- Hey, so this is my first time posting something so please comment, vote, and follow! I would love your feedback-
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"Kye! Are you done packing yet?" My fathers voice floated through the small apartment. I looked up to see my father as he walked in to my closet of a room, a frown marred his face. He stood under the light causing his golden buzz cut hair to look like it was glowing, as he took in the state of my half packed room. My hair was the same color gold as his but my father's was curly when it grew out where as mine was straight as could be. My eyes weren't a stormy blue like his but a pale green like my mothers. "Kylie Hudson, you we're suppose to have finished packing last night. We are already late and you're not even close to being done." He growled at me.
I threw the shirt I has folding into the half full suitcase on my bed and turned to glare at my Father. "I don't care if I'm 2 weeks late," I told him, "if I had a choice in this I wouldn't be leaving at all." Turning I stormed over to my closet and started grabbing the rest of my clothes. Normally I wasn't so childish but normally I wasn't being tossed out of my house and separated from the only people I saw as family.
"Kye, you know I don't want you to leave either but it is pack law. Your 16th birthday is only a month away and so is your first shift." He said, "you need to be back in pack land before that happens and since I'm not going back you need to go to the Alpha's pack." He explained this to me before but that never changed how I felt about returning especially without him.
After my mother died 8 years ago my father left pack lands and joins the military, bringing me with him. Because of this I was use to moving I had lived in 22 different states since then. I was use to meeting new people and making new friends, human friends. I had also met other adolescent wolves who lived with their parents in the military but their were few of those, but they were different like me they didn't grow up in the pack. If I was being honest with myself the reason I didn't want to go back was because I was nervous about seeing my pack mates again.
"Kye, I'm sorry. I would go back with you if I could but...I can't," my father whispered. When I turned to throw the rest of my clothes in the bag I could see the pain in my fathers eyes. He wasn't stuck here because he still had required service time left, which was only 2 years, no he wasn't going back because going back meant facing the pain of mom's death.
"I know," I told him. I picked up a shirt and started folding it "I will finish packing just give me 10 minutes?" I asked. He relaxed at my words and nodded before walking out of my room.
***
It didn't even take me the full full ten minutes to finish packing. Sighing I took one last look at the small room that had been mine for the last 6 months. It was barely big enough to hold my twin bed and desk, which was right next to the small closet. My bed held a duffle bag and my backpack that held everything I owned, I was use to packing them and I was use to leaving but I had never left my home before, never left my family and this time I wasn't looking forward to the move.
I grabbed my bags and swung one over each shoulder and left my room. The rest of the house was in different stages of being packed because my fathers unit was being moved to a different post, which was why he was sending me back now when I still had a good three weeks before I really had to be back on pack land. Dad didn't want me to have get up and move again after we just settled in his new post so I was being shipped off back to Maine and back to the pack.
"All set?" My father asked when I entered the living room/ kitchen. He was standing by the front door which was open and waiting he had heard me coming. I nodded and walked past him out the door. I felt the weight on my shoulder disappear and looked to see my father grabbing the duffle bag and swinging it over his shoulder. The apartments hall seemed eerily quiet as we walked downstairs, normally I could hear the noises of the other residents as they went about their lives but today there was nothing.
This apartment building was owned by the government and was specifically for military units like my father's. For the wolves that served in the military and protected us at home from rouge supernaturals. And of course since it was government owned it was all but falling apart like every other apartment building I had ever lived in, the paint old and peeling in some places and with floor boards that moaned when you walked.
Dad held the door open for me and I stepped outside with a pang of sadness that disappeared when I saw were the rest of the apartment's residents were. They were standing around my dad's beat up jeep wrangler, which he leased when we first moved here 6 months ago. My dad's entire unit was surrounding it waiting for me, and I smiled they were my pack, my family. I ran over to them and I could fell the tears that tried to come but I pushed them down and let Mitch pick me up and give me a bear hug... Wolf hug?
