Shadows and Echoes
The village of Nighthollow was a tapestry of shadows and whispers, where the scent of pine mingled with the ever-present hum of the moonlit forest. It was here, in the heart of the werewolf pack called the NightHowlers, that Eliana grew up—a quiet unassuming girl who was ordinary in every way.
Eliana’s earliest memories were of the soft rustling of leaves while walking hand-in-hand with her mother and the distant howl of wolves. Her parents had a kind and gentle nature. They had told her stories of the wild wolves and the moon goddess. These tales excited her, for on her eighteenth birthday, she would finally receive her wolf. The thought both thrilled and terrified her.
The NightHowler Pack was a considerably sized pack. It was large enough so that the community didn’t feel suffocatingly small, but it was small enough that people were able to find their niches. Eliana’s parents were omegas, the lowest ranking wolves, but their roles and functions were not demeaned like in other packs. In the NightHowler Pack, omegas were treated with respect as vital members of the community. Primarily, Eliana’s mother helped garden and cook for the pack and her father helped teach the elementary aged pups Math, Science, and Outdoor Survival Skills as the little ones had not yet shifted.
Eliana did well enough in school to graduate a semester early, but she almost came to regret it, because even though she didn’t have to go to school anymore, she didn’t really plan well for what she would do after school. Most people, especially in the werewolf communities, had a general idea of their role in the pack. By birth, Eliana should follow after her parents. She did love pups and the idea of teaching, but saw how hard her dad had to work and the thankless nature of the job, so teaching was not the most appealing to her. Eliana could join the warrior class by demonstrating physical prowess or proficiency in strategy. While Eliana was a skilled critical thinker, she was no chess player. There are some kids who thrive on the intellectual or physical aspects of the warrior life, but not Eliana. This apathy and directionless wandering with no real end weighed heavily on Eliana.
In school, Chris, the alpha’s son, had always been a figure in her periphery. Their childhoods had intersected in many ways. From the moment she could remember, he was there—the center of every pack gathering. They had gone to the same school, their paths crossing in classrooms and hallways, but their interactions were few and fleeting. A handsome boy with a disarmingly charming smile, Chris was a beacon of magnetism that drew everyone to him, except for Eliana. She had watched from the sidelines as he effortlessly navigated life, his friends always around him like satellites in his own personal galaxy. Eliana, on the other hand, had always preferred the quiet corners. Her solace was found in books. Her dreams were filled with the stories she read, and she often lost herself in their pages, finding refuge from the unremarkable reality of her existence.
The dynamics of their early teenage years unfolded in the same predictable manner. Chris, now a young man of twenty, was popular and well-liked, his presence commanding attention wherever he went. As both his body and persona grew, so did his restlessness and ambitions. He was a future alpha, but without any real responsibility and control. Werewolf customs were that the alpha heir could not take over until he had met his mate. Most of that had to do with traditions that taught that unmated male werewolves were wild and they needed a mate to tame them. An alpha who was unmated was thought to make harsh policies, often needlessly warring with other packs and generally more aggressive. Knowing all this did not make the wait easier for Chris. It had been over two years since he got his wolf, Egil, and there was no sign of his mate, which is rather unusual, especially for an alpha. Most wolves generally found their mates relatively quickly and within their similar social strata of their pack or nearby neighboring packs.
Chris had visited all of the nearby packs and had even attended mating balls, which is a nightmare for a future alpha. Mating balls are events thrown for the sole purpose of young unmated wolves finding their mates outside of their packs, since most wolves stayed in their insular communities. Egil’s, Chris’s wolf, frustration was palpable. He was a wolf of purpose and precision, his every action a reflection of his desire to find his mate. He refused to let Chris entertain any potential suitors who were not destined to be his mate, which only intensified Chris’s restlessness. Chris’s patience wore thin, his desire to find his mate often manifesting in careless flings with those who would never be the one.
For Eliana, the cusp of her eighteenth birthday was both a marker of change and a source of anxiety. She still had no idea what to do with her life, and on top of that, what would happen if she found her mate right away? Most females followed their mates to their husband’s pack and Eliana did not want to leave her parents and the NightHowlers as it was all she had ever known. Then, on top of that, was she really ready to just follow her mate into his life? She didn’t really have anything else going on for her life, so maybe that would be for the best.
And so, in the stillness of Nighthollow, Eliana waited, her life a quiet backdrop to the drama of Chris’s burgeoning alpha status. The forest whispered around her, carrying the echoes of a future that seemed both distant and elusive, as she dreamed of a world where she might finally step out of the shadows and into the light.