Wolf-blood

Quickness Beats Strength

On Saturday, I was doing my homework in the study wearing my weekend clothes (sweatpants and sweatshirt) when I heard a knock on the door. My mother was working and my father had to run to the store, meaning I had to get up. I groaned and stood.

I jogged to the door and opened it. "Mikey?" I asked, not sure why he was here.

"Hey Indigo."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, this is going to sound a bit weird, but my mother wanted to know if she could use 'the room in the basement'."

"The room in the basement?" I was a bit shocked and freaked out. Mikey's mom was wolf-blood too? How?

That's when I realized. Mikey's birthday was in a week. His thirteenth birthday. "Oh," I said softly.

"Oh what?"

"Um, let me call my father quick and I'll be right back," I said and quickly shut the door and ran to the phone. I dialed in my father's number and hit send. It rang three times before my father picked up.

"Hello?"

"Father, the Gordon's are outside and they want to know if they can use our basement."

"The Gordon's? They don't belong to our pack. Ask them why they want to use it," Father commanded so I went back to the door with the phone in hand.

"Uhh, my father wants to know why you want to use it," I told him.

"My mom said, something about, joining you? I don't know she told me to tell you, 'Quickness beats strength in a race.'"

I put the phone to my ear. "She said she wanted to join us. She said, 'Quickness beats strength in a race.'"

My father sighed into the phone, and said, "Let them in."

"Alright. Bye, Father."

"Goodbye Squirt. I'll see you in thirty minutes."

I hung up the phone and turned to Mikey. "Come on in," I said.

"Uh, ok. Let me grab my mom." After he walked away, I started to think about all that had happened this past week. I found out I was a wolf-blood, heard a voice in my head, changed into a wolf, learned about the history of wolf-bloods, and learned that there a FREAKING FOREST in our basement. To say it had been an exciting week would be an understatement.

Mikey and his mother were now making their way to the house, so I stepped away from the door to let them in. When she walked in, I felt a change. I got protective of my land; I didn't want another wolf family in my den. Calm down, they're friendly Vox said. No! They're on my land! Because you invited them here. You have to calm down.

I tried to do as Vox said, but it was difficult. I couldn't focus on anything except Protect Protect Protect! Meanwhile, Vox was whispering in my ear telling me to calm down and take them to the basement. "NO!" I tried to yell at Vox. I doubled over and tried to calm down before I shifted in front of Mikey. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down, but the wolves were still in my house and the pain didn't subside. I looked into Mrs. Gordon's eyes and said, "Please get out," in as polite of a tone I could while wanting to rip her eyes out.

She seemed to understand what was going on though. She grabbed Mikey who was trying to help me, but whenever he got close, a guttural growl escaped and he took a step back. She dragged him out of the house and before she shut the door I heard her mutter, "I forgot that she already turned thirteen. We'll have to get her out of there somehow..." Then she shut the door and the pain went away.

That's why you have to listen to me. I was! I tried but I couldn't calm down! You have to control your inner wolf. Aren't you my inner wolf?

Dead silence. What did Vox mean? She was my inner wolf. I didn't have any other voices. It was just Vox and me. I was the human form and she was the wolf form. I couldn't handle this. It was all too much. I had to free my mind.

And there was only one way to do that.

I ran down-stairs to get to the woods. I could aleady feel the freedom that being a wolf gave me. I wrenched open the door I remembered to be the forest and bolted inside. Once in, I locked the door and wrenched off my clothes. I pushed Vox to the front of my thoughts. Imediately, the pain set in, but after five minutes, it was gone. And so was I.

The woods looked so much clearer as a wolf. We knew where to find every kind of berry and the freshest water we had ever drunk. But we didn't want that. We wanted to hunt. So we sniffed the air, looking for a sign of a turkey or hare. We caught the scent and ran. The turkey was just sitting there, not suspeting a thing. We crept up on it, as silent as the wind. A growl escaped us and the turkey stood to run, but we pounced.

After our meal, we didn't want to change back. So we ran. We ran as fast as we could. We didn't care who heard us now. We ran with our tongue lapping out of our mouth, looking like a crazy wolf but we didn't care. We were free and strong and we wanted everyone to know it. So we went to the top of the tallest hill we could find and howled. We howled there for a good five minutes before we stopped to get a drink of water. We were panting and smiling and feeling as happy as a drunk man when we took our drink of water.

When we were done drinking, we were contemplating going to catch a hare. We sniffed the air to see if we could find one's scent, but instead we smelt-

We turned to the scent and ran. No, it couldn't be. Father said they didn't have deer in these woods. Then I heard a different voice than Vox in my head. Oh screw it, there's a deer! I promised you a deer and now I can make up on that promise, just go with it. I heard Vox say afterward. Wait, what? Just go with it. Hey, for a deer I'd do anything.

We sprinted in the direction of the deer smell. It was so close, we could almost taste it. One more burst of speed and we'd be right on it. We sped up, but when we came to a clearing, there was no deer. But there was my father. I was confused for a second. Why was he down here? But then he raised his hand and we saw that it held a gun. We started to turn, but were hit by something in our side and blacked out.