Shut up! Shut the hell up! that's how I wake up every morning. Well that's how I greet every morning.
I was woken up by the authorities. Like every morning. But this morning something seemed . . . different.
What's on the schedule today? Anything important? I ask the women who has the lovely job of watching me. Her name is Madeline.
She's not a babysitter. But she wakes me up if I'm late. Rushes me around. Takes me places. Has a schedule of the places I need to go and the things I need to do. She's a small, sweet and innocent women. Maybe about mid 40s. I don't know why she got assigned to a Class AA kid. Poor her. I do my best to not lose my temper around her. I'm nice to her. At least I try to be.
You are going to go to the UK my dear. she says.
Hold up! The UK. As in across the ocean? That UK? I half yell. How did I not know about going to the UK. I belong to a North American Pack. So the UK is not really a neighbour.
There is only one UK Madeline replies calmly. I need you to pack you things. We will be there for 5 weeks. Maybe a little shorter if you're lucky. Be ready in an hour, dear. with that she turns and leaves.
Well great. I'm going to the UK for over a month for a reason I don't know shit about. Yay! I grab my laptop and check the latest news. Maybe there's something about a festival. Or anything that is important enough for me to need to go half way across the world.
After looking for a total of 2 minutes, I stumble upon a thing called The Beginning.
It's an event where werewolfs, like myself, find they're mates. All females from age 17 to 25 have to go.
Wait. Hold up.
I'm 17 years old. I have to take part in this fucking thing. I don't want a mate. I don't need a fucking mate.
I keep reading the Wikipedia page about this shit. I've never heard about The Beginning. But that does explain why some of the older girls would disappear for a month or so. Not everyone would come back. Some of the boys would go to. They didn't all come back either. But they usually came back to the pack. Just not the housing units I stay in.
It says that girls from age 17 to 25 have to go. The boys start going at age 18 and stop at age 26. All the boys have to do is show up. Where as the girls have to go through 4 weeks of preparation.
The first week is called The Check Up. Not a very spectacular name if I do say so myself. But no one asked me so whatever. Anyway, The Check Up is just a week of doctors running test on you. They check your blood and bones and stuff like that.
The next week is called The Interviews. Again with the creative name. During that week you get asked a lot of questions. There are simple questions like 'Whats your favourite colour' but there are also some that are deep.
The Battles is the next fulfilled week. Wikipedia says that you get assigned to a trainer who tests your strength. You get ranked from 1 to the number of females that are doing The Beginning that year.
The last week is call The Beauty. Everyday you have a theme that everyone else has as well. For example day one is Casual. Then they give you an amount of outfits you have to create that you would qualify as casual. The last day they take a look at you body and face. Plastic surgery is not aloud, but they will dye your hair for you and stuff like that. You also get ranked on that. Same system as The Battles.
The men show up to The Beginning and get a book for every girl in The Beginning that year. Not like a full on novel. But it has The Interviews, the results if The Check Up, the outfits you picked, a picture of you and all of you rankes. You rankes include your rank in the pack, your strength rank, you beauty rank and how dangerous you are and then your overall rank. Overall meaning, your strength and beauty and how dangerous you are all in one. My rankes would be omega, whatever rank I get, whatever rank I get and Class AA and depending on my other ranks.
The girls get put into groups of 100 The highest ranked (so 1 to 100) are first. Then the next hundred and so on. Everyone get the same outfit, which gets changed every year. They get put into cages, facing a big woodsy area.
The thing is, is that men can feel the mate pull when they see they're mate. Not like in a picture but real life see them. The girls however can not. They must get touched by their mate for the mate pull to kick in.
The girls shift into their wolves. Every cage has a buzzer. Not attached to the cage. The guy who is mated to the girl hits the buzzer. He is then in that round of The Beginning. If no one hits your buzzer you are out of that years Beginning. You just have to go back next year.
A whistle blows. That signals the release of the females. They all run out of their cages (in wolf form) and run into the woods. 10 minutes later the guys get released. They then have 1 hour to come in contact with their mate. If they don't they have to wait until next year.
That's The Beginning.
I'll be going. And I'll hate every moment of it.
Word count:988
