Chapter FOUR: First Kill

Mals POV:~TRIGGER WARNING violence/blood~

When I came too, I had to blink Multiple times. My eyes went blurry, and a sense of confusion filled me. After a few seconds, my vision fixed, and it seemed to be even better than just a few mins ago. I could see speckles of dust falling in front of me, and the colors around me lit up brightly and caused me to get lost for a moment, appreciating the beauty. I heard a few gasp and plenty of whispers amongst the crowd, all mixed in with wild heartbeats and the smell of fear and awe from various attendees; it made me snarl at them. MY.BODY.FROZE. When I listened to my snarl. I realized it was inhuman. It was loud and fierce and brought a warm sensation to my body while adding a chill to those around me and causing the smell of fear to now take over the room. I let out a giggle in my mind when I heard Kira speak. "Sup, Chicka, liking the attention?" She jeered inside my mind bringing out my curiosity. "Not particularly; it feels odd; why is there so much fear in the room?" I spoke back softly, a little confused by her words. "Well, for starters, we are red. Second, we are alpha blood, strong, tall, and capable of demanding submission" I felt her proudness building in us, making a smirk crawl onto even our wolf's face. "Now, LETS RUN, We need to stretch, and you need to adjust to the form!" As she spoke, I felt her fighting for control, filled with excitement and restless energy; after a moment, I shook my thick red coat out, allowing a stretch, and then gave in, knowing I wanted to run and get as dirty as she wanted. I felt her push forward again; this time, I allowed her to control our wolf completely; it could be dangerous to let the wolf take over completely. But I trust my wolf, Kira. Her short time with me was already better than my 18 years on this earth. I wanted to allow our bond to build, so I let her do as she wished. When she took over, she snapped out into the air baring her large fangs, uncaring of the few weaker wolfs jumping back in fear; then, without any warning, she took off, not missing a beat.

I felt our paws pound against the granite floor until we burst outside, letting the cool October air hit our fur. I wanted to gasp, feeling the grass on our skin and the dirt give to our pounces; it felt so good, so inviting. We took off towards the woods just behind the house, not waiting for anyone else to join, not caring if they followed or stayed to continue gapping at my wolf. I would have to remind her to shift in front of a mirror. I desperately wanted to see us. As we ran at a blinding speed, my sensitive ears could hear my father's voice on that annoying speaker again, almost screeching, "LETS HUNT!" Was all he could roar out. I felt his confusion and anger through the pack link before he minds linked me. "Maleri, why did you bolt like that? You are supposed to hunt with the pack, don't you have an-" I cut off the mind link, not caring to hear anymore. I will deal with it later for now. Well, for now, I would enjoy this bit of acceptable freedom.

We galloped through the woods, enjoying the fast whip of the wind through our fur and the dirt crunching under our full paws. That's when Kira spotted a stream running just parallel to our direction, and without a second thought, she turned and jumped playfully into it. Kira laid us out and rolled us around in the water, covering us in dirt and moisture. We tossed and turned to forget the whole purpose of our freedom. Instead, my heart felt like it could burst with happiness. We wiggled, and I laughed in both of our minds. Kira joined. After a little bit longer, while we were chasing a smaller butterfly for fun, a howl stopped us and reminded us of our whole goal of coming to the forest. THE HUNT, we both said at the same time. "Okay, Kira, let us see what's on the menu for tonight" she gave a growl that wasn't in displeasure; instead, it was filled with her primal instinct to now hunt; she gave me control again. So easy; she did that so quickly. My chest pounded, excited for our bond to grow, even more, feeling her trust growing.

After focusing for a moment, a scent filled our nose; it was something wild and gamey; I turned us towards the smell and took off in a run. Were we running till the smell of dirt and iron? I think? Either way, we ran until it became more vital enough to bring us to a trot, now tracking by the hooved footprints in the ground. At record speed, thanks to our speed and tracking capabilities, a whitetail deer came into our vision. It was rather significant, and our hungry instincts took over even more. We slowed to a stalk, avoiding all twigs and leaves so as not to spook the animal. Our eyes were glued to its neck, where the blood traveled in the thickest artery. We bared our teeth and took a graceful pounce, landing on the deer's back, our claws digging into the mammal's shoulders, holding us on. The next second I used our forceful bite to dig into the spot I had been assessing. The buck took off trying to run away; it tried to escape our grip and our fatal bite to the neck. I bite harder, shaking my head and causing a piece of flesh to release from its neck. The tissue broke free, allowing the artery to spew over our muzzle, forcing us to tumble and fall to the ground. The weak and dying buck attempted to continue breathing as Kira, and I rolled onto the woods floor; we caught ourselves and finally stood, walking quickly toward the deer. We then bit on its neck again, this time to break its neck. I had decided to end the poor animal's life quicker; no reason to allow unneeded suffering. When the buck let out its dying breath, Kira spoke, "howl now, feel our tone and beautiful sound." Our heads now towards the moon and let out a deep ruling howl. "Aaaaawwwwwwwwwwooooooooooo" rang through my ears, and I filled my form with pride and excitement. Then around us, one by one, you could hear other wolfs claiming their kills and howling to thank the Moon goddess and let others know their task was complete.

We reached down now and grabbed the deer by its neck and began our long trek back to the mansion, where we would all change into new outfits, and the pack butcher and chef would start on our kills; as we walked back slowly, a strange smell, not human pack member and not prey filled our nose. We froze, dropping the dead buck from our muzzle, and turned to now be face to face with a rouge. We looked down at the small wolf. It was much smaller than ours, yet it was filled with anger and spirit despite being so frail compared to our towering build. The rouge snapped and growled at us before making the stupid mistake of leaping towards us to attack, fangs bared. I readied us, but before we could make a move, a massive black wolf, almost equivalent to our size, jumped and caught the idiot by its throat mid-air. Not even a whimper could leave its mouth before it was limp and dead, laying in front of the new uninvited wolfs feet. I growled at the fact that someone thought I needed the protection. Apparently, someone wanted to challenge my growing strength. That was until I made eye contact with the other wolf, and Kira began screaming in joy in my mind. "MATE MATE MATE MAL ITS MATE" I felt her excitement, but I myself couldn't move. I couldn't breathe "mate?"