Eden

Chapter One

Unedited.

Back and forth, she rocked. The old, wooden swing creaked with age, her hands wrapped around the bristly ropes. Her head tilted back, hair of black gold bounded behind her.

How she reveled in such a silence. So peaceful, unadulterated tranquility. Eden was forever grateful for finding the ruins of the old mansion that was once considered the main communal house among the pack long ago. Now the building sat half decaying and forgotten on the outskirts of her aunt's territory.

She could practically hear the giggles of the abandoned lives that once roamed the estate, the children, the women, the men. Dead and gone, their presence long since wiped from the face of the earth. She could feel them. Their aura gently prodding, poking, pulling at her. Wailing for her attention. To be remembered. To be seen.

"Eden?" Her eyes snapped open, sucked back into reality.

As she straightened her posture, righting herself, the visage of her beloved cousin slowly coming closer. The vibrant tresses of darkness shrouded him in a halo, highlighting his stark paleness. He was a lanky creature that held none of his mother's grace and all of his father's harsh angles. Too young to grow into his prowess that was to be. None of the wild that his family was lingered behind his pale eyes. His northern eyes.

"It is time, mother has asked for you." Lochlan's voice cracked with youthfulness. The awkward teen was struggling to control his transition into adulthood and his body.

Though she was younger than him, he quivered under her scrutiny. He knew that even though a beast would never lurk behind her dark eyes, that she would be the one to always pick apart people and observe them at their truest.

"Please." She sighed.

Looking down at her bruised and bloodied knees, she stood. Her hands lightly brushed her skin, as if she could compel the evidence of her rumble through the deep woodlands away. But it was skin deep, the bloodied tissue lie just out of reach.

Her bones ached as she stood, unusual for her age her she walked with such an archaic stride. She was but fourteen summers old yet she was ready to be rid of the world that surrounded her. To be rid of the shit and the piss and the disease that seemed to consume her world with its greedy grasp. The death was, at times, too much for her tiny body to handle.

Her ratty jean shorts scrapped roughly against her skin, her shirt torn in places from her runnings through the wilderness that was too dangerous for her mortal self. Eden found it odd how she picked out the little things, yet still stay so indifferent to it all.

The soft hands of a care free, workless childhood surrounded her tiny ones. Her cousin trying to offer the little comfort he could. He knew what was to be. What was to come. How it should come in its mighty plight.

So they walked hand in hand. Kin next to kin. Bloodline near bloodline. A kindred thing it was, the thing that was the beasts that surrounded her daily. Socially speaking, she was held on a high pedestal yet the only ones who acted like she was on one was her aunt and her offspring. And no one dared to blight the alphas' opinion. But their actions said otherwise.

Adolescent eyes absorbed the calm scenery, as summer transcended into the depths of a bitter autumn. How the leaves scattered the well worn path of patrolling members, how the sly cold nipped at her bare limbs. Crisp air drenched her senses in its pure essence. Wrapping her in comfort, as if protecting her from what was to come.

Lochlan cared not for what was to be, but he knew that his cousin's lack of manifestations of what should've been would draw more attention than the creature could handle. A delicate rose with the sharpest thorns that were unafraid to coax blood from her victims.

Her chest tightened as the seemingly endless throngs of trees slowly dwindled thinner and thinner, slowing revealing a great house made of stone and log. A massive estate that housed a hundred or so members. It was the place that her kin called home, yet was unavailable to her. Just out of her grasp, dangled in front of her like a savory bone, forever eluding her. All thanks to her kin's male.

Mutts aren't allowed in the house. That was the main rule. So she was stowed away in a guest house with the few orphaned pups. Of course, that was what she was, an orphan.

But it wasn't the estate that made her antsy, rather the of the dozens of males and females alike. Foreigners in her aunt's territory. Every one of them knew that it was unnatural for wolves to encroach on one another's territory, it was deeply ingrained instinct. Even if they had an invitation.

The presence of many demanded in harsh thrums for her attention, their auras were loud and obnoxious. If Eden listened hard enough she could hear a faint rumble of howls mourning throughout her head. These were the beasts of the Americas.

Creatures that long haunted folklore, the ones who started out as a sorceress' right hand, her hounds of god. Then turning on her. Eden knew that much of beasts, but her aunt told her naught more. She figured herself ineligible to such a higher learning.

Eden felt an out of body experience as she was led to her aunt, her hand crushing that of her sweet kin. She knew he would lead her to safety, where no tooth nor claw could lay harm on her skin. But as she got closer, the more eyes she drew. Many wondering, just who was this dark haired, skinny child. The murmurs followed the pair as they made their way through the thick crowd.

Dread pooled deep in her sternum, heat seemed to lick like an inferno across her skin, though it did not show. She was a child of ice, she did not balk under harsh stares. She silenced the whispers with a single glare, at least that's what she told herself, because she couldn't find the courage to do such a thing.

Her heart stopped beating as fast once she saw the onyx haired beauty that was her aunt. Those diamond blue eyes as hard as ever staring back at her gave her plenty of comfort, it was the nudge she needed to hold her head high and shoulders back. Confidence flowing into her. She caught the small twitch that flickered briefly at her aunt's thin lips.

It was an expression that did not, in any way, resonate through the horde of beasts. This Eden knew, she knew how they could pick her apart from her kin by a simple sniff of her distinct scent. Halfling, they whispered. Mutt, Monster, Abomination, they hissed to one another.

Her heart cried out for her ears to be spared this special kind of torment. But her body, her skin thickened with every spat of such words. Her will would, over time, become that of pure iron.

"Today," her aunt began as soon as she stood in the legions of her many kin. "We have come together in a mutual stalemate for the day of Blessings. I welcome each and everyone of you into my territory with open arms, happy feasting."

Slowly, many eyes shifted from the female alpha and to whom surrounded them. Their goods and prayers being exchanged amongst one another. None had the lack of stiff posture, though. Long, muscled bodies stood ridged from the subtle warnings her aunt had laid bare for all to hear, having enough respect for her to not start a war in lands that were not their own, without their allies.

A heavy hand descended upon her scrawny shoulder.

"Eat, creature. Head high and shoulders back." Warm breath brushed against the shell of her freshly pierced ear, the small, steel hoop that hugged her cartilage sung with heat.

Her body acknowledged the command of her superior and obeyed. Head dipped in a bow, she scurried off with her aunt's two youngest in tow.

Tonight, the beasts would feast.

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Oh, yes. Shady's back, back again. In all seriousness — this tale will be a dark one and viewer discretion is advise. Real talk. It's time to churn out horror and gore once again.

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