They were farmers, they were peaceful, and had never had to fight in their lives. Not all wolves are savage killing machines, or feral beasts, like human legends and stories dictate. Some are quiet, land loving people, who never want to experience the thrill of a hunt or the warm blood of another being in raw savagery. In a whirlwind of months, we were dragged into a battle to the death and children were left in the care of the old and frail, or the pregnant.
We waited endlessly to find out who of our loved ones would come home to us. Until one lone night, the people who cared for me in their absence, the last of the Whyte’s who were too vulnerable to follow them, were slaughtered by invading vampires in our own homes on the far edge of the farmlands, and I was a lone survivor who was then shunted to the orphanage. The events of that night are so foggy and hazy, I don’t really remember it at all, or why I was even spared. I was just a child.I still remember the agony of the day I watched others return in masse, the battle truly over with the vampires in retreat, and no one, not a single person from my bloodline came home. An entire pack, of more than forty people I called my own, they were all gone, everything I knew…. Every single last one of them. I was all alone.There is no pain compared to that of an eight-year-old child learning everyone she ever loved and was protected by, were never coming home for her. My security was shattered and my future dead and all I have known since was the isolation and solitude of being one of the many who were thrown here to rot.So now here we are, a house full of teens who bear the only living connection to our past loved ones. A mixed bunch of leftovers, but no one in the packs will bond to us for fear of producing weaker offspring. It's all about dominance in our world and power, standing, and ability. DNA is everything. They call us the Reject Pack which sums up exactly why we are overlooked.We don't belong to anyone anymore, even though by rights we should be part of the united wolf community, this new singular pack, we are bonded by location after all. We’re not though, they see us as cursed children and deny our mere existence, throwing us to the dark shaded side of the mountain so they don’t have to see us. This house is the only home we know now and the people who care for us do so in duty, but not love. They’re afraid we curse them by proximity.It's forbidden to abandon a pack child, even if they come from a shamed bloodline. The fates and traditions have laws and rules from old that we have to abide by and abandoning the vulnerable is abhorrent. So, we are given a home, shelter, food, and education. Basic care in the understanding that upon our Awakening, we get to leave. Severed like a rotting limb.We can go out, find our own path, and fend for ourselves. Turning gives us gifts and ability to go it alone. Find a pack who want us if that is even possible. Solves their problem and shirks off any responsibility they have for us. Which sucks if you happen to turn at a young age while caught here with us.So, that's where I am now. Just a mere four hours before we have to climb to shadow rock for the full moon and I’ll transform for the first time of my life. Changing from child to woman and my gifts will manifest along with my first emerging of my full wolf self and whatever that will look like. Not that I have any clue what those will be, if any at all. Not all of us have a special gift and it's unlikely I will. My parents never talked of theirs.I’ve watched this ceremony once a month for many years and it still terrifies me to know I will be one of them. Finally stood in the center, terrified of what the new light brings. It’s a blood moon tonight, meant to be symbolic or biblical or some nonsense. Signaling the end of times. Not that I paid attention to our Lunar studies as they held little importance to me.With a first transform comes pain, and a lot of it. You hear the cracking of bones, the tearing of flesh and the howling of those going through it and it haunts you for eternity. It's inevitable. It's awful to see, traumatized me the first time as I was still so young, but they tell us it only hurts that way the first time. After, we’ll be different, and the pain will be far less clawing, because we can heal and withstand it so much more as a stronger breed.I’ve seen it. Physical improvement they call it. It's the leaving of childlike features behind, firming up, muscling over as though somehow you get an injection of superhuman enhancement. All who have turned become superior in every way, even in terms of attractiveness, which explains why the Lord Colton is considered a god among mere females. His genes are strong.Not that I want to change. I’m already tall, slim, athletic and I wouldn't say I was ugly. I'm on the pretty side of plain, with full lips, mousy brown hair, and abnormally green eyes. I take after my mother, and when I look in the mirror, I’m haunted by her memory in the most bittersweet way. Proud to carry her face with me but broken that it reminds me of what I’ve lost.I guess I am what one would call girl next door, but it's just another flaw in my genetic makeup.The alphas are all handsome or beautiful and physically perfect. You can't deny good genes when it's shown in every single little way. Compared to humans they are like God’s among men.Now all I can do is wait.Shower, dress, brush my hair and pace like a maniac as I watch the clock and count down the minutes to the first moon of my new future.This could be the first step in changing everything.I can leave after tonight; I can walk away from this mountain and the people who treat us like we are nothing. I'll be free to run far away, with no bond to anyone or anything. No one to care if I never return.I just need to get through it first and then it's the start of a whole new existence for me.My blood is rushing through my head to the point I have a headache, palms sweaty and adrenaline spiking as I follow the path to the top of the cliff on Jell-O legs. Walking in behind the others, like me, who are to go through the ceremony at the highest point of the full moon. I’m breathless, fighting the nausea and internal shaking of fear, body trembling, as I watch where I step, a little too closely, and almost collide with the girl in front of me. Staggering sideways and kicking stones in my path, accidentally, to avoid her.“Watch where you’re going, reject!” The growl of one of our accompanying mentors hits me in the side of the face with an open palm as he leans in close and shoves me back in line, harshly. Hard enough to send me crashing into the rock face, we are brushing up against and I almost hit the ground with the force, coughing out a whimper of pain. I catch myself, right my body quickly, ignoring the burning pain of grazes, and ski
