Choleric

Chapter IX

The walk back to the meeting house was depressingly silent. Celia walked beside Aleara, dragging her feet through the thick, evergreen grass. Dew caught onto the cheap white canvas, chilling her toes and leaving the shoes a soggy brown. The ringing sound of a gun being fired replayed in Celia's head. The desperate look in the girls eyes was all Celia could see. No matter how much she tried to shake off the eerie feeling of something crawling under her skin, she just couldn't. Scratching her arms she glanced around. Everyone else stared a few metres ahead of them, faces expressionless as they made their way through the territory and towards the pack house. Celia tried to look unaffected but she couldn't help but feel sick in the stomach as the scene replayed in her head.

Entering the pack room everyone began to relax as they ascended the spiral staircase one at a time. The girl who was standing beside Aleara gave Celia a small smile as she walked past. Her golden features friendly, but slightly shell-shocked. Other than her, no one showed any signs that this mornings events had affected them. Celia began the small climb after her. The girl's golden brown legs raced up, dark blonde hair flying behind her as she stomped up the staircase. Celia's eyes watched each step with an untrustworthy gaze. Each time the step whined and dipped slightly under her weight she would freeze up, preparing herself for a long fall. A long fall that never seemed to happen.

Reaching the top she came face to face – or more politically correct; chest to face – with Aleara. "You will be announced to the pack today at lunch. Sophie here will make you presentable in an hours time," spinning on her heel, the short witch-lady walked into her flat and slammed the door. Looking to my left, the girl with the honey-like features smiled softly.

"I'm Sophie, I'll come to your flat in an hour," she said softly.

"Okay. I'm Celia," she replied nervously as Sophie opened the High Beta's door and entered the room.

Letting out a small breath Celia walked into her own flat. A loud crash and consecutive string of curse words drifted from the office Cassius had shown her earlier. Frowning Celia navigated her way to the office and glanced in from the doorway. A large back of muscle faced her as Cassius crouched on the floor, picking up an abundance of stationery items sprawled over the carpeted floor, mumbling inaudibly.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly, a small part of her felt a ridiculous urge to crack up at the scene before her, but she knew it would probably not be one of her best life choices.

"Fine," he snatched the now full bucket of stationery items and slammed it back on his desk. "You know how to do reports don't you?" Caught by surprise she found herself nodding like an idiot.

"Yes, I was taught how to do them," she replied after a few seconds, shaking out of her daze. Like all high borns, it was necessary for her to train to be a high lady.

"Good," handing her a file and a form he motioned for her to grab the spare chair hidden in a dark corner of the room. Grabbing the meshed back, she wheeled the small office chair to the opposite side of the desk and plopped into it. Cassius' eyes glanced up questionably as she let out a small squeak in surprise. Nearly falling off the surprisingly low seat Celia felt her cheeks burn under his gaze, asking herself why she had to be born with the powers of stupidity. Awkwardly crouching up slightly she felt under the chair for the small stick thing and readjusted the height. Shaking his head Cassius let out a small smile, finding her ditziness surprisingly adorable.

Once the chair was at an appropriate height Celia opened the file and prepared herself. To the right was a photo of the boy with all of his details. Taking in a deep breath she closed her eyes and began writing the report, trying not to focus on the details as she wrote them down as Cassius completed the girl's report.

She remembered watching her father completing one of these reports for the first time. At her old pack, the beta had to write all the pack reports that had to be sent off to the government. She was nine when the first report for adultery was written by her father. She remembered that day clearly. The punishment was not as silent as the one today. The entire pack knew about it and all the older wolves wanted to witness the death sentence. The whole thing was a disaster. The couple were hell-bent on staying alive, breaking away from the guards and running out of the territory. The Alpha had to call for the neighbouring packs, sending out hundreds of search parties over the span of a month until they were found and killed.

She didn't understand it back then. Didn't know why it was so important they were killed. Celia remembered her mother trying to explain it to her. It was never always like this. She had said, telling her about the times after the plague. No one understood anything then, why babies were born deformed and more often than not, dead. They didn't understand a lot of things then.

They used to believe there was some god, some ancient spirit that sealed our fate with one person and one person only. It was only recently that they discovered this wasn't necessarily the case, that it isn't just a spiritual concept, but also a biological one.

Like all lifeforms, werewolves strive to find a person with opposite abilities. A person who was good at the things another was bad at. This way the offspring had an even better chance of survival. It was why the humans came up with the saying opposites attract. The only difference between werewolves and other animals was that they were monogamous. They only felt attracted to one other person in their entire lives.

In theory it's great. Everyone is born and grows up knowing they will have someone to spend the rest of their life. But unfortunately it is not that simple. Werewolves are born with half a spirit. It is the reason, other than creating offspring with better chances of survival, why werewolves only mate with one person. Instead of being born with one person destined for them, they are born with half a spirit and must find someone with a spirit that is completely opposite, yet the same, as their own. These people are recognisable by the scent of their half-soul. Once someone find the scent of a soul that is a match, they lose the ability to detect anyone else other than the person they found first.

If someone chooses to mate with another person whose half-soul is not compatible to their own, they create a bad soul. A soul that was never meant to exist. This soul takes over their being, turning them insane and any offspring they have will not have any chance in surviving if it is not dead already. Furthermore, by mating with someone else they alter the scent of their soul without losing the ability to detect others. This means if they come across someone with a soul that was a perfect match to the original half-soul, they will feel the effects of finding their mate while the other person will not feel a thing. This used to cause a lot of trouble because people with bad souls are crazy, unpredictable and the most dangerous type of werewolf alive. Celia couldn't imagine the terrifying experience of having a bad-souled werewolf claim her as their own. They were the types of stories people these days told around the campfires late at night. And every time, Celia found herself shaking in her boots.

Long ago when werewolves still believed a person was born belonging to one person and one person only, they believed by mating with someone else they were cheating on the person they were destined to. Thus, it was labelled as adultery. Now, no one has been bothered to change the name, although it is widely known as the death sentence as bad souls kill the bodies the are in and everyone around them.

These bad souls nearly destroyed the entire werewolf race once before. Which is why it is so important to kill them off. Celia understood the consequences now. But looking into the eyes of the girl begging on the floor, she could not for a second believe that her soul had been corrupted. That she would be capable of murder in a matter of days. Looking into her eyes Celia saw a young girl. Not a monster.

•§•

Hey guys! Hopefully this has cleared some things up and is an interesting twist. Also hope the info chapter wasn't overly boring, sorry if it was.

But I have a shit ton of work to do and I'll be unable to update within the next two weeks, so please don't expect me to.

[unedited]

xxx Immortal - Serenity.