Grand hunt

Chapter 1

I was ready. I had spent months training for this moment. And I was ready. The annual Grand Hunt had finally come for this year. Until now, I couldn’t be a part of the festivities because I was too young. The age for eligibility to participate was 24. This year, it was finally my year. I’d been training since before I even qualified. I would do it; I would win. For my family. I had to. I would restore my family name if it was the last thing I’d do.

My father had been best friends with Alpha Roman and well on track to replacing his aging Beta until all of a sudden, they had a really intense fight. No one knew what it was about, what caused it or how it started. But after that day, their friendship was no more. In its place, enmity rose. Alpha Roman shunned and ostracised my entire family and his arrogant son, Louis and the entire pack followed suite, even without knowing who was at fault. But today I would change that. Today I would come out the winner in this Hunt and claim my victory price; a favour from Alpha Roman. I would ask him to publicly acknowledge my family and welcome us back into the good graces of the pack. My father was against this idea but I didn’t care. While he didn’t want anything to do with the Alpha, I didn’t want my little brother to grow up the way I did, ridiculed or otherwise ignored. So, I would do this. I would hunt and get the most spoils. I would emerge the winner. 

“Angie, you don’t have to do this you know. You hate killing other animals” my best friend Devon said.  I stared at him from where I stood in front of my dresser. He was seated on my bed directly opposite my dresser and I could see him in the mirror without turning. I met his icy blue eyes with my bright green ones. 

“But I do have to do this. It’s the only way to make sure that we return back to the pack’s good graces”

“But why does that matter? Why do you care what they think?”

“We’ve been over this Dev, I’m not going to let Lincoln grow up in a place where he’s not accepted. We either get accepted into the pack or we change packs. Since we have deep ancestral roots here, I’m going for option one”

He sighed and made a fist. I knew he was digging his nails into his palms because that’s what he did when he was nervous or upset. I was curious which he was at the moment.

“I don’t want you to leave the pack”

He ran his hand through his thick head of dark hair.

“And I don’t want to leave either. So I’ll hunt and I’ll win”

I finished tying my long chestnut brown hair into a bun so it wouldn’t get in my way and stood back to examine my work. I was dressed in loose fitting shorts and an old tank top. I didn’t need that much. After all, when I transformed, the clothes would rip. Not that I was planning to transform with them on. You could only rip so much clothing until you learned to simply take them off and stuff them in a tree where you could later retrieve them when you transformed back into your human form.

“Then I’m coming with you”

“There’s no teamwork in this competition Dev, you know that”

“Yes but-“ “No buts. It’s fine. I’ve trained for this. You trained me yourself. I can do this”

“I know you can, I just don’t want you to have to just to prove something to some jerks who don’t even deserve to know you”

I smiled. “Let’s go serve up some carcasses”

Devon burst out laughing despite himself. “God, you and your morbid humour”

He stood and we made our way out of my house. Luckily, we didn’t run into my father; I couldn’t stand getting his disapproving look, it made me feel little and I tended to back down.

“Okay, we all have different starting points so we split up here” Devon said.

“And surprise, surprise, mine is at the outskirts of our woods, furthest from where any animals hang out” I rolled my eyes.

“Just remember everything you’ve learned and good luck” he leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek, then turned away to go.

I turned around myself and met the disapproving eyes of my Pack members. Each of them stared at me with scorn, derision and varying degrees of disgust. I rolled my eyes, used to it by now, and began my trek to my starting line. When I was halfway there, something slammed into my body with bruising force and I stumbled and almost fell before I caught myself.

“How did you think you were starting without hearing good luck from me?!” Melissa asked. Well she thought she was speaking. She was yelling.

“Mel, what have I said about slamming into me?”

She smiled an innocent smile that would be very believable to the untrained eye. Melissa could look entirety innocent if she set her mind to it. With her thick blonde hair, baby blue eyes and rosy cheeks, she was the picture of innocence. Too bad she was a mischievous minx. When we were kids, she used to get us into all kinds of trouble and I would always get blamed for it because once she flashed those big blue eyes, no one could accuse her of any wrongdoing. 

“To do it more often?”

I laughed, thankful for the comic relief. Despite my bravado and earlier reassurances to Devon, I was still nervous. As he said, I did not like to kill animals. Werewolves were actually peaceful creatures and we didn’t hunt other animals asides from the Grant Hunt and the wolves who did it for sport. It wasn’t banned or anything so they were in their rights. It just wasn’t something I liked doing. For this reason, I was nervous. Plus, the Alpha’s arrogant son, Louis was participating in this year’s hunt which was alarming in and of itself. He’d turned twenty four three years ago but had never participated in the competition himself. He was always in other packs at this time, settling disputes and organising events. But this year, he was here. There were whispers around the Pack that he was the most talented hunter ever to be born into the Pack, if not the world. And he was my competition. The thought of that wiped the smile clean off my face.

“Oh come on, cheer up. You’re gonna do great!” Melissa said, trying to bolster my spirits. She was always good at that and I genuinely appreciated the effort even though it wasn’t working this time. 

“I hope so Mel. I hope-“ the sound of the horn that announced the beginning of the Hunt stopped me mid sentence. I gasped in shock.

“They aren’t supposed to blow it yet. They’re supposed to send people to make sure everyone is at their station”

Mel winced. “I think they did hon”