It tastes like thick gloopy honey, laced with all sorts of chemicals that burn my throat as I take it down and almost choke on its thicker consistency. I gag but manage to claw myself into staying still and swallowing hard with multiple gulps. Closing my eyes as the taste turns bitter, spreading down my throat and into my stomach and immediately warms them both. I can feel it disperse into my veins and limbs, knocking the cold of the rocks away from anywhere my skin touches and almost immediately I start to get a little woozy. The ground around me moving and swaying softly, like the sea coming in on the tide.I shake my head but it’s completely pointless. Hunching forward so I don’t fall over, I now understand why every time I watched this, the newest to awaken would sit the whole ceremony slumped down and immobile until they turned. Seemingly oblivious to all of the ceremony and its stages as light faded to dark. They have drugged us for the pain, and I start to lo
I gaze down and I see paws that startle me at first. Gasping at the closeness and realize they are mine, where my hands should be, flat on the ground. Large, clawed but strong paws, larger than I thought they would be. I lift one and shake it, almost as if I need to convince myself that I can use and control this limb, it’s truly connected to my body. My legs are solid, with thick silver-grey fur and all the way up my muscular chest, I have a streak of purest snow white that travels as far as I can see. I stare at it, lean back and pull my chin in tight to follow it until I can’t strain any further to see.I have very little memory of my mother in her true form, but I know this is from her. She was a white and my father a silver yet it’s rare to combine both in such a way. Most wolves are brown or grey … white is a mutation that’s almost unheard of and my mother used to try and hide herself because it brought only stares.I shake my head, the
I know others are watching; my senses are hitched up real high and my body goosebumping all over in response. I can feel them on me from all over and I want to sink into the ground and disappear. I yank but the blanket begins to tear from the pressure nearer my end and I have no choice but to stop or be left with a scrap that will cover nothing.“For god’s sake, Damon. This isn’t the time or place. My father is staring at you. Pack it in.” Colton snarls his way, pushes him from behind and comes into view, shoving him off the blanket and swoops down to pick it up with speed. He walks forward in two confident strides and hands it straight to me, bending lightly as he does so to make sure I get it without any more interference. I know he’s only doing it to save face, exert his dominance in front of his father and save Damon from punishment later. Either way I’m for the first time ever, thankful for him and relieved he is an Alpha in the making.
Everything happens so fast that my heads spins, and I can barely catch my breath. Our imprinting sends the ceremony into quick disperse and I’m dragged away by Santo’s pack and ushered into an awaiting car, my clothes thrown in my face and ordered to go to the pack house and be quiet. Everything is in uproar as though I committed the crime of the century and it rippled through everyone present. Juan exploded magnificently at the possibility that our future Alpha just got betrothed to one of the lowliest of the packs, and I’m not exactly happy about it either. I’ve kept my head down for ten years, stayed out of sight, in the shadows and away from drama the way others like me have not. Became almost invisible and made no real friends, all with my eye on one goal of escaping this place without any noise. Only to be put on show on the most important night of my life, in front of the entire mountain and have everything come crashing down on top of me.
We imprinted. We have a link; we can hear each other even from miles away. No distance is too far. No one else can tap into this. It’s like our own personal telephone line with dampeners.He isn’t looking at me, but watching Carmen walk down the hall, crying into her own hands and creating a pitiful picture. I can sense his pain from watching her go and it pains me too. Feeling what he feels, another downside to now being connected to this guy. I don’t want to feel heartbreak or pain or any of this crap.I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this. The honesty and ache in my response brings his eyes to mine and we do that weird thing, where we lock eyes, get a tremor of something we can’t deny, and both look away again. Neither want this, that much is clear.You didn’t do this. Fate did. Now we just have to figure out how to undo it. If that’s even possible.The hesitation in his tone catches me off guard and des
“He can choose to sever the bond if he wishes, but history has shown us that mates who do… both die! The only other option is denial to consummate. They choose to walk away, no mark is made, no union at all, and deny the bond completely. It will never die, and they will live lives craving what the other can give them, no matter who they end up with. IS that what you want for your son?”All eyes turn on Juan, so much tension in this room as the elders internally talk so that I cannot hear them. Colton paces and I can tell he too is privy to what is being said. They are his pack after all, and two are his blood. Father and Uncle. He doesn’t seem happy and the waves of his anger are all lapping over me and affecting my own sanity. Dampening the heat, replacing it with his rage.I can’t take it anymore, as minutes tick by and my nerves fray to the point I feel like I may scream, some internal burst of nervous crazy wooshes out. “I&rsq
I barely knew him this morning and yet, here, and now, my instincts are that I would die for him if I had to, and the longer this plays out, the stronger this need to be near him gets. It’s insanity, and I have no understanding of how this can be, but it is what it is. Colton is part of me now and I can’t do anything about it. While being physically joined causes all sorts of inner sparks and sizzles as tension builds between us and I move obediently as he pulls me with him.We are ushered to the door, hands still entwined and I follow him closely, the heady need to wrap myself around him worse when we have prolonged contact and as much as my head tells me to let go, I can’t seem to. The growing ache in my stomach and pelvis is getting irritatingly intense and I am more than aware of his good his skin feels against mine. Our hands slotted together, warm on warm and it’s weirdly sensual.Colton leads me through to the other room and shuts the door fi