The Offering

Dezir Ambea was just coming in from a hunt when her father met her at the village gates. She was surprised that her father was meeting her at the gate, which was something that rarely ever happened. "Papa, is something wrong?" She asked as she threw the deer that she had just caught in the snow at her feet, some of the blood from the deer dripped onto the surrounding snow tainting the once white surface with it's crimson blood. Dezir's father looked at her with solemn eyes. It was getting very close to the time of the offering, and while the great wolf usually only called for the best livestock, or perhaps a rather promiscuous woman or two, this time he called for a mate and he was rather specific as well.

"I wanted to make sure that you made it back safely. I need to talk to you when we return home." Hemin hoisted the deer that his daughter had caught over his shoulder and led his daughter back to the house. He took the deer back to the hut where he handled most of the skinning and gutting process before following Dezir into the house. Dezir was surprised to see Father Tymons, the village priest, and the person that handled most things involving the village's werewolf, sitting at the table with her mother.

"What's going on? Why is Father Tymons her Papa?" She asked as she looked to her father for answers. Instead Father Tymons was the one to speak up. "Dezir you know how every month we give a tribute or an offering to the wolf that has protected our village over the past millenia?" Dezir nodded her response to the Father's question. "Well for this month's tribute we were given instructions to bring him a mate, and with these instructions he left this." He said as he placed a beautifully drawn picture on the table. Dezir would have marveled at it for hours on its beauty and detail if it weren't for the fact that the picture was of her.

Dezir took a few steps back as she looked at Father Tymons. "Are you telling me that I have to become the mate of the werewolf?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Essentially dear, that is exactly what I'm saying." Father Tymons replied with a sigh. He could certainly understand Dezir's fear. It was a well known fact that only another werewolf could be a werewolf's mate, and if the wolf wanted her then that meant it had every intention of turning her. "And what if I don't want to become his mate. What if I want to live my life like a normal person?" Dezir asked, knowing already that she would most likely do it anyways if only to keep her family and village safe.

"No one really knows, Dezir. We've never denied him before." Father Tymons said as he realized the look of submission in Dezir's eyes. "Fine, then. Even with as much as I'd rather not I'll do it, but I demand that my family be protected from this day forward, no harm nor wrong shall befall them by the hands of any that live in this village, am I understood?" She said merely receiving a nod from Father Tymons. He couldn't blame the girl for wanting to ensure her family's safety, He instructed her to gather a few of her things, a few outfits and perhaps some things she might like to keep with her, before meeting him at the church to await the full moon that would come in two days time. Dezir listened, though rather upset about the whole ordeal, and grabbed what she would need immediately before going to the church to await the day she would meet her new 'husband' and spend the rest of her life as some creature's play mate, doing as he wished, and probably living like the animal she would become. She had no idea just how wrong her idea was.

Laying in the snow just outside the cottage window was a large pure black wolf, his eyes glowing a soft blue. His keen ears twitched at the sounds of what was going on inside, he knew that the girl would be resistant to the idea, that was part of the reason he had chosen her. He didn't need a submissive little bitch that would roll over for him, and everyone else. He wanted his mate to have fight in her, even if it meant teaching her to submit to her alpha wolf in the process.

He smirked in his wolf form before silently standing and with only the rush of wind was off through the woods. The cold wind whipped throuhg his thick fur adding only more excitement to the moment. His mate was coming. Planting his feet on the top of a large hill he reared his head back howling to the moon. A call to the soul of his mate, to let him know that he was coming for her.

=========

The days drug on for Conall as he waited for the night of the full moon. Who made up these damned rules, right he did. He hadn't left the area of the village for the last few days, watching his future mate from a distance. How he wished that he had brought some of his clothes with him to allow him to shift back into human form and get to know her at least a little. However he hadn't thought that far ahead, and so could only watch and wait.

Finally the night had come and he went to the large circle of standing stones that was used as a meeting place, and a place to leave the offerings for him. This one he wanted to be waiting for, not just have it waiting for him. Laying down on his stomach in the dusting of snow he waited for his mate to come to him. The only thing he hoped is that the village didn't make a big ceremony of it all.

