Falling for your Fate

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I swiped at the blood seeping from the cut on my arm but didn't slow down my pace. I had cut myself as I shimmied out my bathroom window after my disastrous eighteenth birthday. I never expected it to go well but I didn't anticipate how cruel my parents would be. I quickly put the thoughts out of my mind because if I slowed my pace, if I stopped even for a moment I would fall to pieces. I had nowhere to go, nowhere to run but at the moment it was the only thing holding me together.

I had always known deep down that my parents had never wanted me but I had never know the true reason for their resentment, for the years of silence.

Today, not only did I become an adult but I lost my home and everything I had ever known as well. Despite being ignored by my parents for most of my life I still didn't want to leave everything which was familiar to me. I liked my pack, no matter how harsh my parents had been growing up. I liked my friends and my alpha and his luna, but after my parents revealed their little secret I knew I couldn't stay there any longer. I couldn't stay in their house. I didn't want to and they wouldn't let me. I was an adult a fully grown woman and they no longer wanted to care for me. I knew one of the other members of the pack would take me in but I couldn't live with that shame, the pity I would see everyday. I couldn't be their burden, not when I had been my parents for my entire life.

Instead, I found myself running through the darkening forest, hearing the noises of animals scattering as I sped past trees and ran through streams. My jeans were already soaked through to my knees and most of the loose pink blouse I had picked out specially for my birthday was torn and ruined by the stray branches.

I couldn't even think about how long I had been running but the burning in my legs and the tightness of my chest told me it had already been too long. Although I had run far I knew I still had a long way to go. Our pack was located by Lake of the woods in Minnesota, on the boarder of Canada and the US. Our town was rarely visited by humans and was almost entirely a town made up of werewolves. Vacancy, was a town that rarely even made it on the maps but we liked it better that way because it almost eliminated the possibility of being seen by humans when we shifted.

When I had run from my home in my panic and confusion I had taken a wrong turn and now knew that the only way to continue without doubling back was to swim across the smallest section of the lake. I couldn't go back, I couldn't stay there.

I could smell the water as I got nearer and I knew the only way I was going to be able to cross it was in wolf form but I also knew the wolf inside of me was going to need some convincing.

Approaching the shoreline of the lake I felt my wolf begin to struggle against me. Steeling my spine, I forced my inner wolf to shift but remained in complete control of my mind, using all of my strength to push my wolf's body towards the water. I could feel my limbs fighting against me but I had already come too far. I felt my body rumble with a growl as I approached the water but I pushed through the resistance and soon found myself completely submerged in the freezing water.

It wasn't as cold as I knew it could have been and I knew I was lucky I hadn't made my escape during the winter months. It was warm for autumn but still I felt the coldness begin to seep through my fur, sending cold chills right to my very core. Pushing through the chill I began to paddle across, ignoring the wolf's protests inside of me.

Halfway across I felt my body begin to lock up with the cold and I was beginning to regret my choice. All I could think was that I should have tried a different route, I should have run around the outskirts of town and ran around the lake into Canada but it was too late now and all I could do was keep my limbs moving to stop them from freezing solid.