The Only One

Going Rogue

The walk home was quiet. The alpha had already left for the pack house an hour ago after a brief discussion with both Andrea's mother and father, leaving them to ponder what the alpha had said. They couldn've been home by now, but nobody wanted to go home right away because Andrea's departure would be that much closer. The silence surrounding them was deafening, and Andrea's mother distanced herself from Andrea, and her father and brother treated her curtly, like a complete stranger. Andrea quietly sighed and couldn't help but regret how she went about asking to leave. She couldv'e asked in private after the ceremony, but she didn't wan't to commit herself to something and then leave, she felt that they deserved better than that.

Andrea looked up, just to see her home, or what was her home, emerge from the trees. It was a medium sized cottage, not too large to seem intimidating, but at the same time not to small to pass as an ordinary home. The walls were a creamy broken egg shell white and the roof a deep cerulean blue, and the cottage surrounded by an endless amount of trees. As they bound up the steps onto the porch, Andrea finally faced her family. 

"Look, I know this isn't what you wanted for me-" 

"That's the understatement of the century!" Carlos, her brother, said in a exasperated tone.

She gave him a pointed look, and continued her little speech, "but, this is what I want to do with my life. You all know I didn't want to be a werewolf! What were you expecting? That I would just keep living my life and act like I don't hate it?"

"Honey, no, that's not what we want. It's just that, it's not going to work out." Her mother started, the words piercing an arrow through Andrea's heart, "You're a werewolf, that's who you are. You can't let what happened in the past change that. You can't live your life with only half your soul, because that's whats going to happen. Your wolf, it's a part of you, and if you keep denying that, you'll end up hurting yourself."

"Wha- What?! You just don't understand! How am I supposed to live my life changing into a monster whenever something makes me angry? I don't want that, I'm scared of what I am! How am I supposed to live happily as a wolf if I'm scared of who I am!?" Andrea replied, her eyes shining with unshed tears, unlike her mother whose face was contorted in anger, her father trying to calm her down. She sighed before continuing, "You guys probably think that this is just a phase, and soon I'll be back regretting my decision. But I highly doubt that, and I don't want to leave with so much tension between us. I'm sorry it had to be this way, but this is what is best for me. Maybe we'll see each other again if this ever blows over."

With that she entered the house and grabbed her already packed luggage that was right next to the door. She tried to hug her family goodbye, but they flinched away. A single tear fell from her eyes, but she smiled regardless, a smile that seemed to convey all the heart and love that she felt for them, and turned away from them, walking into the forest. 

"Goodbye." She murmured as she left her family behind, all of them staring at her retreating figure until it disappeared into the darkness. Her family imprinting the image of her departure deep into their memories. 

"She'll be back." They tried to reassure themselves, though it sounded like a lie in their ears, just trying to give themselves hope. They couldn't follow her, she was growing up and she needed to make her own decisions, whether they liked it or not. They all shuffled back into the house, which seemed a little less happier, a little more empty, and a lot more quiet.

Andrea ran far from her family, far away from the people that she loved most in the world. Her heart ached with each step she took, but at the same time she felt herself getting lighter and feeling freer. She was free. She wasn't bound by the Lycan Law anymore, she didn't have to follow the laws of the pack, and she was far from any werewolf. The last one made her slow her pace to a jog, she was alone. Her pace went even slower, gradually decreasing her speed until she stood completely still in the middle of the forest. She was alone. She didn't belong anywhere. She didn't know what to do. What am I supposed to do? She couldn't help but think, she didn't think that she would be able to get this far, either because her parents had stopped her or that she ended up killed by rejecting the pack. She just sat down at the base of a tree, her luggage to the side, as she curled up in a ball and let herself get lost in her thoughts.