Storm

Ever since I could remember, I’ve been looking for a place in life. I was going to be nineteen in just two short weeks, and I was just as clueless as I was at 13, knowing I wanted to make a difference in the world. I have yet to find the way to make that difference, but I am determined to find my start. My friends, Carmen and Hunter, knew what they wanted. Carmen was in her second year of college, she’s going to be a choreographer for someone famous, you could tell by how she moved, like water flowing through a fountain. She’s known what she wanted to do since she could walk, her mother enrolled her in dance at the age of two. By the time she was in 6th grade she was teaching the seniors how to dance. Hunter is already in med school; she is a year older than us at 20. Even so, she’s a genius, she graduated high school at 15, took a year off to get her license, and then went away to Stanford. She comes back every few months, the only reason she comes back is to see us, her dad died shortly before she was born, her mother was barely a mother, leaving for months at a time without so much as a goodbye. Hunter used to stay with her grandmother, Deanna, but unfortunately Deanna had to relocate to the county nursing home late last winter after a fall. I have been fortunate enough to be able to continue living with my dad and stepmother, Lila came into my life when I was two, I wouldn’t even be able to recognize my biological mother if it weren’t for the stripe of blue hair we both had growing on the right side of our head, although hers is much less vibrant than mine. I tell all my friends its artificial, not wanting them to know who I really am. My father, Lila, and my older brother Van are the only other ones who know. We are shifters living among humans. Keeping our secret safe was our number one priority, my father had to shave his head to hide his markings. Lila was not a shifter but a Fae, a lot easier to hide, simply using a spell to hide her ears and unnatural eye color when humans were around. My brother’s markings were faint, he already had naturally blonde hair, so the white ribbons flowing through it didn’t look very suspicious. Our mother left soon after I was born, she insisted it was to keep us safe, but I think she just didn’t want me. She loved Van, sending him cards and gifts for his birthday and Christmas. Every year I would look through the mail full of hope, time and time again I was disappointed. Lila was a good mom, but Fae tend to have a more reserved, hands-off type of parenting, I wanted a mother. Carmens mom would bake for us, talk about boys with us, she was the mother I didn’t have at home. Lila would make sure we were fed, alive, clean, and had everything we needed to survive. She loved us, in her own way, and I love her, but I do not think either of us would ever verbalize that. My father worked a lot, back on the territory, he was an accountant for the shifter government. I’ve never been to the territory, but I know there, I would be allowed to be myself. We were wolves, although there were others, foxes, cats, bears, to name a few. Wolves were at the top of the food chain, metaphorically, we were the majority rule in our politics, our alpha being like the human equivalent to a king or queen. Instead of being a crusty old guy, our current alpha, Axyl, was young for our species, he had been ruling for about 20 years now. He didn’t look a day older than twenty-five and he wouldn’t for many years, our species doesn’t age until we hit 500 years old. After that we start going grey, gaining wrinkles, but we keep our muscular structure until we die. There would never be a shifter needing a hip replacement, that’s for sure. Axyl was, from what I have heard, a fair and gentle alpha. Once I turn nineteen, I get my wolf, I get to shift for the first time. Most wolves shift at 16, once they are legally adults in the shifter world. For some reason my wolf, Katria, told me we needed to wait. She came to me in a dream. Storm, I know you are excited for us to be one, but I cannot come to you yet. “But I’m finally of age, why can’t you come?” I cried; I was desperate to finally have her. We just need more time, you will understand some day, please be patient. I had no choice but to wait, no matter how much I begged, it wouldn’t change when she was going to come. One thing we all knew, your wolf knows best. The spirit world communicated with the wolves, they were specially selected for each shifter at birth, the spirits knew who you would be and who you would need. The matches were always perfect, your wolf complementing some part of you. I’m hoping Katria will be the calm to my storm.