Cold Flames

New Alphas and New Wars .1.

.November.

Anxiety.

Just one word that has managed to grab at me with impenetrable and eager fingers. It makes you sit and overthink every single thing. At times it makes you think people in your life are leaving you- I know they are. You begin to feel abandoned- every day of my life and you begin to feel you're not worth anything because the most important people in your life don't want to be around or have ended up leaving you. So you push away for fear of being hurt. You push them away so they can't discard or leave you. When in reality, yes, people will come and go, but not everyone wants to leave.

With that thought in mind, I made sure my glove was comfortably placed on my palm before dusting the small patches of dirt from the ground off my leggings. I wrung out my wet hair, wrapping it into a loose bun to dry faster, all the while exposing myself from the oak tree that had before shielded what I could only refer to as my queer nakedness.

The once beautiful sunset had vanished along with my daily run. The orange and brown horizon was long gone, darkness slowly but surely slipping into the dimly lit sky. I glanced one last time at the still river where I had recently lain and left towards the direction of the Pack house.

Cold Flames Pack was one out of the four Packs in our Kingdom, my pack. There were only four Kingdoms in three countries in the whole world meaning that there were only twelve existing packs because there are four packs in each Kingdom, although one of those packs had been overthrown and taken over by the Alpha of the Brown Haze Pack in the South side of our Kingdom, Alpha Hunter. He was the head of the committee in our Kingdom which officially made him the ruler of our Kingdom despite his tender age. Each Kingdom had a committee which consisted of all four Alphas', their Betas' and the third in command. The leaders, also known as the head of the committee were the Royals in the Kingdom. Being Royal passed down from generation to generation and couldn't be changed unless the Alpha was overthrown.

The crunches of the leaves under my trainers were deafening in the silent night and remained a reminder that I had stayed out too late. Not that anyone would notice. Jake, the faetici of the pack who was the person who took care of the pack when neither the Alpha, Beta or third were around had gotten too used to my frequent runs. So much so that he never bothered checking up on me anymore- not that I cared. I've been alone for so long now that one more person out of zero abandoning me couldn't really be much of a bother.

The story of my parents was a tragic one and has never been remembered by me as none other than such. Thirteen years ago, started by my parents was the genesis of my abandonment. As a pup of seven years, I never truly understood what had been going on. I still don't. Flashes of me escaping the base where women, children and non-warriors were protected during wars and my parents as wolves both fighting for my and their lives filled my thoughts on a daily basis. I remembered fire, lots of it.

Alpha Cade, ruler of the Cold Flames pack on the West side of the Kingdom had been like a second father to me, back then. I faintly remember our families being extremely close but that's about it. Ever since the war, his attitude towards me and every other Pack member except for Luna is hostile. It's odd however as I seem to be the only one who seems to have noticed and acknowledged his unexpected change in attitude. His once friendly demeanor was now intimidating and cruel. He never smiled, not anymore.

I had broached the topic a few times towards Melissa, one of the caretakers who were women the age of thirty and above who were yet to find their mate turned cleaners, but she as well as everyone else was oblivious towards it. I tucked a stray stand behind my ear and let out a breath I had unintentionally been holding. A few years ago, I had lost someone I could actually call a friend.