by Ash, Leela
“Same to you, my dear. Let me know everything. I want to know whatever I possibly can about the ceremony and what the town is like. Tanka is not open to most humans, but there is a council of ancient shifter-elders there who truly understand the depth behind ceremonies such as these. You will surely learn a lot from them, my dear. And please, you mustn’t withhold any information from me!”
“I won’t,” Gael said, hugging him goodbye. There was already a carriage waiting. Her mother had always insisted upon using horses as transportation. She had been taught a very civilized and simple way of life that had been passed down from her family for centuries, and she had always been horrified by the advent of the modern vehicle. It was awful for everybody, she would say, for the environment as well as the people.
“Have a safe trip!” he said with a wave.
It was the most emotive she had ever seen him and she had to allow herself to wonder if maybe her father did truly care about her after all. It would be impossible to say, especially now that she was well on her way to living with the bear-shifters in Tanka. Life as she knew it had never been more exciting.
3.
“Rhett, it’s time for you to go to the elder’s encampment. They sure have been working you hard lately, haven’t they?”
Rhett nodded at Tommy, who had been barely able to conceal his envy. Every man in Tanka had been convinced that he was the one who was going to be chosen as the Guardian for the ceremony. It was a position of honor that was only held once every seventy years, and nobody would probably even be alive for the next one as far as the rest of the town was concerned.
“There are a lot of rules and specific things that go into it,” Rhett said, doing his best to make his position seem unenviable. “It’s taking a while to get it all quite right.”
Tommy nodded, his face hard. None of the bear-shifters liked that a wolf shifter had been chosen to play such an important role; not even the other wolf-shifters liked it. They all sided with the bitter men who had been counting on their own position of importance playing out during the ceremony.
“I’m sure it’s just sooo tough for you,” Tommy said bitterly.
Rhett sighed and left the bar. He was getting sick of everybody treating him differently, but the elders had assured him the bears were just a very competitive breed and he was going to have to ride it out. By the same time next week, everybody would have moved on from the supposed unfairness of the selection and things would go back to normal.
“Rhett, there you are,” Shenar said, smiling broadly at Rhett and taking his arm. “We have somebody very special we would like to introduce you to. Please, follow me and keep your eyes forward. The guest will be out momentarily. You must heed all instructions carefully. You were chosen for just such a specific purpose, you understand.”
The way that Shenar spoke almost made it sound like he had only been chosen because he was good at blindly following orders. He prickled a little about it, but he quickly forgot his strange thought process when a young woman suddenly appeared before him. She was startlingly attractive; the only human he had seen since being banished from Stonybrooke. Her hair was long and blonde and fell down over her shoulders, providing her beautiful face with a frame of gold. Her eyes were bright and inquisitive, and she wore an easy smile and a long, intricately woven white gown.
Rhett swallowed hard, confused by the way the wolf within him was stirring, prompting him to move forward and stake his claim. He wanted her immediately; right then and there. But that was ridiculous. He had never even met her before, and if his intuition was correct, this woman was not to be claimed by anyone at all. Least of all the man who had been appointed to protect her.
“Rhett, this is Gael. She came early today from her estate out East. Her father is thrilled with the arrangement and sincerely hopes for your cooperation in guarding his daughter’s virginity before the big ceremony.”
Gael seemed mildly surprised by the news, but kept her composure, her beautiful smile faltering for only a second as Shenar spoke.
“I will serve my duty. I am honor bound to protect the Maiden,” Rhett said automatically, wondering to himself just how much of this the elders were buying into. It was all just an act for the sake of ceremony… Shenar had told him as much during his orientation into the role of the Guardian. They all had little roles to play and duties to serve and protect, and no matter how trivial they may have seemed, they were to be honored at all costs.
“And you, fair Maiden, before the Harvest ceremony, do agree to take Rhett as your Guardian? It is this man you will trust more than anyone else to help you to guard your purity, as this is the most important aspect of the ceremony.”
Gael’s cheeks flushed an attractive red and she glanced down at the ground for a moment, avoiding eye contact with the men surrounding her and composing herself as privately as she could before responding.
“Yes. I agree to allow Rhett the honor of preserving my maidenhood.”
“Then it is agreed upon. The two of you will be inseparable from this moment forward. Rhett, you must escort Gael to your new lodgings. If you take your eyes off of her for even a single moment you will be disqualified, and you will no longer be allowed to perform your duties to the council. However, should you serve your duties through to term, you will be vastly rewarded.”
Gael’s eyes settled upon Rhett and her cheerful smile made his chest tighten. It seemed what they were telling him was it was his job to make sure that this ridiculously attractive young girl was not able to have any male attention for the duration of the month as the ceremony’s preparations took place.
At first the job had seemed easy, but now, with the wolf already awakened and fixating its keen eyes upon her, Rhett was suddenly nervous. This may be a little bit harder than he thought.
“I trust you are going to do a good job,” Gael said to him, her voice likened to a gentle, soft breeze that made Rhett’s entire body ache to believe her. She sounded so sweet, so innocent. Was she actually a virgin?
