Marked As His

Banned

I was only 17 years old when my father, the "great and mighty" Alpha had banned me from our pack, 'The Scintilla Pack.'

I remembered saying goodbye to all of my friends that starlit evening, with the moon no where in sight.

I remembered the shameful look my father had given me with his bronze eyes before he had turned his head and struggled back the tears he was faking.

I even remember seeing my beautiful mother faint to the ground, with her sweet hazel eyes I knew I would never see again.

My arms were wrapped around my slender body- while I patiently and carefully stepped over fallen trunks and twigs that covered the path of the cluttered forest.

After walking for about what seemed like forever through the endless debris, my legs had finally given out and I wobbled to the ground, breathless and lost in the darkness. If I didn't have werewolf blood flowing throughout the  veins of my body, my endurance would've surely failed me by now.

In the moment, I had been suffering and powered by anger, I just wanted to fade away. My father had banned me from his own pack because I was already 17 and I hadn't begun my 'wolf form' transformation yet.

Most werewolves tend to shift into their wolf form around the age of 15 or 16 and I was so pathetic, I hadn't even begun my transformation yet- and in my pack, the Alpha had proclaimed that anyone who had not transformed at the age of 17 would be banned from the pack, by law. This was decided when my father began to go crazy for strength and power, he didn't want any weak links in his pack and his blindness drove him this far...

But he sure did mean anyone, even his own daughter!- I picked up a rock and angrily tossed it a few yards in front of me, just wanting my worthless self to disintegrate. As I caught my breath and regained the strength inside of my legs, I heaved my tired body upwards and I began to move through the forest again, making sure to not waste time and what was left of the warmth the thin air had to offer. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go and I wasn't sure if I'd even make it out of this forest alive, but I had continued on anyways.

As a child, I remembered how my older brother Cameron would constantly tell me stories about several other packs that lived in this forest.

There were approximately 14 different packs that had shared its walls of greenery and dense trees with ours, but there was only one particular pack that was truly feared by the rest of us, they were called The Myriad Pack.

My brother would always set fear and terror into my mind whenever he spoke about them, saying that they were extremely powerful, brutal and un-exceptionally terrifying.

He said that their Alpha was the worst of them all, he was the cruelest, strongest, and ruthless Alpha ever.

My brother had even told me tales and myths of what this Alpha would do to people. Cameron mentioned to me that he became the Alpha of his pack at the age of 16 because he had murdered the previous Alpha for the position, or that he had a dungeon where he purposely tortured helpless children.

Every night after my brother told me stories like these, I'd go to bed trembling and hoping that I would never ever have to encounter The Myraid Pack, already knowing that if I were to ever step foot in their land, they'd have me killed with no mercy.

I shook my head as I walked, as if trying to shake the chilling thoughts out of my mind. It was like the ghost stories that humans had feared as children. They crept into your mind and unconsciously frightened you, as a werewolf, there was absolutely nothing more terrifying than the packs who had power above you. They'd either kill you, try to recruit you, or torment you until you were mentally scarred forever.

As I felt my chest heave air in and out, I could also see fog being created from my mouth as the warmth of my breath collided with the coldness of the air, leaving me shivering in the vast darkness.

But I didn't mind the coldness anymore, I didn't care about anything right now, I just wanted to get as far away from my father as I could.

I hated him.

The moon had suddenly appeared and rose higher, then the night grew even colder, leaving my bottom lip quavering with every step that I took.

I couldn't see where I was going through the heavy dimness of the night- not until I had almost tumbled down to my death! I blindly neared the edge of a treacherous cliff and suddenly jerked my entire body backwards causing me to fall onto my backside just to keep myself from slipping over the rocky edge.

My foot dangled over the rocky wall and I gasped for air to catch my breath, digging my hands into the ground around me. My breathing became heavy and my thoughts of wanting to fade away suddenly vanished. Perhaps we wish to fade when we are emotionally distressed, but when we are given the chance to do as we wish, we suddenly cling to life as hard as we can.

My knees trembled as I scrambled to my feet to turn back and continue on, but I was suddenly stopped by sudden movement in the thick lines of shadowing trees before me.

I could barely make out the figure of a broad man nearing towards me with the help of the dimmed moonlight and the shingling stars. The closer he had gotten, the muskier I realized he was. I squinted upwards at his face, unable to see his complete features through the misty loom that covered the midnight air.

"Awe look, a poor young little girl, all alone and stranded on a cliff," the large man said in a taunting, thundering deep voice.

"St-stay back, I'm warning you." I managed to squeak.

The large man laughed an obnoxious laugh and suddenly stepped closer to me, he then abruptly pulled me by my long hair- forcing me up off my feet. Shocked at his aggressiveness, I pried at his hands, causing one of them to bleed, I could feel the warm liquid ooze against one of my fingers, I suddenly felt disgusted, kind of regretting prying at him in the first place.

"You think I'm just gonna listen to you? You're the one who came onto our territory, fool," the man had said.

I realized that I was in deep trouble now, I really did stumble onto another pack's territory and was probably going to be murdered by a man who was four times my own size for doing so! I could have at least found a way to avoid getting myself into this situation.

Without warning, the man heaved his free arm backwards then proceeded by punching me straight in the gut in which completely knocked the wind out of me. The collision of his fist against my stomach had felt like a thousand jabs and I was unable to bear the pain.

He finally let go of my hair, causing me to plummet to the ground. Once again, I scrambled to my knees and attempted to make a run for it, while clutching my throbbing stomach. But as I tried to dart past him, he realized what I was anticipating to do and he suddenly grabbed my forearm, snapping it backwards into an awkward position that caused me to yelp in pain.

I lay there on the cold, damp ground, helpless and hurt.

The large man loomed over me and laughed again, louder this time, then he stepped on my leg in a forceful motion with his large foot, leaving it in a tremendous amount of stress and torturing pain. I suddenly felt a rich liquid spread around in the area that he had stepped on, just like when I had scratched him and I now realized that I was bleeding. This couldn't be good...

I screamed and wailed due to the surprise and painful burning sensations that my arm and leg had been feeling. I knew that this was it, I was going to die, whether it be because this man beat me to death, or that I bled out on my own.

Just as the large man was going to strike me again, a voice came shouting from behind him- "BRUCE!? What's all of this ruckus you're making? I'm trying to sleep, and so is everyone else!"

Bruce turned around, frightened and stammered "uh, Al-Alpha Dale, I was- I, well this girl, she- well. You see, she's an intruder and I was just taking care of her sir."

I froze.

Alpha Dale. That name sounded so familiar but I just couldn't seem to put his name to a pack-- until it hit me.

I was in the territory of the Myriad Pack.