Shadows of wolves

chapter 1

The cold wasn't as sharp down here in the south as it was in the north, but that didn't mean it wasn't cold. After travelling over three long days we arrived on unmarked territory and claimed it as soon as we arrived. It was only small about twenty strides each direction, but it would be enough to sustain us for the winter months. Snow was sniffing out our new territory and marking as much as she could before she got to close to other wolves territories. Thunder was looking for game to feed us after our three days of seemingly unending hunger on the journey south. I on the other hand was investigating the surrounding area outside of our borders.

One of our rivalling packs was but ten strides to the west. The four other pack borders varied from fifteen to eighteen strides in every direction from our own territory. The scent of the pack members that marked the borders revealed much about the strength of their pack. The one in the west was the strongest and had seven pack members, four females and three male. All but two females and one male were about six years or older and had about two or three summers of life left in them. There was a likely chance that there were two more wolves back at there den, possibly one with a litter of pups.

I was less worried about the other packs as rivals due to their slim numbers and that their borders hadn't been marked very recently and the scents had an irregular pattern suggesting lack of care for their borders and meaning that other packs such as the western pack could easily crush them anytime they wanted, they could even crush me and my kin. Some of the packs could resist them but with great cost.

After my exploring on the other side of our territory, I started to examine inside our borders, starting with the cave. We had found the old bones of the last wolf who had claim this place as their own and Thunder had carried the bones into the river so they could drift into the river that had once been a part of the old wolves life source. It was the closet I had seen my brother to being kind to something, dead or alive, outside of my sister and myself. He was a strong wolf and had lead us well but I knew soon we would part ways so he could find a mate and join her pack or create their own and I doubted he would want us with him in his new pack.

I dread the day that will happen and hoped that a pack would accept me as well as my sister if our brother shunned us. My sister often would bark about when she fond her mate that it would be a powerful alpha. Why she desired an alpha I would never know. They were troublesome  and pigheaded. I didn't want a mate even if they were meant to be your other half, your life long mate, but not many wolves found their mates and so the ones who never found their other half mated with other wolves who were also unsuccessful. Surprisingly they stuck together like true mates.

Maybe I should explain more about the mating process, so I will start from the beginning:

There were two wolves of rival packs that were unhappy with their world and were filled with loneliness, both longed for someone to fill in a part in their hearts that seemed to always be empty, for someone who also saw the greed and hollow rivalry between the packs. The goddess of the moon and stars, Arianna, felt the trueness of the two wolves hearts and pitied them because of their loneliness. She saw that together those wolves would be happy and that she could bind them together in such a way that they would find each other.

The wolves accept each other as mates with great joy and broke away from their packs to make a more peaceful one. Few wolves from the packs followed and soon their pack was powerful. The goddess gave many wolves mates but let others find each other in their own way. Only the mates Arianna had bound together became stronger as the mates stayed together because she saw they needed to become stronger to help the pack. The other wolves who chose their own mates she considered strong enough.

And that is how the mating system came to be, only now before we are born the goddess has already chosen who we will mate and will only bring the mates together if one is in dire need of the other. sometimes the wolves disagree with Arianna's choice of their mates and may refuse their mate and have to choose their own mate, but not many will turn away their mates.

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dose it sound alright?

love Nova

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