The Alpha's Obsession

Episode 6

Heather and I showered, and by the time we were out, darkness had settled firmly over the sky. I always felt a sense of excitement at this time. The night was waiting to be explored.

We transformed together out the back of the house, naked beneath the dawning stars. Heather's appreciative eyes never left my body, and though he saw me naked every day, I couldn't help but blush.

A beautiful white glow encompassed us both as we changed. Pain and ecstasy intertwined inside me as my joints and bones reconfigured. The cool of the night began to melt away as the tiny hairs lengthened and thickened all over my body. My hands hit the ground as paws.

The white glow of transformation dissipated, leaving Heather and I as wolves, standing together on the grass.

The fur all over my body swayed in the breeze, and my skin tingled with excitement.

The night had become alive. Darkness was barely an impediment to my senses now – I could smell, and hear, everything in the vicinity. I could smell people, insulated in their houses, and their dogs, bored in their yards. I could smell freshly-cut grass, and the comfortable scent of wood-fire smoke drifting on the wind.

And beyond that, I could smell the forest. Full of life.

Still adjusting to my new senses, I looked up to see the rising moon. It was enormous and tinged with red. Like the crimson moon from my dreams.

My hackles stood up, and a shiver ran through me. I had seen blood moons before, but it still unsettled me.

But not for long. It was soon forgotten as Heather and I trotted along the road together, silent as shadows. Within five minutes, we were outside of suburbia and in the farm-land which opened up to the national forest. We both seem relaxed then, shaking loose the animal anxieties associated with civilization. The open land was calming, the air sweet and soothing.

We were soon inside the forest, beneath the canopy of towering pine trees. Now that I was in wolf form, this place felt like home.

Heather stopped for a moment and howled, alerting the pack to our presence. Return calls echoed through the forest, high-pitched and brimming with excitement. Heather and I ran towards the sounds, weaving between the trees, pounding our paws to the rhythm of the forest.

I could soon smell the pack, one cohesive scent that quickly became a tapestry of interwoven personalities. And threaded through it, the smoke from the bonfire, speaking of warmth and light.

Heather and I entered the clearing together, and then transformed back to human form.

As usual, the pack were milling around the bonfire, some as human and some as wolf, hanging out and chatting amongst themselves. Heads turned and nodded respectfully towards Heather and I as we entered the crowd. Heather acknowledged each person with a friendly smile and nod.

He had settled well into his new role as Alpha. The power, and the responsibility that came with it, no longer made him uncomfortable. Each admiring set of eyes that we passed stirred a sense of pride inside me.

He was a natural leader.

Heather quickly made a path to his second-in-command, Aarzul. After a quick hello, the pair began an earnest discussion about territorial security, which wasn't exactly my cup of tea. But I always enjoyed watching Heather interact with the members of our pack. He had a way of involving others in his plans, drawing ideas from them and increasing the sense of community.

Aarzul was in charge of patrols and territorial security. He was huge and muscular – larger even than Heather, I realized for the first time, as I watched them converse. Heather's commanding aura had a way of making him seem bigger even than his tall frame was in actuality.

Aarzul and Heather had been good friends for years. I remembered Aarzul from high-school – a boisterous jock, more interested in girls and football than anything else. He had struck me as a bit vacuous and shallow at the time, and we had rarely interacted. But he and Heather had always gotten along, so I accepted him too.

But in recent weeks, I felt that something had changed in the relationship between Aarzul and Heather. And it made me uncomfortable.

It was difficult to put my finger on exactly, but now that I was watching the pair speak, it finally clicked.

Aarzul didn't like Heather being in charge of him. He didn't like being his subordinate.

The pair had always been equals, good friends, and now Heather was Aarzul's superior. Their dynamic had changed, and I could see now, in some near-imperceptible expressions on Aarzul's face, that he didn't like it. Each time Heather delivered an order to him, I caught a glimpse of distaste on Aarzul; a minute delay before his acquiescent nod.

I wondered if Heather had noticed.

Aarzul's eyes left Heather's for a moment and settled on mine. I blushed, realizing that I had been staring at him – not to mention judging him! – and I averted my eyes, feeling rude. It was silly of me to judge the man – after all, I didn't know him very well.

I was probably just being paranoid. Of course it would take a bit of time for two friends to adjust to new roles.

I excused myself from the pair, and took a walk around the bonfire, trying to find Ryla. I weaved through the friendly crowd of people for a few minutes, but I couldn't see her anywhere. I gave up and turned around to go back to Heather, and Ryla was standing there.

“Looking for someone?” she said, a mischievous gleam in her eye.

“I think you know,” I said, smiling back. I always enjoyed speaking with her. At first I had been intimidated by her powers of foresight, and even thought she was a little bit imperious. But since getting to know her, I had learned that she was anything but. A sense of childlike joy emanated from her, and even spilled into me, every time we spoke. It was as if she knew everything I was going to say, and she looked forward to hearing me say it. And what I had mistaken for imperiousness was actually an honesty, a frankness. She stated her visions of the future bluntly, because she was not attached to them. They were not her own ideas. They merely came through her.

“Come,” Ryla said, and led me to a quieter part of the clearing. She took a seat on a roughly-hewn log near the edge of the firelight, and patted the log beside her.

“What's bothering you?” she asked.

“My dreams,” I said. “Ever since you told me that I have the same ... gift that you have, I can't stop thinking about them. Some show scenes of violence.” I thought of the dream where the naked man stood at the foot of my bed. “And I can't tell which are prophecy, and which are meaningless.”