The Cursed Alpha

A small breeze made the autumn leaves fall down from the old oak, and the suns first light started to break through over the horizon making the area in front of the big house light up in red and yellow colours. Julia stood in the window to her bedroom, watching the treeline to the deep forest behind the oak. She was waiting for her packmembers to come back home after the full moon run. She is 17 and has still not shifted. Most werewolf had their first shift between the ages of 12 and 15. The older you were for the first shift the chance to survive it and get your wolf decreased very fast. After 18, almost everyone died. But the few who survived become very strong, fast and a force to reckon with. Julia was scared to say the least, only 4 months to her birthday and for every full moon that passed she felt her life slipping away from her. The treeline broke and out came a huge dark brown wolf followed by many more. They ran up towards the house and out of sight from Julia's window. She let out a sad sigh and turned around to make her way down to greet her family and packmembers. Down stairs in the large dining room packmembers had already started to dig in on the breakfast served by the lower ranking members of the pack, Julia stoped in the doorframe looking for her cousin, he was not hard to spot, being a head taller then the others with really dark brown hair she saw him almost immediately. "Jack!" She called out and he turned around and looked at her with a big smile on his lips."Julia, there you are, take a plate and meet me in the library." Julia nodded her head and after taking a plate of food she took off to the library. With the full moon run, the house was filled with packmembers eating and drinking and celebrating the moon goddess, so the only room they could speak in without shouting would be the library. Jack was sitting next to the fireplace already half way through his plate of food. "You should have seen it" he started, "it was amazing. The colours were out of this world and the sound of the forest, it felt like the goddess herself was with us tonight". Julia looked down on the food and played with it with her fork, listening to Jack when he spoke about the run. Jack had shifted the first time during the spring. At 17.5, many were afraid they would lose their alpha to be and now he was considered to be one of the strongest wolfs in the pack. They were lucky, if he had died Julia would be next in line for the alpha title because Jack didn't have any siblings only his cousins Julia and her younger sister Elsa. And neither of them had a wolf. Julia's father was the younger brother to Jack's father and had died during a war between thier pack, Silvermoon, and a neighbouring pack, Darkmoon, over 10 years ago. They had only won that war due to the bargain their grandfather and former Alpha made with the witches of the Moon. But he had never once told them what he gave them in return. Jack went on about the run, every full moon the majority of the pack went for a run togheter, most packs did, because running in the full moon made every wolf feel more connected to the goddess. "We went all the way to the Silver Lake, the water looked like silver, just as we have been told, I have never seen anything like it before" Jack was interrupted when Elsa came dancing in, 14 years old, slender, golden hair and blue eyes she was becoming a real beauty. "Hey why are you sitting in here, the feast is out there" She laughs her angelic laughter and took Jack's plate from him and runs out the door with Jack close behind. He hated when someone took food from him. Julia was left alone with her thoughts, thinking back to when Jack shifted the first time, how scared she was, but he made it and afterwards they had talked for hours about it and how Jack was sure Julia also would make her shift and pass it when she hit the 17.5 year mark in her life. But it hadn't happened. And the fear of dying had made deep roots in her inner core. A loud scream followed by cracking and snapping made Julia rush to her feet and follow the sound out to the main hall. When she got there a new cream coloured wolf was lying on the floor panting hard. The first shift always took some time to recover from. The pain for getting your whole bonestructure reframed was something out of this world. Or so Julia had been told many times over her time here on earth. The wolf lifted its head and looked straight in to Julia's eyes and what she saw in them made her both happy and envy. It was Elsa, Elsa had shifted for the first time at the age of 14. Julia was happy for her sister, but the pain cut her deep into the heart. She forced herself to push her envy and jealousy aside and slowly approached her sister. "Hi there, nice to finally meet you". Julia showed her hands and let the wolf sniff them. The wolf got to her feet and pressed its head against Julia's hand. The wolf accepted her sister and then pushed past her and went up to a woman, blonde like both Julia and Elsa but where Julia was more round and little chubby the woman shared Elsas petite figure and blue eyes. "Oh darling you shifted, and to such a beautiful wolf". Julia's mom also let the wolf sniff her hand before the wolf pressed itself hard against thier mother. Julia's moms eye started to look blank but suddenly they focused again. "She already knows how to mind link". Usually, it took a day or two to get a hang of it but it seems like the social butterfly that was Elsa could do it from the start. And the envy grow a little bit in Julia's heart. "What is her name?" A young kid asked, packmembers started to gather in the main hall to see and greet the new wolf welcome. "Summer, her name is Summer" Julia's mother answered, "And she wishes to go on a run." Packmembers started to take their clothes off and shifted to their wolf and rushed out the door. Jack shifted into his big brown wolf and walked up to Elsa. They sniffed each other and then bolted through the now open doors. Soon Julia found herself alone and she slowly turned around and walked up to her room. Falling down on to her bed with tears falling down her cheeks. She laid there for two hours crying until she heard a knock on her door. She didn't reply to the knock, and soon the door opened up slowly, "Julia?" Elsas whispered into the room. Bur Julia didn't reply she had turned her back to the door, lying on her side and watching out through the window. Elsa walked in and closed the door behind her and climbed into the bed, hugging her sister from behind. "Are you okej?" Julia closed her eyes trying to hold back the tears that had been running down her cheeks ever since she came up to her room but with no success. "I'm sorry. I really I'm. I just can't help it." Julia took a deep breath and continued, "I'm so, so happy for you. I really I'm, I'm just so...." the last word coming out very low almost impossible to hear and Elsa hugged her sister tighter. "It's okej, I know." Julia inhalde deeply and wondered how her sister could be so kind to her when all she did was sulk and destroying her sisters big day. "I know you are scared Julia. I can hear your heartbeat, and it so off from everyone else. Jack told me it is because you are scared." Werewolfs, compared to humans, had a very good hearing, but when they got thier wolf it all became ten times stronger if not more. Julia turned around and looked at her sister, "He never told me that my heart sounded diffrent." Julia felt betrayed by Jack, that he had kept the information about it to himself, keept the knowledge of that everyone with their wolf could hear that she was diffrent, that she was sacred. Elsa could she the shift in her sisters eyes, from sad to anger. "Don't be mad at him, or the others. They didn't want to worry you." Julia pulled away from her sister and stod up from the bed. "Worry me? All I do is fearing my first shift, at least I thought I could save some of my dignity but apparently I'm not even allowed to have that for myself." Julia's feelings were all a mess. Running around in her head and body making it impossible for her to think rational. She left her sister crying out for her and took off out of the house and into the woods. With most wolfs being passed out after not only the full moon run but also the run to celebrate her sister she knew she would be alone in to woods as long as she stayed clear of the boarders and the wolfs patrolling it. She needed to be alone.