Waking up the only thing I knew was that I wasn’t familiar with the surroundings. Unsure of what was going on I went through my mental check list. What’s your name? “Rebecka Oldmun.”How old are you? “Sixteen and a half.” I froze. I had changed. I changed and I don’t remember a single thing. Panic was rising in me, my new senses on high alert.
Calm down sis, we’re coming.
I let out a small yelp, confused by the voices in my head. So this is what being a wolf felt like? This was the connection? This was weird. I was silently freaking out. Although I’m sure I still looked one hundred percent freaked out on the outside too. I think I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. It was going to fly away if I didn’t calm down.
Soon, something inside me sensed my brothers. This part wasn’t scary, it was comforting. They were close, maybe a few hundred feet away from the room I was in. They were outside the house. I could smell them. It was a familiar smell, like Uncle Johns smell, a mix of woods and cologne. What do I smell like? Thinking to my self I tried to come up with possible combinations.
“Vanilla and flowers.” Mikael answered, his face serious from the doorway. Behind him I could see others, three maybe four? They were all wolves and looked about the same. I could smell the wolf on them, I could smell family. Then I saw their tattoos.
They were all shirtless so it wasn’t like it was hard to see them, they all had tattoos peaking over their right shoulder. I’m sure if they turned it would cover most of their shoulder blades. Mikael, one of my brothers, and who I assumed to be my father now walking in from the back, all had tattoos on their right wrist/ forearm. The tattoos on both the wrist and the shoulder were tribal, a mix of lines, dots and swirls. Each one different, unique to the person.
“How do you feel?” My father asked me, taking a seat at the base of the bed. All I could really see were the thin lines of scars across the middle of his face, like he received a claw from forehead to jaw. He was still handsome though, his smile dazzling. He had the lightest blond hair of the boys, his seemed to be going white. Thankfully, he had a shirt on, but he was still ripped. You could se every muscle group and it wasn’t even a fitted tee. “You went through quite an ordeal last night.”
I kicked myself for letting my mind wander so much. Taking a deep breath I brought myself to an upright position in order to listen better. “What happened exactly? The last thing I remember.. Dane was running towards me and I was running towards Mikael.”
Mikael took a step forward, away from the book shelf he had been leaning on. “Dad, how about we introduce her to everyone?” Give her time to remember. He added it through his thoughts, but I still caught it. It wasn’t intended for me or any of the other boys, only our father. Mikael was trying to protect me, keep me safe. I really hoped I wasn’t treated like such a child. If I was, we would have a problem.
“I’m Conner, this is my twin Chris.” They both gave me a wide smile, handsome like our father. We shared the same blond hair, a mix between platinum and a sun kissed golden. The twins seemed taller than the others, and had more or a lean muscle mass then a bulky one. I could sense their playfulness, I bet that those two could get into a lot of trouble together, it was a shame they were being carful around me. After a few moments of me taking them in, they walked over to me so I could embrace them in a hug.
The second I touched them, I saw an image in my head. An all white wolf, growling at a man she or he had trapped to the ground with their paw. Hoards of people were around, watching with scared eyes. I felt something inside of me. It was pride? For some reason I felt connected to the wolf I had seen in my head. Was that my wolf?
“So that’s what I looked like last night.” I must have seemed like such a child to them. Here I was sixteen with my eyes wides and an excited breathy-ness to my voice. All of these men were at least twenty and older, I’m sure they were bothered by me. I felt bad.
“If you are going to be the Alpha White, you are going to need to gain some confidence kid. Hi, I’m Ted. Resident doctor and your second oldest brother. If you ever need help, come to me. I give good advice.” He was the oddball, brown hair and moss green eyes. The rest of us had a mix of blue and grey that pierced the air around us. He looked trustworthy while the rest of us just looked fierce. Although, I wouldn’t doubt his ability to be fierce.
“Did you get your looks from mom?” I felt my torso starting to shake slightly. I had so many questions, so many things that I just wanted answered here and now. Now. I turned to my father and looked him in the eyes. “Tell me the truth. Why did you and mom leave me? I still remember parts of it. Waking up and Auntie Trish was making me pancakes, not mom. I cried for weeks. I hated it there. Did you know that? As a parent how could you leave me? Let me get confused when I smell things that normal people can’t, Let me have nightmares of you ripping apart poachers when I was six years old! What happened to mom?!”
It was then that I realized how much I needed to control myself.
As an all white wolf I was standing in front of my father, nostrils flaring. I wouldn’t divert my eyes from my fathers, but I could feel my muzzle, I could feel my claws digging into the white sheets and comforter. This obviously wasn’t a dog bed. My senses felt so unnatural. I could even smell the scent on the feathers, half mostly detergent but I could still smell some kind of farm smell. I could smell all of their sweat, I could almost taste their emotions. I guess that was the linked part. Chris and Conner were more amused than anything, Mikael seemed worried for my stability as a wolf, Ted just seemed to be ashamed of father. Then my father Kent was just sitting there angry, I couldn’t tell if it was at me or at himself. The anger was raw and pure. How dare he! He had no idea what I went through as a kid. He didn’t care. But my anger was starting to subside, and the pain was settling in.
