The Scent of Destiny

The hunt

It was about four by the time I woke up; shades of purple, orange and pink illuminated the sky with its brightness and pastel colors. The moon was already visible even though the sun was yet to set. My eyes were swollen after crying for so long and the ill emotions remained, but the nap helped a lot. Kida shielded me the whole time from bad dreams and thoughts as I slept through the afternoon.

After lying on my bed for a couple of minutes, I got up and headed towards the kitchen. I was starving. Hopefully, my mom was already home, but there was a feeling of discomfort in my stomach when I thought about her. Having to tell her everything I had discovered was nerve wrecking. Nevertheless, it was something I had to go through, and maybe I would have the strength to tell also talk to them about my fears about Carlise.

As I crossed the hallway to reach the kitchen, what my eyes saw was the most beautiful thing I had seen in my eighteen years: the whole kitchen was surrounded by flower decor of all types, and with my favorite flower in the whole world: Lilies. My mother said Lilies were my favorite ever since I was young, “You used to venture into the woods when you were four and when you came back, your hair was adorned with Lilies and you held as much of them as you could between tiny little arms”, she used to tell me.

“Happy birthday, darling”, said my mother with a huge smile on her face. She was wearing a beautiful black dress that went all the way down to her ankles, and those goth high heels she loved to wear.

“Mom! You're finally back”, I said as I walked towards her and hugged her tightly, “I knew you were going to be back safe and sound. I think Dad was more worried than I was”. We all laughed.

“Well of course, she's the love of my life. I’ll always be terribly worried about her. I know she can protect herself, but that will never make me less worried”, my mother smiled and kissed him. I smiled uncomfortably, him saying that triggered me once more and I couldn't help but feel kind of sad and hopeless again.

“Your parents are lovely", Kida sent an image of herself panting and wagging her tail. She was happy with how adorable my parents were together. They were physically so different and yet they clicked so well, "We will definitely have something like they have one day”.

I opened my mouth to try and explain to my mother what had happened a couple of hours ago, but she immediately spoke first, “Honey, we wanted you to have something more special for your birthday and celebrate you and your wolf, since you now have her, I can smell her all over you”. I was a bit surprised by what she said. Since I couldn't smell, I had no idea werewolves were able to perceive or smell wolves inside others.” …and well, since I had to go on that mission down south, most of our plans for today couldn’t go through, but at least we can take you on your first hunt and eat your first catch for dinner”, she said cheerfuly.

“My first hunt?”, I was ecstatic by the proposal because I’ve been wanting to hunt ever since I saw my parents do it a long time ago. They had both taken me into the woods, and after reaching a certain point deep in the woods, they transformed, and I saw from afar how they both teamed up and tracked game in the woods and killed their prey. We took the game home and had a feast that night, and meat for days. As I gave it more though, I got disillusioned once again.

“Mom, my wolf… she can't track prey. I can't smell and she can't either”. I felt a knot in my throat again as I recalled the prior events with Claude, “I don’t think I can do it”, I said sadly.

“Alice, you know humans don't have a sense of smell like us wolfs, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, baby girl, they discovered many methods for hunting, so I’ll teach you everything you must know. I lived among them before I met your father, so don't rush and overthink things. It's something you haven't even tried yet, so you have to try before you can say you can't do it”. She winked at me reassuringly. Her chillness about the situation made me feel at the same time sort of uncomfortable. I slowly inhaled and exhaled, trying to relax and nodded.

As the minutes went by, we talked about menial stuff while my mom was prepping everything for later. Suddenly, my father stood up and walked towards their room and I could hear him looking for something in one of their drawers. When he came back, he held in his hand a small navy blue satin box, “I couldn’t think of a better moment to give you this”. He sat down and looked at me while proudly smiling, and then looked at the box as he set it on the table in front of me and slowly opened it. Inside the box was a beautiful crescent moon pendant made of silver, it was the size of a walnut, at least in diameter, and there was a strange stone set in it I did not recognize, but it was pure white with grey spots and lines. It reminded me of a marble, but it was different. I knew it from the moment I set my sight on it. There was something about it I couldn't explain but I felt attracted to it.