"We're going to miss you kiddo," Mitch whispered in my ear with his gravelly voice. He set me down gently and let the others hug me. "Don't call me kiddo," I told him like always which made him laugh like always. "Move out of my way," Simone said as she pushed her way past Mitch's bulky frame. "Oh, Kye I am going to miss you so much," she said and entrapped me in her arms. Her curly red hair falling in my face as she smothered me. I almost gaged from the amount of perfume she was wearing. She had to be the only werewolf on earth who had no problem with the stench. "Simone you'll miss me more if you accidental kill me by smothering." I told her. She just squeezed me tighter before she released me. Someone's hand rested on my shoulder, I looked up to see Benedict, the unit's captain. "Good luck, and remember to behave right," he said solemnly. "Don't I always behave?" I asked. "Never," he said with a smile on his face.
Suddenly my farther was beside me the duffle bag had disappeared probably into the back of the wrangler. "It is time to go or you'll be late for the flight," he said. My stomach turned to stone but I still followed him to the jeep and hopped in. "Ben, I will be back in about two hours, "my dad called over his shoulder to his captain. Before he slammed the door closed.
The jeep started with a rumbled and my dad pulled out and away from the only family I ever really had.
***
"You know it really won't be that bad," my father tried to tell me comfortingly as he pulled my bags from the back. We were outside the Denver National Airport, in Colorado. The swarms of people entering and leaving made me sick, my nose was senses were getting strong with each day I was closer to 16 and being around so many people in an enclosed space was making me nauseous. I could smell their perfume and cologne, grease, sweat, anger, lust, fear. The scents where almost overpowering and to add to them each person had their own unique scent so the inside of the building held nearly every scent their could be.
"God, it stinks in here," I muttered as I trailed after my father as we looked for where my flight was boarding. "You will learn to get use to it but you are right." He said with a smile and scrunched up his nose making me laugh.
We pushed through the crowds until we finally reached the flight to Bangor, Maine. My dad pulled me into a hug and I breathed in his familiar scent. "You'll be all right?" He said bit it sounded more like a question to me. "Yeah, sure I'll be perfectly fine,"I told him. He let me go and handed me my plane ticket and passport. "Call, and remember to be careful," he told me sternly before pulling me in and kissing my forehead. I pulled away and nodded before I made my way over to the flight attendant who was collecting tickets. She smiled as I handed her mine but I just didn't care enough to return it.
I hadn't been on pack land for years I knew no one there, what was I walking into. "Have a good flight the attendant said as she handed me back my things. I nodded and walked past her onto the plane.
The plane wasn't packed which was good news for my nose. I walked down the aisle between the rows of light blue seats, my seat was halfway back and I had the window seat.
I barely listened as the flight attendant gave her speech about safety and what not I had been on enough flights to be able to repeat it word for word. The flight to Maine would be about 4 hours so I just settled back into my seat and plugged in my earbuds. What I've done, by Linkin Park started playing as the plane took off down the run way.
***
"For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign. This will indicate that we have parked at the gate and that it is safe for you to move about," a flight attendant said waking me from my nap. I forgot when exactly I had dosed off but I am glad I did so that I didn't have to deal with my nerves for the entire flight.
The plane jerked as the wheels hit the runway, I raised the blind over the window and looked out at Maine. It was devoid of life but it wasn't a city like Denver or Chicago or Boston or any of the smaller towns I was use to. The land scape was more wilderness, it was the forest, it was a wolf's habitat. As soon as the plane had touched the ground I felt a jolt like electricity run through my body and my pack bond ripped open.
Awareness flooded through my senses causing me to gasp, it wasn't my awareness but the awareness of all the wolves here I could feel the pack and I knew they could feel me to. It had been so long since I had felt this I had nearly forgot how it felt to have such a strong connection to the pack. I was alone but I wasn't all at once.
I shook off my dazed feeling and stood from my seat, following the other passages and disembarking from the plane. I nearly tripped on my way out still dazed from the feelings coming through my pack bond.
The Maine airport was smaller and wasn't as packed as the one in Denver which mercifully meant my nose wasn't killing me.