He couldn’t let himself think that way. This was all a farce; just a charade they were putting on to keep the bear-shifters entertained during one of the most rare of special occasions they were able to celebrate together. Of course she wasn’t actually a virgin, and of course he wasn’t actually supposed to keep her from messing around with random men. And yet, suddenly the duty to protect her from unwanted male attention seemed to consume him. He would do anything to keep that purity in her voice just as pure as it was right that moment.
“Thank you,” was all he said.
The elders were eerily quiet after he spoke. None of that had been in their script. Finally, Shenar clapped his hands together and smiled at them.
“It is time to make your first journey together, bonded by the terms of your agreement! Come, we will walk you to the edge of camp. Rhett, I presume you already know how to perform your duties from here?”
Rhett nodded. They had spent the entire past three days drilling this routine into his head and telling him the things it was okay to speak to the Maiden about, and what he was absolutely not allowed to discuss.
“Maiden,” he said, suddenly remembering his lines. “It is time to make our journey home.”
4.
Gael gasped in astonishment as Rhett led her to the door of the beautifully designed rustic cabin. She had seen many photos of ancient bear architecture in the books her father had collected, and this house stirred something deep within her heritage. Although she was human, she had ancient and important distant ancestors, and something of them was still alive and well within her.
“This is beautiful,” Gael said, running her hand along the post of the wide, sweeping porch. “Are we really supposed to live here together?”
“Yes,” Rhett said. “This home was built specifically for ceremonial purposes. It’s rarely used, though, and I’m going to have to stock the kitchen tomorrow. There’s enough for our first meal together, though. Are you hungry now, Maiden?”
“No… and you can just call me Gael, if you don’t mind. I mean, this is really neat and everything, but you don’t have to go overboard.”
Rhett relaxed visibly and she smiled to herself. He was rather cute in his own right behind that intimidating, masculine air of his. There was something about him that just put her at ease, and she was happy that of all the shifters in the town, she was there with him. Only there was something strange about him. His face was narrower than the features of the other bear-shifters she had seen in the town.
“You’re not a bear-shifter at all, are you?” she asked, astonished by the sudden realization.
“No, Maiden. Actually, I was born in Stonybrooke.”
“The wolf-shifters? My father calls that place the land of the sellouts.”
Rhett grinned. It was kind of nice to hear someone speak ill about the place that had rejected him. All he’d ever wanted was to go back to his pack, but he had done the worst thing imaginable.
“Isn’t your father a little bit too… human to make that call?” Rhett asked.
“Actually yes, you would be right about that,” Gael said with a soft laugh. She studied Rhett, the way his pensive brown eyes bore into hers, lightening a little when she smiled. It was nice. He seemed kind.
“It’s all right, though,” Rhett said. “In a way, he’s right. He probably reads a lot of the great shifter philosophers, about how any clan that’s able to adapt to human conventions is wise, but those who adopt them are not worthy of the ancient power that dwells within us all. Even you, Maiden.”
“Oh, I don’t have any ancient power,” Gael said, her face growing hot. “My ancestor was very distant. There haven’t been any actual shifters in my family for many generations. I’m as human as they come.”
“Well, not quite,” Rhett said, his serious eyes still lingering on her, “but if you insist.”
Gael swallowed hard. It was strange to be acknowledged by someone else for a small part of her ancestry that most people would say was less than nothing. She was human, sure, but there were some strange times when she would dream at night of the immensely powerful feeling of shape-shifting into a creature more powerful than she could even begin to fathom. When she woke up from these dreams, she would feel as if she’d lost something. But that was all right. She was used to being human.
“Well anyway, I’m not hungry yet,” she said quietly.
Rhett nodded and made his way to the front door. He unlocked it and once open waited for her to move inside.
He followed her as she made her way through every room, making little exclamations of wonder and appreciation as she went. It was an incredibly beautiful house. Her father would have loved it were he able to see it.
“Do you have a camera?” Gael asked, turning to Rhett.
He furrowed his brow. “No, we don’t take photos here. The elders believe they take away the life force of a vital object. It’s best to be safe.”
Gael nodded. Her father was just going to have to deal with a description in a letter.
“All right,” she said, heading up the stairs. “Well, I would really like to wash up and change out of this ceremonial gown. It’s really heavy. I feel pretty overdressed for the situation, you know?”
Rhett grinned at her, a sight that made her heart surge with excitement. Yes, he was very cute, indeed.
But she couldn’t let herself get caught up in this. It was a silly child-like crush, after all. What good would it do her to get caught up in something like that? She was a twenty-three-year old woman who’d gone without a boyfriend for quite some time… she could live another month without one.
Besides, the whole point of her being a maiden was because she was a virgin. Even if it was just a silly tradition, it would be kind of a sad irony to let anything change that just when it seemed to matter the most.
With that thought in mind, she smiled and shook her head. She was just going to shower and get herself comfortable. There was no reason anything had to be any more complicated. She could just leave it at that.