“This necklace was given to me by your grandfather. He said this was passed down for generations in his family, and the stone you see set in it is supposed to be a moonstone, a special gem given by the moon goddess herself. Only the women in the family are allowed to wear this. According to what he said, it will protect and empower you, and will also grant you the necessary strength when you need it the most. You’ll be the first one to wear the necklace ever since your great-great-grandmother. She was a powerful wolf, according to your grandfather, and since there were no women in our family after her, no one had worn it, up until now. It belongs to you now, Alice, and it's up to you to pass it down to the next generation. Wear it with pride”.

“Dad…”, I took the necklace and placed it in the palm of my hand, appreciating every single detail. I was in awe with its beauty, and there was a certain warmness that radiated from it, which was odd, but the more I looked at it, the more drawn to it I felt. I snapped out of it because Kida was telling me to come back. I shook my head and looked at my dad, “Can you help me put it on, please?”.

My father stood up and grabbed the necklace from my hand, he got behind me and placed the necklace along my chest, pulled both ends of the chain towards the back of my neck and, once secured, he let the chain go and sat back down right next to me. My father looked at me with a proud and somewhat wistful smile, "It looks beautiful on you".

“Oh my goddess, thank you so much. This is... so beautiful", I grabbed the necklace, and noticed how long the chain was, "The chain is a bit long though, but this is legit the best gift ever”. They both chuckled.

“Yeah, we guessed it was thought out for shifting, that's why the chain links are also thick”, he explained. I had not paid attention to the chain, it was long and thick enough to be mistaken for a dog collar, which was hilarious.

"I don't think I could've asked for a better gift. Thank you Dad", he nodded, grabbed my hand and kissed it.

“Well, let go. It's getting late”, said my mother as she ran towards the clearing behind our house. She was more than eager to take me on my first hunt, to say the least.

My mother and father took their clothes off and immediately shifted into their wolves. Mother’s wolf, Athena, was a huge black wolf with yellow eyes, almost my size, -I was 5'6-, and super intimidating to stand next to, but once you got to know her, she was ironically a total peach, and loved cuddles. My father’s wolf, Remiel, was a brown wolf with white stripes on the side, and going down his spine there was a long patch of black fur that reached the tip of his tail. His right eye was grey, his left eye was green. He was way shorter than Athena, since he only reached my shoulders, and even if he looked lovely, he was quite grumpy. The hunt was the only way to make him thrilled about something.

Once they completely shifted, both of them looked back at me, waiting for me to do my first shift. I felt a bit insecure at first, but I could feel Kida wanting to come out, so I stripped off my clothes and as soon as they were off, this overwhelming feeling invaded every nerve in my body. The sensation of my skin stretching, hair growing through my pores, and the feeling of my bones morphing was frightening, but at the same time, this empowering sensation was absolutely exhilarating, and no other sensation could ever compare to it.

Kida was gorgeous on her own accord, and stood proudly in front of my mother and father. They both stared at me and huffed at the same time, as if they approved. Then, for the first time, I heard their voices in my head, “Kida is beautiful”, said my father through the mind link. Kida lowered her head in sign of respect for his compliment. It was my first time hearing him in my mind, since the mind link is only possible after you get your wolf.

The first people you are able to mind link are your parents before getting initiated into a pack. Another exception was your mate if he 'marked' you before getting introduced into his pack.

“Let’s go!”, my father urged us. He was more than ready for this hunt too. He ran towards the woods and I smiled internally and ran towards him. My mother was right behind us. And off we went into the woods.

Seeing as a wolf was one hell of an experience; the woods and all of my surroundings looked different through Kida’s eyes. Some flowers I came to recognize had different colors, and the image was less clear than when I saw through my human eyes, but my peripheral view allowed me to see both my parents running alongside me, even when they were far away. Also, despite the weird feeling of running on four legs, the speed I gained as I ran through the forest was liberating, and adrenaline rushed through my body as I evaded one obstacle after the other. Suddenly, my father came to a complete stop. My mother and I caught on to it, and stopped a couple of seconds later.

“There’s a faint scent here that leads west. Deer…”, he started sniffing and walked not so far away from us. My mother and I got close to where he found the first track and we both sniffed the scent he picked up. Kida and I couldn't pick up anything, of course, but she somehow felt compelled to do so.

