I woke up in a haze. Run. Aaron. Mom. Derek. Minotaur’s. The Shadow Pack. That’s when I realized my surroundings. I lay in a hollowed out tree bottom and next to me lay an unfamiliar face. Beyond that sat a wolf. The beast was one of the largest of my kind I have ever seen. It was a dirty blonde color and held its head high in a way that told you he was great among this pack.

My legs sprang up as I prepared to defend myself.

“Calm young one,” the voice of the wolf rumbled out of his muzzle like boulders down a hill. My short legs grew weak with the power he held and I soon felt myself drift back to the ground that had sprung me up. “I am Alder. I am Luna’s mate.”

Then I realized it. The alpha was sitting here, in front of me. No wonder why he looked so powerful. “How are you doing young one?”

My words shot out of my mouth before I could hold them. They were the words I had been taught to speak to my packs alpha. “I am grateful to have an alpha in my presence.”

“Me? An alpha?” Alder barked a laugh. “I am no leader. I am a medicine pooch, as people like to say.”

“But…Luna was leading the gang…doesn’t that mean she is the alpha’s mate?”

“Luna is the alpha. It seems strange now. But she was the best for the job. She’s the only one of us to survive so long.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dear one, this is the pack of Shadows, or better known as the Shadow Pack. We are all the misfit wolves, as you could say. The outlawed. The sabotaged. The lost. Broken. Forbidden. We are what our packs didn’t want. The shadows. Many would call us the omegas that never even fit as omegas. We were hated by our family. Kicked at by our friends. Forgotten in battle by our blood brothers that never wanted us.

“They made us want to die. They made us feel weak. But they were wrong. We are the shadows. We creep in the night and hunt them down. We kill the prey that was our families. We are the true pack. We are the high dog and they the low.”

I quivered as his voice grew louder. “Maybe we were never enough for them, but we will be enough to end them.”

“But…sir?”

“Yes?” his voice as calm as when he started.

“I am none of those. I am not lost, sabotaged, or outlawed. I am an orphan.”

“No one is ever orphaned to be an orphan, that would mean your whole pack was gone.”

“They are…”

The wolf’s eyes widened. The medicine pooch looked as if he wanted to disappear. “Then…you are not one of us. A mistake. A failure in our part. You should have been left with the minotaur.”

His words hit me hard. I knew I was a freak of nature to every wolf of the world. I was to be the only lone wolf. I couldn’t even fit in with these wolves for more than five minutes of being awake. The minotaur would of made it quick in the very least.

“I NEVER asked you to save me! NEVER! You want to pull me into your ‘world’ and then tell me I should have never been here!?” I stood up on my legs, no longer afraid of his essence. “I refuse to be treated as the omegas omega. I REFUSE!” I started to turn around and walk away but I felt his large paw come down on mine and I froze in place.

“You have a lot of spunk kid. What’s your name?” Alder’s voice was clear and curious again. I growled in frustration. I felt that if I was able to stay, Alder would be a pain in my utter toosh. “Come on, out with it.”

I didn’t want anyone to know about me. My name was to never be said. At least not anymore. I chose to lie to the alpha’s mate, a crime punishable greatly in my old pack, and maybe in this one also. “I am Alana.”

“Well Alana, drop the orphan talk, and you’re in. But never, I repeat never, tell another that you are an orphan. Bad things happen to the last who “snuck” into this pack. A cute gal like you would be a shame to go to waste.”

I huffed. My tiredness was seeping in again and all I wanted to do was sleep. My legs clasped to the ground at my will and I curled up again under the small dug out roots. This was my new home. Maybe.

***

“Muscle Paw! Do you have a wax ear or is it just chewed off in the last fight you were in?” I screamed across the ravine. “Get your scrawny tail back on this side or I will bet your hide white!”

Muscle Paw was as ponderous of a pup as I. Though he was almost full grown like me I could never see him out growing his ‘I must do that even though it is stupid’ attitude. “Aww come on Alana. You’re still a pup too! Come play!”

“I have better things to do! Just like you do! You know if you aren’t on time to help your father gather food for tonight he’ll come hunt you down and serve you to us!” I laughed at the thought. Muscle Paw would definitely not be a delicious meal; he ate far too much grass to be tasty.

“Fine, but only if you catch me first!”

I groaned, knowing he was far faster than me, but at least I had a brain. Muscle Paw dashed off to my left and I followed behind at a slow pace. He was bound to try to hollow up somewhere like normal.

After stalking through the woods and tracking his scent (that he always forgot he had) I found him. He had himself up a tree and was holding onto the side like a tree’d raccoon. I swished my tail and stood up on my hind legs. “Come on now, you are caught.”

“I still got one trick up my sleeve!” He pounce off the tree and down onto me. My legs flew high and I low. I could have sworn my head was off my body for more than three seconds. Finally my body stopped moving and I was pinned to the ground by Muscle paw. “I win.”

“That’s cheating!”

“How?”

“You attacked me and caught me off guard.”

“You sound like a girl!”

“I am one you nit-wit!”

He huffed and swished his tail in the air as I glared up at him. “Let me go now.” Even though Muscle Paw was younger than me, I was smaller and definitely couldn’t pull myself out of this bunch.

“Why should I? All you want to do is make me go home and work. I miss the old you. We could jump around and play and you would get in mud but NOOO Miss Alana must be presentable at all times now that she is the Alpha’s student. She must be prepared to fight. I swear I could beat you anyday.”

“You want to bet?”

“I bet you my tail tip!”

Tail tips in this pack were a way to show if you had recently won or lost in a fair fight. At first I thought losing a tail tip was nothing to be ashamed about, you fought a fair fight. This pack took it way too far. If you lost a tail tip you were liable to be out casted until it grew back. But one thing for sure, I would never back down from a fight.

“You are on.”

Muscle Paw crawled off me and we started spinning in a dance. One would snap at one. Then the other would give it a try. Finally we got to the point where we had dirt in our fur and our noses wet with moss.

“Give up, you know you want to,” Muscle Paw said.

“I’ll admit, I never imagined you’d last this long.”

“Ha! Lady say that when I take your tail!” Muscle Paw attacked with even more vigorous intentions and I felt myself slowly slipping and losing my guard. Finally he shoved me to the ground and pinned me.

“I win.”

“Shush…” my pride was slaughtered and I felt bad for myself to be beat by him of all wolves.

MP’s face softened as he calmed his breath. “Scared to be an outcast?”

“No, I am not scared of anything.”

“Oh really fine…I’ll just trim your tail instead of giving you the other option.”

He started to get up and I held him in place. “Tell me the other option.”

“I won’t tell you less you take it.”

I thought for a moment and then blurted. “Out with it.”

“Is that an agreement?”

“Yes.”

Muscle Paw lowered his head down to mine to whisper in my ear but in the last second he turned his head and our noses touched. I lay there shocked and he jumped off me and skittered away through the trees.

TO BE CONTINUED!