Bitten

Chapter 4

Its my sweet 16th! So excited but I'm also nervous. What will happen when I meet with the Alpha? I'm waiting by the door waiting to be called.

"Araguard Wildness." I jumped. I was surprised that they called me by Nate's last name but I should of seen it coming. As far as werewolves were concerned I was his so I had to take his name. I walked in my heart fluttering. Shanen was there along with some other pretty important people I didn't know. They were sitting in a circle looking at me carefully.

"Sit," he ordered pointing to the centre of the circle. I sat knowing that I didn't have a choice. As Head Alpha it was hard was hard to disobey Shanen. As a werewolf I had no choice but to bow to his wishes.

"Araguard, preferred Pack?" he asked briskly.

"Head Pack," I responded.

"Why?"

"This has been my home for 3 years. All my friends are here. This is the only place I have felt truly at home," I answered meaning every word. He looked surprised at the passion in my answer but didn't comment.

"Ok we're going to ask you some life style questions to see which Pack would be best for you. Hobbies?" Shanen said in a bored voice.

"Painting and fighting," I said trying to measure his response. Whenever I told someone this they either went on about how completely different they are or lectured me about how girls shouldn't fight.

"Interesting. So different," he poundered. "Preferred career?"

I had to think about that for a moment. "Warrior," I decided.

"Fascinating," he murmured. Was everything I said really that interesting?

"Ok now you have to prove your worth. I want you to show us what you can do," he said.

"Like what?" I asked. I was surprised by this.

"You say you can paint. Paint something. You say you can fight. Fight someone," he said dismissively. He pointed to a cupboard. "You will find most of what you need in there."

I went and checked the cupboard. There was plenty of weapons but only one paint brush. "Umm there's not much in the way of art supplies in here," I said hesitantly.

"You have some at your house right?" he asked. I nodded. "Ok I will send someone to get them. In the meantime do something else." he nodded to a guard and he ran off. I examined the weaponry. I found some armour that fitted and put it on. I sheathed a dagger onto my belt and a light yet sharp one handed sword. I had a knife in my boot like always so I left those. I turned and faced Shanen and nodded. One of the men sitting at in the circle stood up and pulled out a two handed great sword. Powerful but slow. I studied him for weak spots planning my attack. Deciding I ran towards him, sliding under his legs. He remained momentarily confused, a moment I used to punch him in the face. He swung his sword and I flipped over him, kicking him the head as I did so. He turned and swung again, ducking I pulled out my sword slashing him across the knee. He collapsed clutching his injured leg. I hit him on the back of the head with the hilt of my sword, knocking him to the ground. I picked him up by his hair and held the sword to his throat. I turned the sound of clapping, not releasing my hold.

"Well done for not letting go. An opponent will often use any moment of distraction to his advantage. You also seem to have an unique style of fighting" Shanen smiled.

"You mean other than running into a fight swinging my sword madly?" I said letting the man go. He hobbled off grumbling. We heal fast so he would be fine.The guard came back with my stuff so I took the armour and settled down to paint. I choose to have Shanen as the subject so, selecting the right colours, I began to paint.

Half an hour later it was finished. It was a little basic but for only half an hours work I was quite proud of it. Shanen came and looked at the painting. He smiled.

"Can I keep this?" he asked. I was surprised. Alpha Shanen was supposedly hard to please but he seemed to like my work.

"If you wish. But if you want I could do something much better," I blushed.

"No I like it," he grinned. I packed up my art supplies and left. It was about 1 o'clock and I could murder a sandwich. Ash was waiting for me by the market with my favourite chicken salad sandwich.

"Happy birthday," he said giving me the food. "This is all your getting I'm afraid." I hit him playfully on the arm.

"No fair this only costs 2 Teeth! I could have got this for myself," I complained.

"Well that and this," he smiled, pulling out a small box out of his pocket. I opened it. Inside was a necklace with a small blue jewel pendant.

"Oh my God it's beautiful Ash! Thank you, thank you so much!" I cried hugging him.

"Glad you like it," he said hugging me back. I tried to let go but he held on to me a bit longer than was comfortable.

"Can you help me with this?" I asked. He smiled put the necklace on me, struggling with the clasp. His hands lingered for a second and then he dropped them.

"Lets go home," I said knowing that he was dying to ask how it went. We headed back to my house to see Nate and Riley standing in the hall smiling.

"How did it go?" asked Nate with a suspicious look towards Ash.

"It went ok actually. I told him I wanted to stay in Head Pack, told him what I wanted to do, what my hobbies were and then I proved myself" I said casually.

"What did you do?" Riley asked.

"First I had to show off how well I could fight and I kicked ass! Then I painted a picture of Alpha Shanen and he asked to keep it,".I grinned.

"That's great!" said Nate. Ash smiled but said nothing. Because Nate was older Ash felt intimated by him so didn't talk a lot in his presence. I wasn't very surprised by this because Nate tended to act very territorial.

"Ari would you like to follow me to the kitchen?" said Riley.

"Okay?" I gave Ash a confused look but he seemed to have no idea. I walked into the kitchen and gasped. There was a big pile of presents and a cake! The rest of the day was spent smiling, laughing and genuine happiness. It was a small but simple party but was one of the best days of my life.