3.

He wanted her, desired her. What was this feeling? He didn't know. He didn't feel, ever.

In front of the flat building, the man stood waiting with a large group of people my age. Some of them I recognised from my pack quarter, but I surely didn't know them all. Not that that would have been possible, I mean the Amor quarter was by far the biggest quarter of the entire Emotion pack, but still. I couldn't even see if they even were from the Amor quarter. For all I knew, they could have been from the Ira quarter, or the Mearor or Peccatum quarter. All of them just didn't exactly emit one certain kind of emotion. They just seemed to feel everything at once, or nothing at all.  

It was incredibly frustrating, but at the same time, liberating. People didn't have to act a certain way here, they didn't feel one emotion more strongly than any other one. It just seemed as if everything was balanced.

I could feel it too, slowly but surely. The longer I spent here at the centre of the Emotion pack, the more I felt at ease with just being sad that I had to leave my parents for a while, angry that they made me do this, thankful for the possibility to meet my mate, and just enjoying my surroundings. I had to say, I still felt that love was the strongest emotion inside of me, as I could still feel it flowing through my veins. I was built of it, it resided in my bones, it was a part of my whole being.

As it had always been, I just could feel everything else at the same time as well, and be okay with it. Somewhere, deep inside of me, I think I liked it, and that I was sad to know that soon, it would be gone, as I would go back to the Amor quarters.

The tall blonde man showed us all the way to the castle. We walked, but I didn't mind, and James surely didn't either. We still held each other's hand, as we knew for sure we would never end up in the same pack quarter. This was one of our last moments together as brother and sister before we would be separated, and would have to miss each other for over three years. I felt a squeeze in my hand and looked up, my look questioning.

"Look," James said, nodding at something in front of him. "The castle."

I sighed softly as I looked in awe. It was exactly as I imagined when I looked from the clearing at home to the centre of the pack, maybe even better. Dark brown stones formed a huge building, with incredibly high towers. A large, black gate showed the opening to steel doors, which were the only thing about the whole castle that seemed modern. It was said that the castle was built in the time of the first alpha of the Emotion pack, Alpha Ander, which was about 1350 years ago. However, even though the building was older than medieval, it was in a pretty good state. The feeling I got when I looked at it while it slowly became bigger and bigger as we came closer to it, was one of excitement. I felt as if something was about to happen, and I couldn't wait. Still, I couldn't make the whole group walk faster, so I did nothing and just stared with my mouth open, at which James had to laugh. "Stop it, you'll drool yourself," he joked.

"Oh please, you're probably fangirling over the beautiful architecture as well. Don't make fun of me now," I retorted.

He quieted down.

Even though he was obviously not an Amor person, he did love some things. Architecture was definitely one of them. Since he was a kid, he had always loved big, old and complex buildings, and I knew that the Castle of Sensus was his favourite. I hoped for him he would end up as an architect of some sort, after all he couldn't joke about everything his whole life. At some point he had to start doing something, and I hoped that it would be something with buildings.

In the end I parted with James to go to the girls wing of the castle, while he had to freshen up in the boys wing. We hugged for the longest time, before we really had to say goodbye. Around us, I saw many brothers and sisters and friends do the same.

"Take care James, I love you."

"Of course you do."

"James!"

"I love you too, dimwit, now go and clean yourself before the ceremony. You stink."

I laughed out loud and gave him a last hug and a kiss on his cheek. "Bye James," I said for the last time.

"You know you'll see me again after the ceremony right?" He asked seriously.

"Yea I know. Just let me have my moment, okay? I'm going to miss you, and I want to say goodbye properly now we have time. Just..." I hesitated. "Never mind, I know you'll be fine."

"As will you."

"I know."

With these last words we parted ways, and I walked on my own to a place where I could change into the provided ceremony clothes. It wasn't difficult to find, as there was a long row before the available rooms. I sighed as I closed my eyes, waiting for my turn.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all. I entered a room, which consisted of nothing more than just a table, a chair, and bowl with hot water. On the table I could find my clothes. A long, light grey dress with long sleeves. I took off my own clothes, washed myself with the hot water, wincing slightly at the heat when I dipped my hands into it, after I dried myself with the fluffy towel that was next to the bowl. Then I slipped on the dress, and looked in the mirror.

I wish I could say it looked good on me, but to be honest, it didn't. At all. I looked like a bag of potatoes in it. Just nothing about it seemed to be flattering. Well, maybe this one thing. It coloured greatly with my eyes, as it was exactly the same colour, my eyes just seemed shinier. I took one last look in the mirror. A normal girl looked back at me. Shoulder length brown-ish hair, not short, but not tall either, a normal face. The girl only had a nose that was a little too big for her own liking. But it was me, and I loved being me. I also loved my body. Right, this dress wasn't the most beautiful thing I had worn over the years, and surely I looked more beautiful when I wore a tiny bit of make-up, but it was customary to be as natural as possible for the ceremony. And natural I was.

Okay, it was time to go. The ceremony, I was ready. I would rock it, and my tester would say that there was no doubt I would be an Amor. I was sure of it. That was how it should happen. Well, I wasn't completely wrong...