Stolen

I sucked in a deep breath of forest air and let it out in a gust that drifted away like a ghost. The most prominent smell was my pack, with undertones of night mixed with trees and small animals. I had always had a good sense of smell, but now it was even better!

I looked over at Thomas and Lily, who lay on their sides panting and trembling with exertion. Thomas was sleek and dark brown with a white V running from his shoulders down his chest and along his stomach while Lily was a lighter brown with a gray splash across her left cheek. I waddled over and flopped on Thomas, chewing on his ear happily and committing his scent to memory.

Thomas let out a groan struggling to move out from underneath me but too tired from the shift. "Get off, you lump." Thomas thought grumbled to me.

Now that we had shifted, we had access to the telepathic link stemming from my father that bound our minds together. This link was what made us Pack instead of just werewolves.

I decided to be nice and roll off of him so he could rest. Soon, he clamored to his feet, dropping his front quarters and growling playfully. I copied his stance, and we began to wrestle. Lily joined us once she had recovered.

Our high-pitched yips and barks echoed in the silence as we tumbled across the ground. Leaves got stuck in our fur, especially mine, since it was longer. As I pounced on Thomas, a strange voice encouraged the action from the back of my mind.

"Get him!" I froze in surprise, Thomas and Lily quickly following suit.

"Who are you?" I asked the voice in my head.

"I'm you. Rather, I'm your wolf. My name is Silver." I had a picture in my mind of a wolf the color of moonlight, her head held high proudly.

"I'm Kendra." I managed. She smiled and dipped her head in recognition.

"Daddy, I met my wolf!" I half pranced, half waddled over to my very startled father. "Daddy?" He was looking at me in awe. So was the whole pack.

"Kendra, you're… you’re silver." He said at long last.

"So?" I asked, flopping sideways again and chewing on his ankle. He chuckled and lay down, rolling my tiny fluffy body back and forth with his paw.

My father's beta, Paul, looked at me fondly. "So you are a very special pup." He answered. Paul was Thomas and Lily's father. It had been his mate, Lisa, who had nursed me after I had been born. "You are the literal reincarnation of the Moon Goddess' first daughter." He said gently.

"You will hold great power over all our kind, but you must rule with compassion, dear one." My father nuzzled my forehead, making my fur stick up.

One by one, the whole pack came up and began to bow to me.

"I don't want to be special." I whined, looking up at him. "I just want to be happy and find my mate."

My father smiled down at me in the special way. A softening of the eyes more than a raising of the corners of the mouth.

"You will, sweetheart, you will." He said soothingly. "Now," standing, my father shook leaves from his pelt. "Sing with us children. This song is yours too now." The wolf that was my father tipped its head back and began the howl.

I looked up through the one empty patch of trees to the shining full moon, and I howled.

After the ceremony, Thomas, Lily, and I were set loose into the woods. We sprinted through thickets of sword fern until we got tired, rested in the undergrowth, and wrestled once we had energy again. Occasionally, we would run into a border patrol or a hunting party. They would let us join them, teaching us the boundaries of our territory and how to stalk prey until we got bored and ran off in a different direction. We knew that someone, likely one of our parents, was following to keep an eye on us in case anything happened. We didn’t care. We were having too much fun romping about learning our new bodies. Long before dawn, Thomas, Lily, and I curled up together and fell asleep to the gentle breathing of the forest.

We awoke the next morning, three seven year olds surrounded by the protective embrace of their parents and Pack in a nest of moss and ferns. Sometime in the night, we had all shifted back into human form and fallen asleep where we lay.

"Are you ready for breakfast, kiddos?" Lisa asked, propping herself up on an elbow, smiling at us.

"Yes! Race you home!" We took off like a shot from a gun, giggling, scattering leaves as Lisa chased after us, hot on our heels. Just before we reached the safety of the house, Lisa swept us into her arms and smothered us with kisses.

"Eeew... mom!" Thomas complained, squirming. Laughing, she set us down and herded us inside.

"Who wants pancakes?" She asked, heading for the kitchen.

"I do!" We chorused. That made us grin more.

"Ok, go get dressed, you three. Pancakes will be ready by the time you get down here."

The pack was one huge family, and when a sudden shift from human to wolf was required often with little to no warning, it was often easier to go about in the nude. Especially since it was a hassle to have to continuously get new clothes. So casual nudity was fairly commonplace on the lands. Though, generally, we were dressed around the Pack House, since occasionally we did have normal human types visit from the nearby town.

Paul was a woodcarver and preferred to do business from home. Cities and wolves don't mix well, so his business partner would come up to the Pack House to pick up carvings and discuss sales.

We raced each other upstairs, all the energy of youth at our disposal, the green carpet only slightly muffled the pounding of our feet. We each had a room for when we were older, but we preferred to share a room for now, so we were never alone.

"Did you guys meet your wolves?" I asked, pushing open the door to enter our room. There were three beds along the left side of the room. Thomas's was the closest to the door to protect us. Mine was by the window for the view, and Lily was in the middle for safety.

She was a delicate little thing compared to her brother, petite with huge chocolate eyes and long dark curly hair. Thomas, however, was tall for his age. He had the same dark curly hair, but his eyes were hazel.

"Mine said his name was Xavier." Thomas declared proudly, throwing several shirts onto the floor as he hunted through his dresser. A small jolt of recognition passed through me, but I brushed it off since I couldn't place why the name was familiar.

"Mine said her name was Clara." Lily chirped. She made a funny face, one arm twisted behind her back, before she dropped to the floor and wiggled, scratching her back on the dark green carpet. We stared at her for a moment before we burst out laughing.

“You look like a worm!” Thomas exclaimed, pointing at his sister.

"Come on, let's get dressed. I want pancakes." I started pulling out clothes from my dresser.

"Wait, Kendra, what's your wolf's name?" Lily asked, sitting up, still on the floor.

"Silver." I said smiling and offered her a hand up. Lily took my hand, allowing me to haul her to her feet, and then I went back to poking through my drawers for something suitable to wear.

I had just pulled my shirt over my head and was about to head downstairs for food when the window behind me shattered inward. A strange man burst in with a shower of broken glass and swept me up in his arms.

"You're coming with me." He snarled. He was one of us. I could smell the wolf in him, but his scent was wrong, sick somehow.

"No, let me go!" I screamed and thrashed, then bit his arm savagely. Hot coppery liquid coated my tongue, and I bit deeper. That got the response I wanted. He dropped me, roaring in pain and clutching his arm as he reeled back. I skittered on all fours over to Thomas and Lily, spitting out a mouthful of blood and shrieking.

"Run!" I shoved them toward the door, but the man grabbed my long silvery hair and yanked me back.

"Daddy!" I screamed.

Thomas dashed past and leaped on the man's back, clawing at the glaring bloodshot eyes. The stranger bellowed but didn't release his hold on my hair. Instead he whipped his free arm around to grab Thomas by the collar of his shirt and threw him across the room where he landed in a heap like a broken doll, a hole in the sheet-rock where his head had struck.

"Thomas!" Lily and I cried.

Lily rushed to her brother's side and began to shake him. "Thomas! Thomas, please wake up."

I could hear footsteps pounding up the stairs. My father was coming to save us. But the man heard them too and hauled me kicking and screaming over to the window. Shards of glass sliced open my feet, smearing more blood into the carpet. The last thing I saw was my father bursting into the room before a rag was pressed over my nose and mouth, and my vision faded like dark water folding over me.