I am Hers, She is Mine

Aris didn't particularly want to be here. She'd groomed perfunctorily but had put none of the effort into it that many of her family did. She lacked mud and sticks, but otherwise looked the same she usually did. Next to her, the rest of her family shone like gemstones. She was just a rock that someone had washed off and stuck with them.

It just wasn't worth dressing up for a silly ceremony. Briar and Artorias had already been living together. Hell they'd been fucking for a lot longer. What was the point of the whole "now we're married so that makes it special" ceremony? And everyone making a big deal over Briar going off to be a queen like she'd actually earned it with more than just having had sex with the alpha. What about Azure? He outranked her comparatively and he sure hadn't had sex with their alpha so he'd actually earned it, the jerk.

Aris was particularly sensitive to the whole idea. She'd lost to a fucking child in the raid, after already being late to show up, for fuck's sake. She was starting to lose any confidence she had in being able to ever prove herself as being worth anything, since nothing she'd ever done was up to standard, she kept just fucking everything up no matter how hard she worked, and here Briar was earning a whole pack on the flat of her back and getting praise for it. She had to fight not to blame Briar for it, because it wasn't really her fault, but it sure made it hard to tolerate the festivities. She didn't even really look forward to the tournament, even though she'd signed up for it. Given her record she expected to be knocked out in the first round again, and she cringed at the thought of losing - again - in front of everyone... again.

Bitter and hurting, she slunk into the gathering well after most other people had found their seats. Asla was there, sitting with Indy of course. Ari hadn't seen him since their mother and brother's supposed funeral, and Asla had abandoned the family to weather the long night on their own, so she wasn't sure why either of them had bothered to show up now. Maybe Briar was the only one they cared about other than each other, or maybe they just liked weddings. Goss was there too and she almost moved to sit beside her but hesitated, frowning, at seeing Kotori there. She didn't want to deal with him when she was already in a bad mood - with his attitude she'd probably end up putting claws in his face and then everyone would be pissed that she messed up the ceremony.

She let her gaze keep scanning and lit on her mother sitting alone except for Ophelia, who it looked like she'd managed to wrangle into a good grooming. Ari didn't like seeing her sitting by herself after everything she'd been through. It wasn't easy to recover from something like that - being basically shunned would make it harder. So she trotted up next to her mother, faking a bright smile for her and giving her a hug, pressing her shoulder against her mother's as she plopped down beside her.