A year of unhappy, anxious pack wolves, male and female, regarding having to leave the pack to attend those mating balls, put everyone on edge more than a little. Though it did seem that the council had chosen options for their pack with considerations to this.
From what she’d heard from the second mating ball from Ben, who’d had to attend, seemed to go willingly, was open to having a Mate, had not been rejected by a previous mate, but banished from his pack by his Alpha. He was more than happy to attend a mating ball and see if he had a mate out there.
The second ball they attended seemed to find the other attending packs happy to meet them and were ninety percent friendly, to those who came as the council's visiting pack. The mating ball saw nearly half those attending mated off, and six she-wolves brought into the pack mated with some of the males here.
Heard those she-wolves didn’t seem all that concerned about coming here, and when talking to one of them after she’d joined training, it was seen that she was more than curious about going to a place called The Rejected Pack. It had been explained to her and she’d thought it must be a nice place, seeing as it was so large and filled with those that had been rejected. Thought it must be a very accepting place.
She was not wrong. She’d told Mala, ‘it’s very nice here’, everyone got along, and ‘she was surprised to see that there was no bullying of any kind’. She’d seen that in her pack quite a bit. Unfortunately, there were some wolves, both male and female, who just hated others, for no reason other than they were lower ranked. Hadn’t liked seeing it, but it was common in some packs.
The third mating ball was much the same as the second, and everyone started to feel less agitated about if they were going to be on that list from the council. Thankfully, she’d only had to attend the first one, the council was trying its best to get them all out there, bit by bit, to help them find second-chance mates.
So, they gained she-wolves and lost she-wolves. Their numbers were down a little now, but there was a lot of excitement with the birth of the pack's very first pup. A full celebration was had. It was a little boy whose parents named him Bobby, named after their Luna. She’d been the one to find and bring the boy’s father in. They wanted to show his appreciation for his Luna accepting him, he had been a rogue wolf, she had seen him and brought him into her pack and normality back to his life.
After that year passed almost to the day that the council arrived, and had announced they’d be attending mating balls. The council once again showed up inside the pack. They were happy with how things had gone, for the start of introducing The Rejected Pack back into the wolfen world. Had come to tell them this and then to bring up the renaming of the pack itself.
They became the Hollowed Moon Pack; it was just a prettier way of saying rejected. Many other names had been brought up by the council, but this was the name the pack had voted on.
Most who turned up here, were accepted here, came here feeling hollowed out, so it was what they all thought was appropriate. The council had wanted to go with something nicer, like the Mountain Valley Pack, or the Secret Moon Pack, and even posed the name The Hidden Moon Pack.
Alpha Aston had allowed the pack to put in names they thought would be nice and when the Hollowed Moon Pack had been written as a suggestion, nearly everyone had jumped on board right away. Much to the council’s annoyance. But the name had been granted and so now they were; The Hollowed Moon Pack.
They were even granted a pack symbol. It was a full moon that was shaded over in a dark grey tone, with just the very outer edge of the moon left white, it was nice they all seemed to like it. Got a new fancy gate delivered as well, for the pack symbol to go on.
They would still be accepting all manner of rejected, banished and those that turned themselves rogues for personal reasons into the pack. Were even allowed to put it as part of the new packs’ introduction to the wolfen world.
Any wolf that wanted to know about them could look them up and come here for sanctuary, they were still council approved on that account. Their reputation as a safe haven and a pack that granted sanctuary still acknowledged.
A new pack house was designed and granted. It was going to be large and would be able to house over a hundred pack members, between the top two floors, though half the ground floor had to be vacant suites and bedrooms, a stipulation by the council. Everyone knew what that meant, that the council would soon be pushing for them to hold mating balls of their own. Most here were still against that.
Mala herself was not going to attend, would take up being on border patrol for those days, as would others that did not want to be involved in mating balls, or were simply not ready to do so. Though even being on border patrol didn’t mean that you were safe from being scented out, that would just depend on how strong your or your Mates wolfen senses were.
The old pack-house was going to be turned into a full gaming and entertainment building, there was going to be a bar and dance club put in. A small movie theatre and a few gaming rooms, that would house things like pool tables, table tennis, darts and all manner of electronic games. There was going to be a coffee hub, in there as well, and an ice creamery.
Lots of the pack members here had jobs that could be done online, and though the pack was not yet up to date with modern technology, that was mostly because Aston didn’t want other packs finding them. That was now no longer the case. The pack apparently was not as poor as it looked, funds that were channelled back into the pack by its members were simply put towards the packs shares out there on the stock market. Aston made quite a bit of money, out there in the human world.
