- 7 hours ago
From Mocked Bride to the Mutts Queen
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Short filmTranscript
00:00You put up with Chase for two years and now his family is about to get redevelopment money for
00:04their territory. You walk away with nothing and end the mate bond? Are you crazy? Compensation
00:09isn't divided by wolf headcount. It's based on property and deed. That money belongs to the
00:14riders. Do you really think people like them would give me a single dollar? But even then,
00:21you still couldn't have chosen Gideon. He grew up on pack assistance and handouts from neighbors.
00:30The pack council's local office had sent down paperwork saying they were going to redevelop
00:33my former mate Chase's territory and open a new arterial road straight to the main city.
00:38Before long, the walls in the redevelopment zone were spray painted with fluorescent orange letters
00:42rebuild. Back then, we had not ended our mate bond yet. And from that moment on, the Ryder
00:49family's attitude toward me changed completely. Chase's father, Bill, looked down on my dad
00:55for not being successful enough. His mother, Darlene, looked down on my mom for not being
01:00refined enough. And the way Chase fawned over the neighbor girl, Tiffany, was obvious to the entire
01:06pack. What hurt me most was that the whole family was not happy with the status quo that Chase and
01:12I
01:12had been mated for over two years, yet I still had not given him a pup. On the day we
01:17ended our mate
01:18bond. The Ryder family could barely hide their smiles. They even sneered at me. I was stubborn
01:25and I could take hardship, but I could not stand being stripped of my dignity.
01:34Every territory around here knows you are lazy, gluttonous, and can't give birth to wolf pigs.
01:39If you want another mate, you'll have to go out of state and find some male who doesn't know you.
01:46The sun was brutal that day. A few kids were squatting outside the auto shop next to the pack
01:51registration office, and off to the side stood a grown man who looked completely out of place.
01:56He was the small town patrol wolf everyone in the surrounding territories knew.
02:00People called him pretty boy to his face and mutt behind his back.
02:07Dummy, do you want a mate? Do you dare go home right now?
02:11Bring me your pack ID and bloodline papers, and go into that office with me to register as bonded mates?
02:21That was how Gideon and I got our mate certificate.
02:24You put up with Chase for two years, and now his family is about to get redevelopment money for their
02:30territory. You walk away with nothing and end the mate bond? Are you crazy?
02:36Compensation isn't divided by wolf headcount. It's based on property and deed.
02:40That money belongs to the riders. Do you really think people like them would give me a single dollar?
02:48But, but even then, you still couldn't have chosen Gideon.
02:53He grew up on pack assistants and handouts from neighbors.
02:57Because of this, my family fought for two straight days. Even my brother Marcus and his wife Camilla
03:02came back just to tell me I was crazy. On the third day, Gideon's mother, Maeve, came.
03:11Maeve was in her 50s, thin, dried out, with messy silver white hair loose behind her head.
03:16She brought along a still-smiling Gideon and introduced herself. The whole family sat there
03:22with dark faces and left the two of them standing by the door. Maeve looked at the wooden floor,
03:27then at the old boots on her own feet and Gideon's, and did not step farther in.
03:31Two days ago, Gideon and Raven registered as mates. We should come make a proper visit. This is a small
03:38trochan.
03:39My mother did not even make a move to touch them. Those things were already the best Gideon's family
03:44could produce. Mrs. Cross, please come sit down. I brought them in, set out two chairs, and poured
03:50two cups of warm water. Gideon grabbed my hand, then quickly let up again, as if afraid of dirtying me.
03:56The second my family saw him touch me, their expressions grew even uglier. Maeve's face tightened.
04:01She took a deep breath and pulled a crunkled slip of paper from inside her coat. It was a wrinkled
04:06check. This is one hundred thousand dollars for Raven. What shocked my family was not just that
04:15Maeve could produce one hundred thousand dollars. It was that in this pack, when a male wolf formally
04:20took a mate, his side usually transferred a mate fund into the new mate's name as a form of security.
04:24But a female whose mate bond had already been dissolved almost never received that kind of
04:28dignity again. Mrs. Cross, this money is for me. It's not as much as the families who give twenty
04:33or thirty thousand, but whatever other new mates get, my son's mate gets too. It's late today.
04:38If you have time tomorrow, we'll go to the bank and deposit the check into your name.
04:45After they were gone, we stared at that check in silence for a long time.
04:52Back then, Darlene fought us half a month over an eighty and eight hundred mate fund. And now the
04:56Cross family who live off pack assistance came here with a hundred thousand to welcome my daughter,
04:59who was sincere and who was acting. One look tells you. Now everyone guards their accounts once a
05:04mate bond breaks. Yet his mother willingly handed that money to Raven. The room stayed quiet for a
05:10moment. Then my parents looked at each other as if they had remembered something. Maybe some things were
05:16meant to circle back all along. Gideon saved your life once. That was when I found out Gideon had
05:23saved my life when I was four years old. He had been five years older than me then. If he
05:28had not
05:28spotted me slipping into the flooded pit at the old quarry and dragged me out, I would have died.
