She Runs With Wolves

Running with the wolves.

With the grass fresh and green, new life was appearing all around and not just from the earth. Birds fluttered around their nests, the need to feed their newly hatched young programmed into their instincts as much as the ability to breath. Streams and rivers flowed unbothered by the winters frozen hold and beneath the surface there was as much going on in the water as on land.

Yet with all this beauty going on, the scene at the forest edge was anything but.

It had been a long hard winter for the wolves who stuck around to brave the worst of it and the survivors were only just starting to get some condition back to their coats. Most were still matted with the last of their winter fur coming free to reveal a renewed glossy covering and bones that had been come close to the skin started to disappear. That was with thanks to meals like the one they were currently gorging themselves on became more abundant.

The deer hadn't stood a chance, heavily pregnant, she had no way of outrunning the starved creatures and it was not one life that was taken with this kill, but two. It didn't matter to the wolves who all ripped and tore at her still warm flesh.

Licking the blood and stray bits of meat from my chest, I understood the balance of life. Some must die for others to live, there was no point in getting sentimental over it. After all it was the reason why I lived amongst the wolves.

The human side of me had to 'die' for another to live.

Sitting on the warm rock by the stream in the mid-morning sun, the sounds of their frenzied feeding began to lessen and I continued to groom myself, not needed to wonder what kind of monster I would look like. My reflection was clear in the still water below me as if I had been looking into a mirror. White fur was tainted pink, in parts I couldn't reach, red, while that sly grin all wolves possessed was smiling back at me.

My wolf was happy here, she belonged and had a place; a purpose.

The scrape of a nail against stone had me turning around to see our leader, our Alpha, coming over to be with me. I was a guest in their pack and my tail wagged slowly as my ears flattened so as she rubbed herself alongside me I submissively licked her chin.

I lived as one of them despite the fact they knew I wasn't.

The least I could do to thank them for this hospitality was show the dominant ones the respect they deserved and I know they appreciate it. I have proved myself to them as they have proved themselves to me, we are pack, family and she flopped down beside me as if using me for a cushion. I playfully mouthed her leg as her year old pup came to join us and spying my invitation to play jumped on the pair of us. He tugs on her ear a little to roughly, the growl a warning and he settled down squeezing between us.

The afternoon would be much the same.

Contrary to what you may think, this is not a story simply about the wolves of this land. My name is Bianca Lovett and while I appear to be one of them, I am so much more.

I am a wolf-shifter. A werewolf; call it what you will.

A human hidden in wolfs clothing.

Five years ago on my sixteenth birthday, I was due to undergo my first shift. Sixteen is a coming of age for shifters, and mine was bigger than most.

I met my mate.

A mate is the one person destiny has chosen for you; a soul mate. In the fairy tales I grew up with, this person is supposed to love you, protect you - but instead he rejected me and I was left for dead.

That was his first mistake.

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Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack.

- Unknown

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