“And how do we calm her down?” Chris laughed, “Jeez dad, you had to know that she wasn’t going to be exactly thrilled to see everyone.”
“She wont be able to hold it much longer, it hurts. Her bones will probably only last another few seconds.”
“Listen. I just got a sister. I don’t want to see her naked. Can we please leave?” Mikael spoke with an uncomfortable look spreading across his face. “She will probably want to cry once it’s over too. It hurts her.”
He could see it in my eyes, my father was right. It was hard enough for me to keep holding it, but I managed until they were all gone and the door closed.
Mikael couldn’t have been more right.
I collapsed into the covers I had almost shredded, naked and sobbing. My bones were numb yet buzzing with pain. All I wanted was Jace. To hold me. Hold me until the pain was nonexistent and I could sleep for hours wrapped up in his muscles and warm skin. I wanted to wake up with him asleep and wrapped up next to me so I could watch his chest rise and fall while I listen to his little baby snores.
I fell asleep dreaming of him next to me.
I woke up crying. My dream had twisted to a nightmare, Jace was dating Lauren. He had moved on. He didn’t care about me. He just wanted a girlfriend for senior year. I shook those thoughts out of my mind.
Jace is different. He had always been different. He loved me, more than anyone else ever had.
That’s why I had to let him go, I had to protect him and get him away from me. I knew he wasn’t my mate, it just didn’t happen that way. He was a human, and I could probably only mate with a wolf from a high pack, something that will carry on a strong blood line.
Realizing I was still in the nude I wrapped myself in one of the sheets and began my search for some proper clothing. Now that I wasn’t half asleep or fully enraged I could take in the bed room.
Everything was modern, black book shelves went across the wall on the opposite side of the bed. I let my fingers trace the dark solid wood as my eyes scanned over the titles. Most seemed to be wolf folk lore. On certain shelves the books were hand written diaries from old pack members. Other shelves contained maps about treaty lines through the ages. It was then that I noticed that the middle two of the four book shelves could be pushed behind the outer two, like sliding doors. Behind them was a large TV with a built in dresser underneath. I peeked into them, unsure as to who the contents belonged. They were a females clothing. Some were tank tops, others held pants, but the one that I loved the most was a drawer full of simple dresses.
I felt too bad taking any of them so I pushed the drawer back closed. I grabbed a black tank top and cargo capris that happened to be my size. I found a black sports bra but I was slightly wary on taking underwear.. I still had no idea if I had the right to take any of this stuff.
I looked back to my shreds of clothes that dispersed across the white bed and the few straggler pieces that had floated to the floor. “I guess I have no choice.” I went back to the bra and underwear drawer, finding an unopened pack of clean granny panties. They were better than nothing. I would need to apologize profusely to whomever I had just stolen from.
Clothes in hand, I had two doors to choose from. Upon inspection, one was a very large walk-in closet. The other I figured to be the bathroom. I needed to find a mirror to try and fix any bruises my face had gained during the transformation. I had noticed large bruises near most of my joints and around my ribs before I wrapped the sheet around me. I probably looked like hell after going through it yesterday.
Pushing the door open I was right to find a bathroom. A fancy one at that, the concrete floors, along with the black white and green color scheme, carried into the bathroom from the bedroom. A large white tiled shower with green accent tiles seemed to take up half the room. I couldn’t wait to feel the steamy water against my healing skin.
Placing the clothes in between the double sinks I could finally stare at my face in the mirror. Something I hadn’t quite had the time to do in the past few days. My hair seemed longer if at all possible, my skin seemed to have less black heads, but I looked exhausted. I had bags under my blood shot eyes, the bruising along the edge of my nose was brought out my how pale my skin looked. The first thought that occurred to me was that I needed make-up, anything to cover up how ugly I felt.
Let’s be honest, I’m the prettiest girl at Central. I don’t have a model face, I have a modest face. Big blue grey eyes, a hump on my nose, and a nice set of succulent lips. My body was curvy, but a skinny curvy so sometimes I looked disproportionate. I have large thighs, along with an excellent rear but I was lacking in the upstairs department.
Once I was done starring at my face, I unwrapped the sheet from around my shoulders, letting it fall to the floor with a light rustle. I was about to go and get the shower started but I saw something peeking from around my right shoulder. “Huh. So I guess that’s how we tell who is who.”
I turned so I could fully appreciate the spirals and lines of the tribal tattoo that now covered most of my back. Larger title, larger tattoo. Or so I guessed. To me a month ago, this would have been ugly and nothing I ever wanted. Now, I looked at it with some kind of respect. “This is what I was ,meant to do huh? Better accept it now.”