Dezir sighed as she stepped outside of the church. She had fought tooth and nail for there not to be some big ceremony, and finally she won out on that argument. Now she was getting ready to head for the offering grounds, alone, with no fan fair, and no parades. No large groups of people to celebrate how someone from their village was chosen as the wolf's mate. No, instead she traveled in the cold, in the dead of night to the circle of standing stones where her life would change forever. Dezir would never admit it, but she was certainly afraid of what would happen after tonight. She was mostly afraid that she would never be able to see her parents again. She shivered slightly as she finally caught sight of the meeting ground and noticed a large black wolf waiting there. She knew at that moment just how real all of this was.

She made her way into the circle, eyes burning with defiance. She was only doing this so that her family would stay protected, no matter what. She stood before the wolf as if just waiting for the creature to attack her, and turn it into one of its own. Now was the moment that everyone had been waiting for, but no one else but those currently present would ever get to witness. "I'm her, my lord, my name is Dezir, and I am the village's hunter as taught by my father." She said thinking it quite a bit polite to at least ibntroduce herself to it since she was supposedly supposed to spend the rest of her life with the creature.

Conall watched the girl walking slowly through the snow toward him and couldn't stop a wolfish grin inside his own mind. There was no question that he had made the right choice in mates. She was submitting to the situation but the way she walked and bore herself clearly said she didn't like it. His keen nose could pick out the fear in her scent but even with that she wasn't giving into whatever fear it was that plagued her. She was strong, brave, and knew when to submit. There was no better mate for an alpha.

He stood from his laying position and moved slowly over to her growling softly. He walked around her his nose nuzzling into her hair for a long moment taking in her scent. He was dying to turn her, and make her his mate but he knew even if he bit her tonight she wouldn't shift till the next full moon. The large black nuzzled at the middle of her back, at the same time a voice pressed its way into her head. It wasn't forceful just was suddenly there, the voice was calm and strong. The sound was cool as spring water, but the passion in it said it could burn like molten lead as well. "Kneel my dear."

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather stand." She said, keeping her wits about her. This wolf may have been the protector of her village, but he did it for a price, and right now, she was that price, but she wasn't about to get on her knees and just roll over and accept all this. She still had some shred of pride and dignity left, and she damn well intended to keep it for as long as possible. "I'd like to keep what little dignity I have left." She said, certain that people were watching from their windows. She found a great deal of irony in what was happening. She hunted animals for a living, and here she was about to be turned into one of them. She was at the mercy of an animal, but that didn't make her helpless.

Dezir kept her breathing steady. She had no love for the ways of the people of her village. She didn't agree with the idea that someone's life could be changed or practically taken from them while they had no say in the matter all because an animal had demanded it be so. "Before you go through with this, answer me one question." Dezir said as she looked the wolf straight in the eyes, a sign that most wolves would have taken as a challenge. "Why me? There are plenty of other girls that would kill to be the mate of the werewolf, why me. The poor hunter's daughter that has nothing to her name but the clothes on her back and the small wages she makes from trapping and hunting."

Conall laughed softly as she refused to kneel loving that about her, just another reason she was the perfect mate. She had pride and wasn't about to just give that up to anyone, that was something that he could respect. However she might not realize that he wasn't telling her to kneel for some form of demeaning purposes, the bite that turned a human to a werewolf hurt badly and he wanted her to already be on her knees so as not to hurt herself. He nodded accepting her choice as he walked back in front of her as she asked to have a question. He looked into her eyes seeing the challenge there because there was no question that she knew what it meant to stare down a wolf, it was no different with a werewolf.

He cocked his head to one side, his voice in her head taken on the amused sound of someone smirking. "Because you don't kneel." He let that hang in the air for a long moment, the absurdity of the statement was clear, as he had chosen her before she didn't kneel to him at this point. That however wasn't what he meant, "The fact that you are a hunter's daughter means nothing to me, that doesn't define you, only your birth. As you said there are many that would be dying for this chance. But not you, you hate the idea of being forced into this. I like that in my mate, I don't want someone that will just roll over and take whatever she is told, she will do what she has to do, but doesn't have to like it and will make sure people know that."

He walked back around behind her gently nuzzling her shoulder. "Does that answer your question?"