“Good morning”. Uncle greeted as I came down the stairs and followed him into the kitchen.
“Good morning”. I replied. “Has dad gone already?”
“Already? Raven it’s eleven o’clock. He went hours ago!”
“Oh! I didn’t realise I’d slept in”. I told him as I poured myself some juice and took a seat at the table.
“No college today?”
“No, that’s tomorrow. But today we’re supposed to work on our own pieces, it’s part of our coursework”.
“Oh.. and what piece are you working on?”
“Actually, it’s a raven. I saw him at the lake the other day, but I haven’t finished yet”.
“Well, now that’s suitable, isn’t it”. He smiled as he leaned against the counter. “A raven by Raven”.
“Well, he was beautiful, I couldn’t resist”.
“Your mother thought so too, that’s why she named you after them. So, anyway, how was the party?”
“Umm, you know, the usual”.
“That boring, huh?. He sniggered. “Any problems?”
“No.. no, nothing much”.
“Hmm… is that so?”
“What?” I asked as he was looking at me suspiciously.
“Well, a letter from the palace was posted just now”. He said as he took out a letter with the palace’s seal on it and handed it to me.
My heart began to hammer, and my hands trembled as I took it.
“Well, are you going to open it?” He asked as I just stared at it, wanting to avoid whatever was inside.
I carefully broke the seal and gulped as I unfolded the thick paper.
“To Miss Raven Hansley.
I am writing to further express my concerns on the matter of your behaviour last night at the grand palace celebration. I am still appalled at your disrespect towards your future alpha’s partner and future Luna. I must express my concern that your rudeness and ill-mannered temperament stems from your indifference to the members of the Whitlock pack and your insufficiency to have a valued place among those that have thrived where you have not. I feel that as you have not inherited your wolf, you either lack this particular DNA, which would render you a full human, or you have not been found worthy to possess such a gift.
Therefore, I will be addressing this matter to your alpha as I feel it is my duty as Luna to do what is right for our pack and for our dear Violet, who is insistent that you are the instigator of malicious and careless insults causing such incidents like that of last night.
I hope you can take this matter seriously and I advise that you look for a new place to take residence outside of our territory. Your parents will be informed once a decision has been made.
Sincerely,
Luna Addison Whitlock”.
I kept the letter in my hand as I let it sink in. I’d hoped last night would be swept away and forgotten about as a one off and today would be a new day. I felt so optimistic when I came home last night and now I know that’s it, I have to make a decision.
“What is it?” Uncle asked as he studied the reaction on my face.
I didn’t answer. I was too focused on deciding whether to lie to my parents and pretend I suddenly wanted to embark on some whirlwind adventure or…. Do I tell them the truth?
“Raven!” Uncle called again as he ripped the letter out of my hand. His face fell as he began to read it. His eyes were rolling past the words, the more he read, the lower his jaw fell.
“Last night!”. He exclaimed. “What happened, Raven? You said nothing happened! So, tell me the truth!” He demanded with a concerned frown.
I sighed heavily. “Violet came over to me, she was being bitchy so I said stuff back to her and next thing I know, Luna Addison came over and said things about me, my attitude and that I shouldn’t be here”.
“Well, did you tell her that Violet constantly starts shit with you? That girl has been on your case for years!” He said, almost shouting in anger.
“Yes. Yes, I did. I told her straight away that Violet came over and was insulting me, but the Luna just brushed it off and didn’t believe me”.
“Then we need to call your mum! She can get someone to cover for her at work whilst we sort this out and when your father comes home we’ll have to tell him”.
“NO!” I shouted as I abruptly stood from my chair.
“What do you mean no?”
“Because I don’t want to add more problems onto them, Uncle. As it is, they have to deal with the reputation of having a wolfless daughter!”.
“Raven! Do you honestly think they care about that? They love you regardless. They’d do anything for you, you know that”.
“Exactly!. If they find out about this, they’ll leave everything behind, and I won’t ask them to do that… I don’t want them to do that”.
“What do you mean IF they find out about this? Raven, I can’t keep this from them. The Luna is potentially exiling you from the pack! It’s a big fucking deal, Raven, they’ll never forgive me if I don’t tell them”.
“Just… just give me a couple of days, ok? Just to think about what I need to do. Maybe I can find somewhere else to go and tell them that I want to leave, to see the rest of the world”.
“And do you…. Do you want to leave your home, your family and go off all on your own? Do you really want your last words to them to be a lie?”
I sighed as I took a moment to think. “Yes”. I nodded glumly. “Yes I do, if it means they don’t have to leave with the shame of being forced out”.
