Humans are why there can't be nice things

Apryl breathed in the spring night air, the moon had been a waxing crescent for the past few days which meant that she could enjoy the fresh night air without worry about being caught by humans or other wolves. Her gray tipped black ears twitched on top of her head before flopped down to roll around in the fresh grass. She knew that hunting would be starting soon which meant that her pack would be on the move for a few hours before they decided to settle down again.

Laying on her side, she rubbed her face against the grass. Her father had always been strict about not going out too far whenever the moon was full, it would be too easy for humans or other predators to take note of them and that was something that they wanted to avoid at all costs.

In the past, a full moon was the best time for her pack to go hunting, especially during the winter when it snowed, everything would become so well light up that was easy to track and hunt down prey. Now that the humans and other predators that were a threat had moved in closer and taken over more of their land, the full moon became a time for packs to hide and lay low in order to avoid the risk of being caught, especially those who wished to shift into their werewolf form. Apryl didn't really believe that humans were as terrible as other members in her pack had come to believe, she just found them to be annoying because it seemed that because of their bias, selfish, and greedy nature that anymore no one could have anything nice because they ended up ruining it for everyone, including themselves.

Apryl was quick to jump to her feet the moment that she heard the howling started, she did a quick shake in order to sort her dark fur out before she returned the howl to let her family know where she was and that she would be returning to them shortly. Unlike some of her younger siblings, her parents trusted her enough to wander out on her own with worrying that something might happen to her. She was a carefree girl, but she was also well aware of enough of the dangers that lurked that even if she went out to enjoy some peace and quiet by herself, that didn't mean that she was going to let her guard down around these times.

Apryl sneezed once, before she began trotting in the direction she knew that her family would be waiting for her in. As much as she loved the spring and grass, allergies were somehow always a problem for her, a point that she was often teased for by other wolves and most were immune to most of the allergies that affected other creatures. Being a wolf though and not wanting to come across as weak, she refused to take any of the medicine that humans had to offer as she didn't think it was necessary for something as small as allergies.

Humans added so many weird things to the medicines that they made that it was also hard to find anything outside of herbs that didn't contain some additive or base drug that wasn't poisonous to werewolves. They might have learned to take on the appearance of a human, but they were still 100% wolf under that illusion and that meant that a number of things that were suitable for humans to take were still toxic to them.

It only took Apryl a few minutes to reach the spot where she knew her parents and younger siblings would be waiting for her. She nuzzled her mother, Summer's face before turning and doing the same to her father, Brazen. This was a traditional greeting for them.

"I hope you didn't wander too far." Her father told her, scanning her over with his eyes as she had turned to pay attention to her younger siblings who wanted attention from her. Being the oldest sibling left, it was her responsibility as much as it was for her parents and other members to watch out for the younger werewolves who were stilling learning everything.

"Of course not. You saw how short of a time it took me to get here. I know how important this time is for us to hunt before the full moon comes out over the next few days." Apryl replied, giving a short growl she nipped at one of the younger boys who had attempted to bite her ear, that was bad behavior in her books even if some of the other back members didn't mind it. "What are we hunting today?" She asked, turning her attention back to her father.

"Since it's spring, the deer should be starting to come around these parts. Your mother being pregnant will be staying further back this time if we come across any which means I will need your help along with some of the other younger members to guide the weaker ones away from the rest of the pack." Apryl grimaced internally at this. She was never really fond of being one of the ones who had to lead the killing. There was something about the way an animal struggled in their last moments of life that really bothered her about the whole hunting thing.

"Fine, but you're going to have to do a better job this time of giving me the right signals so that I know which way I am supposed to lead them." She sighed, giving another short growl as her younger siblings were starting to play a little too rough and were bumping into her in the process. They didn't really know that they were doing anything wrong which was why it was her job to make sure that they learned to respect elders at a younger age in order to avoid problems in the future, especially from the males.

Hardly ever was there any internal fight among her family as they were all related, but on rare occasions some of the more eager male wolves didn't understand that they couldn't mate within their own pack or bring a mate back without consulting her father who had to approve these short of things as food and space was often scarce due to having to move more frequently to avoid people. The end result of these circumstance was usually the agreement that they would be allowed to stay for a brief while but ultimately they would have to leave the pack to start their own family.

Two of her twin bothers had decided to do this when they were both 3. They loved living with their family, but they yearned to have a family of their as well and during the time that they decided this, food and space to move around was even more scarce than it had been now. Of course there was no ill blood between her brothers and parents and often times if their paths ended up crossing while they were out hunting or looking for a few area to stay, they would get a chance to spend some time together and catch up before it was time to move on.

Apryl had just turned four mere months ago and had not yet decided if she wanted to take a mate of her own. She knew that there were still a few years for her to decide this or not. Her mother was eight and on her fourth litter, which would probably one of her last as each year the strain of pregnancy and taking care of the four to six pups she had was a challenge despite the help of the rest of the family.

Age was another thing that was different for werewolves compared to humans, they shift from being infants to adults in one nineth of the time than human children did. From werewolves, their aging processes matched that of wolves, by the time they were two years old, they were what would be considered eighteen in human years. From birth to one year was the equivalent of nine to ten years of a human's life span. Unlike humans, werewolves had to grow up at a much faster rate in order to be able to protect and hide themselves, they didn't have the same luxuries as humans did to afford such a long period to grow up and be ready to enter the world.

This was one of the reasons why even though werewolves were learning to adapt to living with humans in their cities that they would mostly homeschool their children and not let them leave the house or go to school until after the first two years of their life when aging slowed down and there would be less suspicions about how quickly they grew up.

Her attention was taken away from her younger siblings when she heard the sound of the distant howl, a sign that her uncle Bold had picked up the scent of the deer and had a general idea of which direction they were going. This meant the hunt would be starting soon. Apryl, her father and two of her middle brothers would be going to join the hunt while Summer stayed back with her younger children and other brother and the two omegas. She was close to giving birth and couldn't afford to risk getting hurt least something happen to her or the pups. That was the only reason why April was agreeing to help the lead the hunt, she would do anything to keep her mum safe.