''Are you sure you'll be okay?''
''Yes uncle. Gosh. Get going you're going to be late.'' I pushed the man off my bed repeatedly, trying to make the mountain of a man move.
''Wow. Worrying about my favourite nephew and this is what I get?'' He feigned hurt and shook his head making me grin and wave him off.
''I'm your only nephew.'' Laughing at my comment he kissed me quickly on the forehead and left before I could push him away again.
''You know it!'' He shouted from the staircase and I broke out laughing.
He acts more like a pup than an Alpha but no one really looked down on him for it. They held him higher for it. An Alpha who didn't interact with their pack freely was barely an Alpha. A pack ruled by fear would surely fall apart and have trouble coming together. That's why uncle was nothing less or more than himself and for that, we were all proud. Sure, we had a few fights here and there but nothing large scale.
I shuffled over to my window and sat down in a rustic-brown, curved, wicker chair pulling my feet up to rest on the white pillow beneath me, my bed long forgotten as I wrapped my blanket around myself and got comfortable for the night watching the brownscale flurry of wolves run towards the joining borders where a lake was all that separated the territories.
I always enjoyed watching the pack run. They were beautifully melding into their surroundings, a vast array of browns ranging from crème of the lower ranking wolves to the darkest brown of the dominants. The only pack member that stood out incredibly was that of my uncle, a black wolf with dark brown paws to signify he was an Alpha of a brownscale pack.
My uncle's wolf turned to my window and howled a goodbye which was soon followed by the pack joining in with howls of their own or a series of barks and yips before rushing off again. Within a matter of seconds all of my pack was gone with the breeze and the faint echoes of howling from other packs was carried to my window.
''Goodluck.'' I whispered and let my mind drift in thought.
''Uncle, what are we doing?''
''You have to hide.'' He hurried me into a mud pile and nudged me in it with his nose until I fell into the deep hole.
Floundering in the mud, my body tried to regain balance but my wolf was too weak against the thick sludge that covered my shoulders and matted in my pale fur.
I whimpered and tried to reach for him but he shoved me in further until my head was under the thick sea of dirt, my wolf thrashed and whined with terror before I was pulled out by teeth on my scruff.
My body jutted one way and the other, swinging back and forth at the pace of the larger wolf carrying me in and out of trees, over fallen trees and under logs held up by the arms of its wooden family.
''Uncle.'' My wolf whined and whimpered as my heart beat frantically as I searched for what we were running from.
''Be quiet, please.'' He pleaded through our mind link and continued his path before dropping my small body into a crevice created by the roots of a large oak tree.
''Stay here, Squirt. You need to stay here.'' His big nose nudged my quivering body further into the hole, briefly giving me a reassuring rub on my neck which did little to settle me.
''What's happening?''
''Shh. Just don't be seen.''
''But uncle-''
''Please, be quiet. I won't let them take you away.''
With leaves falling over my head to cover the opening of where he had placed me, his wolf took off in the opposite direction of where we had come from and I waited.
I waited and waited. The morning sun soon turned to noon, then to dusk, and to midnight. I just kept waiting but there was nothing and no sign of anyone.
Believing it was safe after waiting a few more minutes, I shuffled out of the leaf pile never letting my stomach leave the ground. The mud had now dried over my fur making it hard to move without having to try hard to crack it as if it was stone armour holding me back.
A rustling to my left had my ears perking, my tail twitching and my wolf hopeful.
''Uncle?'' I moved towards the rustling but when I didn't get a reply my ears laid back cautiously and a soft whimper left me. ''Uncle, please come out.''
A rumble vibrated through the bush and soon a large brown and black wolf proudly stepped through the shrubbery. A lascivious look showed throughout his wolfish grin as he growled down as my trembling form.
''Uncle?'' I hoped it was him but I knew it wasn't. My uncle would never frighten me the way this wolf does.
'' Come with me.'' His command had my wolf cowering back to its stomach which looked like it pleased him.
''Where is my uncle?'' He ignored my question and moved back towards the thickness of the bushes, growling impatiently when I didn't follow.
''Come.'' I shook my head.
''Come!'' His wolf swung at me and his claws connected with my side, sending me flying into a nearby tree.
I tried to stand, I really did but my wolf kept telling me to stay down, that it was no good, that we were stupid for disobeying uncle. Our stupidity would go punished though, we knew this as the wolf moved closer and closer to us, covering our body in the darkness.
My fingers brushed the scars on my right hip; the clawed punishment from that wolf.
If uncle Rick hadn't have heard the growling he would have still tried to be leading a pack of rogues away from us. When I told him that the wolf had tried to lead me somewhere rather than kill me, he told me the wolf must have known I was white under all that mud. That was when I first found out that the lighter a wolves fur, the weaker and more submissive they were, ultimately, the more desirable for a wolf like that one to take as an obedient mate. I was upset and angry with myself for a long time; for being such a weak colour but I couldn't help that I was born like this.
My hands brushed my hair out of my eyes.
There was nothing I could do about my fur, my cerulean eyes or my small body. I eventually came to embrace myself. I let my hair grow to almost touch my shoulders in layers rather than keep it short, I gave up trying to gain muscle when I knew it was futile and so with the help of aunt Petricia, uncle Rick and the pack, I embraced that I was born the way I am and the moon goddess would never change that.
Squeak
''Hey Charlie.'' I pat the mouse as he made his way back through the window and rested on top of my raised knees. ''Did you get into any trouble today?''
Squeak
''Mhm. I don't believe it. You're one troublesome mouse.'' I poked his nose and he scurried up my finger and sat on my hand squeaking frantically.
Squeak his whiskers fluttered and a tiny rumble sounded from his stomach.
''Sometimes I wonder if the only reason you come back is so you don't have to find food yourself.'' I sighed as I got up and got some cheese for my troublesome friend.
We made our way down the stairs and to the kitchen without much trouble from the dark staircase. I swear I could fall over the air if I wasn't careful.
Squeak squeak squeak
Charlie started chattering a mile a minute as I reached up into a raised cupboard to grab some Jatz crackers for us both to nibble on. As I was pulling the red box down, my arm stopped in mid-air at the sight of a rush of white and grey running past the kitchen window in front of me. I ripped my arm back and stared out the window.
Squeak squeak squeak
Inching closer to the window and holding the Jatz to my chest, I looked all around the surrounding forest. There was nothing but the dark forest, the eerie glow of the moon and the stars that now scattered the sky like sprinkles on ice cream.
''Should I go out there and check, Charlie?''
Squeak
''Yeah, I didn't think so.'' I picked up Charlie and we made our way back to my bedroom and to the chair by the window where we planned to spend the rest of the night pigging out.
By midnight I was in my bed again, at least three blankets covering me and pulled up just under my nose with my fingers peaking just over them to hold the blankets up.
Charlie gave me a reassuring nuzzle on my cheek as I sneezed and rubbed my red nose, my bedside table littered with empty tissue boxes and my black metal cross patterned bin now pulled next to my bed and full of used tissues.
My nose burned from constant wiping, my eyes watered from the slightest light of the moon entering my room, my throat screamed every time I tried to use it, my body ached and throbbed from the cold and fatigue I was feeling but I couldn't seem to sleep. Sleep seemed to escape me and I could do nothing but suffer through the fever I was trying to battle.
''Charlie.'' I croaked as I wrapped the mouse in the blankets tighter around my chest. ''I hope they come back soon.''