Chapter 1

Ryeleigh

I am about to shift for the first time, and I could not be more excited and scared. I have dreamed of my first shift since I was a little girl. The feel of my fur, the change in my senses, and coming into my powers, finally. It is also the moment I will learn the identity of my life mate, or if I will be alone. Within the transformation, I should see the animal that will complete mine. If I see nothing, that means that my animal’s soul mate has died. The Norns decide before your birth who will complete you, however things happen and some do not make it to adulthood. Norns choose mates by taking a soul and splitting it, allowing it to grow and form two separate souls. When the soul bond is activated on the first shift, the echo of the other half is strong, and a soul is only complete when the two are united.

The Norns are sister Elves that shape the lives and destinies of all living things in the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil. Queen of the Light Elves Skuld the Norn that sees the future knew that there was a need for a stronger breed of warriors and created Shapeshifters with the King of the Dark Elves Myrkalfr, making a hybrid elf that can shift into animals. Their child Arcas was the first shifter and led the Berserkers, the elite warrior elf shifters. Skuld and Myrkalfr created different light and dark shifters that settled in all the Nine Realms and spanned from commoner to royalty. However, the Berserkers were the elite shifters that functioned as security and companionship for Arcas, who they believed would unite their realms in the future.

An old prophecy spoke of the destruction of the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil called Ragnarök, which is Skuld and Myrkalfr’s punishment for messing with fate. Arcas was the only one that could stop it and unite the shifters in the Nine Realms. However, there are always two sides in a prophecy if he could not unite the different shifters of Yggdrasil. The tree of life would die killing everyone in the Nine Realms. Ragnarök started in Asgard with the Dark Shifter rebellion but spread to battles in all Nine Realms. During the war, Arcas was the leader of the light shifters and Loki was the rebel dark shifter leader. The Norns could not intervene because this was the punishment for Skuld creating a different future. The only way they could intervene was self-defense.

Arcas called a meeting on Earth for a shifter treaty. The Dark refused peace. The Dark Shifters ambushed the Norns, knowing they would be on Earth. They severed the Bifrost, cutting off the primary access to earth from the Nine Realms. Two of the three Norns escaped, but Skuld was not so lucky. Loki then killed Skuld Arcas’s mother, who stayed on Earth when the Bifrost closed. Arcas asked the Norns for help in exchange. They wanted him to take his mother’s place as the Norn of the future. Arcas asked the Norns to create special matches for the shifters to make sure that the light and dark shifters continue to integrate to guarantee Ragnarök would not happen again. The Norns agreed, Loki was captured and imprisoned in Hel. With the Bifrost gone, there was no way for the Berserkers to leave Earth, but they could still communicate with the other realms. Our animals come from the Tree of Yggdrasil and enter Earth through the Norn fire. Living beings and objects can come to Earth, but they cannot leave because of the Curse of Ragnarök. The curse states that the original light and dark shifters from Ragnarök and their descendants will never leave Earth. It closed Earth to one-way travel only.

Over the centuries, the Norns have continued to mate the light and dark shifters to where now there is no light or dark, just shifters of different animals. Light and dark refer to the Elven race, color, and not good and evil. Shifters, just like humans, can be dark in spirit and a bad person. It is possible to be mated to a bad person, and it happens, but the major risk with mates is if they die before you meet, your soul will never be full. The Norns shape destiny, but they do not control it, so there are times a soul dies before it meets its mate. If this happens, the Norns give you a second chance mate. They are not as strong or lasting as a first mate, but it guarantees some happiness. If a mate dies after making a connection, both of them will die. Mates are one soul, when one is gone, the other is too lost to continue. If my dad died, my mom would die shortly after from a broken heart. Their love makes me yearn for my match. I know there is always the possibility that my true mate has passed, but I do not dwell on that I trust my life in the Norns.

I come from an enormous family of felines, yet there is no promise I will have a feline shift. Our animal given to us by the Norns surfaces at puberty, but trains in the Yggdrasil realm and do not connect to the Earth realm till the human side ascends. After the Norns reveal our animal, our power level reveals our Alpha status. During the ceremony, we drop blood into the Norn fire and the light surrounds us. The fire leaves a mark on our skin, symbolizing our animal and power level. The mark is shaped like the paw print of your chosen animal. Inside the paw will be your power level from the Greek alphabet ranging from Alpha to Omega. Shifters can choose to be in a clan or be rogue. In a clan, you are protected by numbers, but you need to follow the alpha and not all are fair like my dad. A rogue is a nomad. They choose not to be in a clan and travel within neutral territory between clans. Rogues are not bad, they for whatever reason, choose not to follow a clan, but they still need to attend shifter rituals and will go to a main pack house when needed. Whether one chooses to be a rogue or connected to a clan, all shifters must ascend at the formal ceremony. My dad said there were 8 rogues that petitioned to ascend at our ceremony.

The Amory is the Alpha of Alphas ruling all shifters, always a male he ascends to a god status with the powers of Arcas. Arcas cannot come to Earth but channels himself through the Amory, so he is still here, leading his people. Amory’s are chosen during their first shift. Then they are trained by the Norns and promoted to Amory when the Amory before retires or dies letting the new one takeover. The choosing of the Amory will happen years before the position is taken with the Amory apprentice learning how to be a leader and Norn in the interim. If the next chosen Amory happens in a ceremony, no one knows but the current Amory and the Elders’ counsel.

My father told me that the Elders get an overwhelming urge to bow to the new Amory, anyone of higher power bows to their superiors and the new Amory is only outranked by the current Amory. It would be rare if a new Amory is chosen in this ceremony because it only happens around a hundred years after the current Amory takes his position. He does not age but will pass when the spirits deem the next Amory is ready, usually 200 years. Amory Cruz does not have a successor yet but should be a long way off because he is still with in his first hundred years. It does not concern me though cause the Amory is always male. It would affect my brother or our friends if Cruz was further in his reign. Though it is like winning the lotto and so sporadic, it is not even seen as a possibility.

The current Amory Cruz, from Mexico, will not be at one specific location for the First Shift ceremony but will oversee hundreds of ceremonies from the shifter capital building in Washington, DC. With multiple ceremonies happening in multiple places at the same time, a live stream is the only way he can oversee them all. He will be the last face all first shifters see as a human, and the first we see as a shifter because Arcas personally delivers our animals to us for the first shift.