Found

Chapter One - Sky

                 Laying on the soft spring grass underneath the warm mid-day sunlight I can't help but to stretch my snout skyward to soak up some more of the heat.  Breathing deeply I feel myself relax further into the ground as I enjoy the peace and quiet a tad longer before my two pups come bounding back towards me as they race around the secluded glen that we call home. I get tackled as Todd flies into my side smiling like a fool. His soft orange fur makes him the easier of the two to spot as I crack open an eye and look at them. Jade is now sitting to my left. Her onyx color shimmers in the sunlight as she laughs at Todd, whom has flipped onto his back with limbs spread every which way during his landing on me. Well.... laughing as well as any wolf can I suppose. Her mouth is wide open as she makes these high pitch chortling noises. It's quit the site.  Huffing through my snout at the two draws their attention back to me.  Pushing to stand on my paws I shift from my white wolf with bright blue eyes to my human shape. Standing onto my two legs as I grab a pair of shorts nearby to put them on. 

               "I want you to shift back now," I say sternly so that they will listen," It is time for dinner and I need you two silly pups to wash up before we eat. I'm sure underneath all that fur your covered in a lot of dirt or maybe worse." I chuckle fondly as they shift faces covered in dirt and grab the over sized t-shirts that I had placed nearby with my shorts to put on when we came out to enjoy the sunshine earlier. Giggling to themselves and whispering who knows what to each other they run to the nearby stream and wash their hands and faces as I start to head back to the small cave we call home. As they finish and start to chase after me I cannot help but recall how we all came to be here in this secluded refuge that has kept us safe for several moons now. 

         I call Todd my pup, but he is actually my little brother. We've been on our own for close to a year as we hid and made way across the country looking for a place were we felt safe from our own kind. Our parents had died during a raid from the most dominating pack in the area. They were and currently as far as I know are at war with another large and dominating pack nearby. They were looking for warriors to conscript and those capable of breeding to help grow their numbers. Our pack was small and independent, but that didn't matter. Our parents sent us running as our Alpha refused to bend to the Red Arrow Pack.  We wanted nothing to do with them or the Night Hawk packs feud. But, it turns out that had been the wrong answer. My parents were in a panic to get us away to keep us from being captured especially since we had just found out about a year and a few months prior that I was an Omega and therefore of breeding age. Our warriors had been surrounded and I could hear their death screams as Todd and I ran. The shrieks of the Omegas and Beta women as they were kidnapped to taken back to Red Arrows ruthless leader for the breeding farms that we had heard tale of.  I still mourn for my parents. The connection I felt with them no longer there. We were lucky to have escaped as we had been down wind and near the river where our home had been situated when the chaos had started. I had heard of only a handful of the others had gotten away while we fled through the mountains.  Most had been killed or captured as rumor had it. Some of the warriors had caved and went when their mates had been threatened and all non mated breeders that hadn't been killed in the skirmish had been taken along with the pups who hadn't presented yet, so that they could be used as seen fit when the time came. The thought still to this day makes me sick and very depressed.

      Jade had been an abandoned pup we found along the way about eight moons or so after we had ran. She was a rogues pup and sickly from malnutrition and a flu, so she was left to die as most rogue wolves will not risk the possibility of the spread of the disease or the waste of resources to heal her as they rarely have any. Unable to leave her behind we had sought a temporary shelter to help aide in her healing. And, having medicinal training I was able to heal her through the natural medicines my mother had taught me as she had been the pack healer. Actually, Jade was the reason we had found this hidden alcove on the mountainside as we had sought for the shelter she had so desperately needed. What we had thought was a small cave turned out to be a tunnel into a tiny forest with about ten acres of open field and  a shallow stream that provides water and small fish. We had soon discovered that deer sometimes wonder in and that there is a lot of small game that more than likely flourished due to the lack of predators. Jade turned out to be about the same age as my brother. Although she doesn't know her exact age. My brother is currently seventeen years old and they both have yet to present their second genders. From what Jade has told me I gather she is already around eighteen years old. Most wolves present around sixteen to eighteen years old. So, she is bordering on a late bloomer. But, I have a feeling that her wolf is waiting on Todd's. They have been attached at the hip since Jade had woken up the first time when we found her. 

          Chuckling to my self I turn around to see the pups following behind me still whispering to each other and lost in their own world as they follow me back to the small cave in the middle of the forest that acts as our home. Facing my path once more I find myself getting lost in thought once more.Although I am fairly certain that they are mates and if so I am overjoyed that they are together my heart aches at the thought of mates. With us being so secluded who knows when I will ever find mine. It's a craving in all wolves to be near their mates more so once puberty is reached and you can consciously feel it. More so for the submissive wolves the longer that we are not with our more dominate mates. We are more vulnerable to outside threats during our heats and not to mention who doesn't want the love and affection that comes with a partner; a mate. Wolves after all are social creatures by nature. My bi-annual heat is only weeks again at most and it's getting harder to hide it from the almost full grown wolf pups that live with me. Heats are a very personal time for wolves and although there is nothing to be ashamed of we prefer only the company of mates during this time. The longer I go without my mate the worse it will get too. It's almost to the point that last time I had to let the pups fend for themselves a lot more that I would like as each wave was longer and more intense. The ache in my chest grows with my longing for the companion missing by my side. Sighing I continue to wonder when I will be able find the one meant for me.