Howls of tomorrow

#3 Ember

    Lilith POV

  2 years later 

*SPLASH*

    "AHHH" I was woken up by the cold splash of water, and the lingering sting on my skin from, what I can only assume was ice. "Happy birthday b***h, now get up and clean the house." My father shouted in my face. "Why did you do that? its not even 4 am ye-" I yelled at him. I didn't even notice that I was shouting, but when I did, I regretted it almost instantly. He had a look rage in his eyes that I really didn't want to be on the receiving end of. He picked up his hand from his side, and lead it across my face. There was a sharp sting on my right cheek as I lifted up my hand to sooth it. He had slapped me, like he had done so many times before.

    "NEVER, and I mean NEVER talk back to me. DO YOU UNDER STAND?" he roared in my face. "Y-Yes s-sir"I respond, trembling with fear." Good, now go clean the house. We have a pack meeting in the living room at noon, so get to work." He said exiting my room. I decided to take a shower and clean up. I stripped my clothes and hopped into the shower. The burning water soothed my bruised and tender skin, as I was lost in thought. That's when it hit me. Today's my birthday, the day I get my wolf. Whenever a werewolf turns 16 they can shift into there wolf for the first time, that means I won't be alone anymore. 

    When you turn 16 your wolf appears in your head, and you get the chance to bond with them, as well as; increased strength, hearing, sight, smell, speed, and stamina. You don't get to meet your mate until your 18th birthday, that's when a were is fully matured. By your 18th birthday, you've gotten to know your wolf, and have mastered your new found abilities. A mate is like the other half of a werewolf's soul, so its really hard to live without them. 

    I'm snapped out of my daze as the water on my back starts to run cold, so I lather my hair and scrub my body with the sponge. I step out of the shower, and look into my reflection. I can barley recognize my self. My once well tamed and neat raven hair is now always knotted and messy, my once well built, tan frame, is now pale and thin due to my living conditions. My clear tan skin is now littered with scars and bruises.     

    I decide that's enough self pitting for one day, and get dressed in my black leggings and baggy sweat shirt. I head down stairs only to be met with the awful sight that is the living room. Its trashed with food rappers and dirty dishes, food crumbs all over the couch and floor, and almost all recliners out of there respected place. I sigh, and start cleaning. About an hour and a half later, I'm done with the living room and move on to the kitchen. I cook all the meals for the pack house residents, and always clean up my mess after I'm done, yet every morning I enter the kitchen to clean and cook, It looks like a tornado blew through with all the pots, and pans, and food strewn about.

    Its about Eight AM by the time I'm finished with the whole pack house living area and move upstairs to work on the bed rooms. By this time most of the pack house is awake and heading down for breakfast. I finished breakfast after I was done with the kitchen, old habits die hard, I guess. soon enough, I was done cleaning and noon rolled around. I was always instructed to never attend the meetings, so I went outside to continue my chores. It was Saturday so I had more jobs to do than normal. I'm pretty sure they're just trying to keep me busy so they don't have a reason to see me. some of my jobs are cleaning out the garage, pull weeds, clean almost all the cars that the pack owned, etc. By the time I was done with all my chores, It was dusk, and I'm assuming they had takeout for lunch and dinner because they didn't call me in to cook.

    Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain surge through my back that threw me to the ground. My shift was starting. I had planned where I was going to shift for my first time, so I started running in that direction. Earlier that week I had gotten a beating from a couple of girls at school. I could easily hold my own but I knew if I fought back that the guys would intervene and beat me to a pulp. I was trying to run away from them and eventually I out ran them, and came across this gorgeous pond that was attached to a stream with trees covering it from the outside world. It had a small cave attached to one of the sides and lily pads and flowers littering the water.

