When we walked in, there was a lady at the front desk and she squealed the moment she saw us.
"Soren!" she squealed.
"Liv!" Soren squealed back.
He rushed to hug her happily.
"How are you?" she asked.
"I'm good," he replied. "You?"
"Oh, you know… the usual," she said.
"Men," they chorused together, rolling their eyes at the same time.
"Who's that you've got over there?" the lady,Olivia asked.
"Oh!" Soren said, turning to me. "This is my friend Holland." He smiled wide. "He's a new member."
"A new member?" she asked, surprised.
"Yes." He waved for me to come forward. "Come say hi, Holland."
"Hello," I said to the petite lady. She had pink hair and thick-framed glasses. She looked small, but it was obvious she was older than both of us by a lot. But she looked so petite and cute. She was definitely the kind of person you couldn't help but be comfortable with.
"Hello," she replied with a warm smile, then turned back to Soren. "I didn't hear a thing about a new member."
"That's because he was in the hospital," Soren said.
"For how long?" she asked while typing on her computer.
"A month," Soren said sadly.
"Oh dear…" Liv looked at me with genuine sympathy. "Are you okay now, darling?"
"Yes," I replied with a warm smile.
"If you feel even a little off, make sure to go back to the hospital, okay?" she said.
"Yes," I nodded.
"Okay then…" She went back to typing. "I think I recognize you. If you came in a month ago, then you must be the one he brought in, huh?"
I turned to Soren, confused.
Brought in by him?
Who was "him"?
The red-eyed man?
"Uhm… yes," Soren said and quickly looked away.
I only remembered everything going black. I didn't remember how I got to the hospital.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you," Liv said. "You look…" She glanced from me to the computer. "Very different. We might need to update this."
"Excuse me?" I asked. My chest tightened as I looked between them. What was on that computer? What did she mean I looked different?
"The moment you get into the pack," Soren explained, "a picture of you is taken and sent to the Registration Hall, the place we're in right now and they upload it to the system. So if you came in looking, uhm… dirty, you probably look like dirt on the computer."
"Oh." I said slowly. That made sense… but just how rich was this pack to have something like that? "What's the purpose of that?"
"Safety," Liv winked.
"Okay…" I said, though I didn't fully understand. Still, it made sense for a place like this. Packs were always breaking into each other. If someone had something like that, it was easy to know who and which pack broke in.
"Don't worry," Liv said. "The moment you get initiated, it'll change automatically. And if you still don't like it, you can come back on picture day." She wiggled her eyebrows.
"Oh please, it's useless," Soren said. "The system takes pics of us every year and updates it. Even if you fix it, it'll still change."
"You're only saying that because your pic from last year is ugly," Liv laughed.
"Ughh, let it go," Soren sighed dramatically.
"Is it that bad?" I asked him.
"Not really," Liv said.
"Yeah right," Soren rolled his eyes.
"Come on, darling," she said with a smile, handing me a pen and a paper form. "You have to fill this up."
I looked through the paper. It was a form.
I picked up the pen and began writing. Within seconds, I was done. I carefully omitted the part asking for my surname and whether I had family.
Soren and Liv both gave me a look, like they noticed something but won't say a thing about it. But noticed what?
"Oh, this is perfect," Liv said cheerfully. "Just give me a second to throw this into the computer, and then we can get to the initiation."
"Is the initiation going to take a long time?" I asked.
"It depends, honey," she said, typing quickly. "Sometimes it takes a second, and sometimes it takes a whole day."
"A day?" I asked, shocked. "Not a week?"
Initiation took a week. Preparations alone took days… and they cost a fortune.
"Soren didn't tell you?" Liv said, raising a brow at him.
"I did," Soren insisted.
"Darling, things are done different here," Liv said. "No ceremony or shit, and the Alpha is definitely not necessary for the initiation."
"What?" I asked, confused and honestly intrigued. "How does that work?"
"Oh, you'll see, honey," Liv said.
"If it helps, mine lasted five hours," Soren added.
"Mine lasted one," Liv said proudly. "Soren is different, hence why it took so long."
"Different?" I asked.
"Oh, he'll tell you someday, darling." Liv waved it off. "Now come along."
I glanced at Soren, but he only smiled. He didn't want to talk about it, fine. I barely knew him anyway.
We walked down a hallway until we reached a huge silver door. On it were carved writings and a tree-like design. It was beautiful unlike anything I'd ever seen.
"Inside is even more pretty," Soren said with a proud smile.
"We're not here to look at decorations," Liv reminded him. "Now darling" she turned to me "you're going to go in there alone."
"Alone?" I asked.
"Yes, alone."
"What? How…"
"Darling, you're the one getting initiated, not us."
"But I can't possibly go in alone."
"Yes, you can," Liv said. "There's nothing in there to kill you."
"How will I know what to do?" I asked.
"You'll know once you get in."
"But…"
"You either do this, or you don't," she said simply.
I looked at Soren again.
"You can do this," he reassured me. "Don't be scared."
"Okay…" I said. I still wanted to protest, but this wasn't my pack. They knew what they were doing.
Liv smiled and opened the door.
I stepped inside.
It was dark.
And then the door shut behind me.