Chapter 1: Leaving my pack

Yawning, I sat up slowly, scratching behind my ears.

"Oh! Your finally awake sis. It about time, we were about to leave you." Lennox spoke with a rough voice.

"Ha..ha.. like I care- .....wait, where are we you going?" I asked tilting my head a bit. Trying to find the answer through my brain but to no avail.

"Wait did you forget?" He asked and I looked at him in confusion, waiting expectantly for him to tell me what was happening. But he just gave me a "are you dumb?" look. Getting irritated I spoke up again,

"Would you just get to the point, precious time is being wasted." I snarled a little only to get a death stare from our mother. I rolled my eyes, dropping my head slightly, looking back at my brother.

"Mum mentioned it a week ago, today is to celebrate all the pups that are 18 now, and also celebrate us joining the pack officially. I can't wait to hunt and do what I want." He finished, his eyes were shining with excitement and his tail beat on the floor like a kick drum.

I narrowed my eyes trying to think of the time our mum mentioned it to us, I turned to her and was about to say something but quickly closed my mouth again as she somehow already knew what I was going to say,

"I did tell you ALL, don't say I didn't Lars." She sat in front of us with a straight and proper posture.

"But mum, what was I doing at the time you told us because I really don't remember anything." I said still puzzled.

"You were downing our dinner you porker! Every time we have meat you block all of us out! You wanna know why I remember that day?" Luke, my other brother, spoke up through gritted teeth. I snapped at him,

"HEY! I'M A GROWING FEMALE!! And no I don't want to know-" I said before Luke cut me off,

"BECAUSE YOU ATE NEARLY ALL OF IT AND LEFT HARDLY ANYTHING FOR US!!!!!" When he said that I suddenly remembered that day.

"Ohhh!! It was that day.... Sorry, but I was, ugh.... ya know it was that time of month... wasn't it?" I said guiltily and Luke shot back with a quick comment,

"What?! No! It's just you and your pit for a stomach?" He scoffed and I snarled at his remark. What I was referring to when I said "that time of the month" was the full moon, not what the human females get. All of us Werewolves get some similar symptoms before the night of a full moon: hunger, tiredness, headaches and so on and so on. But symptoms are different to that individual.

"Okay you two, that's enough. Now, have you all found a mate or a partner for tonight?" Our mum spoke in a gentle but firm voice, we were now in a line sat in front of her. My 3 brothers all nodded their heads, while I just cocked an eyebrow surprised they all found some wolf. Her head turned to me, noticing I didn't do the nod of the head thing.

"Laaarrrs!" She said and the end of my name started to rise to a high key.

"Umm... well, I'm quite....picky...." I said the last part quietly knowing she was going to be angry. It's not like I haven't had the chance to get my mate, I've been out with quite a few wolves, but the longest lasted for an hour...

I get bored of them easily, plus I'm not like the other helpless female wolves, it's always the males that go hunting or fighting. While the females look after the young, if only I was a Lunar, then I could do whatever I wanted. But I'm never gonna get that rank unless I mate with an Alpha. But as I said, the males like females that want protection and all that stuff. And that's not me.

"Lars, you do know what this means, don't you?" Father said stepped into our cave. In the corner of my eye, I saw my brothers and mother bow their heads a little. But I didn't.

"Yeah I do, being kicked out of the pack, here I come!" I said with a grin.

"I'm being serious, it's dangerous especially for a fema-" I cut father off, I know it's rude of me, but still.

"Father I'm basically male. I've been raised with dumbbells for brothers and had to protect them, I was even given a male name. I just don't have the junk that's all, but I'm glad about that. Listen, it's obvious I'm not gonna fit in well anyway, I want to have an adventure. I want to live." I narrowed my eyes at him finishing my rant off. At this point, I was stood up with one clenched paw.

There was a moment of silence before he nodded and smiled,

"You remind me of myself, I did exactly what you did when I was your age. I lived with the humans for a year and when I came back that's when I was satisfied and found your mother. Mmmm.. yes I remember, as if it was yesterday-" I walked over and cut him off by putting a paw over his mouth.

"Okay, father that's enough." I giggled at him and he chuckled back.

Time skip~

"We are here to celebrate and proudly invite all you coming-of-age wolves to our pack units." The host wolf spoke loudly. Near the host was the Alphas. Because our pack is very large we have pack units dotted around the country. Every year at this time we all join together and split the wolves, who are old enough, evenly into the 5 units. This is why it is important to get a mate ASAP, as it's all planned out. You never know what unit you're going to be put in but you will never get separated from your mate.

It has been shown that if they allow an unmated wolf into a unit, they end up dying quicker. This is because wolves need each other to live to their full potential. That's why you get kicked out, but I don't need some mate. I'm my father's daughter and my father is one of the strongest in our pack, he is a beta. I don't need any male to prove I'm worthy.

One rule about picking what unit they put you in, is that the offspring will never be put in the same unit as their parents. So technically, this will be the last day seeing them. There are also many tests we go through so that we can cope in the right environment. For example, the wolves with thicker coats and pale colours will go in the units that travel to much colder places, that might even have snow.

The units are quite simple there is the North Unit, the East unit, the South unit and the West unit. But the newest unit we have is in the North West. Because of our large numbers, we have to have much more territory than other packs. But the unit we are in now is the North.

The host started splitting the 'coming-of-age' wolves, but I was only listening for our family name, it wasn't long until we were called out,

"Sir Dugan Williams! Title Lead Warrior! With his wife Mrs Nina Williams! Had 4 pups. 3 male and 1 female. Oldest Lay Williams and his partner will be sent to the East unit. Second oldest Lennox Williams and his partner are now in the West unit and third oldest Luke and his partner will be sent to the North West unit."

When I looked behind to my parents they looked sad but they didn't cry, I understand they are probably used to the feeling, as they have an older offspring that was also sent to different units too. When every wolf had been called out there was only me left. I was shaken, I at least thought there would be more than just myself. Although I guess many are too scared to be kicked out of a pack. You will rarely come back alive once being kicked out. It's even used as a punishment in our pack.

"Lars Williams you have failed to get a mate, which means we can not yet celebrate you officially joining the pack. For now, you are banned from this pack for a year, however, if you show that you are worthy of being in this pack by coming back alive we will gladly invite you back."

He spoke firmly but I could tell he was feeling cocky as he did a silent scoff at the end.

"Fine by me." I said with a nod, before standing up.

"See you next year~" I said with a small smile. As I started walking away I looked at every wolves face as I passed them, many had a worried expression or a scared one. Probably because it's been a while since a wolf has been kicked out.

As I started walking away I could hear a deep howl saying,

"Keep safe Lars and watch that attitude of yours." I knew it was my father, but then my mother joined in also telling me to be careful. It wasn't long until my 3 brothers as well as the first offspring, who were also somewhere in the crowd, joined in with the howl.

I turned my head and howled back,

"I will! Don't worry!" I'm not good with goodbyes, so when I finished my howl I ran as fast as I could, until I could no longer hear the howls.