away. I took off running towards the trees, they were my only source of freedom, the tall concrete walls that shaped the area of the land around my home, made sure of that. After miles of running, I finally made it to my favorite spot on the property, it was at the very edge and the wall was built around it. But the sight was beautiful. The tall waterfall crashed down into the river below, and the noise was very loud but the chaos was always peaceful to me.
I dipped my brown paw into the cool water, slowly I began making my way deeper into the water. The cool liquid felt good against my warm skin, and when I was deep enough to where the water reached my throat in wolf form, I shifted back into my human form. The water was much colder now, especially in the Autumn breeze, but I didn't mind it. I dipped my head back, allowing the water to rush between each strand of my hair and bathe my scalp. I could sense someone quietly closing in on me, but with this wall up I knew it had to be one of the guards. My father has no reason to roam his small land when he has the entire pack lands he can run through. I squeezed the water from my hair and looked over my shoulder to find two golden eyes watching me. The wolf slowly came out of the bushes and huffed as he shook out his fur and looked around the rivers edge. When he didn't find any danger, he slowly laid down and kept watch.
My interest in him instantly peaked. I didn't know who he was but he was obviously new since none of my other guards disturbed me when I was roaming. Then it his me, we did have new guards, one in particular was tasked to protect me especially once we left the pack grounds. This must be Onyx. His black wolf was handsome, I regret not looking at him when my father introduced us, but that time has past. Besides I'm fated to mate with someone of higher standard, I can't sit and ogle over another man I just met. The again, I still haven't even met my Mate.