Rejection on the Full Moon

CHAPTER 2 The Accident

　　Soon after my first shift, I was sent to training. Special wolves who shifted early are sent to train with three things in mind: speed, stealth, and self-defence. We're smaller than the wolves that usually had their first shift at sixteen years old, which is why we're taught how to be fast and silent but also how to defend ourselves. We are considered an "elite wolf" meant to serve a higher purpose in our pack. At sixteen, we could choose to either become Hunters or Trackers. If we end up being strong enough, we could be the leaders of our pack like a Beta, Second Beta, Head Hunter, or Head Tracker. I personally am eyeing the tracking spot just like Mother—the fastest Tracker in our pack. I could already be considered a natural. My body, although small, is faster than most sixteen-year-old shifters. I can easily keep up with older wolves and hide my scent even better. My mother always takes Mia and me for extra training because Mia seemed to be the only one barely able to keep up.

　　Once a month, my family took us hunting. Sometimes we hunted in the forest, training our bodies to dodge trees as we catch prey. I loved the chase of the hunt. My favourite things are usually smaller prey, like squirrels and rabbits, animals considered too quick to catch. After strict training from my mother, I became quick enough to grab a squirrel as it scampers up a tree and beat a rabbit to its burrow. The hard parts were leaving a clean kill.

　　But there are some skills we're taught that are considered essential in case any of us becomes a Rogue. This includes how to loot from human territories, what herbs and plants are edible, as well as which farmers would not miss a few cattle from so-called "animal attacks." This northwestern region of Ontario, Canada, holds many forests and land deemed unsuitable for living thanks to witches, but we're close enough to farms that a simple raid on a moonless night is all it takes. Tonight is such a night.

　　My parents tell us to shift just inside the tree line by our house before silently making our way through the territory. A field of cattle greets us just outside the pack territory's boundaries. Calves bleated and ran around, too restless to sleep. Their mothers slept blissfully, unaware of the threat lurking just behind them. Our targets are the babies.

　　I am the first to go since I can distract the creatures with my fur, my wolf body slowly maturing into a delinquent at nine years old. Our hunting strategy is that I distract the animals, and the rest go for the kill. Within thirty minutes, we have five calves and are on our way home with the deed done. The farmer would be pissed, but it is a sight many get used to considering the coyotes and ordinary wolves living in the area. It would be considered just another animal attack come tomorrow morning

　　We stop at the butchering hut, a cold concrete hut my father had built so that he could cut the meat and send a portion to the pack house to help stock up. This task was a mandatory rule set by the first Alpha of the pack that is carried down for many generations. We gently place the dead calves on the metal square just outside the door and left my father to work. My mother, brother, sister, and I go out to the forest, killing a few wild turkeys and a deer. Our goal is to help get a supply going for when it is needed, as well as keep up the stock at the pack house for the next few weeks. We repeat the process of putting the animals on another metal square, then left to go into our house, take a shower and relax.

　　It's a long weekend here in Ontario due to Family Day being tomorrow, so my siblings and I get to stay up late and watch movies with our parents. This is the only time we get to do this kind of bonding since Zack is in college and Mia in high school, so our parents don't have to worry about them and their activities now that they have chosen their path and place in the pack. But because I'm still young and have yet to choose a path as a pack member, my parents still treat me like a child.

　　I hate it.

　　"Well, who wants my famous homemade burgers tomorrow?" My dad asks as he waltzes into the living room with a cooler, carrying what I assume to be meat for burgers, perking my siblings and I right up.

　　"Do we really need to answer that, dad?" Zack asks while Mia and I both nod in agreement. The night went on, with chatter about what else we would eat with the burgers and the fun we would have at the pack run tomorrow night. In the end, I found myself curled up between my brother and sister, fast asleep.

　　…

　　"Daddy, can we go for the run now? The pack should be ready for one." I ask impatiently, hopping from one foot to the other. Our dinner had finished hours ago, and now it is time for the annual Family Day Run. To say that I'm excited is an understatement. I love being in wolf form and running in the night as my fur moves like flames in the wind. It always amazes newly shifted wolves when they run with the pack for the first time, especially since they have never seen my fur until then. The way some wolves would trip over a root from the distraction always has me rolling in laughter by the end of the run. My siblings have already shifted, tired of waiting, and I'm inches away from joining them and taking off in search of the other pack members. But I knew my parents would ground me to only the yard and away from any pack run if I took off without their consent.

　　"Yes, we can." My father chuckles, this small phrase being all I need to hear before I run around behind a bush and shift. I whimper from the pain and the bones cracking and realigning themselves until I stand on all fours. It has only taken three minutes for me to shift and join my siblings, but it felt like hours with all the pain. Due to my age, my family limited how much I shifted, but they still have me training to shift as much as I could to get used to the pain until it became a seamless shift. I have another three years until I could go shift train at fourteen, and the horror stories that Mia and Zack brought back have me both nervous and excited for it to happen.

　　Finally, everyone is all shifted into their wolf forms and running through the forest. Our first stop is meeting up with the rest of the pack at the pack house, where our run would start. It gives everyone a chance to let lose in our wildest form, and any wolf is welcomed as long as they can stick with our group. The ages range from some as young as thirteen to as old as two- or maybe even three-hundred years old; perks of being a supernatural being. Zack had already split off for a group of friends as the pack house came into view. Then Mia left for another group. There is only one person I wanted to see, and the moment I spotted Leo, I nuzzle my parents then take off like a bullet, tackling the thirteen-year-old to the ground and pinning the older pup under me.