It was noted that both Alpha Aston and Luna Roberta were very happy, to be recognised as a fully fledged wolf pack, finally fully acknowledged. Something they had always wanted but needed to build up to, she supposed, prove they were able to handle it and had a good society of wolves here. Or something like that, was not privy to that information.
They would now be recognised by other packs, their Alpha’s and Luna’s. Respect would be given and not just to them, but to all that lived here inside the Hollowed Moon Pack.
There would be no more having to take aside she-wolves, that were mated to their male wolves and explain where they came from, or the type of pack they would be going to. Nope, not anymore, were a legitimate pack now and mating balls would run much smoother.
Though their pack was still well away from all other packs for the most part, the closest pack being The Dark Harvest Moon Pack, which was three hours away. So Aston and Roberta were not expecting other packs to come looking for alliances with them any time soon, and they didn’t really need any.
Everyone here still trained, they were now considered to be a warrior pack, not that that was announced by the council. Still provided some protection, being new and still with more she-wolves, the ratio was still three to one, for the time being.
They were granted permission to expand their borders, and claim more land for the pack as it was still going to grow with more wolves arriving to join the pack, and with many mated wolves within the pack there were pups being born. A small school was in the planning stage with land around it for growth when it was needed. And with pups came the need for a proper pack hospital to be built as well.
They were getting all the things that regular packs had, not something that anyone living here was used to anymore. Most had wolves and didn’t need medical attention. The few wolf-less that were here, and they had about 20, were taken into the human town to seek medical attention when required. Escorted by Zane or one of his team.
Aston had put in a few calls to some of the packs that their wolves had been mated off to once the hospital was built, looking for medically trained wolves, doctors and nurses. That would be happy to come for a stint here in the pack with a view to staying if they liked it here, once the hospital was built and ready.
Aston was happy to put some of the wolves that were interested through university, to get their teaching degree’s and started offering wolves more than online study. They could if they so chose, go to the nearest university and study on campus. Though most were still happy with online study.
Some of the new arrivals that were Mated into their pack found it quite an adjustment to their normal lifestyle, there were not many cars here, most of the pack still relied on Zane and his shopping team for anything they needed from the human world.
Around the pack itself, most were still happy to walk everywhere, there were however 3 stores in the pack now, a café, a bakery and a hairdressing salon, but other than that, they still had to go to Zane for shopping.
It was a very busy year for their pack. They received a mating ball invite from Luna Netty, Peta and Mala both went. It was really good to see her and see she was happy, a mother of one, a little girl, with Chases strawberry blonde hair, but had Netty’s soft grey eyes. Chase was still as charming as before, still got to see him look at Netty the way he had the first time he’d seen her, still referred to her as his lovely Mate.
The Moon set and Peta was mated off to one of the warriors in Netty’s pack. She was more than a little standoffish and her Mate couldn’t understand it at all. Didn’t get why she wasn’t all over him, like the others he was seeing be mated off.
Mala thought Peta was going to reject him, but with Netty and Chase’s assurance that he was a good man, kind and would make for a loving Mate, she’d finally given him a chance. Though it still took a few days for her to come around, Alpha Chase was happy enough to host all from The Hollowed Moon Pack for a few more days.
Didn’t really get much say in it. Peta was going home if Aston was going home, regardless of having a Mate, she didn’t seem at all comfortable with them leaving her there for a few days, even with Netty right there.
It took 4 days for her Mate to win her over, he was a persistent man, brought her flowers and wanted to have every meal with her, was within sight of her at all times till she went to bed that was, and then he walked her to her room. He was very gentlemanly and didn’t once attempt to touch her.
Though he’d been confused at first, once Netty and Aston had talked to him about where Peta had come from and what she had been through, he’d simply stared at his Mate then stood up and declared he would treat her like a princess, and had done so. He smiled at her nonstop, never once got annoyed with her being standoffish, sometimes just sat and stared at her all dreamy like.
Even Mala had to admit the man was freaking adorable. It was good to see when Peta finally smiled and then laughed at him for something he did, let her guard down for just one moment, and that had been pretty much it. Marked and Mated the next day.
Returned back to their pack and Mala moved into the pack house, with the other ranked members, up on the second floor. She opted for a simple one-bedroom suite. As she no longer wanted to live alone in her house, it was too quiet without Peta there. Peta never stopped talking, and the house was suddenly deafeningly quiet.
Knew she had the option as an Elite Warrior for the pack to move into the pack house, so asked Aston about it and he’d nodded and Roberta had shown her a few rooms, till she’d settled on one. Then had moved on in that afternoon.