Gryphon? Werewolf? Neither?

Chapter One ~ Throwing knives

Okay this is my first book that I am trying to complete. The other didn't work out and I'm going to try this one. I have no writing schedule, so we'll see. I update when I have time and have prewritten the chapter. School is starting soon and its just going to be chaotic, as school usually is. So please enjoy and post comments on thing you like or disagree with  or see any errors or if you have any advice. It would helpful and I would love to see the comments. Please no foul language or discouraging posts. Please enjoy.

- Jade
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As I completed my turn, I threw my knife at the door that was just closing. Xavier caught it within a few inches of his arm and said loudly, which gave away that I had startled him a little bit," You've greatly improved from your first time throwing a knife."

"Thanks Xavier. When do you want to spar? You owe me for going with you on that last run." I said smiling a little bit and waving for him to try his hand at throwing the knife at the target. He took the offer and threw it, hitting just to the side of the bull-eye.

Xavier is my adoptive brother. I was adopted into his family when I was eight and he was nine.  Our pack is the Blood Rose Pack. We have the title of being the strongest, but smallest pack. Many of the other packs have tried to take control of our pack but, they have always failed in the part where they scout our land. The reason they fail is because we are a pack completely of assassins. Nobody knows for certain, but they have their suspicions. We have always blown off the accusations and say we laid out traps.

Which is true. The scouts are always caught by our traps whether it be a snake pit, or a net trap.  We have many versions of every kind all over the edge and surrounding territory of our territory.

The other packs always believe us but have their doubts. The reason they believe us is because werewolves can smell when another person tells a lie. There are certain smells that tip off the noses of the werewolves that are more in-tune with their other half.
Most shifters shift when they are about ten. There have been a few that have shifted before that by a year or two and also after that, but most shift when they are at that age. But thats with werewolves....

And I'm not a werewolf.

This is strange.

I just realized that.

Anyways, I shifted when I was twelve. My family said I didn't smell like any type of shifter that they had knowledge of but, they didn't know of any other than werewolves.

Apparently to them I smelled like a human but not quite like a human. It was just barely more wild than some of the other humans. The wild pine scent that hung around the pack was enough to cover the scent and nobody ever commented on it. There's a tiny difference, but not enough that they thought about it too much. Mom and Dad didn't actually think there were any other types of shifters. I can see why they didn't think about me being other than human. Luckily when I did shift we were doing our annual picnic and not in the middle of our pack.