Her Chosen Mate

If there was a way to melt away into the words of a book and settle among the whimsical pages forever, Aria would do it in a heartbeat. Sitting at the foot of a large oak, the gnarled roots twisting into the perfect seats, Aria paged through her latest literary obsession. The sun had begun its descent, casting an orangey glow over the brand new pages of her book. It had been a warm day, warmer than usual and that meant anyone looking for Aria would be bound to find her in the shade with her nose in a book. April had left a little while earlier for her run, something Aria had very little interest in. She'd promised not to take too long and Aria had agreed to wait for her out in the clearing where most of the younger wolves of their pack gathered to train. It wasn't exactly unfamiliar territory given that all young wolves were required to train at least once in their lives, but it certainly made her feel uneasy. She could almost feel the burning glares from her peers who'd been training hard while she lazed about in the shade. She picked up on faint, not so-distant mumbling, the wolves who were whispering stood just out of earshot despite her sensitive ears. She was still too young to have all her lupine senses fully developed, and she relied more on her human senses because she was more familiar with them. It didn't help when she was trying to determine whether those mumbles were something she could safely ignore. The mumbling continued, getting louder the closer they got, but she was hesitant to look up. She didn't want her fears to be confirmed if they really were talking about her, and she wasn't interested in sparking up a conversation with a passing wolf just because she'd accidentally made eye contact.