Chapter 10: Tell Me About Your Past

The rest of the winter was completely uneventful. The intruders that got away had gone back to others telling them to stay away from our village. Thankfully, we won't have to worry about them for a while. The family that was attacked by the intruders distributed the corpses of the fallen intruders to the other families in the village for food. We politely refused our share though; I didn't really want to eat the true forms of people. Our share went to the attacked family since they had the most children in their litter this year. Of the ten females in our village, six had litters. The most was the six children, all boys. The second most was a set of five boys; then came three sets of two children; lastly was one litter with only one surviving boy. I started to understand how rare a female is in this world. Out of the 18 children in our village, all of them were boys. I just don't understand how that is possible since it should be about a 50% chance of getting a girl or a boy. Everything I have learned about genetics and biology are going out of the window now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the last day of winter, the remaining few inches of snow melted directly into the dry ground underneath. Unlike my world, this world doesn't get flooding in spring, everything gets soaked up into the ground as if the snow were never there.

Since it was so warm out today, about 60 degrees, the three of us went out to see the villagers. All of the children were in their true forms running around and tackling each other; they had no regard for walking adults or a care in the world, which made me chuckle a little bit remembering how crazy Royce was when he was little. He is only a year and a half, but since he now has a true form, he grows much faster. He is completely potty trained, can fight as well as or better than any omega, and the size of a nine-year-old child in my world. Here, males are completely fully grown at around three years old and normally move out of the mother's cave by then, but I'm not sure I'm ready to let him go in a year and half. Although they are fully grown around three, they don't mate until they are 16 or older, so they live alone for 13 or more years making their cave as perfect as they can for their future mate to hopefully move into.

Walking around the village holding Alfie's hand was the best time I have had since landing in this world. All of the villagers greeted us and were treating us like royalty, without the bowing thankfully. Alfie took me to the far end of the village where a river and waterfall roared. The water was completely clear, even in the deepest parts. The only fish there were beautiful koi fish that practically glowed. The bottom of the river was covered in lush greens and the surface had patches of lily pads with light pink flowers growing. The rock wall behind the waterfall was covered in salt the glowed as the sunlight hit it. As I dazed at the water, I could sense Alfie staring at me. I turned my head to meet his and I could see a sparkle in his eyes, the sparkle that you see when someone is truly happy.

After a short gaze at each other, Alfie released my hand and started taking his clothes off. "What are you doing? The villagers are going to see you." He chuckled while continuing to push his shorts off of his ankles.

"It's ok, the first day of spring is always the alphas day to bathe. Nobody is going to come down here."

"But isn't the water going to be freezing cold? The snow just melted today; the water can't be much warmer than the snow."

"The water here is the same temperature or warmer as the air in spring, so you don't have to worry too much, and you'll get used to it as you bathe."

"Okay, but nobody will see me, right?"

"Right." I nod my head and undress me and Royce from our animal skin attire and slowly walk into the water. Royce ran up to a rock overhanging the water and jumped into the water with a cannon ball. I let out a giggle as I was unexpectedly pulled into the water and into Alfie's arms. He landed a soft kiss on my lips and then pulled my hand over to the waterfall. The force of the falling water wasn't as intense as I thought it would be as we both walked underneath it. Surprisingly, the water here started to soften my hair as if I were using conditioner and my skin did the same. I was dumbfounded as the dirt and sweat slid off my body with ease. I would have thought the water would have dried out my skin and hair since it has salt in it from the wall, but it did the opposite.

