Heart of the Auburn Wolf

Human among Werewolves

POV: Freya

Beep Beep Beep

I wake up as usual at 6 AM to start my duties. I have to help with the laundry, the food and then leave for work in the human city. It's been 5 years since I got my pendant that recedes my wolf, together with all of its wolven abilities, and no matter how much I tried, I cannot pull my weight inside the pack. Hence, one year ago I have taken a job in the nearby city as a waitress in a café, with the Alpha's consent, if you can call a waving hand consent. It's not like he really cares what I do, or what happens to me, for that matter. My father has ignored my existence ever since that incident, which I recall almost nothing about. I remember being at my favorite lake just a bit beyond the border when I got mind-linked about my little brother's birth. I wanted to get there as fast as possible so I sprinted towards it. But somewhere along the way, a strong pain hit my chest and my body got all hot and sweaty all of a sudden. I had dropped to my knees in pain and screamed for help. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the dungeon, cuffed to the wall, and scared. My mother was in front of me, together with another woman, dressed weirdly in a ragged black dress and a pointy hat.

"Freya, my darling, please don't be scared." My mother assured me, probably hearing my increasing heartbeat.

"Mom... what's going on?" I ask with a trembling voice, after a useless attempt to free my hands.

"I'll tell you everything, but for now, we're in a hurry. Let the woman do her job, alright sweetie?"

I didn't even have time to nod, as my focus directed to the woman approaching me. She then crouched in front of me and began speaking:

"Little monster" she said, spitting the last word in my face, as if she didn't exactly take pleasure in being here, "your Goddess seems to have deserted you."

Her breath made me gag, smelling like a hundred rotten corpses on top of each other. The woman took out a gold, shining round pendant with a ruby gem in the middle and put it around my neck.

At this point, my wrists were getting hot where the silver touched the skin, and I could feel a force pushing forward inside my mind, as if my consciousness was a door and a bear had just run into it with full force. My eye twitched and the woman seemed to have taken notice of this:

"Feisty one, isn't she? Your wolf. But we'll put her in her place." And she let out a chuckle.

Then, with one hand on the pendant and another on the side of my neck, the woman begins mumbling:

"Let thou become dull where sharp hath been, as claws and fangs recede,

Thy strength shalt become sapped, thou could not harm another of thy kind.

Upon this talisman, thou wolven sense of smell is to be stopped,

May thou never smell thine mate, and so shalt be true of the reverse!"

When she finished, the hotness surrounding my wrists ceased, as the cuffs felt like cold iron. The woman took her hands off the pendant and my neck, looked into my eyes and told me in a grave voice:

"Do not take the pendant off your neck and do not lose it, little child, it's one of a kind."

And I never did, to this day. Basically, one could say that I am a human living among werewolves. Mom told me everything, just as she had promised, that my wolf had killed two patrols in a vicious attack, but nobody else knows. Other pack members believe that my wolf just never surfaced, using it as a reason to bully me. This used to hurt me a lot until I started working at the café, where I made human friends, that do not discriminate.

"Oh, good Goddess, the time" I think as I look towards the clock reading 8:30 AM. The café opens at 9 AM, so I am not late, but I'll have to hurry. Before leaving, I catch myself looking in the mirror. I used to be unable to look at myself in the mirror, hating my slim figure which is unbefitting for a werewolf, let alone the daughter of an Alpha. However, I started to accept the witch's words and come to terms with the fact that I will not fit in with my kind. The job at the café helps me not only pay my share in the pack, but also save up some money to move out, with the humans.