Chapter 5.

“Good morning”. Uncle greeted as I came down the stairs and followed him into the kitchen.

“Good morning”. I replied. “Has dad gone already?”

“Already? Raven it’s eleven o’clock. He went hours ago!”

“Oh! I didn’t realise I’d slept in”. I told him as I poured myself some juice and took a seat at the table.

“No college today?”

“No, that’s tomorrow. But today we’re supposed to work on our own pieces, it’s part of our coursework”.

“Oh.. and what piece are you working on?”

“Actually, it’s a raven. I saw him at the lake the other day, but I haven’t finished yet”.

“Well, now that’s suitable, isn’t it”. He smiled as he leaned against the counter. “A raven by Raven”.

“Well, he was beautiful, I couldn’t resist”.

“Your mother thought so too, that’s why she named you after them. So, anyway, how was the party?”

“Umm, you know, the usual”.

“That boring, huh?. He sniggered. “Any problems?”

“No.. no, nothing much”.

“Hmm… is that so?”

“What?” I asked as he was looking at me suspiciously.

“Well, a letter from the palace was posted just now”. He said as he took out a letter with the palace’s seal on it and handed it to me.

My heart began to hammer, and my hands trembled as I took it.

“Well, are you going to open it?” He asked as I just stared at it, wanting to avoid whatever was inside.

I carefully broke the seal and gulped as I unfolded the thick paper.

“To Miss Raven Hansley.

I am writing to further express my concerns on the matter of your behaviour last night at the grand palace celebration. I am still appalled at your disrespect towards your future alpha’s partner and future Luna. I must express my concern that your rudeness and ill-mannered temperament stems from your indifference to the members of the Whitlock pack and your insufficiency to have a valued place among those that have thrived where you have not. I feel that as you have not inherited your wolf, you either lack this particular DNA, which would render you a full human, or you have not been found worthy to possess such a gift.

Therefore, I will be addressing this matter to your alpha as I feel it is my duty as Luna to do what is right for our pack and for our dear Violet, who is insistent that you are the instigator of malicious and careless insults causing such incidents like that of last night.

I hope you can take this matter seriously and I advise that you look for a new place to take residence outside of our territory. Your parents will be informed once a decision has been made.

Sincerely,

Luna Addison Whitlock”.

I kept the letter in my hand as I let it sink in. I’d hoped last night would be swept away and forgotten about as a one off and today would be a new day. I felt so optimistic when I came home last night and now I know that’s it, I have to make a decision.

“What is it?” Uncle asked as he studied the reaction on my face.

I didn’t answer. I was too focused on deciding whether to lie to my parents and pretend I suddenly wanted to embark on some whirlwind adventure or…. Do I tell them the truth?

“Raven!” Uncle called again as he ripped the letter out of my hand. His face fell as he began to read it. His eyes were rolling past the words, the more he read, the lower his jaw fell.

“Last night!”. He exclaimed. “What happened, Raven? You said nothing happened! So, tell me the truth!” He demanded with a concerned frown.

I sighed heavily. “Violet came over to me, she was being bitchy so I said stuff back to her and next thing I know, Luna Addison came over and said things about me, my attitude and that I shouldn’t be here”.

“Well, did you tell her that Violet constantly starts shit with you? That girl has been on your case for years!” He said, almost shouting in anger.

“Yes. Yes, I did. I told her straight away that Violet came over and was insulting me, but the Luna just brushed it off and didn’t believe me”.

“Then we need to call your mum! She can get someone to cover for her at work whilst we sort this out and when your father comes home we’ll have to tell him”.

“NO!” I shouted as I abruptly stood from my chair.

“What do you mean no?”

“Because I don’t want to add more problems onto them, Uncle. As it is, they have to deal with the reputation of having a wolfless daughter!”.

“Raven! Do you honestly think they care about that? They love you regardless. They’d do anything for you, you know that”.

“Exactly!. If they find out about this, they’ll leave everything behind, and I won’t ask them to do that… I don’t want them to do that”.

“What do you mean IF they find out about this? Raven, I can’t keep this from them. The Luna is potentially exiling you from the pack! It’s a big fucking deal, Raven, they’ll never forgive me if I don’t tell them”.

“Just… just give me a couple of days, ok? Just to think about what I need to do. Maybe I can find somewhere else to go and tell them that I want to leave, to see the rest of the world”.

“And do you…. Do you want to leave your home, your family and go off all on your own? Do you really want your last words to them to be a lie?”

I sighed as I took a moment to think. “Yes”. I nodded glumly. “Yes I do, if it means they don’t have to leave with the shame of being forced out”.

Uncle exhaled a long frustrated breath as he shook his head. “Ok.. I’ll give you two days, Raven! But you need to think long and hard about this because you know nothing about life outside this pack and there’s no one out there you can turn to. But I can make a call…. I have an old childhood friend that lives in Willow pack with his mate. I don’t know if he's still there, I haven’t spoken to him in ten years, but I will try. It’s roughly a four day journey from here and you can take my truck”.

“Ok… Would they accept a wolfless girl?”

“I don’t know”. He shrugged worriedly. “I don’t really know much about that pack, only that the alpha is pretty civilised, we’ve had no qualms with him, and they have a lot more land than we do and triple the residents. If I can get ahold of my friend, I can find out more”.

“Ok, Ok…” I replied, letting out a breath of relief, notably putting all my hopes onto that one phone call. “You do that and I’m going to the library to find out what other packs are close by and what would be my best chance of being accepted”.

“You’ll have to go to their information desk. They have it all on file but it won't be on the shelves”.

“Ok, I will…. And thanks Uncle. I just need enough time to sort something ok?”

“And I need a slap across the face because I shouldn’t be doing this behind your parents' backs!”.

“Think of it this way, if I find somewhere to go, then they don’t have to go through any hurt. I’ll be safe and they’ll be happy”.

“Two days, Raven! And we’d better hope the Luna doesn’t decide to do anything about this in the meantime”.

My eyes widened when he said it… I hadn’t even thought about that! For all I know, she’s already spoken with Alpha Caleb and planning to send me on my way.

I quickly got dressed and left uncle to contact his friend as I headed to the library hoping I’d find a good backup in case uncle’s plan didn’t work out.

“Hi!” I greeted the librarian who eyed me through the top of her glasses.

“Yes?” She asked, looking annoyed that I’d interrupted her typing.

“Can I have the files that have the information regarding the other wolf packs please?”

“Why would you want those? Surely you must already know this information”.

“Uhh, just extra research, you know… just curious”. I lied. Little did this old woman know that, because I wasn’t included as part of the pack, I never conversed with anyone else on this certain topic!

“Hmm, just a moment, I’ll have to fetch it from the storage room”. She told me as she huffed while getting out of her seat.

As soon as she returned and placed them in my hand, I quickly went off to find a private table away from the main section. I set them out, took out my pad and pen to take notes of every pack… name, distance, enemy, friendliness, pack size! I opened the first one and inwardly told myself to have hope that at least one of these would be ‘the one’.