05:35To make sure the whole town knew Chase was not even as good as a fool, I scheduled our mating
05:40ceremony
05:41for the weekend and even hired the town garage band. By coincidence, my former mate was also
05:47holding his ceremony that same day. Maybe it was to get under my skin. But not only did they give
05:53Tiffany a $100,000 mate fund, they also rented a procession of 10 luxury sports cars. My mother did
06:00the math afterward. Not counting the mate fund, they must have spent at least another $300,000 on that
06:05ceremony. The compensation money had not even arrived yet and they could already spend that much,
06:09which meant only one thing. They had simply thought spending it on me was not worth it.
06:13That day, Chase's line of 10 sports cars met Gideon's old pickup on the road.
06:17Too hot? Our car has AC. Want to come sit inside?
06:21I was already annoyed and about to tell him to get lost.
06:24No matter how good your car is, it's still rented. Ours is ours.
06:32For all his slow mind, he had not lost that exchange.
06:35What does a stupid mutt know?
06:38As the wheels passed, dust flew up in huge clouds. Gideon pulled off his denim jacket and held it in
06:43front of me, covering my mouth and nose with the sleeve. When the dust finally cleared, he dug a
06:47bottle of ice water out of the cooler at his feet, twisted it open, and handed it to me.
06:53There's shade ahead. When we get home, I'll cut up the watermelon chilling in the ice chest.
06:59Mom grew it. It's sweet.
07:01I want the whole thing.
07:03It's all yours. Mom said everything in the house belongs to you now. I'm not allowed to fight you for
07:08it.
07:10The ride ended up feeling strangely easy.
07:16By the end of the day, the whole area knew both Chase and I had remated. Some called me stupid,
07:22saying I had thrown away a family on the verge of getting redevelopment compensation just to mate with
07:28a fool. But even more people said Chase was heartless. We did not have many guests.
07:35The pack assistant's office sent over a few boxes of household goods and a $10,000 resettlement check
07:41for a low-tier wolf household. That night, Maeve handed every cent to me.
07:49The house was old, but spotless, and the things inside were all new. Maeve had even arranged for
07:53one electrical line to be run in. We had LED lights and even the only appliance in the house,
07:57an electric fan. At night, the sounds of summer insects filled the air outside, and from far away,
08:01patrol wolves sometimes howled. Gideon held me and kept smiling to himself,
08:05rubbing his nose against my hair. His embrace was steady, and he smelled faintly of soap,
08:09far better than Chase ever had. You really are my mate now? Yes. You mated me today,
08:13so from now on you help me carry the bills. Any work I can't do, you do, and when I
08:17say something,
08:18you listen. Deal? Deal. Then kiss me. He carefully kissed my cheek. When I did not get mad,
08:24he leaned in and kissed me again, glanced at him. That's it? You still have to hold me. I am
08:30holding you.
08:30He tightened his arms very seriously. But that was not what I meant. Damn it. How was I supposed to
08:37teach a fool wolf how to mate? There had always been one sore spot in my life. For two years,
08:40Chase and I had not had a pup. The neighboring territories loved gossiping about it. Some spread
08:44rumors that I'd slept with too many males before the bond, and the moon goddess cursed me to be barren.
08:49Bill and Darlene especially never forgot to make it sound like the problem was mine,
08:53in case my port cycles were normal. Acting like being a male wolf put him above all rules. He and
08:57already
08:57get his black market restresses and refused to have his seed line tested. No matter how I looked
09:01at it, I did not think the problem was me. Gideon had not been born like this. He had become
09:03slow
09:04after the shock of his father's death. I wanted a pup. I wanted the whole pack to know the truth.
09:07I was not the one who could not conceive. Chase was. Gideon did not understand how to mate with a
09:10partner, so I had to swallow my shame and cling to him myself. We tossed and turned in that bedroom
09:14all
09:14night long. The next morning, I sat on the front steps in a daze. Maeve had just come back from
09:21hanging laundry in the yard. She took one look at me and asked what was wrong, then whether Gideon
09:25had bullied me. Mom, do you think Gideon doesn't even want me as his mate? He likes you too much,
09:30if anything. He's been so excited he can't sleep. He's been chopping up old pallet wood in the backyard
09:34in the middle of the night. Then why won't he mate with me? Why won't he let me get pregnant
09:39with a pup?