I saw the sign for the baggage claim and made my way over, my backpack I had brought as a carry on but my duffle bag had been checked. I watched the luggage as it made its way in after a couple minutes I spotted my duffle but I wasn't the only one. A girl with light blonde hair who looked only a few years older than me grabbed my bag first. I opened my mouth to yell at her but my pack bond twinged as I got closer to her, she was a werewolf and my pack mate.
The blonde easily swung my duffle over her shoulder before she turned towards me smiling. "Kylie," She stated. Her eyes looking me up in down, when she reached my face she didn't quite meet my eyes, instead she kept her gaze lower on my lips. She was a submissive wolf, I realized, or rather an omega.
The werewolf hierarchy was a lot like a regular wolf packs, with the Alpha at the top and the most dominate, after the Alpha were his or her Betas, wolves that were purely dominate and would submit to no one other than the Alpha. There weren't many Beta wolves and the few there were either served the Alpha as personal guards or left the Alpha's compound and lead smaller packs of other wolves in a different part of pack land.
After the Betas came the Gamma wolves, which made up the majority of wolves in any pack, they were mainly dominate but easily submitted to a more dominate wolf, even a more dominate Gamma. Last in the pack hierarchy were the Omega wolves who were always completely submissive.
"I prefer Kye," I told her in reply. "Skye," she told me. She smiled again and pulled out her phone from her pocket quickly glancing down at it. "We need to start heading to the compound the Alpha is waiting for you to get in and it's a good hour's drive," She told me. Before I could respond my stomach let out a loud growl and I realized I hadn't eaten all day. "But we have time to swing by a McDonalds or something and grab you a couple of burgers," she told me. I smiled gratefully and followed her through the airport.
Outside the air had a chill to it, winter was coming quickly and I didn't have enough warm clothes for a winter in Maine. Skye carried my duffle out to her Black Ram 1500. She chucked my duffle in to the bed of the truck but I brought my backpack into the cab with me. Skye started the truck and cranked up the heater. "Thanks," I said rubbing my arms against the chill. "Your, welcome. How long is it until your first shift?" Skye asked me. "My birthday is on November 18th," I said lightly but my insides seemed to curl around themselves with nerves. My birthday was about four and a half weeks away from today and as it got closer the more nervous I got. "You don't have to worry the best thing that happens to a wolf is... We'll finding your mate but after that it is your first shift." She replied sensing my worry through the bond. I wasn't really all that worried about the shift I was more worried about life in the compound and life after I shifted. There was a strong chance I would be an Omega wolf like the majority of my family or if I was lucky a low ranking Gamma like my father. But I hated the thought of having my wolf so easily submit to someone stronger.
"Were your parents also Omegas?" I asked her curious. She glanced at me a weird look on her face. "You don't remember?" She asked shocked.
"Remember what?" I asked
"I'm your cousin, on your dad's side. My mother is his older sister, and we grew up together. You don't remember me?" She asked sounding just a bit hurt.
I tensed my father never mentioned the family we left on pack land because it only reminded him of mom. I should have been able to remember them because I was seven when I left but most of my childhood in pack land I could barely remember. "I... Can't remember," I choked out sadly. "Hey, it's okay you were young-" she started. "It isn't because I forgot Skye, it's because I can't remember. Everything before the accident is a blur or just black gaps that I just can't get past," I told her.
Eight years ago my family was driving into town to see some movie, my dad was driving with mom in the passenger seat and I was in the back behind mom. Than another car plowed into the passenger side of our car. If mom had died instantly from the impact, I hadn't. The other car didn't hit the back side of our car as badly as the front but the crash had broken broken both my legs and I sustained multiple cuts and bruises. My worst injury was to my head, when I woke up in the packs hospital ward in town I couldn't remember anything at all. After weeks some memories came back I remembered bits and pieces luckily I remembered my dad and some other things but most of my memories were gone.
Dad wasn't severely injured in the crash any injuries he had healed instantly at the scene, but he blamed himself for the accident and for my mom's death and my injuries. Once the doctors had proclaimed me fit enough to leave the hospital I hadn't returned home instead we went off to my father's first posting with the Night Raiders unit. I hadn't been back since and that was why I was so nervous now, we'll that and some other reasons.
