Claws and code

Pack and family

I was the main event. Daniel dropped the block he'd placed on my mind and I tried to picture what David had told me to block out the whole pack. It worked really well but, without whatever the Alpha had done, I could feel them behind my mental firewall.
One by one people stood up and introduced themselves. Then I would feel something push at my firewall as they tried to link with me. I then had to picture myself talking to them in my head. The Alpha seemed pleased that I succeeded every time but it was getting more challenging to link with them as more people tried but I got the hang of it quickly.

By the time Mark stepped up, I was sweating when I tried to block his push to link. He broke through but I managed to push him out after he taunted me for a few minutes. Everyone looked rather impressed when I stood up as he taunted me in the link and they all seemed to know when I managed to push him from my mind. They cheered and laughed. Arthur, Mark's dad came up behind his son and pushed him aside to give me a huge hug. 'My Daughter!' He exclaimed.

Before I could ask Daniel explained. 'The testing places you on the level of our Beta line. We already know you can hold your own against Mark in a fight. Now we know that you are strong of mind too. Because you have no family and weren't born to the pack, we needed to find you a family. It was decided that you would be adopted into the family that matched your strength of mind. It seems that you are now the newest member of Arthur's family.'

Just before he finished speaking a tall, dark haired woman bustled in, pushing people aside as she moved. She was dressed in dirty jeans, a work shirt and cowboy boots.

'Cloe! I finally get to meet you up close. I'm so happy to finally meet you. The kids have been talking about you since beginning uni. I must say it's an honour to welcome you to the family. Our very first human and she joins my family. This is so exciting!'

Arthur blushed and tried to grab her but she expertly dodged him. Mark groaned as another woman and three younger men proudly stalked in. Other people started filing out with big smiles and congratulations to the Alpha, Arthur and myself.

I was introduced to the women and three younger men. They were Mark's mother and his younger siblings. They were now my family it seemed and they all took it very serious. They explained that if an orphan pup was inducted into any pack, they found the best match, strength wise, and the pup was then adopted into that family. Of all the families in the pack, I had to end up with an adopted brother that always made me feel like a bunny surrounded by cats. I smiled to myself, the irony was that I was a human surrounded by mythical wolf people that could rip me apart without breaking a sweat.
David saved me from asking why I couldn't just join Sasha's family. I was higher ranked than Sasha and that meant she couldn't protect me because she wouldn't be able to push a link with me if I blocked everyone out.

The Beta, Arthur, could easily push through my mind block and so could his wife. They were second to the Alpha. It seemed that I was quite strong in wolf terms and I felt quite pleased with myself. When they explained what that meant, I quickly decided that maybe it wasn't a good thing after all. Being this high up in the hierarchy meant I had certain responsibilities to the pack. Those duties wouldn't be excused simply because I was human. If there were pack events and runs, I had to be there.

David would take me with him when he did his city runs. He wasn't the best fighter but he was the most agile and fastest. He was the future leader of the pack while Mark was the future Beta and would lead the protectors of the pack. I would be learning parkour, Lycan style. Because, they explained, fighting wasn't always an option if I was outnumbered. I needed to be able to get away. 

Joining the pack was incredible. Everyone was enchanted with the novelty of having a fully grown, unturned human in the pack and did their best to make me feel welcomed. I had the best holiday ever and was even given my own room the Beta's house. Located beside the pack-house where the Alpha family lived.

When we went back to school David pretended to be my boyfriend, he insisted that that would keep the human females from him. I didn't mind because he never did anything inappropriate. It was slightly sad that I had to give up my job at Dominique's internet café but he didn't mind. Dominique had been waiting to find my feet so he could travel. He leased out the business three days after I gave notice. He had been my one constant while I was growing up and it was like losing my last anchor to who I was before I found out about the Lycans.

David started taking me out when we went back to uni. First, he taught me to climb walls, then he did obstacle training with me and finally he made me memorise the city map. Buildings, side streets, dead end alleys and parks. After a few months of that, he started to take me with him on early morning runs over, under and through the city street and buildings. It was a rush to chase after him, jumping, climbing and flying between structures in the predawn.

He wouldn't take me at night because there were too many risks, but I didn't mind. Meeting vampires and other creatures wasn't something I felt the need to experience. I hadn't been to the gym since being inducted in the pack, instead Mark and Louis took me to an abandoned warehouse. They didn't want the other packs to know I was now a part of their pack. They were going to hide me until I was found out and they were doing what they could to delay that. They assured me that it was because it would be a risk to me and I could understand that so didn't complain.
Arthur told me I could call him dad but that felt too strange so I started calling him 'old man'. He started calling me Mowgli and it quickly caught on in our family unit and in time the whole pack started addressing me as such. Comedians.

On the web I created a new handle, Mowgli. I still used Tinker Bell for my normal messing around in the dark corners of the web but I used Mowgli if I interacted on behalf of the pack. The Alpha had a very sophisticated system and I was now part of the upkeep. All supernaturals had systems to protect their pack and their species from digital discovery.

Another year passed and I now ran with the pack when we were home. It felt like home. I really ran with the wolves, bouncing off trees like they were buildings, flipping over fallen trees and sometimes jumping on the back of one of the wolves before they would playfully flip me back off.

Study went well. Being part of the pack gave me family I'd never had. Life was great. The only thing missing was a boyfriend. I had gone out with a few guys but being part of the pack was a major obstacle to a serious relationship. Sasha thought it was hilarious that I kept going on dates but breaking up when it became too serious. She was waiting to meet her mate.
Mark's mum, Cindy, had tried to tell me I shouldn't date because humans could be the mate of a Lycan and if I found a mate he wouldn't be pleased with me having had boyfriends. She thought I was blessed with a packlink by their Goddess because I had a Lycan mate out there somewhere. Mark had just sat back and silently laughed at me but his mother caught him. After that, he had started intimidating any guy I went out with, he always found me on a date. Then he'd pretend to be shocked to see his little sister out with a guy he didn't know and then he would inadvertently ruin my date.

The others thought it was funny when we fought over it but he just told me to take it up with mum. I did. She unapologetically told me she was just looking out for me and my future mate, her future son in law. Mark teasingly said to take it up with the Alpha, if I had a problem with what mum said.

I did. He gave me the mate speech and told me it was no different than waiting until marriage. I argued that I wouldn't find someone to marry if they kept interfering with my love life. He smirked when he told me I needed to work more to get my mind of my hormones.

I sulked. They just laughed harder.

Even Louis wouldn't do more than flirt. I started calling him Tease. By the time I graduated I couldn't imagine life without the pack. Everything was going well and I had managed to avoid other Lycans and vampires for years. Only the occasional Rogue, and I now knew Mark hunted them down to kill them. Mark was mainly in school to protect his future Alpha, also his best friend, David. Not many wolves went to university because it took a lot of dedication to stay amongst humans for so long. Select wolves studied for the sake of the pack. Wolves that excelled at something and were willing to study with humans. David was studying for the sake of their cyber safety. Sasha was studying to become a surgeon.

It was too good to last. Murphy's law.