With one final glance at the mirror I walked over to the shower, turning it on as hot as it would go. I was surprised to find two shower heads, one where it would normally be and another directly above. Closing the glass door that separated me from the rest of the world, I enjoyed a few moments to relax.
The hot water calmed my aching muscles, I could feel it healing my bones. We healed faster than humans, I knew that. What I didn’t know was that you could feel everything being part wolf.
You could feel the water seeping into your fingers as they became pruned. You could feel a raised bump on the concrete that was slightly larger than a pin head sticking up underneath your big toe. I could feel the presence of wolves all around me. They were waiting for me.
I knew my moments to relax were up and went on to actually cleaning myself.
Shampooed and washed, I put the clothes on that I had found. They fit me nice and I looked pretty tough.
“Damn straight. I’m not somebody you want to mess with.” Giving myself a set of guns in the mirror, I promptly left the bathroom and made my way to where I felt the presence of my people.
“You’ve got to me kidding me.” I couldn’t help but laugh. A group of twenty or so men and women were watching Dear John and every single soul had a tear in their eye.
As soon as I spoke the mood changed, they bowed their heads and wiped their tears. A battle look crossed the face of the men, showing they were ready to protect if necessary.
I was sort of speechless, but Mikael was coming. He sensed that I had grown uncomfortable.
“Please, stand. Let me introduce myself.” I told them, of course they wouldn’t go against my word. They seemed taken aback by the friendly tone to my voice. They must have expected me to be more stern after the years of them shutting me out. They all rose and looked me in the eye, some with confidence and others with worry. “I am Rebecka-“
“Rebecka Old Moon, Alpha White of the Omega tribe.” Mikael introduced for me. “It is rude for a lady of your position to introduce herself without a protector or mate by your side.” He whispered the heads up to me, but I wasn’t fully listening.
I was distracted by the sudden line of people in front of me that had started to tell me their names, their ranks (if they had one), and most made some kind of vow to me. The women promised to help me find a mate when the time came and the men promised to protect my people.
I thanked them all rather quickly, I was tired again. I needed to find a good place to just hide and sleep for a while.
“Rebecka, father wants you to speak with him before you go back to bed.” Mikael grinned at me, obviously amused by the fact that I wasn’t used to having them in my mind. “He’s in his study. Its just down the hall to the left.” Starring at him blankly I only thought about the fact that he must be crazy. I had no idea where the hell I was going. His reply of a grunt let me know that he was going to take me.
“I did have plans to eat you know. I also have to call a pack meeting tonight to inform them on the current status of the poachers. I don’t quite have time to show you around. Ask Conner or Chris, they aren’t very helpful.” I was starting to realize that Mike was one of those people who could only take so much of one person. I would make it a priority on my list to annoy him every chance I got.
“Bexs, come in.”
Mike cracked the door open for me before leaving me alone with our dad. I could hear his heavy boots hit the floor as he sulked his way to the kitchen. Pig pig piggy. I laughed lightly to myself as I felt his mood change, becoming slightly more pissy than usual.
So this is how it’s going to be?
“Now now children,” My father chuckled and motioned for me to sit in front of him. “We might want to get down to business. Where should we start? Last night, or eleven years ago?”
“I want to start with mom. I know she died, but why didn’t you ever catch her killer?”
For a moment my father just looked at me, and not like how a father would when uncomfortable about the topic. He was looking at me like a boss about to discuss a business plan.
“She isn’t dead. She wasn’t murdered. She just vanished. All trace of her scent was just gone one morning. Her clothes, money, and car keys untouched. There was no body so for all we know she just wasn’t happy and left.” Glancing down to his right wrist I now knew they were imprint bands. “I think at times I still feel here with me. Guiding me a long with the pack. She always was better at it than me.”
“When did she disappear?”
“The day before we took you to my brothers house. Just in case someone had attacked Heather, we needed to keep you safe too. We couldn’t lose both our alphas. You don’t understand yet, but you will.”
“What about last night? What happened to Dane?”
“Well, You scared him.” There was a slight smile on his lips, if I had to gues he was proud. That he had been gone all these years and yet his little girl was still able to kick some ass when needed. “You started to run to Mike when Dane grabbed your hair. You swung your elbow and smashed into his nose. Within a split second you snatched his rifle away and tossed it to the ground. A few second after that you were a wolf, claws near his throat and teeth snarled into his face. A boy on the football field yelled for you to back off and get to us, your family. Shortly after you ran to us, and Dane ran away, you shifted back and we wrapped you in a blanket and took you home. I think that about wraps things up. Any questions?”
For a minute, I took everything in. I used to be a normal teenage girl with a boyfriend and friends. Now I am the main female in the largest pack on the east coast, my mothers a mystery, and I don’t really know any of the family I will be living with.
This was going to take some getting used to.