The usual early morning song of the birds by my window woke up.
It was always so beautiful whenever they ca to my window.
They had been doing that for as long as I could rember.
I gently rose and smiled at them before I rembered the events of the previous night.
I looked down at my hands.
How they had touched Martha’s bruises and how they had healed them.
As though they were never there.
It had first happened when she had healed a simple deer her father had hunted.
I had felt pity, touched it, and it had sprung to life, running off.
It had stunned them all.
No one could explain it.
Mother said it was a gift from the goddess, even though wolf powers usually didn’t materialize until I had shifted.
My nineteenth birthday had co and passed, I was getting to my twentieth, and I still hadn’t shifted.
Whether it was because my wolf abilities had co before my shifting, I couldn’t shift anymore.
I didn’t know.
I had learned to be very careful when I ca across injuries.
I had learned that the fewer people who knew, the better.
I got out of bed and took care of my morning chores.
Our house was tiny and quaint, but we still made it a ho.
We were poor, but we were never starving.
It was enough.
I loved my life. Loved the little village I lived in.
Even though father was now always angry.
I couldn’t bla him.
Just as I thought of Father, the cottage door opened, and he staggered in.
I knew already that he had been out the entire night drinking.
He dragged his wooden leg into the living room.
The leg he had lost in a terrible accident had rendered him incapable of continuing his job as a Craftsman.
An accident so dreadful that he had been unable to heal himself and was forced to use a wooden leg.
Over ti, I had grown to see him lose himself in anguish and sorrow.
Drinking his days away, becoming a shadow of the man she had grown to adore.
"Good morning, Papa." I greeted kindly.
He managed a barely audible "Good morning."
And went to sit by the dinner table.
I had already made breakfast, and there was still so chicken soup left.
I knew that he most likely had a headache.
"Would you like so soup?" I asked him.
He nodded absent-mindedly as he rubbed his head.
I fetched him a steaming bowl of chicken soup and served it.
He grumbled to himself as he began to eat.
"Heard you have been making trouble in the town." He said.
I turned to look at him.
"You need to find your mate." My father said.
I felt a turn in my tummy.
"I believe Ruby is fine on her own for now." Mother interrupted as she stepped inside the living room. "I’m sure when she wants to settle down, she will eventually. Wouldn’t you, dear?"
I nodded. "Yes, mother."
Then she handed a basket. "I would have liked you to have breakfast before you left, but I need you to deliver so herbs to the head chef of the pack house. She sent word in the early hours of the morning. Can you do that, dear?"
"Of course," I said quickly, delighted to leave ho.
"Go with Penny." She instructed. "And don’t fight with anyone." She whispered to .
I collected the items and disappeared out the front door.
❧
Once I stepped out of the house, I walked to the stables to pick up Penny.
She was a beautiful mare that I had loved for ten years and had co to be a great companion to .
I gently touched her hair. "How are you, my love?"
She neighed at and rubbed against my shoulder.
I laughed, easing the discomfort I felt.
I adjusted the basket to my side as I mounted her.
I looked up the way to the Pack house.
The way through the village where everyone would see.
I thought of Aston, and my stomach turned. He would be roaming the village mindlessly as he frequently did by now.
But there was another way I knew.
A shorter cut through the forest.
One I had frequented a lot.
"Hiah!"
Penny neighed and rode out of the stable.
The ride to the pack house usually took six exhausting hours.
Through the forest, it beca three.
We rode on through the trees, my wild red hair loose through the hair.
How I loved riding.
It felt free. Wild.
The cool breeze brushed against my face.
I heard the birds sing as I raced through the beautiful forests.
As I rode on, I spotted so rare Goffields.
They were herbs that were difficult to grow and difficult to survive if they even succeeded the first phase.
Mother would be very happy.
I ca down from Penny and walked down the path to where the herbs grew.
It was in the middle of lush green grass.
I went to it and gently picked it up.
They slled awful.
But it will most certainly do the trick.
I made sure to pick up all of them, and just as I was about to gather the last one, I heard a noise.
I stopped instantly.
I gently crept up and used the boulder in front of to hide.
What I saw surprised .
There was a blonde young man seated on the floor, trying to talk to a squirrel.
I hadn’t t anyone other than myself talking to animals.
Or attempting at least.
I watched with all curiosity as he tried his best to speak to the animal.
It was amusing to .
Watching a man of all creatures attempt to talk to an animal.
I didn’t quite take to n.
They always seed more interested in .
And yet this one amused .
I had zero idea what got into , for I rose to my feet and laughed.
"What are you doing?"
He instantly turned to look at , and I saw his full face.
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