Uncle exhaled a long frustrated breath as he shook his head. “Ok.. I’ll give you two days, Raven! But you need to think long and hard about this because you know nothing about life outside this pack and there’s no one out there you can turn to. But I can make a call…. I have an old childhood friend that lives in Willow pack with his mate. I don’t know if he's still there, I haven’t spoken to him in ten years, but I will try. It’s roughly a four day journey from here and you can take my truck”.
“Ok… Would they accept a wolfless girl?”
“I don’t know”. He shrugged worriedly. “I don’t really know much about that pack, only that the alpha is pretty civilised, we’ve had no qualms with him, and they have a lot more land than we do and triple the residents. If I can get ahold of my friend, I can find out more”.
“Ok, Ok…” I replied, letting out a breath of relief, notably putting all my hopes onto that one phone call. “You do that and I’m going to the library to find out what other packs are close by and what would be my best chance of being accepted”.
“You’ll have to go to their information desk. They have it all on file but it won't be on the shelves”.
“Ok, I will…. And thanks Uncle. I just need enough time to sort something ok?”
“And I need a slap across the face because I shouldn’t be doing this behind your parents' backs!”.
“Think of it this way, if I find somewhere to go, then they don’t have to go through any hurt. I’ll be safe and they’ll be happy”.
“Two days, Raven! And we’d better hope the Luna doesn’t decide to do anything about this in the meantime”.
My eyes widened when he said it… I hadn’t even thought about that! For all I know, she’s already spoken with Alpha Caleb and planning to send me on my way.
I quickly got dressed and left uncle to contact his friend as I headed to the library hoping I’d find a good backup in case uncle’s plan didn’t work out.
“Hi!” I greeted the librarian who eyed me through the top of her glasses.
“Yes?” She asked, looking annoyed that I’d interrupted her typing.
“Can I have the files that have the information regarding the other wolf packs please?”
“Why would you want those? Surely you must already know this information”.
“Uhh, just extra research, you know… just curious”. I lied. Little did this old woman know that, because I wasn’t included as part of the pack, I never conversed with anyone else on this certain topic!
“Hmm, just a moment, I’ll have to fetch it from the storage room”. She told me as she huffed while getting out of her seat.
As soon as she returned and placed them in my hand, I quickly went off to find a private table away from the main section. I set them out, took out my pad and pen to take notes of every pack… name, distance, enemy, friendliness, pack size! I opened the first one and inwardly told myself to have hope that at least one of these would be ‘the one’.
After two days of going through all the files of the local packs, I had one, maybe two at a push that sounded safe enough for me to run to. However, whether they’d allow a wolfless member in was still a shot in the dark. All I could do, was hope they’d take some kind of pity on me.I dragged my ass out of bed and rushed to get dressed for college. I had been up most of the night tossing and turning, convincing myself that today was the day! Tonight, at dinner, I’d discuss my ‘plan’ to explore to my parents and, hopefully, Uncle’s sheepish looks he’s had the last couple of days, won’t give anything away.“Any luck with finding a plan B?” He asked as I darted into the kitchen to grab a banana. Whispering, so mum in the next room didn’t hear.“Kind of”. I shrugged. “Maybe two… And I’m certain they’ll accept me”. I slightly lied. The guilt of hiding this from my parents was starting to get to him. I could see the worry in his eyes and he’d constantly convince me to tell them.“I’ve left a
I had woken up early the next morning and as I heard dad leave for the palace and busy in the kitchen packing her lunch for work, I quietly heaved a suitcase out from under my bed.I dragged it into my en-suite to hide it from mum as I started thrifting through my things, deciding what was the most important to pack. I folded each item and squished it in as tightly as I could, so I could fit most of my clothes in. I looked over at my bedside table as my eyes wandered over the collection of photo frames I had that held pictures of me with my parents, my uncle and two of me with my grandmother. I grabbed one of my thick woollen scarfs and carefully wrapped it around all of the frames, not wanting to leave any behind. I gulped down a lump in my throat at the thought of never being face to face with my parents or Uncle Frank again. But, today had to be my last day and tomorrow morning before dad leaves for work, I’d say my last goodbyes with pretence of excitement to be leaving. I knew th
“RAVEN!” Leo called out, just as I got to the palace doors. I turned around to see him strolling through the grand entrance hall with a smile on his face. “I hope you feel better now”. He said as he stood in front of me in his white shirt and neatly pressed black trousers, and that was the first time I had ever been able to envision him as being our future alpha.Without thinking, I suddenly flung my arms around his shoulders in an embrace. His hands lightly touched my lower back. Just as I realised what I’d done, I quickly pulled away with an embarrassed look, causing him to chuckle. “Well, I’ll take that as you do feel better!”. “I do, Leo. Thank you so much for doing that, I feel like I can actually breathe now without this big lie hanging over my head”. “So, are you going to tell your parents you’re not going away now?”“Well, I’ll tell them I don’t plan on going any time soon”. “Good. Now what are you going to do for the rest of the day, now you don’t have to pack?” “Umm, I g
