Making her own path

Aysha walked quickly through the big hallways, trying to hide the anger and disappointment on her face but failing miserably, she could feel her wolf pacing around in her head and accidentally let out a low growl. Thankfully, she did not come across anyone other than a few maids who she knew well enough that she knew they would not tell anyone if she behaved out of turn. Finally, she reached the door to her room, a large mahogany door with gold embellishment, she entered and closed them behind her. Now that she was out of sight from wandering eyes she let out a frustrated grunt, threw herself on the bed, and buried her face into one of her pillows. “We think it’s time you get married.”  Her father’s words echoed in her mind, and she still could not believe what had just happened. She was only 22 and neither of her two older sisters were married either. Well, in retrospect he did say that it was time for all of them to get married. But to take it so far as to choose their future husbands for all of them was just so wrong and outdated. After a few minutes of sulking, she got up and walked to the glass door that opened to her own personal balcony. Being a princess did have some perks, but to her, they did not outweigh the sacrifices that also came with the title. The balcony was a half-circle made of white marble with a railing made from marble as well, decorated gold and glass. She placed her arms on the rails and leaned a little forward, admiring the view. She loved the sunrise and this morning it was extra beautiful, and it seemed like the colors danced in the morning sky. But she could not help but think about the possibility of losing this view if she got married and had to move. “This is so unfair.” She muttered and continued taking in the breath-taking view. Her family lived in a large castle on top of a hill with a town surrounding it and around that was a large fortified defensive wall. Beyond that were large forests and old ruins where humans had lived about two hundred years ago. That was before the great war. The great war was an all-out war between humankind, for reasons that were hard to understand but mostly revolved around greed on hunger for power. The creatures that hid in the shadows at that time, such as us werewolves, decides to keep away from the battle and let the humans deal with their mess. But when the repercussions were starting to affect the entire world, and humans had become weak, the vampires struck. They started attacking the rest of the human settlements and because of the war, they were all but defenseless against the overwhelming power of the vampires. That is when the werewolves and other magical creatures stepped in. They fought against the vampires and tried their best to save the remaining humans. Aysha’s great grandfather was the one that united the humans, werewolves, and witches, and together they managed to force the vampires back before they managed to destroy everything. At least on this continent. Her family’s castle, which was raised by her great grandfather after the war, stood where the city and country of Luxembourg once was. The continent was still known as Europe, but the countries and their borders had been disbanded and new borders established, for the kingdoms and pack lands that now were spread all over the continent. After the war, the humans joined forces with the werewolves who took charge and still to this day rule over the land and all who live there. Unfortunately, the people and other kinds were not as lucky in the continents of both South and North America where the vampires managed to keep the upper hand and killed, captured or drove out everyone besides them. Other continents had a similar system as Europe, but Australia was mostly run by witches. Thankfully, the vampires had been relatively quiet since then and they kept to themselves on the other side of the globe. At least that was what Aysha had believed until tonight. A few corpses with bitemarks had washed to shore in Asia and at first, they were believed to have drifted from America, but then they were identified as residents of few towns close to the shore. The body count was still low, but it was starting to cause panic in some circles. To counter that threat, the kingdoms were uniting forces, and that could only be done with unification through marriage. “Talk about old school.” Aysha thought and laughed at how ridiculous that sounded. It’s not like her great grandfather married the daughters of all the packs that he united back in the day. “We’ll figure something out,” Mel said to Aysha through their link and her soothing voice helped her calm down. Mel was her wolf and helped her keep a level head most of the time. “I just can’t believe that dad is suggesting this.” Aysha thought back and went back inside to find an outfit fit for training that started in ten minutes. “I don’t want some random wolf. I want our mate.” Mel said, and Aysha could feel her put up a pouting face. Mate. A mate was something unique to werewolves. According to legends, a werewolf’s soul was torn in two and the “mate” was the one with your other half and thus making it whole again. The idea sounded so absurd, especially since it was rare that wolves found their mates nowadays. Sure, it happened occasionally, and those people were happy about it as far as she had heard, but most of the time wolves just took a chosen mate.  “Or someone is chosen for you.” Aysha sighed and took off her clothes. She took out a pair of black leggings and paired it off with a black tank top and black sneakers. She pulled her silver hair back into a high ponytail which she then braided. Her hair color was unique, and she sometimes hated how it made her stand out, but still, she would never change it or wish for something else. She took one last look in the mirror and then walked through the door.