Run

If you asked a werewolf what the best feeling in the world was they would most likely say "holding their mate" that is if they had one. But I, being without one and less sappy, would probably say running through the trees as fast as you can without a destination. Just like I'm doing now.

The trees blurred passed as I pushed my muscles to their limit. Nothing standing in my way and no place to be.

Well that wasn't exactly true but I'm not going to worry about it now. Instead I'm blocking out the voices of my pack in my head. For now I'm just going to be free.

My name is Riley Harp. I'm part of the Harp Pack. As you can assume my father, Charles Harp, is the Alpha. My mom Marina is the Luna, my dad's best friend Mark is the Beta, and I have a younger brother, Ben.

As the oldest I'm going to inherit our pack when I come of age and I'll be the new Alpha. Female Alpha you ask? Yes it is possible. Don't get me started on the sexist-ness of all those "Only males can be Alphas" myths.

Anyway, I guess I should tell you what in doing. Aside from running (duh) I'm trying to avoid a very unwelcome discussion with my parents. One that involves the mate subject I mentioned earlier. I'm about four months from my eighteenth birthday, the day I ‘come of age’, and inherit our pack. But because I have yet to find my mate it will be harder for the pack to accept that I will be leading them.

As much as I'm against the sexist-ness of the Alpha position, we, as a people, have always had the authoritative male figure leading a pack. Some may think as a woman I can't handle such responsibilities on my own. I don't doubt myself but I know I won't be able to change their minds. Even if I led this pack to become the most powerful in the world, people would still think I needed a male by my side. Whatever.

So anyway, usually when a female gets close to eighteen an hasn't found their mate they go on a traditional "journey" to find them. Often they are close, like in the next pack over or even a human in the closest town (human mates are rare but not impossible), but I've heard rumors of searches that have lasted over a year. Those stories almost always involve a male who leaves his pack in search of his mate, rather than staying put so she can come to him.

Why do only females make the journey? I don't know. Legend says that the female's travels strengthen her independence and that the males learn the importance of patience. It's a load of crap to me. But that's the whole reason for my running.

My parents want me to go on one of these journeys before my birthday. Uh, no thank you. Not that I don't want a mate but honestly if I'm going to be running a pack soon shouldn't I be worried about that? It's a huge responsibility and I need to stay focused.

My thoughts trailed over these things for a while. As I began to notice familiar sections of forest I began to slow down. Four out of five times, when I run to clear my head, I end up here.

A huge smooth boulder that juts out from the ground/cliff ledge that overlooks most of our pack's land. It's a beautiful view. Our small town down in the valley and the smooth mountain ridges in the background.

Sniffing the air I was pleased with only finding Dani (my future Beta and best friend) and I's scents. Only Dani and I ever came here.

I'm not to keen on the whole primitive "marking your territory" thing but it sure as hell works when you want to keep a place private.

I clambered up to the crest of the rock and lay down, gazing out at the valley. My eyes drooped in exhaustion from my run.

Right before sleep overtook me, a twig snapped behind me. My head snapped up and a growl rumbled through me. I smelled the air again and came up with four new scents. One of which was the most enticing smell I've ever come across.

I couldn't describe it. Kind of like vanilla but manlier, muskier? The others though we're not good scents.

They all smelled like sweat and anticipation. Humans. Although they radiated fear, they weren't backing away, which either meant they were really stupid, or they were hunters. I was praying for the former.

I heard the click of a gun and immediately jumped to my feet.

Unfortunately today was not my day. There was a shot and a bullet wizzed past my ear. I yelped in surprise.

Another shot sounded and hit me in the shoulder. I spun back and my back paw slipped over the edge. I was able to catch myself but a final shot hit my forearm and I stumbled back again. Only there was no more room behind me and I stumbled over the edge.

My claws scratched at the rock but I couldn't get a grip. I morphed back into my human form as I fell and was able to latch onto a small indent in the rock. My momentum caused me to lurch and my arms to almost rip out of their sockets.

The rock stuck out over the actual cliff face so there was a small area under it that would be blocked from the view at the top of the rock.

Ignoring the pain I swung my legs up and my toes were able to find purchase on the underside of the rock. I rock climbed back a bit to move out of sight before the hunters looked over.

I waited as silently as I could while they approached the rock and climbed up it. With my keen senses I heard their conversation.

"Did she fall over Jake?"

"Looks like it. There's no sign of her."

"Good. One less beast in this world. Those creatures are nothing but a disease. They need to be exterminated."

And then the most beautiful voice spoke. It was a husky kind of rumble, but not too deep.

"Come on. I don't want to hang around to see if anymore of those demons will show up."

The sound of the voice was enough to make me tremble with pleasure but the words that were said made me want to make them bleed.

How dare they. Hunters only know the physical differences between us and humans. They don't realize how similar we are though.

Yes, we have heightened senses, can communicate through mind links, and can shift into Great Dane sized wolves but aside from that we live very similar lives with friends, family, school, and work.

I held my angry thoughts back as I listened to them walk away. I waited another twenty minutes before I was sure they were gone.

I climbed up the precariously placed boulder and quickly shifted back into my keen black wolf. I collapsed into the rock, my limbs aching from holding onto the rock upside down for so long.

Even with my werewolf strength that's still a difficult position to hold, not including the fact that I was injured. Speaking of which I checked my wounds to see that both hits had been clean shots. That meant that they would heal much faster than if the bullet was still inside. They should heal in a few hours.

I finally became aware of the nudging to my mind barricade. I opened my mind a little to hear Dani's voice in my head.

"Where the hell are you?! Your parents are freaking out and nobody could get ahold of you!"

"Dani, Dani, calm down. I'm ok. Well, mostly. Anyway, I'm at the cliff. I'm heading back now."

"Riley what happened? You sound scared." I growled a bit at this.

Yes I was scared but that is the one thing an Alpha will almost never admit to.

"I'm fine. I'll tell you when I get back." and with that I closed off my mind again.

I went to stand to find that my left leg was still weak. I began limping back to my house. It took me almost three times as long than it normally would have but by the time I got back most of the pain had subsided.

Dani ran up to me and pulled me into a hug, stroking my head. I growled lightly at her affection but let her continue to hug me.

"Damn you Riley. Don't do that again, you scared everyone to death!"

'Sorry' I said through the link. She pulled back and smiled at me.

"It's ok. Just stay in touch next time."

I nodded my head.

"Come on. Let's get you inside." she got up and walked over to the door.

I followed behind and tried to hide my limp.

"When your done getting changed you're going to explain what happened to your leg."

I huffed in annoyance. This girl was too observant.

END