Rest My Soul

The alpha girl

Song: Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks.

photo- Athena inspiration

Chapter 1: The alpha girl

Athena:

I love to run through the forest. To feel the cool air on my fur and my skin, my claws digging up the dirt, the smell of earth and nature. I longed for it.

A soft melodic tone from my phone wakes me out of a fitful sleep.

Last night had been restless, for many reasons. But one of which was a gut feeling I'd had since yesterday at about noon. It was a feeling that said something very big was coming, either something very good or something very bad, but I needed to be ready.

Today would be uneventful if everything stays as it should, but nothing ever does. In this area anymore. Not in the last year and a half. We've had a string of random break-ins over the lower east side of town and the sentinels have discovered the messy carcasses of several deer, kills that were not clean and clearly not done by the pack. But there hadn't been a report in just over two weeks.

Today I am going to the pack house before school to check in with my packmates. My father always said, to be an alpha is to be close to your pack. "To learn to be a leader is to learn to be a friend first." It was something my dad had said to me once, but I can't remember when. Sometimes I even forget what his voice sounds like.

Rolling out of bed, I throw on the simplest outfit of sweats and a tank top. Another tip I learned from my dad, you can't just rely on your wolf genes to take care of everything, the human must be strong too. So, every morning I go for a run and do some body weight exercises. My wolf would get to come out tonight, but for now, I take a quick rinse in the shower and dress in my outfit for school.

When I get out of the shower I head to the kitchen. There is a note on the kitchen counter. My mother has already gone to the pack house to see if anyone needs healing. That's a normal thing for her lately, leaving early and coming back late. Especially as I get closer to my role as alpha. She's been holding the pack together with the help of the elders since my father died. Sometimes I think she doesn't want me to become alpha, not that I think she likes overseeing the pack, but I think she would rather do it than have me do it.

Through grief and through healing, she's been holding it all on her shoulders, almost by herself. And I can see and feel her frustration. But every time I try to help her or do something to prepare for my role as alpha, she finds something I've done wrong. Something to criticize. Finds a way to make me feel like I never should've helped at all.

It was only last week we had an argument about the sentinel rotation strategy to address rogue activity down in Archuletta. The result of that argument was two things; sentinel Darrian would take an extra protection survey in that area, and my mother and I didn't speak to each other for two days.

Making a glass of orange juice, I look out the window towards the beautiful green forest surrounding our house.

I had never been nervous about living in the middle of a woodsy area, we were shifters and we needed our space to run and have no humans around. But when I looked up a shiver of fear trembled down my spine.

A black figure hovers momentarily in the woods less than 300 meters from the house, catching my eye, but just as soon, it is gone.

The fear melts into confusion as I question myself. I run those woods every night. What could that dark figure be? Not a bear, definitely not a moose. A voice interrupts my thoughts

"Are you kidding? Mom left without us again?" I know it is my brother Jarret without having to turn around. The bad attitude is very on the nose for him. Especially early in the morning.