Hesse knocked on the headquarters chamber when they got inside the pack house. Someone had told them them the Alpha Lander was in there with the pack beta and some officials.
From that had fallen out of the woman's mouth, Celeste was on ice. The lunch she had had not so long ago all took an ugly twist inside her gut, and attempted to travel back to her mouth and got stuck in her throat which she struggled to swallow down.
"Come in." Kelen's voice heard from the inside, and some shuffling of pages. Hesse twisted her head to the side, looking Celeste in her fear swimming eyes.
Celeste vaguely registered the softly whispered 'Don't worry' that barely managed to slip out of Hesse's closed lips, and then she was pushing the door open. They stood at the entrance rooted on their feet.
"Hey… Cel, come on…" Cleste blinked her eyes at Hesse who was a few feet away from her. When did she walk ahead of her? She hadn't noticed.
For a moment it's all blank, then she was pushed down on a soft cushion chair by Hesse.
"So, this is her..?" A man with dark hair and piercing eyes asked from where he was seated beside the Alpha Lander. Kelen noded his head a little, muttering a yes.
"Why, haven't you had the pleasure of seeing this outsider before?" An other person in the three men in the room said. She wasn't sure if the mock that had its firm grip on his words were directed to her or the one who asked the question.
One in three, Celeste remembered, as the pack beta. He just turned his lips in a thin line and watched her as Kelen shooted a warning look at the two who were at the verge of baring their teeth at each other.
Celeste swallowed, closing her eyes for a brief second and looking right into Kelen's eyes, "Why do you want us here, Alpha?"
"It's just you, my dear. It's you we need to have a serious conversation with." Kelen's eyes softened as these words freed from his mouth.
A serious conversation? And that too with her?
"Go ahead." As soon as the words flew past her lips, she regretted it. Like, really? Does she have to take that authorizing tone on him, a pack leader?
The slightest wrinkling of his eyebrows would have gone unnoticed if she hadn't come to know him in these past few weeks. It hastily heightened the disappointment that had closed its fist around her gut.
The clearing of Kelen's throat overpowered the softly muttered sorry of Celeste's.
"These are the pack officials," He swung his hand toward the two men seated across each other on the quite vast wooden table. Some files and ink scattered all across the surface of it.
"And this, as you might know, the pack Beta." He tilted his head to the side chin flicking toward Jenh.
Celeste nodded her head slowly. Suddenly it weighed more than it should. She ran her tongue through her dry bottom lip, wetting it.
Kelen looked at her with so many emotions flashing through his eyes and the only two she had a grip on was helplessness and pity. Now, she can bet on hell, that this won't end good, ain't going to end well. Her jaw ticked.
"They are here to inform me about the constant complaints we are getting for a few days because we let an outsider live in the close proximity of the pack house." Kelen started, each and every word spoken slowly yet firmly for her to understand as if Celeste was a five year old child.
"So you want to make me move to a place that's far from the pack house?" Saying Celeste was desperate to stay here would be an understatement.
He shaked his head in denial, took the yield of one of the papers from the disheveled pile on the table, holding it out before celeste's face. When she just stared at it with aimless eyes, not doing anything to take it from him, he jolted his wrist, urging her to hold it.
And she did, regretting it immediately.
She could feel the concern and undying love the people had for their pack, and for their kingdom. But still the smudgy inked alphabets in the letter that jabbed right at her heart didn't hurt less. She blinked her eyes, trying not to cry in front of these strangers.
"The people," Celeste raised her head and faced the Beta as he started talking suddenly. "They want a definite reason for an outsider to stay at a close distance to the pack house, and here we doesn't have one. Even though the Alpha of the pack directly implied him favouring your stay here, that doesn't do any less to the disquiet the people having."
Her teeth linked on her bottom lip, and if she was a werewolf and she did have a scent it would be sour now. Burnt even…
"What am I supposed to do to earn their trust?" She tried.
"I'm afraid there's barely anything you can do about it. You've been here for a few weeks now, and still you doesn't seem to have had wiped the inkling of doubt and uncertainty in the people's heart." It's the second man, she doesn't know their name. Weren't they supposed to introduce themselves first?
Celeste stared at him for a moment, she wanted to nod her head again, but, what's the point of anything.
It was as if they were trying to kick her out not only from her new found home but also from this pack or even from this kingdom.
Her head felt like it was going to explode from how many thoughts were rushing through it, crashing together. Thousand thoughts a minute.
"You are kicking me out of here." It wasn't an unsure question that slipped past her lips before she could bite down on her tongue to quell it. It was a statement, which had an icy edge to it.