I woke up and an instant smile fell across my face. I still felt that weight being lifted and the lie vanishing. I hopped out of bed excitedly and ran to uncle’s room. I tapped on his door, hoping he was already awake and in one of his calm moods.“Come in”. He called out sleepily. I quickly went inside and sat at the edge of his bed grinning from ear to ear.“What are you so happy about?” He asked with a dubious look, rubbing his tired eyes.“Well, I thought you’d like to know that I don’t have to leave anymore!”. “What?” He asked, immediately sitting up with anticipation. “How?” “I had a meeting with the alpha. He let me explain things and said I could stay”. “No way!”. He smiled. “Raven, I am so bloody glad. But you never mentioned you were going to speak with him”. “Well, I hadn’t planned to. Leo set up the meeting and, of course, the Luna was there”. I told him with a roll of my eyes when I mentioned Addison.“Wait, Leo set it up?” “Mmmhmm”. I nodded.“Well, I didn’t see tha
Two days later. I led by the lake, finishing off the last touches to my raven bird in the solace of my peaceful surroundings. I didn’t have college or anything else to do today and mum didn’t have work. Since our little tiff we still had barely spoken two words to each other and had both decided to be petty for our own reasons. Last thing I wanted to do was be at home with her all day, especially when I had woken uncle up from one of his nightmares last night, so he was in a particularly bad mood today, stomping around the house, cursing and talking gibberish to himself.I let the sun warm my bare legs as I closed my eyes, trying to imagine the bird’s soft black feathers.“Here you are”. Leo greeted me with a smile as I looked up at him walking over. “Thought I might find you here”. He said as he sat next to me. “Wow, he looks really good”. He complimented as he observed my drawing. “It looks so real as if he’s about to fly off the page”. “Ok, now you’re going a bit overboard with t
As I walked home from art class, I doddled a bit, taking my time, strolling along the path in the sunshine as I looked out at our land border. It had been three days since my fathers last warnings about the rogues, but already what he had said was now even more apparent. The guards were even more alert as they paced up and down along their section and other pack members had volunteered themselves to help keep watch. We only had two days left until alpha Caleb announced the curfew and has most of our land cut off.Leo had told me that the alpha was beginning to unload even more work onto him, especially when it came to the protocols if attacked. Alpha Caleb was trying to prepare Leo to take over just in case he didn’t survive it. I could see the pressure taking its toll on Leo, but he still always tried to be optimistic, almost hoping his father was too invincible to be taken down by a pack of rogues. Last night I had even snuck into the palace, keeping out of Addison’s sight and quizz
It’s been two weeks since I last spoke to Leo and even in the short space of time we had become friends again, I really noticed his absence. I carried on with my usual things but after Alpha Caleb’s announcement four days ago, everyone was restricted with things to do. I’d always go to the lake on the days I didn’t have college or things to do around the house. Instead, I had managed to get Uncle Filton out of the house more, dragging him along with me as we walked around the permitted paths. We went to the library to pick out new books to read and ones he’d asked for me to read him to sleep with. But every time we left the house, I’d see Leo in the training grounds, and I’d do my best to avoid walking past feigning excuses to Uncle Filton that I preferred the path that lead in the opposite direction. I had finished my Raven bird drawing and with the time I had, I decided to paint a portrait of Anya, looking at her features from all the photos we had left of her. I wanted to do it as
I had left early this morning to head to the library and as I passed the training grounds, I noticed Leo has saw me and watched me walk along with a hopeful look in his eyes and he had flashed me a small smile that I reciprocated.I had stayed at the library for two hours just scanning through books, wanting to time when I left, just right…I didn’t want to just call him at the palace, the little the Luna and Violet know about us still spending time together, the better. I needed to catch him just before he headed home. I looked out of the thin, glass pane window and saw as everyone started to leave the field. I walked up, looking at him, hoping he’d turn around and notice me, but he was too distracted, giving everyone a ‘well done’ pat on the back. He was just leaving the gates with them, so I stepped up my pace, not wanting to miss the opportunity to speak with him properly.“Leo!”. I called out in a hushed voice. “Leo…?” And by the second time he’d heard me and turned around. Witho