5.
Rhett paced in front of the steps of the chosen home, his mind full of the different types of commands he was meant to fulfill as the Guardian of the Maiden of the Harvest. He was not supposed to leave her alone, even for a second. Did that mean she should allow him in with her, even during the most private of moments?
Rhett shook his head. No, he was taking his duty far too seriously. It’d been a long time since he’d been trusted in a position of power. The last time he had, he had failed miserably and completely betrayed his pack. It was a memory he did his best not to indulge, but there were times when he couldn’t help but wish that everything had played out differently. He couldn’t help the being person he was at the time, and that meant he was simply going to have to accept the fact he would never be a part of a pack of wolf-shifters again, no matter how devastating that might be for him to accept.
He couldn’t help just how seriously he was taking this duty. He didn’t want to fail and the elders had told him if he did his job well, then there would be a great reward for him. That could mean anything, but Rhett was optimistic. He wanted to be part of a pack again. He wanted to be able to say that he had done something special that gave him a place somewhere, and maybe, this job was going to be it. He might have messed up with the yecha root, but he could be a good Guardian to the Maiden.
He headed up the steps. He would just have to discuss what it was Gael was comfortable with and what she expected of him when it came to his duty, and how he would fulfil his role.
“Gael, I—”
Rhett froze. The bathroom door was wide open and standing naked inside, brushing her long golden hair, was the Maiden.
She turned to look at him, as if unashamed by her beauty and quietly, slowly, shut the door.
Rhett stood outside agape, the image of her flawless body burned into his mind. She was absolutely perfect in every way, a delicate combination of curves and definition. Her gentle, beautiful face had looked at him in quiet acceptance. She hadn’t intended for him to see her like that. She had perhaps not realized the door was still open enough that she could be seen. These older bear shifter designs left a lot to be wanted when it came to privacy.
The wolf was entranced and captivated by her perfection and beauty. Although he had seen women who were more conventionally attractive, there was something extremely special about this girl, though he could not put his finger on it. He would’ve done anything for another glance, but instead, he stayed frozen in place outside the door, doing his best to fight the deep burning within him that had been awakened by the sight of Gael’s body.
He heard her voice, clear and pure from the other side of the bathroom door and he looked down at the ground, ashamed and embarrassed about what he had seen.
“You can come in now. Is there something that you wanted?”
Actually, all he wanted now was to melt and disappeared into the floorboards, but he supposed now was as good a time as any to discuss the limitations of his duty with her. He didn’t want anything like this happening again. It was far too embarrassing already.
He shrugged his discomfort away and pushed into the bathroom. Gael had slipped on a clean dress, a modest little outfit that covered her body in a way that was both a huge relief and a major disappointment.
“Erm, I just wanted to see what you were thinking when it came to the terms of privacy. The rules are strict. I’m not to let you out of my sight, but that seems to violate your right to privacy, so, I doubt in this day and age it would really be that important…?”
Gael seemed to consider this. “Yes, most of the time these things seem to be more about honoring the past than actually accomplishing anything with the ceremony itself. I mean, most of that ancient shifter magic was lost a long time ago. My dad is obsessed with that stuff, and he’s completely human.”
Rhett grinned. “Well that makes sense, I guess. A lot of people think that the shifter culture is fascinating even thou
gh they will never fully understand its significance.”
“To be honest, it makes me a little uncomfortable” Gael said, sitting on the ledge of the bathtub and looking at Rhett with her dazzling blue eyes. He swallowed hard. She was doing a number on him, inviting him in there as if he hadn’t just seen every sensual dip and curve of her body.
“What makes you uncomfortable?” Rhett asked, swallowing hard. He couldn’t let her know he was so lustered… that would just make everything even weirder.
“The fact you’re a shifter yourself might help you understand. It’s strange when people take pride or an obsessive interest in something that isn’t theirs they don’t understand like the culture, the shifter, and history of the bear-shifters. My father is human, but he seems to feel like it makes him a little more special to be able to relate to the shifter lore he’s obsessed with without ever doing anything to contribute to the shifters being accepted more in mainstream human society. It just doesn’t seem fair, I guess. People would take him more seriously if he wrote a book about shifter customs than they would from a bear-shifter, just because he’s a human.”
“Well, it’s not all that surprising,” Rhett said with a shrug. “We’re living in a human world, after all. Our own world is far away.”
“That’s true,” Gael said quietly. “But does that mean we should allow humans to take shifter culture and run with it as if it was their own invention?”
Rhett chuckled. “Actually, I think that most humans out there would rather pretend that we don’t exist at all. The ones who are interested are rare and welcome, so long as they’re not overstepping their boundaries and encroaching on our territory. Try not to worry about that too much.”
Gael smiled, a gesture that lit up her entire, beautiful face. “I love that point of view. I’ve never been exposed to much outside the estate where I was raised. It was kind of hard to make friends with anyone, especially bear-shifters. My family has royal blood in our ancestry, but technically we are nothing special.”