"Oh, I didn't know. I'm sorry I knew you were hurt badly but I don't think anyone knows what really happened. Your father only came back once to meet with the Alpha, I guess to get permission to join the military," she told me as we pulled into a McDonalds. At the drive thru she ordered five Big Macs, she gave me three and kept the other two. I picked up one of the warm boxes and popped the lid, the smell of meat hit my nostrils and my stomach growled again. I bit into the first burger and nearly moaned with happiness, normally I hated fast food but I was so starved it tasted like a gourmet burger.
"Better?" Skye asked. I nodded and dug into the rest of the burger. When I finished eating whatever Erie already out of town and on an empty old road. I looked at Skye and studied her, her blonde hair was a couple shades lighter than mine but from pictures I have see it kinda looked like my mom's hair. Her eyes were also a pale green like mine, now that I was really looking I realized we actually looked alike and could easily pass for sisters. Our biggest difference was I had more of a tan which made my skin look golden whereas her skin was on the paler side.
"How old are you?" I asked curiously. If we grew up together she most likely was in her teens but she could be as you as 17 and as old as 35. "I turned 18 couple of weeks ago," she answered her eyes on the road. Making her about 2? years older than me. We fell back into silence and I turned my attention to the window, the road we were on cut through a forest that didn't look like it would end anytime soon. After a while everything looked the same to me. "How's your dad doing?" Skye asked suddenly. "Um, he's doing ok I guess. His unit is being transferred from Denver to Watertown in South Dakota," I told her. "Apparently the cops there need help with what looks like a Fay whose enslaving humans,"
I was disappointed I wasn't able to go because it wasn't everyday a girl could see one of the Fair Folk's darker sides come out and play.
"Do you think Uncle Carver will ever come back?" She inquired. It was weird hearing her call my dad uncle, I wasn't use to family terms like that. "I don't know," I told her honestly. If my dad ever had a good reason to come back it was for my first shift but even that didn't seem to be able convince him to come back.
Skye suddenly turned and headed straight into the forest, for a moment I thought she was going to crash us right into a tree. The ground had well wore tired treads going through the forest, which was hidden from the road by all the vegetation. After a couple of minutes the trees suddenly stopped and we were on a small dirt road in the middle of the forest. "What the," I said. Skye laughed at the expression on my face. "Well we can't just let the compound be found easily." She said the laughter still in her voice, "There is a town a couple more miles down the main road and we try and keep the townies from knowing exactly were the compound is."
After five minutes of driving we came to the end of the dirt road, it ended with a small parking lot where there were seven other vehicles just parked there. Skye pulled in next to a black SUV and hopped out of the truck. Stepping out of the truck I turned and grabbed my backpack that was still on the floor. "Welcome home," Skye said. My duffle was swung over her shoulder again as she came around from the back of the truck. I couldn't see anything except for trees past all the cars but I could smell the others, and could hear the sounds of life just through the trees. What's more is through my bond I could feel them all. "Come on," Skye said. She grabbed my hand and lead me into the forest, the trees quickly gave way and I finally saw the compound.
We stood at the edge of a large clearing about two football fields on either direction, through out the clearing were four different buildings. Three of the buildings were closer together with the last one on the far side of the clearing by itself. "That one has the cafeteria one the first floor." Skye said pointing to the closest building, "The second floor is the barracks." She said. "Most of us live there after we shift, but once you find you mate you move out into one of the cabins that are in the forest."
Skye started walking farther into the clearing I followed her as I took in the different buildings and the other wolves outside. "That far building is the rec room," she said pointing to the long one story building on the opposite side of the clearing. "It has a tv and some games, it is where most of the teens hang out when there bored." Outside of the rec room there was also a basketball court were a game was going on. "That is the school," Skye told me dragging my attention away from the game. The school was the smallest building out of the four and sat near the middle of the clearing not far from the last building. It had two floors and next to it was a scary looking obstacle course. "And finally this is the Meeting house. It also has the Alpha's office and personal chambers as well as rooms for the Betas." She said stopping outside of the biggest building in the clearing that sat right in the middle.
