Wolf

Chapter 1: ⓜⓐⓡⓘⓝⓐ

Dedicated to MellonieMusty because she edited :)

Chapter 1: Marina

     I have heard many tales of how a wolf meets its mate. They say it is a once-in-a-lifetime feeling. I suppose it is. You have one true mate and one true mate only. I hoped it would be a feeling I would one day experience. That pure happiness that controls your mind, body and soul as you make your way towards the destined one, or so I've heard. Will you fight your way through a crowd? Will you be free to make your way, not having to fight to touch?

     My mother and father, and the Alpha and Luna all agree that their mate is the one thing they would never give up.

     Mother and Father met at an annual Ball (we wolves are quite traditional). The Ball is held to join all the packs in the area and be at peace. Dad asked Mum to dance and onetouch was all it took to know that they were soul mates.

     Thor, the Alpha, met Lelune, the Luna, on a hunting spree. They were in their more delicate, more sensitive wolf form. The connection between their minds was the strongest in the pack. One touch was all it took to know that they were soul mates.

     "Marina," my tutor snapped.

     I sighed.

     Morghana. Dear Morghana. She was thirty-two and was still holding out for her true mate to come, a crime punishable by death. Naturally, all Alphas wanted to make their pack the strongest in the area, so they also had to have the biggest pack. Waiting for your true mate did nothing, it just wasted time and weakened the pack by having one less wolf. Morghana had only been saved by Lelune, who used to be a friend of Morghana. If it was any other Alpha and Luna, Morghana would be dead by now for disobeying the Alpha.

     "Are you even following what I'm telling you?" Morghana said, looking sternly into my eyes.

     "Yes," I said.

     "What did I just say?"

     "In a novel, story or poem, the weather is a key factor that reflects emotion, and can often foreshadow the mood that is to come," I recited, having memorised this section of the book.

     "Good," my tutor said and continued with her catch-up English lesson.

     I rolled my eyes.

     It wasn’t my fault I was falling behind in English. It just wasn’t one of my favourite subjects, so I therefore switched off in the lesson. My mum had hired a tutor a few months ago so I could catch-up with everyone else in my year. I didn't particularly mind; it just wasted time that I could've been spending with my friends.

     “Marina.” Morghana’s tone was warning me. I hadn’t been paying very much attention so far that lesson. My mind was miles away; I was thinking about wolf mates. It was a topic I had been mulling over a lot and as the clock ticked away I became more nervous. Occasionally, frenzied butterflies fluttered around in my stomach. I wasn’t usually one to vomit, but it did make me feel rather sick.

     “This is the last time I will warn you,” Morghana snapped.

     I sighed and tried to remain focussed on the oh-so fascinating subject of word effect.

***

     The thunder rumbled in the distance and the clouds tumbled over each other in their haste to cry on us. Morghana and I rushed out the wood lodge in my back garden.

     Every time I had a lesson with Morghana, Mum and Dad had an important meeting with Alpha and Luna, so we were exiled to the wood lodge. There were various boxes of food and clothes so when a new wolf changed, they would make their way to our garden. It made sense that the Alpha didn't want cubs in his garden, so he gave the responsibility to the Beta: my dad. There was another cub shed further into the woods so that new wolves stuck in the middle of the arboreal nowhere could have somewhere to be safe.