Not Like The Others

Chapter Twenty Eight- Hunt

I can't even explain to you how much this chapter scared and excited me. It was the most anticipated, emotional and awesome chapter I was waiting for and I really hope I have done it justice, not only meeting your expectations, but my own ridiculously high ones.
H xxx

Mel POV

Two weeks had passed since I had been accepted into Silva territory. Well, make that fifteen days if you wanted to be precise, but I seemed to be the only one counting. Everyone had settled in and was having an absoutely fabulous time, but I was the complete oppposite. I was weary, irratible, jumpy and not to mention a massive bitch. I wasn't being staight up rude, but my face was a stone wall and anyone that tried to talk to me was answered with a very pissy, bruquse voice.

I had suddenly been accepted into the territory as a royal guest, and was to be treated with the upmost respect, but I knew that it was only due to Lissa. Her talent had saved me. I had lost it in the cell, I had told myself to respect the Alpha, but instead I threw that out the window and yelled at him to go on and try kill me and see who died first. Hmm. Not my most proud moment. But right now I could not care less.

I was given beautiful room on the same floor and corridor as the girls, with a massive californian king four poster bed and balcony. There was very little furniture, but that suited me fine, all I had was the backpack I took, and even that was half empty. There was a huge sparkling clean bathroom and walk in wardobe opposite the bed, at the right of the room. It had no bath, but made up for it with a spacious shower with a waterfall head. A shiny mirror filled up almost the whole side of the wall by the sinks. I really was treated nicely.

I had been welcomed to stay and live for as long as I liked and the girls expected me to stay permanently, but I wasn't so sure. Yes, I did have no where else to go, but I wasn't sure how long I could handle this. I felt so lonely. The only family to me was Beth, Rachel and Lissa, but even then, they were so wrapped up in their pack lives that I barely ever saw them anymore. I ususally kept to myself and distanced myself from everyone because they made me miss home. I was an outsider, living in the Silva territory and welcomed by the pack, but I was not family. I was not a wolf. Heck, I wasn't even human. There were a humans on the territory, but very few. Some wolves had human mates but it was very rare and any humans I did come across basically fled at the sight of me. I must have smelt like danger. Which was entirely true, but I never realised how instinctual humans were to shifters, especially me. I had heard that they could just tell when someone was a wolf becuase they could feel the animal inside of them, but I was different, obviously more animal. I had more panther in me because I was made, not born. Aka the scientists must have fucked something up and now every human in sight was running from me. No wonder even regualr shifters were a intimidated by me.

Today was no different, most wolves steered clear of me, no humans were in sight and of course, the unmated wolves watched me, but from a healthy distance. I must be oozing violence. Being lonely was a bizarre feeling for me, because my humand and panther feelings were clashing with each other. As a human I was a social butterfly, friends with many and close with about four or five. But my panther side was a solitary animal by nature, so I was always feeling conflicted. I missed family and enjoyed time with the girls, but at the same time I thrived by myself. I was not interested at all in making new friends or relationships with any of the pack members, and I was certainly not interested being around them. Right now my panther side was dominating, I just wanted to be by myself. Any other living being was a hostile or a meal.

I got up at my usual crack of dawn, and it seemed that I was getting up earlier and earlier as I became more in sync with my body. Under the hand of Lovac I had hung onto my humanity for dear life, barely ever shifting. Part of that was due to fear and the rest of it was because I couldn't do it without exposing myself.

My daily meditation was becoming increasing harder as I became more and more emotional. It seemed that I was getting more and more violent and more and more tense as the two weeks progressed, but I was working on it. I had been shifting and exploring everyday, only marking my scent in one place. My safe haven. I was going to go there this morning and hope to get some downtime by myself.

I snuck out of my room and down the hall, hoping that no one would notice me outside. It was relatively quiet out, but I always seemed to attract attention when it was least wanted.

I ran across the open ground and past a few small houses that littered the grounds. The territory were set out in the most beautiful way, with the forest curving around in an almost full circle. The entrance was in the gap of the forest, the end result was the territory surrounded by forest except for the main entrance, giving it a circular boundary. There were a few small lakes and one waterfall on the grounds, all of them deep within the forest. The thing that I loved about the Silva pack was that they had the most gorgeous forests. It was full of wildlife and had been untouched by humans, aside from the few that lived on the grounds. It was a safe and secure place, with the strongest and biggest pack to protect it. The Silva pack had the biggest territory in the whole country.

I ran past their training facility and looked at it longingly. I hadn't stepped foot in it yet, I didn't want to freak them out anymore than I had to. My skills were too much for them to handle. I'm sure they had a brillant program with very skilled fighters, but my talent was one of a kind and exceptional. Just looking at it made me think of the gym on the Lovac's campus. I missed Dimitiri, more importantly I missed Brad. I hadn't stopped thinking about him.

I shook my head and threw all thoughts out of my mind, trying to tap into zanshin. It had been a while and I just needed to calm down and expend as much energy as I could. Breaking into the forest, I picked up speed, expanding my senses. I didn't want to run into any patrolling wolves, but I doubted I would. My stealthiness and extra sensitive ears would hear them from a mile away.

Once I had got about two kilometres in, I stopped and stood still, listening for wolves or people. As expected there weren't any, it was just before sunrise after all. I stripped and threw my clothes up a tree so that no one would find them. I took a deep breath and let myself go.

I loved shifting, it felt so nice for my body and it healed any sore spots or pulled muscles. It made me feel whole and invincible, I couldn't help the reowl that left my mouth as soon as I had finished shifting. Oops, I was going to blame that on instincts. Mine were so strong when I was fully shifted. I would sometimes almost lose myself, it was that strong. I could control it with little effort when I was relaxed, but today I was taking a backseat and letting my panther side do whatever it wanted. No loneliness, no anger, no stress. Just being a cat in the forest.

It was the closest to what I felt was an ideal environment, with dense forest and abundant food oppotunities. My only wish was that it was slightly more rainforest, hotter, denser and more humid. That's what I lived for.

I let my legs make the desicions, sprinting off to the west, picking up a speed of about fifty kilometres an hour. I wasn't hunting, I was expending energy and heading for one of the small lakes. I ran with my ears swiveling all over my head, tuning in to the surroundings. Not much got in my way, and the patrolling wolves would be on the boundries at the moment. The only thing I was listening out for was lone wolves out for a hunt or play. But I could easily deal with that if it got to it.

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For some reason the rest of my chapter is missing...something I will look into.
-Helen
May2020