RISE OF THE LYCANS - SHADOWS AND SECRETS

Chapter 2 - Bampot

Maeve

I slipped behind the wheel of my silver Jeep Grand Cherokee and started the engine. Grandad had surprised me with it on my sixteenth birthday. It was used but had low miles and was still in great shape. We lived in the northern part of the pack territory, and the library was near the school on the south side of the territory, which was several miles away.

"I can't wait to see what your wolf will look like," Nan smiled.

"You think she'll be chestnut red like me?"  I was short for a she-wolf at five foot and three inches tall. Not only was I short, but I was on the fuller, curvy side.

"I think she'll be just as beautiful as you are."

"Great," I laughed. "I'm going to look like an oversized Corgi."

I turned onto the main road that wound through a beautiful stretch of trees. The Moon Realm Pack was so big that the Alpha King split the pack into east and west when the monarchy was established, allowing his twin brothers to step into the Alpha positions. We lived in my favorite part of the territory because the forest in the north was beautiful. For as long as I could remember, I'd always felt a pull to nature. The trees, shrubs, wildflowers, rocks, rivers, and waterfalls spoke to my soul.

"Mitza just mind linked me," Nan said when I stopped at the mansion. "She fixed you something special for lunch today."

"I hope it's her yellow rice and chicken!" I squealed and nearly jumped out of the jeep before I could turn the engine off.

Nan laughed, "Maybe I should have just invited her over to cook dinner tonight?"

In my chunky heels and skirt, I raced up the steps to the kitchen's back door as best as I could. Brianna and her father, Jarvis, were the first to greet me with birthday hugs when I stepped into the kitchen. Her father was the house manager at the mansion, and Mitza was his mate.

"I believe I owe you girls a shopping trip soon to celebrate your coming of age," he grinned. Brianna was a month younger than me, and I couldn't wait to take our wolves out for a run together.

"Mom made your favorite," Brianna beamed at me. Her mother was from a pack in Florida before she joined the Moon Realm, and her Cuban cooking was delicious.

"Thank you!" 

I knew everyone who worked in the kitchen since I arrived at the Moon Realm. They had become my second family. After a round of birthday wishes and hugs, I left with my special lunch and cookies before I ran into anyone I wanted to avoid.

As my rotten luck would have it, the Double D's were headed my way. Denise and Dottie were part of the incessant group of females hoping to become the next mate or girlfriend of one of the royals. One might say they had turned it into an art, but I knew catching the attention of one of the royals was more like a sport.

It wasn't just Rex and his older brother Lukas they were after; it was their cousin Ranger and his brother Phoenix, whose father Zeus was the Alpha of Moon Realm West. It was also Caspian, whose father Poseidon was the Alpha of Moon Realm East. Rex's cousins Kairo and the triplets also received similar attention. They were born Lycans and would probably have packs of their own one day.

"Haven't seen you at training in a long time, Maeve," Denise greeted me. "Busy scrubbing the royal toilets?"

When we were younger, I broke Denise's ugly nose when she had insulted me. Now that she had her wolf, and I didn't, I knew better than to provoke her.

"Is that your breakfast?" Dottie asked, sniffing the air. "No wonder you can't lose weight."

Dottie was the biggest bitch of them all, and I wanted to tell her to shut her gob, but she was also the most vicious. I could see the glint in her eyes as she considered my birthday lunch. Any moment now, she would either snatch it away or dump it on the ground.