09:39The instant I looked up, I caught the flash of alarm in Maeve's eyes. He... he's slow. He doesn't
09:47understand. Give him some time. I'll talk to him. I knew something was off. Maeve clearly knew more
09:52than she was saying. Did Gideon have some kind of physical problem? But that did not line up with
09:57what I had seen. He had every normal response. His male instincts were stronger than most, not weaker.
10:02The only strange thing was this. Every time my hand went near his belt, he would recoil all the way
10:06to
10:06the back of the bed and shut his eyes like I was holding a silver blade. If I moved
10:09any closer, he would flatten himself against the edge of the mattress that he might bolt
10:13at any second. The weather was hot already, and he got so nervous he would not even let me hold
10:17him.
10:20By Ashford Custom, a new mate was supposed to make the first breakfast the next morning.
10:25Maeve, however, let me do nothing. She made breakfast herself and called us both to eat. She poured herself
10:29only half a bowl of thin oatmeal, wolfed it down, then hurried off with some other she-wolves to day
10:33labor at a farm outside town. Gideon could work too, but people called him stupid and refused to hire him
10:38for anything real. He mostly wandered around and took odd jobs when he could. In exchange for
10:41a few dollars, a soda, or a bag of convenience store snacks, Maeve was diligent. There was not
10:44much way to make money around here, so she turned the backyard into a tiny growing space using old
10:48wooden boxes as planters. There was also a stack of salvaged junk in the garage, their corner,
10:52and she had still carried it all the wife family's house. I made my way to the kitchen and saw
10:57a bag of
10:57fresh oats. But when I opened the storage canister, tears nearly spilled down my face. There was still half
11:02a canister of old oats in there, gray, filthy, full of bugs and mold. Now I saw the truth. She
11:07had
11:07saved the fresh oats for me and cooked herself porridge from the rotten ones. At noon, Gideon came
11:11home with a takeout container of food for me. Someone must have given it to him after he helped
11:15with some job. I did not eat it. Instead, I took the food and a bottle of water and went
11:18to find Mae
11:19at the farm. I heard the other she-wolves before I even got close.
11:24Your raven sure has big standards. I heard she asked the Ryder family for an $88,000 mate fund.
11:29I heard that too. She went into the Ryder house and still did nothing. Couldn't even give them
11:33a pup. Maeve, she only mated your Gideon because Chase dumped her and she had nowhere else to go.
11:38You've got a lot of suffering ahead. If she won't call you mom, don't take it to heart. It's not
11:42like
11:43you can give her money. As long as she agreed to mate a full wolf, you and your son just
11:48have to
11:48swallow whatever comes. By rights, she should have made you that first breakfast. But of course she
11:54didn't. Not surprising, she used to be a Luna. Those women sounded like they were comforting Maeve,
11:58but really they were stepping on her. And yes, I had not made that first breakfast. Embarrassed,
12:02I stopped where I was. My raven does everything well. I have no complaints. It's the Ryder family
12:07ruining her name on purpose. Maeve's voice came out haury, but steady. No blame, only defense. A good she-wolf
12:14doesn't stay in a rotten den. Their family wasn't worthy of her. Hearing her defend me made my eyes
12:19burn. Right. The Cross family sure is doing well now. I did not let her finish. I ran forward and
12:26raised my voice. Mom, I brought you lunch. Mom! The second I shouted, everyone nearby turned to look.
12:35The women who had just been picking at Maeve all went stiff. Maeve herself froze and stared at me.
12:39By the time I reached her, her eyes were red. She rubbed them quickly and came towards me. Careful,
12:44Raven. There are holes in the ground. Don't trip. The water bottle she had brought that morning was
12:48already empty. Gideon often forgot to bring her more, so she just forced herself to endure until
12:52night. I handed her the bottle and the food. She drank half the bottle in one breath. Then,
12:57before opening the container, she looked up at me. What about you? Have you eaten lunch? Mom,
13:02don't worry about me. I won't starve. Something in those words hit her hard. Maeve wiped her eyes with
13:07her sleeve and sat down crying quietly while she ate the whole lunch. I watched her hurry right back
13:12to work the second she finished and one thought lodged itself in my chest. This family had to stand
13:17on its feet first. On the way home, I found Gideon hauling something for someone again. I called him
13:23over. Come on, let's go home. There's plenty of work waiting there. Gideon came toward me with that
13:28half-slow smile, draped an arm over my shoulder, rubbed his head against mine, then secretly dug a mini
13:32chocolate bar out of his pocket. Raven, someone gave it to me, for you. I had just taken it when
13:38someone laughed nearby. I looked over. Chase and Tiffany were driving slowly past in a used pickup.
