Wolf's Blood

-Chapter One-

The first day of school is always the worst.

All summer long, Merle had been living with his pack in the woods beyond the city. They ran free through the woods, laughing and playing in the bright green foliage and the sunny heat. Hunting pheasants and robins in the undergrowth, stalking streets by night for scraps and thrillseeking dangers, they had lived as they knew they should.

But then the weather started to cool, and Merle returned to the human world with his sisters Maggie and Paige. 

Having to wear clothing again, and feeling the cold prickle his skin, was the start of the worries. He hated constantly having to put his hood up to feel warm. He missed the natural, soft confines of his shaggy wolf coat, and the insulation so thick the snow didn't melt on his back. His sisters obviously felt the same. Paige, barely six and going into kindergarten, complained the entire car ride to school.

"I wanna go home," Paige moaned.

"You get used to that eventually," Maggie said. She was just turning 18 and a senior in their high school. Merle envied her; after this year she'd never have to go back. She could live her life as a wolf or as a human. She didn't have to live both depending on what part of the year it is.

They kissed their parents goodbye and walked into the school. Merle knew there were other werewolves in this school, and they were all totally miserable. They all wanted to just run, get out. But they couldn't. They couldn't even change into their wolf forms here. Noone knew werewolves still existed, so they always had to hide.

They walked Paige to her first class, and then Merle and Maggie walked across the street to the highschool building. Merle was two years behind his sister, at the ripe age of 16 and barely into his learner's permit. If he had a choice he never would even get his license.

"Good luck," Maggie said, bumping his shoulder before walking into class. Merle went past her room and to his homeroom class.

The room stunk. Nobody else seemed affected but he was. He wrinkled his nose. There was the strong but pleasant smell of coffee; the chalk on the board. What was that awful smell?

The teacher spoke and he didn't pay attention.

Each and every class he was distracted. Sometimes he didn't smell it on the air but it filled his mind with questions. Was it a person? Was it something those rooms had in common? Was it in the walls? Was it something on him?

During lunch the answer made itself clear. While he was busy tearing into a turkey sandwich, someone tapped on his shoulder. A girl around his age with pitch-black hair. It looked like it was made of vantablack.

She told him to follow her and walked out to a corner of the school he knew was fairly empty. Noone went back there but the janitors and students when they needed time to talk privately among themselves. And it was here that her eyes turned a pale greenish yellow, and she bared her teeth to reveal long, distinctly canine fangs in her mouth.

"Listen," she hissed as the distracting scent filled Merle's lungs again. "I'm new, and I don't fuck around. You cross me, you dominate me, you come after me, you hurt my friends, I rip out your neck. Got it?"

Merle flinched. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good." As she walked past him a thick, bushy black tail with a white tip slapped the side of his leg like a bullwhip. As he turned to look at her, it was retreating back into the seat of her jeans as if it had never happened.

He returned to lunch and found his turkey sandwich was gone. Dammit!