Finding Happily Ever After

Chapter 2

I sat in a small white room full of chairs. There were two other wolves waiting with me, a male and a female.

The past five hours had been spent taking my exam, and now I was completely exhausted, waiting while the administrators reviewed our results. I was optimistic. The intelligence portion of the exam had been a piece of cake, but there was still a nagging voice in my head saying that I may not have done well enough to receive higher education.

The door in the back of the room suddenly opened up, and a middle aged woman in a grey pant suit stepped out. "Kevin," she stated blandly, and the boy quickly stood up and followed the woman through the door, fiddling with his fingers the whole way.

I wondered where Kevin would be placed. He would probably become a soldier like most of the boys did. Would he be happy with his life? A career in the army wasn't highly sought after. It was common for soldiers to die young in battle. Even though the remaining packs had to know that there was no use in fighting a war with my pack, they still did not roll over and allow the BlackFangs pack to take over. They fought tooth and nail until the very end, taking out many of our soldiers in the process. The alpha didn't care, though, because the breeders were constantly cranking out more kids to take their places. It was difficult to survive long enough and gain the expertise required to become an officer or commander.

But maybe Kevin was smart. He could go to school and become an architect. Then would he end up designing efficient compounds for the workers, or exquisite mansions for the few elite members of the pack?

About 20 minutes later, Kevin walked out with a determined look on his face. Was he determined not to cry? Or determined to excel at whatever career had been chosen for him?

"Karen," the same woman as before said, sounding bored.

Karen followed her in, looking like she was going to puke.

Again, about 20 minutes later, Karen emerged. Her face was paler than a ghost and she was visibly shaking. Poor thing. She probably got placed in a labor camp. It shouldn't be a surprise, as that's where most of the girls ended up, but it still isn't a fate that anyone would wish for.

The labor camps require constant hard work. Most of the werewolves there were injured so badly at some point within the first 10 years that they are disfigured or disabled. They still had to work though. They wouldn't be allowed to stop until they were dead or too old to be of use. About one fourth of the laborers died of exhaustion or injury. 

"Olivia," pantsuit lady said, giving me a pointed look.

I shook my head and brought myself back to the present situation. Slowly, I took two deep breaths and followed the lady through the door. The administrators in this room were either about to give me the best or the worst news of my life.

"Have a seat," she ordered, gesturing to the sole seat in the room before making her way to an elongated table. Two men and one other woman sat at the table all dressed formally, and all turned to face me. They looked eerily similar. There was no room for individuality in this pack.

"Hello, Olivia," the man on the far left began, "This should not take long. We are going to read your exam results to you, then tell you which sector you've been placed in. Your scores will be read to you on a scale, poor being the lowest, then fair, decent, good, and finally exemplary being the highest. After you have been told which sector you have been placed in, you will be able to voice any concerns you may have, although we cannot guarantee that they will be considered. Afterwards, someone will come to escort you to your new residence and explain to you your new role in the BlackFangs pack. Do you understand?"

I only nodded. I was a little bit numb. The only way that I could try to keep my heart from bursting from my chest was by distancing myself from all of my emotions.

"Alright, then, let's begin. In endurance, you received an exemplary score."

Huh. That was a bit surprising, considering that I never got a chance to exercise in the sweatshop. I suppose that none of the other girls did either, and the scale was weighted to take this into consideration.

"In strength, you received a decent score."

Not a surprise. The boys had to train to fight in both their human and wolf forms. Since girls weren't able to become soldiers, we didn't train. 

To prevent our wolves from going mad from confinement and driving us to insanity, we were allowed to run in our wolf forms once a month. The runs were heavily guarded by soldiers in case any of the wolves tried to run, but everyone was to scared to try. A couple of times, someone had made an escape attempt, but they never made it far and were killed immediately by the guards. That was enough to prevent any further attempts.

Anyways, during these runs, I had discovered that my wolf was far smaller than the average she wolf. This helped increase my speed and agility, but meant that I was also much weaker than the others.

"In intelligence, you received an exemplary score. Actually, you scored one of the only perfect scores that I have ever seen." Was I going crazy, or did it actually look like the stern administrators were smiling?

Well, regardless of whether or not they were smiling, I knew that I had a grin plastered on my face. Oh my god, this was it! I was going to get higher education! My dreams were going to be realized! I was going to make a difference in the pack. Maybe one day I would even find my mate.

"In talent, you received an exemplary score. And finally, in physical attributes, you received an exemplary score."

I was a bit perplexed at this. I mean, I knew that I wasn't unattractive, but I never considered myself to be at the higher end of the spectrum. Maybe they weren't looking at attractiveness, maybe they were looking for something like height or build? But then that wouldn't make sense either because...

I was so consumed by my thoughts that it took me a moment to realize that I had received high marks in almost all of the categories. Wait, that didn't mean that they could potentially assign me to the-

"You have been placed in the breeding sector"