the rejected alpha

sept.5 2021 I'll be 17 in one week, but was I ready to lead the whole pack. I've been training my whole life for this moment but it's always been abstract... a day to come. In 7 days it will be here. aleki shadowpaw alpha of the wild smoke pack. I could smell the faint sent of my mother as she stood at the bottom of the stairs. She had been smothering me for a month now. she pretends like it's all for me, and it's only because she cares, but I know she worried about the pack. She knows I'm not ready. I'm not the strongest, I'm not the fastest, and I'm certainly not the smartest wolf in my year. The only thing I have going for me is my name. The name that has demanded fear in all wolves for centuries. Legend says that our line is special but I've never given too much credit to fables. Still, it was the only thing protecting my claim as alpha, without the name there would be any number of usurpers waiting to challenge me for the title and my pack. My mothers soft foot steps began to climb the stairs. I can't imagine what she could want this time. maybe to go over the ceremony for the thousandth time, or to make sure my outfit showed just how powerful she believed me to be, or best of all to make sure that I let every member of our pack know that I was a true shadowpaw, whatever that meant. Could she make her fears any more evident. As she approached the last step I noticed another diddle sent was with her. I couldn't recognize this wolf. They smelled of honeysuckle and rain. Probably another matchmaking attempt of his mother's. He had one year after his 17 birthday to find his mate, like leading a whole pack wasn't enough stress. His door opened and there stood his mother with a girl, but not at all what he expected. She was not of his pack, or atleast not from the main territory. A few families lived on the outskirts of their territory meant as a first defense against outsiders. This girl though, she couldn't be from their pack. They take care of their own, but this girl had clearly spent much time on her own. Her clothes ( If you could call them that) had cakes of mud and filth on them. Her face barely visible under the dirt. There was something off about her smell now that she was closer. Who is this girl. He didn't realize that he had spoken outloud until the girl looked up with terrified brown eyes. He realized immediately what was off, she wasn't a wolf. Who was this filthy human and why had his mother brought her to him. She was dreaming clearly, that or she had been abducted by some crazy cult that lived deep in the black forest. Why hadn't she listened to her parents, never enter the forest. it was their number one rule, but what was she to do? Allow her family to starve because her village had a wild imagination. The stories about the black forest grew every year. As a girl she had heard stories of hunters who had returned mangled, some who hadn't returned at all. The ones able to speak always had a story to tell, some of wolves some of man, some of magical creatures that go bump in the night. Could these people, the ones who had trapped her in their cages be the ones to cause such mayhem. Could these people h the fuel for all of the fear surrounding the forest, and if that were the case why was she still alive standing in front of some teenage boy who obviously was just as confused as me. He hadn't spoken at first but I could feel his eyes piercing through me, as I looked up into his face he spoke, more a whisper under his breath. She looked into his startling grey eyes. The look of confusion in his face quickly became anger. Had she offended him, who was he, would he help her leave this place.