Awakening Rejected Mate & Following Fate novel Chapter 2

They were farmers, they were peaceful, and had never had to fight in their lives. Not all wolves are savage killing machines, or feral beasts, like human legends and stories dictate. Some are quiet, land loving people, who never want to experience the thrill of a hunt or the warm blood of another being in raw savagery. In a whirlwind of months, we were dragged into a battle to the death and children were left in the care of the old and frail, or the pregnant.

We waited endlessly to find out who of our loved ones would come home to us. Until one lone night, the people who cared for me in their absence, the last of the Whyte's who were too vulnerable to follow them, were slaughtered by invading vampires in our own homes on the far edge of the farmlands, and I was a lone survivor who was then shunted to the orphanage. The events of that night are so foggy and hazy, I don’t really remember it at all, or why I was even spared. I was just a child.

I still remember the agony of the day I watched others return in masse, the battle truly over with the vampires in retreat, and no one, not a single person from my bloodline came home. An entire pack, of more than forty people I called my own, they were all gone, everything I knew.... Every single last one of them. I was all alone. There is no pain compared to that of an eight-year-old child learning everyone she ever loved and was protected by, were never coming home for her. My security was shattered and my future dead and all I have known since was the isolation and solitude of being one of the many who were thrown here to rot.

So now here we are, a house full of teens who bear the only living connection to our past loved ones. A mixed bunch of leftovers, but no one in the packs will bond to us for fear of producing weaker offspring. It's all about dominance in our world and power, standing, and ability. DNA is everything. They call us the Reject Pack which sums up exactly why we are overlooked.

We don't belong to anyone anymore, even though by rights we should be part of the united wolf community, this new singular pack, we are bonded by location after all. We' re not though, they see us as cursed children and deny our mere existence, throwing us to the dark shaded side of the mountain so they don't have to see us. This house is the only home we know now and the people who care for us do so in duty, but not love. They' re afraid we curse them by proximity.

It's forbidden to abandon a pack child, even if they come from a shamed bloodline. The fates and traditions have laws and rules from old that we have to abide by and abandoning the vulnerable is abhorrent. So, we are given a home, shelter, food, and education. Basic care in the understanding that upon our Awakening, we get to leave. Severed like a rotting limb.

We can go out, find our own path, and fend for ourselves. Turning gives us gifts and ability to go it alone. Find a pack who want us if that is even possible. Solves their problem and shirks off any responsibility they have for us. Which sucks if you happen to turn at a young age while caught here with us.

So, that's where I am now. Just a mere four hours before we have to climb to shadow rock for the full moon and I'll transform for the first time of my life. Changing from child to woman and my gifts will manifest along with my first emerging of my full wolf self and whatever that will look like. Not that I have any clue what those will be, if any at all. Not all of us have a special gift and it's unlikely I will. My parents never talked of theirs.

I’ve watched this ceremony once a month for many years and it still terrifies me to know I will be one of them. Finally stood in the center, terrified of what the new light brings. It’s a blood moon tonight, meant to be symbolic or biblical or some nonsense. Signaling the end of times. Not that I paid attention to our Lunar studies as they held little importance to me.