Solitude

Chapter 3

Rai's P.O.V.

I shoot past the starting line and into the woods. Trees fly past me as I quickly lose the others. I feel the soil turn to rocks under me as I reach the foot of the mountains. I picture my bones snapping, cracking into place as a new species. Suddenly I hear it happening in the real world. 

I close my eyes and let the shifting take over me. It's such a strange feeling, hearing your bones cracking and forming, yet never feeling pain. I opened my eyes as I stand on all fours. I examine my claws and feel something moving behind me. I turn around to see a big, fluffy white spotted tail waving around. That's not a wolf tail...I feel panic building inside me as I run into the mountains to find the nearest pond. I find a small stream flowing through a valley and glance at my reflection. 

Instead of seeing a wolf's face like I expected, I saw a cat's face staring at me

Panic exploded throughout my entire body. I was a werecat! My pack HATES werecats! I was never going to be accepted into my pack. I was gonna be a rogue! I have to run. Run far away where no one will ever find me. 

I take off north. Suddenly I crash painfully into an invisible barrier. Ow...I notice a red line drawn on the snowy rock below my paws. I reach out and my paw presses against something that feels like glass. 

Guess that means I'm stuck in this challenge.

Maybe the pack will accept us. Tempest chimes in. We didn't hurt the pack at all and our FAMILY is there. Family never abandons family. 

Maybe...I take off southwest and towards the middle of the small quarter of mountains that is barricaded off. I stop and look around, trying to see clearly through the snow that has started falling. I start to head Northwest when a gust of wind knocks me into a small cave tucked under a mountain. I stand up and shake myself off, looking around the cave. 

I faintly see a small glimmer of blue, hidden under a few rocks in the back of the cave. I dig out a royal blue sapphire,  it's shaped like a teardrop and about the size of a tennis ball. I stare at it for a while, as if holding this small jewel would solve all my problems. 

I shake my head and turn to face the merciless blizzard. I launch out of the cave and shoot full sprint east toward the Pack House. The closer I get, the flatter the terrain gets, the less snow is falling and the softer the ground under my paws feel. 

As I near the pack house I see Callie waiting there, holding a blue gem equal in color to mine, only her's is shaped like a star. I brace myself as I run past the finish line. As people's attentions switch from Callie to mine I hear gasps and shouts as everyone suddenly backs away from me. 

I look around helplessly as a bunch of men shift and stand defensively, protecting their mates. Alpha Swift and a bunch of guards walk up to me, holding guns. "Shift." The Alpha orders, using a deep commanding voice I've never heard. I immediately oblige, my bones snapping back to place as My fur disappears and skin takes it's place.

People gasp as I stand up. Callie looks at me in horror while my parents run up to me. "Are you hurt? Are you okay? Honey...you're a werecat...." They examine me as my mother wraps me in a hug and my father stands up and walks over to the Alpha, they start arguing as I stand up, tears filling my eyes. 

I hear a growl come from the Alpha and my father backs away. The Alpha turns around to address the crowd. "Everyone, please stay calm. There is nothing to worry about...yet." He turns to face me. His eyes cold and merciless as steel. He points a finger at me, not breaking eye contact and says something that I will never forget.

"I, Matthew Swift and Alpha of the Blue Moon Pack, exile you from the pack."