After we finished being cleaned by the waterfall, we waded out from under the falling water. Koi fish were following our every move and even nibbling at our feet and legs. The beauty of the world amazes me with each experience I have.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We stayed in the water for a while longer splashing each other and swimming with the koi. Once we left the water, we turned into our true forms to shake the water off of us and back to a human to get dressed once again. Walking through the village once again we were met with a few straggler families who weren't out of their caves yet when we went through earlier. There were a few children in their true forms who looked to be around Royce's age and size, so I let him play with them for a bit while me and Alfie continued to travel through the small village. Every where you looked you could see people greeting us and getting excited to even be around us. We were starting to be bombarded by people trying to get close to us that I had to turn into my true form and carry Alfie to the top of a small hill just outside the crowd. I turned back as I stepped forward to get everybody's attention. "Hello everybody! I know you are excited to see us and many of you are giving your condolences for our loss over the winter, but please don't feel the need to do so. I understand that I am a shifter, and that shifters are someone that is looked up to in this world, but I am not different from any of you. Alfie, Royce, and I are all normal just like you and I want you guys to try us like you would anybody else. Yes, we are the alpha pair, but to lead you people in the best way possible, we have to be treated normally and be able to get to know each and every one of you." The crowd that started forming around us started to nod their heads in agreement and dispersed slowly to their desired destinations.

After this long day, the sun started to set on the horizon and each family went to their designated caves for the night. Royce started running for us as we walked in the direction of ours. He was telling me all about his new friends he made, and how they are going to play again tomorrow. "Royce you can't play with them tomorrow. We will need to leave for the City of Forms tomorrow morning to make it to the gathering of beauties." Alfie stated bluntly as Royce's bottom lip pulled out from where it sat, and he lowered his head to look at the ground while we made our way into the cave.

"How far away is the City of Forms?"

"The walk will take from sunrise to sunset. We will be able to make it to the city before complete darkness and be able to find a suitable house to sleep in that night."

"So, the gathering starts the next day? What type of events will be happening once it starts?"

"Yes, the gathering starts the next morning with a greeting from my father and mother and the beauties get shown off right afterwards and will last until dark. Then after the beauties are shown off, males will make their decision on which female they like the most and try to impress her in the Strength Tournament the next day. After that, the females will choose if they will mate with any other males in the next five days while the males continue to try to impress them. After the seventh day of being there, everybody leaves to move to their old town, or a new one if they choose to move."

"Wait, your father and mother live in the City of Forms? And what is the Strength Tournament? What happens during that?" I was worried that it would be like another choosing tournament, but if I get to meet Alfie's parents, it would be worth it.

"The Strength Tournament is where the unmated males go through a set of tasks that they have to do to determine which of them are the strongest. Winning pretty much means their chosen female will mate with them, but she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to."

"Oh, okay. But you didn't answer my first question, your father and mother live in the City of Forms?"

"Yes." He said bluntly. He did not seem like he wanted to answer that question.

"Well, that's great! Then I can meet them and…"

"No." he interrupted me mid-sentence. My chest felt as if someone had stabbed me. Did Alfie not want to show me off to his parents? Was he trying to hide me? I looked down at the cave floor as I sat on the bed. I could feel tears forming in my eyes, but I held them back. I didn't want Alfie to see that I was hurt by what he said, but I was. He sighed as he sat next to me and slowly wrapped his arm around my back to grab my waist. He pulled me closer to him and said, "I'm sorry if that sounded mean. I just don't want you to be hurt by my father like I was. He is a very evil alpha and even looking at him wrong could get you or Royce killed."

"Alpha? Why didn't you tell me your father was the alpha of the City of Forms? Come to think of it, you haven't told me much about your past, only how you and Doc met."

"There are many events that happened in my past that I didn't want to bother you with. Many females don't care about their mates, so I am just not used to being so open with you."

"But I'm not like other females. I care about you just as much as you care about me. I want you to tell me about your past, and I want you to start in the beginning. You know about almost my whole past, and I deserve to know about yours now."

"Okay, but it may take a while so we may not get much rest for our journey tomorrow."

"I don't care, we will be fine. We have had nights of no sleep before."

"Okay fine. As a pup I was kind of favorized. I was the only child out of all of my mother's litters that was an alpha. I was destined for great things and got everything handed to me that I could ever desire. My father was the alpha of the City of Forms. The City of Forms is the largest city on my world, and my father was the most respected man in the world. Like my father, I had matured and was fully grown at age 3 and was set to start training to become the alpha instantly. I hated the training as it was only about strength, and not about how to run a city and keep respect from your people. I didn't want to be an alpha like my father. He used his strength and power to scare everybody. When I was about 12 years old, I realized that the 'respect' everybody had for my father, was really fear and hatred."

