“You should be rejoicing! Your mate has been chosen for you.” My mother’s voice was grating on my last nerve. I could already hear the speech that she had prepared for this very occasion, only I didn’t have to wait for it to play out in my mind. She was already taking a break and gearing up for the next part.

“But…”

“Zachariah is the best match you could possibly hope for. He’s handsome,” Oh, boy, here it goes, she’s about to extol his virtues to me… again! “Smart. And he’s an alpha. He’ll be our pack leader one day if anything ever happens to Marcus.”

“Yeah, and he knows all those things too, mom!”

“He should! Confidence comes with being Alpha, Jess. You know that.”

I grumbled something about there being a difference between confidence and conceit, but she chose to ignore it. “I just need some time to think, and get used to the idea.”

“To think?” My mother asked in surprise. “About what, Jess? Zach has already accepted. An official announcement will be made at the next full moon cycle.”

“What? Just like that? I don’t even get a say in my own future?”

“Of course you do, don’t be silly. You could refuse, but why would you? You two would be perfect for one another. We’ve thought so since you were younger. It’s why we petitioned so long ago for this to happen.”

“Don’t remind me,” I snapped.

“Besides,” she continued, ignoring me again, “who would you choose? Your choices only go downhill from Zach.”

“Well,” I started in stubbornly, knowing she was righ. “There’s Tyler. I like him, he’s always been nice to me.”

“Tyler! Ha!” My mom laughed. “He’s barely even Alpha. You’d have that boy paws up by the end of the week, and quaking in his boots when he was in human form. Then what? You’d get bored. What you need, my darling daughter, is a challenge.”

“I’m being challenged alright,” I grumbled.

“Ugghh,” My mom was exasperated with me, as usual. She threw her hands up in the air, in mock defeat. “Fine! Take a few days to mull it over. Go out, have some fun with Ashley. Get a little bit of that restless spirit out of your system. And then, do your duty for your pack. There are worse fates than this one, Jessica Marie!”

I turned to walk away from the conversation. The moment she broke out my middle name I knew what was coming next.

“This is your father’s doing. He’s spoiled you. How many other wolves do you see going off to human college? That’s right, none. You’re special, and now you think you’re too good for the best match there is for you. Ay, ay, ay, Jessica. What is it going to take for you to understand, you are a wolf? You are not human.”

“Funny, I always thought I was both.”

“That’s where you keep going wrong. You can’t be one anymore, if you’re the other. It doesn’t work that way, Jess. The wolf will always call to you, especially your wolf.”

“I know.”

“Do you? Because you seem to think it’s just going to stop.”

“I do not, and I don’t want it to. I just… I just wish I didn’t feel so damn trapped in this life. I actually hate Zach! He stopped being a decent person when he went through the final transition. How am I supposed to get over the fact that I can’t stand being around him? We mate for life! That will suck!”

“Jessica,” my mom whispered to me, pulling us closer together. Her arms wrapped comfortingly around me. “I know it seems like the worst thing ever right now, but I promise you will grow to love him. When you are mated, and your wolves have accepted each other, you won’t even want to go back. Things will change. I understand being nervous. I wasn’t sure I liked your father when we were paired either.”

That surprised me.

“He was a jerk. He was much like Zach is now, and you know what?” I just looked up at her, waiting for the rest without saying anything. “He stole my heart, and I like to think I helped change him just a little. He’s not so much of a jerk now.” She winked at me, kissed the top of my head, and then sent me on my way. “Go, have fun for tonight. Think about everything in the morning, when you have a clearer head. And at least consider what I’ve said. This is a smart match. Things will fall into place, I promise.”

I wanted to have faith in my mom, in the fact that she had been in a very similar position once upon a time, but it still all rubbed me the wrong way. I decided to call Ashley, she’d understand. She could commiserate with me, and she’d probably come up with a brilliant plan to take my mind off of everything.

“I need you,” I said as Ashley picked up the phone.

“Oh, boy. Let me guess, the whole mating thing came up again?”

“Things have definitely gotten a little more complicated. Zach has already agreed to the union. What the hell do I do now?”

“You pack an overnight bag, and make sure you have something black and sexy in there, because by the time we finish out the night, you’re not even going to remember your name, let alone that you’re supposed to be mated to some jerk-off.”

“I was so hoping you’d say something like that. What would I do without you, Ashley?”

“Be miserable, of course! By the way, how’s my big brother? Tell him to call home if you see him. My parents aren’t exactly happy with the fact that he seems to have forgotten about his human family.”

“Ouch! Okay, packing a bag, running by Jack’s to smack him upside the head, and then I will be on my way to your place to pick you up.”

“Perfect, see you soon, hon!”

