The Mandatory Ball

Marcella

"Are you okay, Marcella?"

Alpha Arthur’s gentle voice snaps me out of my paralyzing daze. The heavy, dark spiral in my mind shatters, replaced instantly by a flush of hot embarrassment. I just zoned out in front of our Alpha.

"Sorry, Alpha," I force the words out, my voice slightly raspy. I clear my throat, pasting on the submissive, polite smile I have perfected over years of survival. "Yes, I am great, thank you. How are you doing today?"

He nods, a warm smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. "I'm perfect, thanks, Marcella. Please, take a seat. I'd like to discuss something with you. I know you and Jade have school, so I won't keep you long."

I give him a stiff nod and move mechanically toward the couch. The only available spot is right next to my twin sister, Jade. Taking a seat beside her feels like willingly stepping into a cage. She treats me with the exact same disgust and cruelty as my father and brother, but sitting anywhere else would raise questions. I perch on the edge of the leather cushion, keeping my spine rigid and my hands folded tightly in my lap to hide their trembling.

I glance at my father. Through the polite facade he wears for the Alpha, I can read the rigid lines of his jaw and the tight, poorly suppressed anger burning in his eyes. He is starkly confused. As the Beta of the Emerald Ridge pack, he handles almost all administrative issues. He usually knows about pack affairs long before Alpha Arthur personally steps in to address them. The fact that the Alpha has shown up unannounced, bringing an Elder into my father's living room, means my father has been kept out of the loop. I know that exact look in his eyes. He is pissed, and someone is going to bleed for it later. Usually, that someone is me.

"Is everything okay, Alpha?" my father asks, his tone perfectly measured, laced with forced respect.

"Yes, Beta, everything is fine," Alpha Arthur replies smoothly. "We have already spoken about this upcoming issue in passing, but I just wanted to personally address it and see if I could be of any help."

I watch realization wash over my father’s face. A flash of deep irritation crosses his features before he aggressively masks it behind a neutral expression. Whatever this is, he knows now, and he isn't happy about it.

"Marcella," Alpha Arthur continues, gesturing politely to the older man beside him. "This is Elder Harlen. He is visiting on some formal business and decided to join me here today."

I bow my head slightly in respect to the Elder. I don't know if my father has met Elder Harlen before, but I certainly haven't. The man watches me with calm, observing eyes.

"There's nothing to worry about, so please relax," Alpha Arthur says, leaning forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees. "I just wanted to stop in and remind you all about the ball at the Obsidian Pack this weekend. And I also wanted a quick chat with you specifically, Marcella."

My heart gives a sudden, hard thump against my ribs.

The Jade Moon Ball. How could I possibly forget? It is the only thing anyone at school has talked about for weeks. Every year, a different pack hosts the gathering, designed to help unmated wolves find their destined mates. It is steeped in over a century of tradition and carries a high success rate. This year, the Obsidian Pack is hosting. Throw in the widely circulated rumor that the Alpha of the Obsidian Pack is ruthless, powerful, and utterly unmated, and you have thousands of she-wolves losing their minds with excitement.

You aren't legally permitted to attend until you turn eighteen. This year marks the very first year Jade and I are old enough to go.

But my father had already made his ruling on the matter days ago. He had forbidden me from attending. He backed me into a wall, his hand wrapped tight around my throat, and violently informed me that my pathetic, weak presence would only serve to embarrass him in front of the other Alphas and Betas. He told me no mate would ever want a broken thing like me anyway.

"So, Marcella," Alpha Arthur says, his voice cutting through my terrifying memories. "I have been informed that you will not be attending the ball?"

A sharp spike of sheer panic shoots down my spine. The room suddenly feels incredibly small.

"That's right, Alpha," I say, keeping my voice steady, though my heart races. "I won't be attending."

Alpha Arthur tilts his head, a puzzled look crossing his kind face. "But why?"

Before I can even open my mouth, a sharp, blinding pain erupts on my left side.

My father’s large hand has slipped down behind Jade’s back, out of the Alpha’s line of sight. His thick fingers pinch the soft flesh of my hip, grabbing a chunk of skin and muscle and twisting it violently. It is a silent, agonizing threat. Perform.

I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I taste copper, holding back a distressed wince.

"I just don't feel up to the journey, Alpha," I lie quickly, forcing a casual smile while my hip burns in agony. "We are almost finished with the school year, and I'm working hard on my final assignments. I figured I would just stay home and finish my homework instead. Get a head start on my finals."

It isn't entirely a lie. I am working hard on schoolwork, but only because I am currently doing all of Jade's final assessments for her. I finished mine weeks ago. I also have my own hidden plans for this weekend while the house is empty—plans I cannot afford to ruin.

Alpha Arthur shakes his head. A genuine, unyielding smile spreads across his face.

"You have always been a remarkably hard worker when it comes to your schooling, Marcella," he says softly. "And while I admire that dedication, I'm afraid your homework will just have to wait until you return."

The twisting pain in my hip flares as my father’s grip tightens. I struggle to breathe.

"I'm here to inform you that, as of this year, a new mandatory law has been passed by the council," Alpha Arthur declares, his tone gentle but leaving zero room for argument. "It is now legally required for all wolves of age to attend the Jade Moon Ball. The packs need strong alliances, and finding mates is our top priority. There would need to be a severe medical reason for not going. Sadly, homework is not a valid excuse."

Absolute sheer panic sets deep into my bones. The blood drains from my face.

I swallow hard, my throat sandpaper dry. I bite back the immediate urge to beg him to let me stay. Instead, I force my head to nod. "I understand, Alpha."

