1

Age twelve

"Why are you such a crybaby?" Eve drags me to my feet from the heap of limbs and clothing I tumbled into after I slipped into this crevice, tutting at me and rolling her eyes as she dusts me down with aggression. Irritated by my clumsiness and not an ounce of sibling care.

Sighing heavily once again, knowing in trying to keep up with her, I ended up falling and making her rescue me. Compared to her, yes, I am always clumsy, slow, or in need of her rescue. It’s not my fault. We may look identical, but that’s where it ends.

"I'm not a cry-baby…I hurt myself. It's okay to be upset. You were running too fast, and I'm not as good as you at doing that. I can only run at normal speed." I try to defend myself, sniffing back the aching tears as I wipe my bloodied wrist where I grazed it, over my now sodden dress. Annoyed at myself that my newest floral sundress is now a tattered wreck of snags and dirt, and a nice little tear across the lace-edged hem. I shouldn’t have tried to keep up with her pace.

"Shhhhh, they're coming. Suck it up and stop sniveling. You know they are going to laugh at you. Don’t embarrass me."

Eve's cold demeanor and poker-straight face return as she hears the approaching cracks and rustles of our friends getting closer to where we are, and stiffens up. Pulling on that mask of indifference and cool that she is known for.

I stand straight, sniff back the last traces of my tears, and paste on my bright, happy smile that is more me. Not caring if my tumble is eye-roll worthy to her, I just don’t want my friends to feel bad for me.

"You guys are way too fast for us to keep up. Eve, remember we're not yet turned; we can only run on regular legs." Toya, one of the smaller girls, is the first to appear, pushing through the bushes that shield us from this stupid crevice, which caught me off guard. All wide-eyed and frazzled from running hard. All three of them are panting with exertion and carrying the sheen of sweat on their foreheads.

"Eden isn't turned yet either, and she was on my heel the whole time. Face it, you guys are just slow. And making excuses!" Eve smirks at them, all superior and haughty over their complaints. Always looking for that excuse to act superior. Dismissing them with a wave.

"Eden is an alpha’s daughter…speed is a natural, wolf or not. She has always run a lot faster than us." Simon is next to chirp in, also breathing hard and looking cutely awkward as he pushes back his floppy hair from his freckled face, and I blush at his appearance. And his complimenting me.

Simon gives me butterflies whenever he is around, and I don't even know why, maybe because he’s the only boy in the pack who isn’t afraid to be near one of the alpha’s daughters and treats me like everyone else.

It's not like he's the best-looking in the pack of boys our age. He's tall and skinny, with too many freckles and sandy hair. I always preferred the darker and more mysterious wolves from the Colombian bloodline, so I have never understood why I get shy around him. Maybe it’s because of how he acts. Mature and haughty at times, like he’s smarter and wiser than any of us, given he’s the oldest.

"Only losers find excuses for their failures." Eve snaps, pushing her fingers in an L shape onto her forehead to make a point at Simon. Angering him, even if he won’t say anything, given that he hates conflict and knows Eve is stronger anyway. He never argues with her and lets me do it instead.

Eve always has to be the best at everything, and she turns on her heel to flick her hair his way sassily and walk off. Attitude oozing from every pore that has me rolling my eyes behind her.

"Are you okay? Did you fall?" Simon is straight to me, seeing my torn and messed dress and the smears of blood. Toya follows, instantly concerned, and little Maisy finally clambers into view.

"Oh my goodness…I think I might die. My heart cannot take much more of this running." She wheezes, all red-faced and breathless. “Eden…your dress!!”

"I’m fine. It’s a graze, although it did hurt falling there.” I turn and head nod to the indented forest floor where I ended up. A mini valley, only about ten feet wide but four feet deep, which, from this angle, looks pretty pathetic to say the least and shallow. They all lean in and peer, making sympathetic noises regardless, and help me finish brushing off the dirt so I can put myself back to rights.