She opened the door for me, I hesitated at first but suddenly I could feel something inside pulling me forward through my pack bond and I entered the building. The room on the other side was a large meeting room with stair cases on either wall that lead to a loft that looked out over the meeting room.
"Are you coming Kye?" Skye asked.
I turned to see Skye had moved out from behind me and was already halfway up one of the staircase. I stopped gawking at the room and started after her. The loft was huge and on either side the was a hallway that lead deeper into the building. Instead of leading me down one of those hallways Skye went over to two large doors that were in the middle of the back wall. I stopped beside her and waited for something to happen, I expected her to knock but she just stood there waiting. "Come in," a voice on the other side of the doors ordered just when I was about to ask her what she was doing. Skye opened the door and I walked into a large office, bookcases surrounded the entire office except for two large windows on either side of a large wooden desk and a fire place directly behind it. My eyes immediately went to the women seated behind the desk, who looked like she was in her early forties. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a high pony that just barely touched her shoulders, her storm grey eyes seemed to burn right through me. My gaze had only met hers for a second before I quickly lowered my gaze.
I didn't need Skye to tell me who she was I could tell instantly through my bond, and her power seemed to permeate the room she was the Alpha of the Night Shade pack: Raiza Night. "Kylie," she said. Her voice surrounded me with warmth and seemed to flow through every part of my body. She stood from her desk and moved closer toward me until she stood in front of me. Her hand reached out and cupped my cheek, as soon as she touched me I wanted nothing more but to melt into her touch, unconsciously my body did lean in to it. "It is so good to have you home," she told me. Her hand left my face and I wanted to cry out her touch was so soothing, but her her hand found my face again and she traced the barely visible scar on my right temple.
"Your father tells me you still can't remember is that true?" She asked. "I... can remember a few things but nothing important it's all really just a blur," I answered. Her hand dropped from my face and her arms encircled me. "What do you remember, my little wolf?" She asked. "I remember our house with bright yellow flowers out front and my mom gardening, my dad putting me to bed, and forest," I told her. Those were the few memories that still stood out clearly in my mind. "Nothing else?" She asked quietly. I thought back through all the flashes of memories I could picture, suddenly a picture formed in my mind of a boy with long dark black hair that hung in his face almost hiding his bright blue eyes. "A boy with black hair and blue eyes, but I can't remember a name," I said slowly.
Raiza slowly released me and stepped back. "It's alright Kye, but maybe now that your back some of your memories will return slowly as well," she said. "Now down to business, Kye you don't remember what it was like growing up with pack so you need to learn before you end up getting yourself in trouble. Also since you're shifting soon I decided to let you live in the barracks but if you want your Aunt has offered to let you live with her and her mate until you shift. Where you stay is up to you," Raiza said as she stalked back to her desk. I noticed for the first time two other wolves were in the room with us, one was a a girl who looked about just 5 feet tall but the power I could now sense coming from her told me she was a Beta, as was the man who stood next to her. He was easily 6 feet tall with thick muscles everywhere, his brown hair was pulled back and rested at the nape of his neck.
"I think I would be more comfortable in the barracks," I told her. She nodded and fished something out of her desk. "Alright I will assign you room 23 it is right across from Skye's room. Now even though it will be only for a couple weeks you still need to attend the school in town until you shift. We do this so that our pups get use to being around humans which you defiantly should be but after your shift they stay on the compound so that they can learn to control their instincts," She said and picked handed me the small pile of papers she had pulled from her desk. I took them with a quick glance I saw that the first one was my new class schedule. "I already have you enrolled in the high school your father sent me a list of all the classes you have taken so it should match up decently but if you want to change anything go talk to the counselors at school. Lastly the bus will pick you and the others up and take you to school you can meet up with the rest of the kids going to the bus stop in the cafeteria for breakfast," Raiza explained to me. "If you have any questions or you remember anything come to me alright?" She told me. "Of course," I replied. "Good, you can go settle in, and Skye thank you for getting her," Raiza said. "It was my pleasure Alpha," Skye said and bowed her head before turning and leaving the room I started after her. "Oh, and Kye," Raiza called. I turned back and looked at her. "When your ready your aunt would really like to see you."
***