He gives me another warm smile, oblivious to the death sentence he has just handed me. He pushes himself up from the loveseat, Elder Harlen mirroring his movement. "I'm glad that is settled. Try and look forward to it, Marcella. I have a feeling you will have a lot of fun."

I nod again, standing up on shaking legs as he says his formal goodbyes to my father.

The front door opens, and the Alpha steps out onto the porch.

The second the door clicks shut, the temperature in the room drops. The suffocating silence presses against my eardrums. I know exactly what is coming. It will not matter to my father that the Alpha himself enforced this rigid new law. It will not matter that I have absolutely no choice in the matter. In my father's twisted, cruel mind, this inconvenience will somehow be my fault. He will twist the narrative, and I will be the one forced to pay the brutal price.

After the severe beating I endured last night, and the cracked ribs from this morning, I physically cannot survive another round right now.

I don't wait for him to turn around. I don't wait for the first strike.

Moving with the desperate speed of hunted prey, I grab my school bag from where I deliberately left it by the front door. I rip the door open and slip outside into the crisp morning air, shutting it behind me before my father can even rise from the couch. My heart hammers frantically against my ribs as I practically sprint down the driveway. I know I am only delaying the inevitable. I know I will pay in blood for walking out right now. But I need to escape this hell-hole family, just for a few precious hours of daylight.

I march down the paved sidewalk toward the school, my breath coming out in ragged, uneven puffs. My hip throbs violently from the pinch, a lingering reminder of the monster waiting for me at home.

"Hey, Marcy!"

I snap my head up. Stepping out of the front door of a modest house two streets down is Seraphina.

The sight of my best friend instantly loosens the tight knot in my chest. Sera has been my shadow, my anchor, and my sanity since her family joined the Emerald Ridge pack when we were four years old. I force a smile, slowing my pace so she can catch up.

Sera is the sole reason I am still breathing. We share a bond forged in the darkest, most hidden corners of this pack. We both suffer from relentless, brutal abuse at the hands of our fathers. Sera’s dad is a cruel man who bullied her mother until the day she passed away, and then turned his full, unchecked aggression onto his daughter. Like my father, he is a master of deception. He knows exactly where to hit her so the bruises remain hidden beneath clothes. The Alpha knows nothing.

Though I turned eighteen seven months ago—officially legally free to leave the pack territory without being forcefully dragged back by patrol guards—I stayed behind. I stayed for Sera. She is still seventeen. Her eighteenth birthday is in exactly two days. We have spent the last nine years meticulously crafting our escape plan. Our bags are packed and hidden in the woods. We have cash saved from doing other students' homework. The plan was simple: wait for the pack to clear out this weekend for the Jade Moon Ball, and run fast and far in the opposite direction.

As she falls into step beside me, I immediately notice the dark circles under her eyes. The tense, rigid line of her shoulders.

"Sera, what's wrong?" I ask, my voice dropping to a whisper.

She stops walking. We are standing under the shade of a large oak tree, far enough from the houses to not be overheard. She turns to face me, and the raw, desperate pain brimming in her eyes physically hurts my chest. She looks like she is hanging onto her sanity by a fraying thread.

"Marcy," Sera whispers, her voice trembling violently. "I know we were supposed to leave this weekend while the pack was gone. I know we had the timeline set." She takes a jagged breath, her hands reaching out to grip my forearms tightly. "But what if we use the ball itself as our getaway?"

I blink, staring at her in stark confusion. "What? Run from the ball?"

"Think about it," she pleads, the words spilling out of her in a frantic rush. "The Obsidian Pack territory is four hours away from here. If we travel with the pack to the ball, we will already be four hours away from Emerald Ridge. If we can make a new plan and slip away during the middle of the night, while everyone is distracted by the crowds and the drinking, we will gain a massive head start."

I process her words, my mind spinning. Leaving from the Obsidian Pack means running through unfamiliar territory. It means surrounded by thousands of Alpha and Beta wolves. It is infinitely riskier.

"Sera, there will be guards everywhere," I caution gently.

"I know!" A stray tear escapes her eye, tracking down her pale cheek. She tightens her grip on my arms, her nails digging into my sweater. "I know it's dangerous. But if we run from here, they might send a tracking party back home to check on us when we don't answer our phones. If we run from Obsidian, they won't even notice we are missing from the crowd until the next morning. Marcy, I can't wait anymore. He..." She chokes on a sob, her eyes darting away. "He was so bad last night. I can't do another weekend. I don't want to wait any longer than absolutely necessary. I just can't."

Seeing the sheer, unfiltered desperation fracturing my best friend's composure shatters my hesitation. The suffocating panic from my own morning crashes into her raw terror, igniting a sudden, adrenaline-fueled spark of hope. She is right. If my father blames me for the Alpha's decree tonight, I might not even survive until the weekend to run. Neither of us can survive waiting any longer. We are out of time.

I stare into her tear-filled eyes, my resolve hardening into solid steel. The stakes are terrifyingly high, but the alternative is death.

"You're right, Phin," I say fiercely, my voice steady and resolute. I pull her into a tight side-hug, ignoring the sharp protest of my bruised ribs. "Let's do it. We leave on the night of the ball."

Sera lets out a shaky breath of profound relief, a fragile smile breaking through her tears as she hugs me back.

"Now we just need to get a flawless new plan together," I murmur, my mind already racing with the logistics of escaping a crowded, highly secured Alpha event.

She wipes her face, a spark of our shared rebellious fire returning to her eyes. "Leave it with me, Marcy. I'll figure out the route."