“Why is she always so moody?” Toya finally breaks my little circle of mother hens to nod off in the direction where Eve disappeared. We were supposed to be going together to explore the old mines or caves in the mountain where they said vampires used to dwell. A place forbidden, yet here we are.

The war with the vamps was before I was born, and has already been over for over a decade, so it fascinates me greatly. My grandfather is a vampire, and I can’t imagine wolves and vampires fighting that way. To the death…sworn enemies.

It’s weird.

I guess I wanted to see where it happened to believe it. To understand that, once upon a time, the Vampires were an actual threat to us.

It's the only way my sister could have convinced my friends to come. With me on board. They would never agree to anything she asked, but I can gently coax them into thinking it’s a good plan.

“You know what she’s like. She thinks she’s better than us, and we are all weak and pathetic because she turned when she was five, and that somehow signals her superior breeding.” Simon grits his teeth, a topic he and my sister have fought over many times. It vexes him that my sister looks down on us, even though he’s the son of one of the second subpack of high ranking. His standing in our ranks is high. I think it annoys him as the only male of our little circle that she turned first, and he still hasn’t, despite him being older.

I can't deny it, though, because it's true. Eve has always had this attitude that, as the firstborn twin and the first tribrid of the packs, she is the best. The strongest, the fastest. Turned young and had gifts from even before then. That her skills are unmatched, and no one is close to being worthy of her. Not even me.

She’s really hung up on always being number one.

“My mom said she inherited the arrogance of our paternal grandfather.” It slips out thoughtlessly, something I once heard my parents talking about when I wasn't meant to, and I slap a hand over my mouth. Knowing that not only can my sister hear me, but I'm breaking a cardinal rule. And being mean, which I hate.

“We’re not supposed to talk about him.” Maisie’s hushed tone makes me feel even more stupid for bringing it up. Shushing me with a gently tapped hand on my arm as though to scold me. Her big eyes more doe-like with worry, as though the forest around us might hear and tattle tale.

He’s long gone. Dead at the hands of the vampires, and he was apparently a terrible person who did awful things to my family and our pack. He went power-mad, caring only about what he could become. Even betraying his son and locked up my Rema in a coma for many years.

Juan Santo – a name and a person who should stay forgotten.

He was part of the reason the war against the vampires was waged. Why my mother lost her family, and why our pack lives across two communities miles apart. Aunt Carmen and Uncle Jasper help my Rema and her mate care for the Mountain pack, while Mom and Dad and Aunt Meadow and the subpack watch over the valley.

Sometimes, I see that flicker in Eve, that craving for more, that cold selfishness, and it scares me like she has a splinter of his darkness inside of her that was never left in me.

The difference between us in that way is light and dark, even though we are still in the process of reaching puberty and adulthood. Eve is already so focused on what she can become and do that she doesn’t waste time on normal things like enjoying life and making friends. I just want to be happy and enjoy a simple life and fun along the way. I have no ambitions.

“Radar is your grandpaw….. let's forget the dead.” Simon cuts in to smooth over my mistake and boss us into dropping it. Wolves like to bury the painful past by silencing it. “Leave the past where it belongs.”

“We should go…before she ends ten miles ahead of us, and we never get there before sundown.” Toya is getting impatient. Three years younger than us, at only nine, but she has her mother’s fire and sass. One of my mom’s best friends and my Father’s right-hand man, as Alpha. Or woman.

Aunt Meadow is fierce.

“Why are we going to the cave? The mountain is out of bounds. They told us when we came here for summer break that we should stay within the perimeter…. This seems dumb, and there’s nothing to see except more forest.” Maisie starts whining, being towed by the hand as we all move in unison at a more casual stride to walk in the direction of the looming mountain. She’s the baby of our group in so many ways, even though we’re the same age.

“Because the patrol made it near impossible to get this far without my dad knowing and coming after us. Now they’re standing down the perimeter they guard, closer to home, so we can run free and further. We just have to make sure we’re back before dinner within the walked perimeter, so they never know we were gone.”