Chapter 2
4 years ago… Damien/Dy POV
“Dy!” A 13 year old Kirk was dashing through the forest calling for me. I saw his eyes turn yellow as he tried to use his wolf senses to find me.
He could shift now, having passed his Weaning last year. Werewolves undergo a Weaning stage on their thirteenth birthday. Until then, a werewolf stayed human and was very much vulnerable and weak. That’s why you don’t get to see tiny werewolves running around causing havoc.
Just imagine two or five year old humans. Their destructive capabilities were more than enough. If said human could turn into a werewolf, well things wouldn’t be pretty. Thank the Wolf Spirits didn’t make it that way.
“C’mon Dy, come out!” Kirk was swiveled his head around wildly using his eyes to scan the area. It was an hour after sunset and only the stars illuminated the forest. Kirk could still see though. With his alpha enhanced sight, he could clearly see approximately 50 meters away which was better than most werewolves.
I was twelve years old. My birthday was next week but I didn’t care that much about the Weaning. Pups, werewolves aged twelve and below, would have been sweating buckets.
We were out on of our night runs. I had my jogging shorts and wife beater on which were a little bit tight on my body to minimize rustling. Kirk was naked because he planned on shifting and letting loose tonight.
Kirk was straining his eyes now. I was well away his range as I was almost a hundred meters away from him. I smirked at Kirk’s scrunched up face as he pushed his senses to the limit. His naked figure glistened under the starlights. He had a good start on his body, finally growing bigger than me as his alpha genes kicked in. He had the beginnings of a six pack and his chest, arms and thighs were starting to get muscles. I was in no way scrawny but dang he was starting to look good.
He was looking for me to tell me to start the weaning process. Weaning was a rite of passage into adulthood. It was a test on whether a child was a werewolf or not. Babies born from werewolf parents, or even just one parent had a 99% chance of becoming werewolves.
However, that 1% lingered and it still scares the pack. Back in the old days when humanity was still learning to defend themselves from beasts, that 1% was a cause of division in the pack. The 1% percent could mean anything. A pup who couldn’t wean properly, someone who had a deformity or any type of weakness. Pups are judged by the alpha, beta and inner pack. The inner pack were more like squad leaders. Council members if you will. The 1% were simply called outcasts. Back in the day, outcasts were killed outright.
Scary huh? But things got better as werewolves mixed with humans. Banishment was now the harshest punishment with strong reminders of what would happen if the outcast would divulge the secret of the pack. Some outcasts were given positions in the pack as special members such as babysitting pups or interacting with humans. Few pick that option though as the shame and guilt was often too great, ending with a lot of outcasts leaving or committing suicide.
I wasn’t scared. Why should I be? My mother came from the old bloodline of werewolves.
Bunching my leg muscles, I quickly loped towards Kirk covering half the distance in mere seconds. I was careful to slow down as soon as I entered the maximum range of his senses. I was still on human form. In human form, werewolves were supposed to have only athletic-like strength. An eye change would increase only the senses and make the werewolf use an ability or two.
My body tingled a bit, but I barely broke a sweat. I never did think much about why I was a little bit stronger in human form than most werewolves. My mother always reminded me not to talk to anyone.
Pretending to be lost, I shuffled about even though I heard Kirk’s small gasp of surprise about fifty meters away. I could feel him stalking me as he tried his best to make as little noise as possible. I just smirked.
A few minutes later he was behind me. God, the idiot was making so much noise as he stepped on twigs and made bugs skitter about. I always reminded him to mind the little details. Walking aimlessly, I prepared my body for impact.
“Gotcha!” Kirk yelled and pounced behind me, aiming for my thighs.
Spinning on the balls of my feet, I crouched falling backwards. Kirk slammed between my legs and I pushed my lower body up using the momentum to throw him away as I flipped back on my feet. A loud yelp broke the night followed by a whimper.
“Serves you right being noisy while you prowl.” I laughed.
Kirk sat up and rubbed the small of his back glaring at me. “C’mon Dy, it’s one week before your birthday. You know your mom has to talk to you about weaning.”
I just nodded at him as I absently held my hand to help him up. Another thing about weaning is that most pups don’t know what they are. They only get to find out that they’re werewolves once they start the weaning process especially for open packs like ours.
Open packs means that the werewolves lived and mingled with humans. If a kid knows that he’s a werewolf, there’s a chance that he might slip and tell humans about it. A lot of packs during the dark ages disappeared because of humans finding out. Take Kirk for example, he wasn’t supposed to let me know but the blabbermouth got excited after his father, the Alpha told him on his tenth birthday of his responsibilities. No harm done though, I already knew I was a werewolf at the age of six. My mom trusted me that much.
“It’s okay Kirk, it’s just a formality. Besides, even if mom doesn’t tell me, I’ll still be able to shift by next week.”
Kirk’s eyes were shining as he looked at me. “We’ll have so much fun hunting! It will be different from our night runs, I promise!” He was waving his hands excitedly. “You start with rabbits though, and I get to hunt deer!”
“As if,” I rolled my eyes at him. “I took down a bear in human form and I was still eleven.
“Hey, that bear was an old one. And you only bonked his head with a stick and he got dizzy and we ran away.”
My mouth slammed shut, I almost gave away my secret. I’d get into trouble with my mom. “C’mon let’s go find your clothes and go home.”
After several minutes we were jogging near the pack house. It was a large ranch on sprawling acres of land. Most werewolves were into agriculture, poultry and husbandry. Well, mostly husbandry. I know people think that werewolves like to eat humans, that’s actually gross. We actually prefer animal meat such as cows, deer and chicken.
As we neared the gates of the ranch, I could see several people standing beside the entrance. My senses were telling me something was wrong. I glanced back at Kirk.
“Hey,” Kirk gave me a mischievous smile. “Dy, I think your mom has something to tell you.”
I just laughed nervously as I scanned the people in front of me. There was the Alpha, Beta, my mother and the whole inner pack. I gulped, this wasn’t a weaning process. It looked like a trial was about to take place.
Suddenly the Alpha spoke using all the authority in his voice. “Lucas,” The Alpha motioned to his Beta. “Escort Kirk home.” Yellow eyes glared at me. Come to think of it, everyone’s eyes turned yellow except for my mom.
“Bye Dy, see you tomorrow okay?” Kirk called out feebly as the Beta gripped his arm tightly, leading him away from me.
Uncomfortable silence hung in the air. I knew the Alpha was waiting for Kirk to be out of earshot. And he waited some more and I started to tremble in fear.
“Look if this is about me knowing already that I’m a werewolf, Kirk didn’t tell me, I already knew-“
“SILENCE!” The rough command held a lot of authority in it that someone as weak as a pup like me would have to obey.
I wasn’t an ordinary pup. “Well screw you, you don’t have to shout!” I snapped back immediately, ignoring his command of silence.
Shock rippled through the inner pack and my mom let out a small whimper. Shit! I cursed myself silently. There goes my secret.
I looked at the Alpha’s face recoiled from the burning gaze.
“Leave.”
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A.N. So this was Damien/Dy and Kirk's life 4 years ago.
Minor edits and additional information that I forgot to add in.