The Alpha and His Pup

Chapter 1

It was undeniable.
I hated the sun far far more than I hated snow. I lazily cracked my eyes open and squinted at the daylight pouring in through the cracks in my small den. Using the narrow wooden sides I spread my paws out, digging them slightly into the soft rotten wood. The wood gave way easily under my sharp little claws and I contracted them an inch inwards before the log creaked alarmingly in protest. Not wanting to lose my only shelter in an explosion of dust and splinters I relaxed my hold and heaved my body quickly over onto my front, huffing slightly from the effort. The wood screamed as I adjusted my position. A horrible high pitched squeaking sound that hurt my sensitive ears as the wood ground against each other and my body. I let out a low whine and pawed the dust and beetles off as they sprinkled down from the ceiling.

The log was extremely narrow and although my own body was fairly tiny it still made for a tight squeeze. Soon I would be too large to pull my body through the small entrance and I would have to hunt for a new den. I chuckled quietly at the thought of myself growing. I'd been stunted since a young age. There was no way I would ever grow, which meant I could stay here as long as possible. Until it collapsed on top of me of course. Rats.

The heat was unbearable, the hollow log I called my home burned to the touch and the air was so stifling I had to focus intently on lifting its heavy weight from my lungs in order to breathe. My pink tongue lolled out, panting as I desperately tried to expel some of the heat. It was useless, this must be the hottest summer I'd ever experienced and my black fur practically attracted heat anyway. I was itchy all over from the dust and the bugs as they crawled through my fur. A couple of flies buzzed around my head and landed occasionally at the corners of my eyes. They tickled horrendously and probably carried some sort of disease but I barely had any strength left to bat them away. It was noon, the hottest part of the day. I had to wait until evening or night until the temperatures cooled enough for me to leave my den to find food and water.

It was starting to become very difficult to find a pool of water that hadn't dried up and the thirst that gnawed at my throat was sapping my energy to catch the small prey. Vegetation had mostly dried up from lack of rain and the autumn berries had yet to come through, leaving me little choice for food. I was an awful hunter, my tiny, stunted body still retained its puppy appearance and obviously its short legs. My so-called prey easily outran me and I'm pretty sure the rabbits were starting to pity me. I dropped my head onto the ground and huffed again, puffing a small cloud of dust into the air. Survival was utterly boring and tiring. I whined as my stomach rumbled and curled myself into a little black ball to try and fend off the hunger pangs that stabbed sharply into my stomach. I wistfully thought about human food, goddess I missed chicken nuggets. I didn't even need a whole chicken nugget, just a teeny tiny bite would be enough...

No, stop thinking about it. I still haven't learned my place even after being told so many times. Dirty, worthless mutts don't deserve human food. The thin scars underneath my fur help me remember that.

Snow was softer than this dry hard ground at least, and cooling. It tasted how I imagined cotton candy would taste, not that I'd ever tried any. I'd seen my brothers eat it often when they came back from days out to funfairs and beaches with my parents,  wispy baby pink pieces stuck to their hands and cheeks. My parents would laugh, wipe it off them and promise them more when they went again and they would all smile and giggle with their human teeth. Only their sharp pointed canines gave any indication to outsiders that their true nature was more wolfish than human. But cotton candy was human food, not for mutts like me who couldn't even do something as simple as shifting into  a human skin. I'd only ever licked the scraps off the plates left over from dinner or devoured the rotten meat and vegetables thrown away in the bins which was often scarce in a house full of werewolves with large growing appetites. But, cotton candy looked like clouds and fallen clouds were snow so they were practically the same thing, just more solid.