It's for the Moon Godnes to know

Chapter 2

Angels POV

My father was a pack hunter. He worked for our Alpha, and the meat went for sharing between all pack members, the skin he was to keep and sell himself, so that we had money to buy what we needed besides the meat. Our pack was far from rich, so he got no pay for his work, only the skins. Beautiful skins were in demand, so we should be able to make a good living from the sale of these. My father was a very skilled hunter and knew both how to catch the animals as well as spare their skins. Unfortunately, he was both lazy and had a penchant for drinking. This meant that we still never had any money and thus my mother sometimes had to take small jobs around the settlement, to earn money so that I could get some food, or get some other clothes when what I had became too small. I knew she worked hard, so I never complained, even though I often went to bed hungry, or froze when I was outside because my clothes were thin and generally not enough. I was just ten years old when my mother was at the creek one day washing clothes for one of those who lived in one of the cottages.

I was peeling potatoes on a stool outside the shed. My father lay asleep intoxicated after a wet night that had ended with both my mother and I having gone to bed with new bruises all over our bodies. I had been preoccupied with the peeling without cutting myself that I had not discovered that anyone was coming towards me. I first looked up when a large male wolf stopped in front of me, shading the light. I quickly got to my feet and bowed my head in respect. "Beta!" I stammered a greeting and kept bending my head and looking at his shoes. They look warm, I remember thinking before his voice interrupted my thoughts. "Where's your father pup?" I hesitated a bit, but then pointed to the shed door and did not even look after him as he walked in followed by another male wolf I did not recognize. There only went a momentby , then I heard my father roar up, then be quiet. I could not hear what was being said inside, but I could hear Beta speaking in a stern voice and my father's sounded very humble. While I was trying to listen, my mother came home and was just to scold me for not doing what I was told. But before she could say anything, the Beta came out with the other male wolf, she hurried to lower her head and Beta greeted us briefly before he went on his way. I could see and feel that my mother was becoming anxious. I looked towards the shed door and my father came out. He was drenched and when he caught sight of me he threw the bucket for water at me "Go get water pup!" I hurried to take the bucket, I hid a small snug smile on the way down to the creek, I now understood how the Beta had been able to wake my father. When I came back I could hear loud shouts and screams from our shed, as I got the door open I saw my father having my mother at her throat and had her lifted up so she could not reach the ground nor breathe. Blood ran from her nose and mouth and I could see new bruises forming on her arms and around one eye. "Are you done telling on me b***h?" Cried my father, shaking my mother. I thought she was going to die, when I saw her hang loose in his hand and her hands let go of the grip on his wrist. I ran over and tried to lift her legs up so she would not suffocate. "It was not her!" I screamed over and over as I fought for her life. My father looked blankly at me and let my mother fall to the ground. I fell to my knees to look to her, but never managed to land. My father grabbed me by the neck and lifted me up and looked at me curiously. "Was it you?" I nodded defiantly. I had often screamed at him to stop, tried to hit or kick him when he knocked my mother around, but I had never looked him in the eye with anything but fear. He looked at me wondering, then he laughed and let go of me. I fell hard to the ground and immediately crawled over to my mother, making sure she was breathing. She opened her eyes and I sighed in relief. I saw her looking at my father, who was messing around in his corner. I looked up at him and he went to the door. "It's time you make yourself deserving of the food pup!" My mother started to lift her head and I took courage for myself. "What do you mean?" My father just laughed. "Follow me!" My mother started moaning and sat up on her elbows. "What are you saying Clark?" My father did not answer just opened the door and looked at me expectantly. I got up and walked towards him. My mother grabbed my ankle. "You're not taking her out hunting, are you?" My mother sounded desperate. My father did not even look at her, he was still looking at me and raised an eyebrow. I twisted my foot out of my mother's grip, bent down and kissed her on the nose. "I will be fine!" I could hear her sobbing as I followed my father out of the shed and off the paths into the woods. That day I learned to put snares out to trap rabbits and other small animals in the forest.

Just as my father had said that now was enough for today, he stopped and sniffed the air. He took off his clothes and handed them to me. I watched in amazement as he switched to his wolf and immediately set off at high speed. Shortly after, I could hear him howling up and I ran with his clothes in my arms towards his howl. When I found him, he was standing in a clearing, back in his human form, completely naked, next to a large hind. I went to him and gave him his clothes, I sat down next to the deer and caressed her fur. She was so beautiful and looked like she was sleeping peacefully. I leaned forward and laid my head on her neck and inhaled her scent. At first I only got her smell, which was somewhat raw and yet there was something so fresh by her scent, but soon I could smell the blood so strongly that I could taste iron in my mouth. My father put a hand on my shoulder and softly spoke in my ear. "Remember her scent!" I stiffened with fright, I had forgotten he was there. "Look here" My father continued and pointed a little further up the deer neck and I saw only 2 small holes in the coat where very little blood had run out. "When you get old enough and your wolf is allowed to hunt, let her take over!" I nodded "She’ll know just how she takes animals down so fast that the animal virtually does not suffer and so gently that the fur is not damaged!" I got up and looked down at the animal. But father grabbed her and threw the deer over his shoulders like a yoke. Together we went the same way home as we had gone out. My father wanted me to be able to see to the traps the next day, so I had to remember the road. At some of the first traps we had set up, tow pheasants was already trapped. So we returned home to the settlement with a large deer and two pheasants. Although my father had slept half the day and had a female pup out hunting, he had caught at least as much as most other hunters. When our Luna heard that I had been hunting for the first time, she assigned our family a leg of the deer. I was proud of myself and for the first time in my life, of my father, but it was also the last time I can remember being that!