“Remiel being able to pick up a track this old just talks about how good he really is… amazing”, said a voice I did not recognize in my head. I assumed it was Athena. Being able to hear her for the first time was amazing, since my whole interaction with her was only physical. “Do not let this discourage you, pup; hunting involves way more than just tracking a scent. Look at the trees”. She stared at what was behind me. I turned around, and saw a thin tree with marks on its bark, “These are deer marks, most likely a young buck. Look, there’s some of the tissue from its antlers stuck in the bark, and some fell on the ground", said my mother this time, as she got close and started sniffing, “there are some prints here too”, and in fact there were, right where the roots of the tree started, I didn’t pay attention to them until she mentioned it, “As I said before, humans may not be able to smell like us, but by using their other senses, they are able to interpret prints and whatever they can find along the way to track down prey, and so can you”.

“I picked up their trail, it's a stag heard most likely. There were more trees with antler markings and more prints on the ground”, said my father to both of us. He ran towards the direction from where he picked up the scent and both of us followed right behind him. He was incredibly fast, since his wolf was slimmer, which made him more agile.

“I think I know where we're headed towards, there should be a small clearing with a pond up ahead. They are probably looking for water. We need to stop right before we reach the pond so we can surround them”, said my mother.

After twenty minutes of running, my father slowed down his pace and my mother and I did the same. The clearing they mentioned was straight ahead of us, and we walked slowly towards the pond, being careful so we wouldn't be heard.

“The scent is stronger, they are definitely here”, said my father as he sniffed the ground and the air, “Alice, you are in charge of chasing them. Stay right behind them, this will cause them to panic and spread out. Your mother and I will flank them and the one who gets separated from the herd is the one we’ll chase after, then we'll weaken it until he's tired enough, and then we take it down”. There was a sudden shift and a more guttural voice started talking instead. I assumed it was Remiel, “The hunting experience is different for us; our pure form wolf relatives are smaller and weaker, and don’t usually take down prey by themselves or in such small numbers, but we are bigger, stronger, and more capable of taking them down in one go. Don't be afraid to take risks if it comes down to it, pup”.

I sighed. This moment made me very nervous, but I was more than ready for this, “I think we can do it. Kida and I are ready when you guys are”, they both nodded. As I made my way into the clearing, my parents took the flanks, almost thirty feet away from me. The sunrays made their way through the tree branches and shined down on the clearing, right above the herd; three males, and to our surprise, a doe.

Kida started growling and the deer quickly stood on alert, looking in my direction. I ran towards them and they all panicked just like my father said and ran across the clearing northbound. I then noticed one of the bucks had an old injury to his right leg, "This one, it has a slight limp on its right leg from an old wound”.

“Good call, we are right on it”, said my mother. She then jumped from behind a fallen tree trunk and got in between the bucks to separate the one with the limp. Kida took over completely and followed right behind the buck and gave him a nasty bite on his right leg and he started bleeding. The buck slowly but steadily started separating from the group, but it persisted and kept running. My father came from the right, teeth exposed, and took another bite on the side of the buck’s belly. We kept running along with the buck, who insisted on escaping, despite taking so many bites and losing a lot of blood. He was not going down that easily. Kida was growing impatient by the minute.

“This is taking too long, we have to jump on top of it and get the kill”, she told me.

“But how? I don’t see a way we could get a good jump and take it down”. I then noticed in the distance a big boulder that had the perfect shape and angle to get on top of and make a jump, and the buck was running right towards the bottom of it, “I think I know what to do, see that boulder in the distance? Let’s get the height we need and take it down!”, I said, exhilarated.

“I like how you think, little one! Let’s do it!”, said Kida, clearly excited about the idea. I deviated and ran as fast as I could, passing right behind my father and headed straight to the top of the boulder.

“What are you doing?!”, yelled my mother.

A sudden rush took over my body and I couldn't focus on anything else but catching our prey. Athena and Remiel roared in my mind to stop, but I blocked them out and everything moved in slow motion. The only thing I could focus on was my own breathing and I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I ran. Our instinct guided us and as we ran up the boulder, “Alice, don’t!, I heard my mother in the back of my mind, but muffled.

I could see the buck through my peripheral view, running right under the boulder and my parents right on its tail. As we made it to the top, we immediately jumped. There was a certain warmth coming from the necklace my father had given me and it somehow felt like it guided me to my objective. I then landed a bite right on the buck’s neck and rolled along with it down a small slope.

“Alice!”, they both yelled in my mind. When I hit the bottom, I hit myself against a tree, and then everything became dark.