Dark Rapture

Prologue: Disrupted

As they continued singing until the conclusion of the song, I rest my head against Ronnie’s chest. He was an amazing best friend as was Milo the two of them were like brothers to me. I couldn’t imagine if anything ever were to happen to them. Although, they were both their own individuals they meant the world to me.

“Happy Birthday, Desi,” Milo said.

“Thank you,” I murmured, smiling at him as I removed myself from his embrace as well as Ronnie’s.

Everyone quieted down as my mom spoke. “Make a wish, honey,” she said, her eyes shining earnestly at me.

Her features were so similar to mine that humans mistook us to be sisters, rather than mother and daughter. Her eyes were slanted at half-mast almost feline in appearance. Yet their deep charcoal grey depths harbored secrets and wariness that were present even beyond the smile in her eyes. I had her long pale blonde hair and my dad’s phenomenal blue-violet eyes.

Looking at the cake, I leaned forward closed my eyes and made my wish. It wasn’t anything complex. It was a simple wish that we could be like always. That our lives wouldn’t be disrupted by pack life people, like so many others were.

I basked in the joy of being around my friends, rivals, and my family.

Taking the candles out of the cake one by one, I spread them out on a napkin and then took the knife and began slicing the cake. It was going to be good. I knew it. It was one of my favorite kinds of cakes: a marble cake with vanilla and strawberry frosting.

Taking the biggest piece from the slices, I lifted it onto my plate and then took a fork and took a big chunk of it and stuffed into my mouth. I smiled afterwards and Milo laughed patting me on the back.

“Atta girl,” he said, jokingly. “I taught you well, didn’t I? Remember, take a deep breath and then scarf it down. You’ll get more food in that way.”

I was in the middle of swallowing the cake when he said that, I burst into laughter and ended up coughing as the cake went down the wrong side of my throat. That sent Milo into even more laughter, while Ronnie shook his head and rubbed my back soothingly.

“You’re an idiot,” he told Milo, amusement clear in his voice.

When I finally came to Milo had his cake on a paper plate. He looked directly at me and then he demonstrated what he had just instructed. He downed the slice of cake in one intake. I didn’t understand how he could’ve done it other than allowing his a slight change in his throat size. He had tried teaching me the trick over and over, but I never truly understood it. I only could get a chunk down at a time. While him and Ronnie scarfed down plates full of food in minutes.

Sometimes, they reminded me of ravenous wolves with bottomless pits for stomachs; although, the two of them were completely different shifters. Milo wasn’t a werewolf, but Ronnie was. Milo was something altogether different. He was a weretiger. Both of them were unique. That’s what we were, a gathering of misfits. A mixtures of different shifters.

“Shut up, you do the same thing!” Milo protested.

I giggled and took a cup of punch and downed it quickly. After that coughing attack, I couldn’t help but drink something to help it go down. It was refreshing.

“Of course, but I don’t look like an idiot while I’m feasting,” Ronnie said,

“That’s not true! I do it with more style. You know us tigers are a lot more suave and smooth than you wolves,” Milo retorted.