Hope & Despair

Chapter One Stephanie. I groaned internally as my mothers voice, now shrill with irritation, cut through the library from the doorway. “Now my dear we can’t be late tonight! It could be the most important night in my pups lives, I just feel it” With that she turned on her heel clicking her tongue and blustered away to fuss over one of my sisters no doubt. I groaned externally this time as I got up to go dress, I had been dreading this night for ages, It was so humiliating now when strangers came to the moon night. Perhaps I should back up and explain a little, My name is Stephanie Driston and I am a Part Lycan hybrid. My Family have enough Lycan blood that werewolves think we are incredible prize but that true Lycans merely have to tolerate us in their inner society of the Caledonian pack, a reasonable size pack by most standards but not enough for Alpha Nick, our pack has shrunk by a few hundred in the last few centuries and he has become obsessed with growing the pack again. He Continues to invite any and every unmated wolf of any sort of standing from all over Europe, I think he will start on American packs when he runs out of suitors to try and trap here. You see when wolves mate they mate for life and if females leave to join another pack to be with our mates our new pack has to pay for us……… I know the whole idea has always left a bad taste in my mouth too, but as my mother would snap “it’s traditional and that means it’s important”……… I don’t get it either. The other option would be for our mates to join our pack and submit to Alpha Nick giving him a bigger and stronger pack. This is seen by most werewolves in this part of the world as a females highest honour to help the pack by attracting in strong warriors and producing lots of pup’s. My Mother let just how successfully she had done just that go to her head. She had only been a gammas daughter the kind expected to cook or clean or nurse to get by but then her mate (my father) turned out to be a half Lycan, the third son of a lord no less, and then she produced five healthy pups in one litter, This won’t be me though I just want to sing and dance and run with my sisters I loathe the idea of being bought, and I don’t much like the sound of losing myself to anyone mate or not.