Chasing Tails (Original)

Chasing Tails

Julie mentally groaned as she pulled out the last of the boxes out of the car. It was a late winter morning with some chilly breezes every now and then. Despite her wearing a long sleeve shirt and a jacket, she was still cold. The wet weather didn't help her much either. Still, with her current situation, it was a good day to be settling into a new home. Well, it wasn't exactly new.

The house has been in her family for generations. It was two stories tall, complete with a master bedroom, two extra rooms, an attic, kitchen, dining room, living room and two baths. She lived here before when times were simpler for her family but she didn't remember much. Her brothers, on the other hand, seemed to remember a decent amount. They, like her, were returning to the family's house today too but were slacking off – and doing a decent job at it. They were just thankful that their father was too busy to be at home for the moment.

"Hey! Catch!" Julie looked up to see an orange and black ball heading right for her face. She caught it instinctively and threw it right back just as fast, surprising herself. She wasn't exactly on a fast pace when it came to reacting on instincts lately. Her brothers laughed as she rolled her eyes and bent to pick up a heavy box of hers.

"Glad to see you found your old basket ball." She told them as she straightened herself and walked towards the house.

"Hey! When you're done with that, you can come and show us your skills." Andy, the oldest of the twins, challenged. His clean white grin gave her a glimpse of his canine fangs and she sighed gloomily, her head filling with unwanted memories.

Ever since she could remember, her family always differed from families around them. They did the normal things that other families would do – such as eat together, hand out chores, worked jobs – but there was one thing that made them different from other families. It was a secret her father, James, hated. He wished he never had a part in it and it was his reason for taking up drinking and being constantly angry. He never really did forgive his father for giving the gift of the wolf to him, or his grandfather for that matter. The gene of the Were was just something that's been in his family for generations. Julie, her sister and her brothers all come from a long bloodline of werewolves.

Her mother, on the other hand, was an average, normal woman. When she discovered the gene, she was horrified but eventually learned to accept it. She loved her children – even if they could turn into beastly and messy wolves from time to time. That's why this house, as isolated as it was, stayed in the family for so long. Despite her acceptance of it, James was never happy about it. She attempted to soothe his hatred for his family but he was always angry. Eventually, he lost the most important thing to him – his wife.

Julie, being the youngest of her siblings, could never remember her father ever being happy. He was always angry and he was always mad. For the longest of times, he never looked at his children as his and she knew it. He looked upon them as disgraces. Even now, when Julie was moving back in and was able to make his life a little easier by doing all of the cooking and cleaning, he looked at her as a disgrace...but there were more than enough reasons for that. Her old sister, Rose, would tell her times of when their father would smile and laugh with them. But as soon as her siblings gift showed, he stopped being happy. And although he didn't get along with Rose, he never disrespected her. He was proud of his sons and therefore didn't see reason to punish them for unimaginable things as he did her now. Julie was the disappointment. She was the weakest link.

James didn't like the fact that the wolf's blood runs through his veins or his children's veins. But he finally came to see that it wasn't going away with him so he sought to make his children strong. If they were to be wolves then by God they would be ferocious wolves. 

Rose was the child he was most proud of, though he would never admit it. She was the only fully red wolf in their family. She was an Alpha whose pack controlled a lot of woodsy lands about fifty miles away to the east. She was headstrong, protective and wasn't afraid to fight against him; a good, strong she-wolf.