13:45Chase looked at the chocolate in my hand and sneered. When you were in the Ryder House,
13:50would you even have cared about something like that? Look at you now. A piece of chocolate is a
13:54treasure. I'd rather sleep on Gideon's drafty floor than go back to you. Take your chocolate money
13:58and spend it at the pack clinic getting your seed line checked. I knew it. You're as crazy as he
14:02is.
14:02No wonder you both ended up this poor. Sure, the Ryder family isn't poor. Bills just pay themselves.
14:06Kitchens clean themselves. Yards maintain themselves. All you have to do is lie there and wait to be
14:11served. I did not mind work. I did not mind suffering. What I could not stand was being treated
14:15like unpaid household help with no one acting like I had ever done a thing. If I had just gotten
14:19a job
14:20at one of the restaurants in town, it would have been better than being trapped in the Ryder House.
14:23But Darlene refused to let me work. She said some she-wolves had left for jobs in the city and
14:27never returned to their mates. You act like you did so much. Gideon shifted me behind him with-
14:32Raven doesn't have to work. I work. Tiffany had not said a word up to then. I caught the
14:36irritation in his face. Gideon was nearly a head taller than Chase. If not for the fact that
14:40everyone called him the fool patrol mutt, plenty of young she-wolves would have been after him.
14:44Come on Gideon. He and I exchanged a smile and walked home hand in hand.
14:49I just wanted nothing more than to leave Ashford. Now I found I did not want to go at all.
14:53The moment I got
14:53home I called Marcus and Camila and asked what kind of business I could start from the house,
14:57preferably with low upfront costs. Marcus and Camila used to do wholesale clothing on the west coast.
15:02Later they returned to this state and opened a studio. Camila said,
15:06If you want to sell merchandise, we've got accounts and sources. If you want to build a brand,
15:09we've got factories and buyers. And if you don't want the hassle, just ship goods for us. Marcus and
15:13I won't let you work for free. I asked, Can you do menswear and older women's clothing? Our pattern
15:18people are good. If you've got a design, we can make samples. If you can sell it, we can make
15:22it.
15:22By the time I hung up, my nose was burning and my eyes were hot. Gideon came in carrying an
15:26iced
15:27watermelon. The second he saw my red eyes, he dropped it and wrapped me in his arms.
15:31Raven meant home? Raven sun sigh wow with Raven. He did not know how to comfort anyone,
15:36which just made me cry harder. Maeve got home around dusk. She walked in covered in mud,
15:42heading straight toward the kitchen. You must all be hungry. I'll start dinner.
15:46Yet she still smiled as she went in, until she saw the table already full of food.
15:53Mom, we were waiting for you. It's hot, so I made iced sweet tea and oatmeal cookies. Come sit
15:59down. In Ashford, people always kept sweet tea in summer. It took hours to make properly. You
16:03made this ahead of time? Maeve's voice trembled. She was trying not to cry in front of us.
16:09I threw out the bad oats and baked new cookies. Gideon helped a lot. He's actually very capable.
16:13Hmm. Give him more things to do. He can do them. He's just, he's just a little slow. He needs
16:18to be
16:18taught. I did not tell her that the cookies were made with newly bought oats. I knew she would have
16:22mourned the old moldy food. While we were all eating, I, I wanted to start selling clothes online.
16:31If that is what you truly desire. You could make money or lose it. Raven, I gave that money to
16:37you,
16:37so it's yours. Do whatever you want with it. If you need help, tell me and Gideon. We're not much,
16:43but if we don't know how to do something, you teach us. I listen to Raven. Raven is the best.
16:47Raven is the smartest. Listening to them trust me so completely, I realized I had not eaten a
16:52peaceful meal like that in a very long time. Gideon's old rooms were tiny, but the yard was
16:59broad. Five days later, my father borrowed a pickup and trailer and my whole family came over to help me
17:04build a filming shed in the backyard. Everyone in my family had some practical skill. So aside from
17:09buying materials, we barely had to spend anything. My dad built the wood frame. Marcus handled the
17:14electrical. Camila chose the backdrop setup. My mother and I cooked. Maeve and Gideon worked as
17:20helpers. A few days later, the work shed and yard were finished. The whole thing had cost us less
17:24than $10,000. Plenty of people from the neighborhood came over to watch. Bill and Darlene were among them.
17:31Raven's whole family has lost their minds. She made a relief case fool wolf and now her family's out
17:35here sinking money into the cross house. Hey Ryder family, didn't you say your area's
17:42redevelopment compensation is coming soon? When's the payout? Soon. I heard by the end of the year,
17:48probably 50 something thousand. Then it's straight to the city for a condo and a new car. Raven could
17:54have stayed in the Ryder house and instead picked the hardest road available. She's stupid.
18:01Who else can she blame? Let them talk. People like that can ruin any blessing.
18:11Well, if it isn't Bill and Darlene, back from cards.
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