    I finally found the pond and headed into the small cave. A stabbing pain sprouted through my stomach, making me double over in pain. Fur was sprouting from my arms and legs, and claws where protruding from my hands and feet. Soon my clothes where shredded and I was completely shifted. I was whimpering from the pain, but it was soon overcome with curiosity. I looked down to where my hands would be, but instead saw black paws. My fur was the darkest black I had ever seen, I was almost a navy blue. I went over to the water to look at my refection, and my heart swelled with pride. I was a pure black wolf with icy blue eyes. It was common to have a multi colored wolf but was extremely rare to have a wolf of one solid color like black or white. Pure brown and grey wolves where still uncommon but not quite rare. 

    Black and white wolves are equally rare, but normally If some one where to get one of these colors the female would get white and the male would get black. Black and white wolves possessed some of the same talents that other wolves didn't like stealth, extreme pain tolerance, advanced speed, hearing, smell, and healing. They still had the same sight of a normal wolf but, pretty much every thing else was advanced. 

    I decided to head back in my wolf form and sneak in so I wouldn't have to walk through the pack house naked. I was about half way back to the pack house when I stopped dead in my tracks.

'hello' a voice in my head said.

'I'm Ember your wolf' the voice continued

I was momentarily shocked but then remembered that this was normal. Your wolf was like your second identity. "Um, Hello?'' I responded 

    'Do you like how we look?' Ember asked softly 

    'Also, you can respond through your thoughts, instead of out loud' she informed me.

    'Oh, thanks for the tip, and to answer your question, yes, your beautiful' I commented. She yipped in happiness at my comment.

    'I don't think I've ever heard of a pure black wolf that's female, so where pretty awesome.' I told her 

    'come on, I'm hungry. let's go eat' she yipped 

    'ha ha, alright, lets go get something to eat'

    We got back to the pack house and, I stealthily snuck past the pack. I went up the stairs and into my room and shut the door behind me, then imagined my human form, and shifted back into it. I got dressed in a pair of old shorts and a painting shirt. I then head down stairs to the kitchen to grab something to eat. As I approached the kitchen, I heard a couple familiar laughs and started to panic. Those laughs belonged to Jenny, Sienna, Jessie, and Ethan. "I wonder if she even shifted? Can you imagine if she didn't" One of them said. "god I feel bad for whoever her mate is" another said. I was at the door to the kitchen when I identified who they where, so I'm sure they smelt me by now. That did't stop me from trying to run the other way though. Just as I thought I was in the clear, Jessie appeared in front of me, looking down on me. The four of them had made it their life mission to make me as miserable as possible, weather they would beat me or would make fun of me, it always hurt the same. I was at a disadvantage because of my height and size at 5'3 while the girls where 5'7 and the guys where easily above 6'3.        

    "Now lily, where do you think you're going?" Sienna asked with a playful smile tugging at her lips.

"T-to my room" I stuttered back. They all started to corner me, to where I was cowering onto the floor. The first one of them to make a move was Sienna, she kicked me in the stomach, and then in the face. Jenny bent down and punched me in the stomach, over, and over again. They all started laughing, and to my dismay, Jessie started to get closer. He picked me up by my neck held me up to the wall, choking me, looking me dead in the eyes."It should have been you that day instead of them, we would all be fine with you being gone."

    I knew they didn't like me but, I did't think they wished that I was dead. Jessie dropped me, and released his grip around my neck letting me breathe. With all the strength I could muster I stood up and ran to my room, with all of them hot on my tail. I ran in and locked my door. I threw myself on my bed with tears streaming down my face. I had contemplated ending it all more than once, but now more than ever. My wolf was screaming at me to stop thinking like that but, right now that seemed like the most sensible thing to do. I got up and entered my conjoin bathroom and took apart my razer. I had one of the small sharp blades in my hand lining it up with my throat. I was about to make the one movement that would end it forever, when Ember broke through the wall I had put up.

    'What about mate?!" she screamed. I stopped what I was doing and really thought about what she said.

    'What if our mate doesn't love us? we'll be right back here.' I said numbly.

    'Mate will always love us! Just wait until we're 18, please!' Ember begged 

    'fine. We'll wait' I replied with tears in my eyes. 

    I put down the blade and went back to my bed room. I cried my heart out until the darkness consumed me and I fell asleep.