2. Elise Winters 2

In the six years Elise has spent with the pack she has realized that she was mostly unlike a normal werewolf, who would've shifted for the first time at the age of ten and the more they did the the less pain they would feel and the shorter the time for the shifting process to be complete. She might've smelled a little like them, have more strength, speed, and stamina than an above average human, and more enhanced senses that were just a little inferior to a regular werewolf's but she was anything but like them.

Elise had guess that it was for this reason that her mother had given her the box containing the perfume and it's recipe, which also led her to think that maybe her mother had long planned to leave her for a long time and whether she would ever return was still an unanswered question. She had come to the conclusion that her body had a secret that must be kept, she feared what it was.

She had also realized that even though she never that it was weird for her to not be able to shift because she has never seen he mother shift even once or spoken to about it by he mother, it was different for the pack- she was an anomaly that they could not understand and feared to try.

Even with the obvious rejection of the pack her thoughts never changed about her being so different from them but after a few incidents that gradually made the division between the pack and her bigger and more noticeable, even from an outsider's point if view, she got to mature and understand that even though she was left in their care the pack was not obligated to show her the love and support of a real family early. Once she accepted this from all that had happened, she was a bit grateful that they had not ran her away, killed her, or outright abused her.

She had chosen to attend the town's middle school after a pup accidentally twisted her arm in the pack's school, all because he was young and couldn't control his full strength yet. The Lady-in-charge of the orphanage and those it concerned in the pack agreed readily because in their eyes she was more human than lycan and would fit in well with them, and it was a less troublesome solution for her safety. They became firm in their belief that Elise would never shift in her life after she told them about her mother, so they understood that unless she spoke op about it and showed her great strength and speed as evidence no one would believe that she was a werewolf that meant she couldn't reveal their existences and expose them to danger.

Some of the elder of the pack believe that her family was cursed and abandoned by the Moon Goddess after they heard of her mother's situation, which made even the pups who were usually troublesome and would play pranks on the adults afraid to approach her and would even run at the very sight of her, the cursed girl.

The belief I werewolves is that, after witnessing the creation of the earth, animals, and humans the Moon Goddess wanted to have her own creations as well, so she created the "Moon Worshippers" which is referring to the ancient name of lycans. They were a group of fearsome and monstrous creatures who were immortal. Standing like a human on paws they had long claws that were no different from the sharpest of knives, red eyes resembling small but deep pools of blood, the head of a wild wolf topped with long,hairy ears, a hunched back covered in thick fur that was either a sleek black, silver like the moon, brown as mud, or red like dried leaves. Their physique was made superior to that of humans thanks to the Goddess's blessings. Of course the humans were somewhat respected as the "first creations" and were almost never harmed intentionally and withoutvproer reason by lycans. But humans were, by nature, fearful of anything stronger than them and wanted to kill or bring the great lycans unde their control. Being controlled was not in the nature of the Goddess's creations. So both sides have been stalking on thin ice, except for those who were matched with human mates.

The Moon Goddess feared the repercussions of the destruction some of the lycans could unleash on the earth and so started pairing them with humans as their other halves, their mates. These people unions brought about a surprise to the people involved, werewolves. A weaker version of their supernatural parent when compared in strength, speed, and stamina, who could fully transform into wild wolves. The greatest differences were that the werewolves could control their lust for blood shed and chaos more than the lyans, sadly, they found it hard to find their destined other half naturally. The Goddess was quite pleased with the lack of bloodlust in the next generation of her creations, so she wholeheartedly blessed them with the matching stone that would lead them directly to their mates which, unlike the lycans, she could not choose who it would lead them to. The lycans knew that the Moon Goddess was essentially killing off their bloodline by doing this but they could not retaliate against their creator. Presently, their were only a few dozen clans scattered around the world, a far cry from the thousands that once roamed the earth, but hidden away from both human and a majority of the werewolf populations.

Elise soon made it to the town's high school, Ardeen High, through a short cut she had found when she was still attending the middle school of the same name to avoid the pack as much as she could. Even though Elise no longer harbored any hope of her mother ever returning, she still kept her mother's insistence on her staying 'invisible' in mind and heeded her warnings especially when she knew very well that they were being chased, and it wasn't hard since the pack also kept their distance because they had never really accepted her as a part of their pack, one of their own. She had thought it best to avoid them as much as possible so neither of them got in the other's way.

She walked into the school with her head hung low, even the unknowing humans ignored her presence, as they had notice that her own 'people' shut her out they did the same so it was not difficult for her to make herself seem small among he peers. She skillfully passed through the crowd of students who were rushing to head to their first classes of the day after the morning bells rang without bumping into anyone.

For her everyday was the same with little to no change except… it was not everyday the future alpha of the pack would celebrate his coming-of-age. The teens from the pack attending the school couldn't resist discussing about it among the humans, especially the she-wolves who could see themselves as the next Female Alpha of the pack in the stars, while referring to it as the birthday party of the village Chief's son. Of course, hearing this, the humans were naturally curious to know how the secretive settlement in the mountains that were by no means small celebrated birthdays to have had all the teenagers chatting with so much excitement.

Even after all their inquiries they only got to know that the village Chief's son was turning twenty years old and was having a special party as it would be the day he was officially recognized as an adult. As part of the celebrations he would dance with one of the girls present if he fancies her in front of the entire pa-village and would probably take her as his girlfriend.

What they really meant to say was that the entire pack was going to be celebrating the future alpha's coming-of-age twentieth birthday, it would also be the day he tries to find his mate with the matching stone. If he finds her he would introduce her to the whole pack by dancing with her on front of them all, if he didn't find her then he would either take a girl he likes as a dance partner, his mother, or play a game to choose from the willing young girls present.

They had asked if they could attend, to which the werewolf girls side-eyed each other before they would tell them it was a village affair and only members of their village could be there. They knew that if they had brought them back without permission they would be in serious trouble. Even if the future alpha's mate was not among the girls in the pack and was probably a human, he had to be the one to venture out into the human society to find her then slowly unveil the truth to her as to not traumatize her once he finds that she won't put reveal their secret existence to the world. Though the she-wolves had other motives, they wanted to keep him in the pack as they much preferred having a fellow pack member as the Female Alpha, they would begrudgingly accept one from another pack.

For the rest of the day with hearts full of envy and unwillingness the humans would attentively listen to any discussion about the party they could not go to while attending their classes scheduled for that Monday. Elise also attended to her classes, and tried to pay more attention to the lessons, but everywhere she went she would hear a group of students from the pack talking about what they'll wear, they fantasies about being chosen by the matching stone and dancing with the birthday boy. She had thought that she'd get a break at lunch but was much worse when they were all together. She couldn't wait for it to come and pass like the wind, so she wouldn't hear as much about it, she hoped.

At first she had no intention of even showing her face at the venue, but during one of her later classes she had heard a girls say that the food would be prepared by the head chef if a famous restaurant in the city, she was curious to know what the food in the city would taste like since she has only been eating what the pack and town provides for the last six years, she wondered how different the food made by this chef would be from what she would normally eat.

Though it was the main thing she looked forward to at the celebration, she now couldn't wait to see the many young she-wolves who would, she can already imagine, dress up like peacocks to try and get the attention of the future alpha thinking, 'Even if I'm not his mate, I can take this chance to become a close female friend, that position would also have its own benefits.' Elise really wanted to see the girl who would have to bravely fight against the bunch of jealous and scheming female werewolves who were all gunning for her mate.