It took me no time to get a bag together to go stay with Ashley. I had been given leave by the pack to attend the local university, so I often stuck around and hung out with Ashley when classes were done. Technically, I was overstepping the bounds of the permissions granted to me, but the pack tended to be lax where I was concerned. I wasn’t even entirely sure why. They had some great hope and aspiration that I would be the liaison between them and the human world should things ever come to that. As it was, Ashley was my only human friend, and she just so happened to also be my best friend.

We met five years ago, when I first went through the change. I was born into a werewolf pack, but that didn’t mean I was born werewolf. No one really was. The werewolf gene triggered in several stages. The first is what’s known as an Awakening. It happens anywhere between 12 and 14 years old. Our senses are heightened, our hearing is amplified, our sense of smell is tipped to an almost unbearable level, and we can see better too. The boys start developing some crazy facial hair around that time as well. Both sexes start developing muscle that normal humans would die for.

After the Awakening, we get a few years to adjust before the next phase in the were-gene kicks in. That’s known as the Calling. Although, most people just refer to it as turning or changing. When we hit 16 or 17, our wolves are finally restless enough to want out. One spectacular day, out of the blue, our blood starts to boil. A raging fever ensues, our sense flair out of control again, and usually with the help of a super emotional moment our wolf frees themselves from our bodies. The wolf is called forth for the first time, and we bond with it, becoming

one. From then on, we are able to shift at will. It is much harder to resist the urge to change during a full moon, but any other time is completely voluntary for us. We still aren’t considered full-fledged werewolves at that point though. We’re still pups until we hit our early 20s, and go through the last stage.

The third, and final, stage of transformation takes place is Ebullience, and it is a far more subtle stage. Our aging process nearly stalls out, and we are able to breed and produce werewolf offspring. This is the time when we may choose a mate. The only noticeable, physical aspect we get from the third stage is the ring around our eyes. My eyes were bright green before I reached Ebullience, and now they are rimmed in a circle of darkest green. When I am in wolf form that same dark green ring exudes a special luminescence. There’s an illumination from within that appears magical in nature. I’ve seen it in others and often wondered what it looked like on me, but I hadn’t yet been put in front of a reflective surface in wolf form to find out. Once a werewolf has ringed eyes, they are no longer pups. The elders like to encourage us to find our mates as soon as possible. While we live an exceptionally long time, females have a relatively small window to be able to breed. From the time of Ebullience we get about 20 years of viable egg production. After that, Mother Nature turns us off somehow, and we can no longer become pregnant. Some think it’s because we have greater control over our inner wolf while we’re fresh out of the changes. Females who are pregnant are not allowed to phase. It takes a great deal of control, not to mention help from your partner or a surrogate, to keep from changing on a full moon. That’s why it’s a rare thing to see a werewolf family unit with more than one child. It’s a very difficult process, and wears the female out.

Ashley and I met each other during the height of my second transition. The calling came to me amidst tragedy. Ashley was new to our area, and wasn’t aware that she was trespassing on private property owned by my pack. She had been hunting there with her two brothers. After waking with what felt like a lava field burning through my veins I snuck out of my house, and wandered off into the woods, trying to get some solitude for what I knew was coming. I had no problem with nudity, but I knew as soon as I changed in front of the pack, they would celebrate by changing to run with me. The unfortunate part of that was I would then have to phase back to my human form in front of all of them. Which meant being naked, which meant the boys would tease me relentlessly in class. It happened every time a female phased for the first time.

Rather than deal with that, I decided to run off before the phase overtook me. I wasn’t as slick as I thought I was apparently, because Sierra saw me. She was a year older than me, and had phased a few months ago. Sierra was rather curvy for a werewolf, and it was all the guys could talk about for a full two months after it happened. I didn’t want that for myself, especially since my body hadn’t yet decided I should be graced with curves.

Sierra also happened to be the lead contender to be mated to Zachariah Brighton when the time came. My family had apparently already put in a bid to have us considered for union when we were old enough, but so had Sierra’s. The only difference between Sierra and I was that she wanted it, and I didn’t. I don’t think she understood that at all though. I was competition to her, plain and simple.

Sierra following me into the woods that day was no accident. She went there trying to push my buttons and assert her dominance on me. What she ended up doing was pushing me to my first shift faster than it should have happened instead, because she was not dominant to me. My wolf slipped over me in a wave of heat, confusion, pain, and anger that amplified everything I was feeling as she took over. And she did not like Sierra’s proximity to us at all. The shock that registered on Sierra’s face was priceless, and she immediately dropped to all fours, as she fell into her wolf form, to crawl on her belly towards me. Her whimpers are no doubt what caught the attention of Ashley’s brother.

Jack had us trained in his sites. I jumped, and ran for the safety of our pack’s inner sanctuary, and whined for Sierra to follow suit, but she had herself prostrated to me, and it took her a split second longer to right herself and start into her run. I heard a girl’s voice shout, “WAIT!” Then the crack of the gun reverberated through the forest. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as Sierra, the wolf, went down, and Sierra the girl sprouted from her, blood leaking from the gaping wound in her abdomen.

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