Rejected

Labor Day Weekend 2018

Oak Valley, Virginia

“I can’t believe it’s actually ending.”

I glanced at Maddie, my tongue swiping across the rapidly melting ice cream in my hand. It was mid-August, and the heavy, humid heat was oppressive. The vanilla ice cream cone that I bought was turning into liquid mush faster than I could eat it.

“What?” I asked as soon as I swallowed, glancing down at my fingers which were coated in the sticky ice cream. More droplets fell onto my skin as Maddie responded.

“Summer, duh,” Maddie said, her melodic voice ringing with annoyance. “I don’t want to go back to school.”

“Please don’t remind me,” I replied grimly, licking the drops of ice cream off my hand.

Maddie was my best friend. My brother once said that she was perfect for me because she was my exact opposite–which I disagreed with–but the truth was that Maddie was many people’s opposite. Her kindness overflowed out of her to a near fault. My parents claimed she had been my best friend since diapers, but considering my memories don’t go back that far, I decided that the first distinctive memory of her was the start of our friendship; at our shared daycare.

As early as I could recall, I remembered her dressed head to toe in red. A red plaid dress, red Mary Jane’s, and her hair in twists with red poms. In her first act of loyalty (although undue at that time), she took it upon herself to shove my brother so hard that he fell flat on his butt. As his eyes began to prick with unnecessary tears, mine became speckled with excitement. At least, that’s what I like to think. It remained the meanest thing I had ever seen her do for the next 15 years. Which made it even more pleasant that it was done in my honor.

Now, we sat together, as we did most summer days, wasting time. She crossed one of her legs over her other, twisting a piece of her dark brown hair in between her fingers- 3b curls, which were healthy, defined, and a far cry from my curls, which I put little effort into. Her mother had always been meticulous about her appearance, and when Maddie was old enough to care, she became the same exact way. Perfect hair, perfect clothes, and a perfect smile. She always made it look easy. She took a long breath, settling back into her seat. Behind her, her ice cream lay abandoned, melting on a white cocktail napkin.

“I still don’t get why we have to go to school,” Maddie grumbled, examining her curls before letting them fall. “Your parents are messed up for that.”

I smiled lazily, letting my head fall back to see her better. “Your parents were to blame too- I’m suffering along with you.”

Her lips puckered as she pouted, her dark eyes scanning me. I was going to reply to her pouting with some kind of retort, but instead, I paused, lifting my head as I let silence envelop us.

“What?” Maddie said, her face dropping as she looked at me with wide, cautious eyes.

My skin prickled with awareness as I continued to listen. Finally, I relaxed, turning my head to our far side until I saw what I was looking for.

“Raaa- damn it,” my brother swore, his dramatic yell falling flat as we made eye contact. My lips twisted into a grin as I began to snicker.

“Zachary!” Maddie exclaimed, looking at Zach as he came around the picnic table we were seated at. I rolled my eyes at my older brother, turning away as I took a bite of my dwindling ice cream cone. The bickering had let it melt even more, and now it dripped out of the cone like soup.

“Still not my name,” Zach said with a shake of his head, as he did every day, while he picked her up by her hips. Maddie’s faux frown turned into a grin as he kissed her cheek multiple times, wrapping her lanky arms around his shoulders. She locked her legs around his waist, her head nuzzling into his chest as she hugged him.

“Hey,” he said, finally giving me a nod of acknowledgment. I rolled my eyes. Mates.

“Brother,” I replied, putting my legs in the space Maddie left. “Good try on the whole scare attempt”.

He narrowed his eyes at me as I chuckled, the same competitive annoyance in his eyes that was only reserved for me, his favorite and admittedly only sister. Maddie smiled into his chest, brushing his chestnut colored curls out of his eyes with her right hand.

“I don’t know how you always know,” Zach mumbled, shaking his head at me as his gaze shifted to Maddie. “Not you though.”