"I thought most male pups matured at age three?"

"No, most pups don't mature until they are around ten years old. They are fully grown at age three but stay in their true form until around ten normally. They move out of their mother's cave normally at age three as well."

"Oh, okay now I understand. You can keep going."

"When I was about 16 years old, my mother mated with a male who was her true mate. He was not very high up, and not respected at all in the palace. One day, my father gathered my mother's other mates and tried to kill her true mate. I witnessed this and tried to stop them. How could a female's mates ever want to hurt her like that by killing her true mate? My father was not happy with me taking her true mate's side and told me that I either had to kill him myself or leave the city to never return. I chose to leave, and from that day on, I was a wild man."

"Why would he try to kill her true mate though?"

"Many males get jealous of their female's true mate since they have a much closer bond, and she will normally choose to mate with her true mate more than any other mates. Since he had the power to get rid of him, he did."

"Wow… that's terrible… You can keep going, sorry if I keep asking questions."

"It's okay, I want to help you learn too. So, I traveled the planet alone until I met Doc. He was a doctor in a village with no alpha and they were struggling to keep intruders away and females in their borders. I told him I would help him with his town as long as I would remain the alpha even when the intruders are eliminated. He agreed and we became great friends. He helped me in the beginning with running the village and gaining the respect of the villagers. They quickly started to respect me and were extremely thankful for me coming to help them. I started to train a lot of the men so they could protect their own females, and to impress the females if they didn't have a mate already."

"So, all of the males were taught how to fight by you? So that's why the males in the family we helped we so good at fighting off the intruders until we got there?"

"Yeah, every male in the village was taught by me how to fight. I didn't want to be the only male besides Doc who could fight, so I had to teach them to fend for themselves."

"That's amazing…"

"Doc and I fought many battles together, and we were respected by villages for hundreds of miles. Intruders wouldn't dare come near the village and we gained many females over the years as we killed off their intruder mates and they were freed. A lot of the females were throwing themselves at me trying to get me to mate with them. I knew deep down that I had a true mate out there somewhere, and I would find her no matter how hard it was or long it took. I refused every female's advances and was pinned the alpha who liked males. The females thought I didn't want them because I wanted another male, and they thought I was lying about waiting for my true mate. Not every male has a true mate since there are much less females than males, but I just knew I had one and she was out there somewhere. For the next five years, I traveled every few months to a new city or village to find my true mate. Sometimes I would travel for weeks just to find a city I haven't been to yet. I never found my true mate, and I started to believe I didn't have one after all. Maybe it was just the lucky few men that had a true mate, and I wasn't one of them. I stopped searching for my true mate for three years. I stopped hunting for many weeks at a time and Doc would bring a prey in for me every few days. I wouldn't exit my cave since I didn't want to see all of the males with their mates as I was sitting alone. I didn't want to break and mate with a female and still have the possibility of having a true mate. I have heard of some men who would mate with a female, and then find their true mate years later. As a male, you can only mate with one female, so they were stuck watching their true mate from afar and never able to be with them. I couldn't be like that."

"So, you searched for me? That is the sweetest thing I have ever heard!" I wiped the tears of happiness from my cheeks and planted a soft kiss on his lips.

"I would have searched my entire life to find you." He kissed me back and continued with his story. "Once the tribe of intruders heard about my condition, they started raiding our village during the winter once again. They would kill off our strongest warriors and take our most beautiful females. We were stuck with the problem of lacking females once again, and our village was slowly shrinking. Unmated males would move to other villages and cities with the hopes of mating with a female, and mated males and females would leave for bigger cities to protect themselves from the intruders each winter. Our village was down to only 10 females from 35, and we were struggling. Then it happened, I found you, and my whole life had changed forever. Our village had hope once again."

"Awe, Alfie! I love you so much. I am so glad that we found each other." We passionately kissed one last time as we laid down on the bed and covered ourselves in the black tail I love.