She lifted her head, furrowing her brow. “I happen to be situationally challenged, stop making fun of me.”

“I’m not,” he replied with a small smirk, kissing her cheek one last time before he let her down. “It’s cute.”

My brother moved my legs from their newly acquired position, taking a seat on the bench next to me. A breeze fell over us, rusting the green leaves of the trees that covered the fairgrounds. A child walking with their mother began to cry as the young woman took their hand, walking them along the verdant field. I watched them silently, my ice cream cone now forgotten like Maddie’s.

The little clearing was the site of all events thrown by the Oak Valley planning committee, the collective group of mothers who decided the little town hidden deep in the South-West side of Virginia needed monthly activities in order to maintain order. To their credit, they made our dull town a bit more interesting.

Oak Valley was an ordinary town on the surface. It was full of overly friendly neighbors and degraded old buildings that gave it enough charm that they weren’t torn down. It was a bit far from the interstate and covered on three sides by three mountains, all of which enclosed the town under a blanket of trees and rock.

There was, however, one thing about the town that made it different from most. Hidden among the greater population were creatures of fantasy and myth– Lycanthropes, otherwise known as werewolves. Able to blend in with the normal human population but obeying their own rules and traditions, they were members of of Blood Creek, the largest pack on the western side of Virginia. Among the nearly two hundred members were mine and Maddie’s families, leading as the Alphas and Betas, respectively. Behind the many lies of storybooks lingered some truth.

I watched as families walked by, making their way to the carnival games the planning committee had pulled out of storage on the other side of the long clearing. I could tell immediately a wolf from a human, if not from their smell or the way they interacted with the world. Cautious, yet unafraid. It wasn’t like the humans, who walked with little awareness of the things around them.

“What were you both talking about?” Zach asked, pulling Maddie down so she was sitting on his lap.

“School,” I said, trying not to frown.

“I see,” Zach said, looking down at the crest of Maddie’s head. “Not thrilled, huh?”

Maddie turned her head so she was looking at him. “I hate school.”

“You do well in school,” Zach responded quickly, his fingers moving to play with her hair. “You get good grades, you have friends-”

“You won’t convince me Zachary Delson,” Maddie said, staring at Zach with a blank face. “I hate it.”

Zach’s hazel eyes lifted to mine, his expression amused. “Stop convincing her school sucks.”

My jaw dropped. “Why are you blaming me?”

“It’s all you talk about- I hate school, I hate classes, I hate english-”

“I do,” I interjected, trying not to whine. “School is useless.”

He shook his head at me. “It’s so you can become well-rounded- it’s not anyone elses fault that you are taking English 101 for the 2nd time.”

I opened my mouth to respond but shut it quickly. He wasn’t incorrect about the English 101 part, though it was a bit hurtful.

“Stop being mean to her,” Maddie said, sitting up on his lap. “I’m my own person, I can hate school all on my own.”

“Yeah,” I prodded, lifting my eyebrows at my brother as I crossed my arms.

He looked between me and her, frowning. “Stop that.”

“What?” I asked, unable to contain my smirk.

“Siding with each other,” Zach said, and Maddie began to giggle softly as she looked back at me.

“Sorry, brother, even a mate bond can’t break what we have,” I said, locking eyes with Maddie briefly before winking.

Maddie laughed harder, causing me to begin to laugh. Zach stared at both of us, a smile on his lips, although he was quiet.

“Not funny,” he whispered to her, squeezing her tightly. She didn’t stop laughing, squirming in his hold as she looked at him with a smile.

“How’d setting up go?” I asked when we got quiet, casting a glance out at the surrounding pop-up tents. It had been put up over the course of a few hours in the early morning, long before I dragged myself out of bed.

“Fine,” my brother said, resting back on the table. “Although I wish dad would quit signing me up for shit right after getting back from training.”

Every summer, large training seminars are held around the country in order for pack members to train. It’s the only time most packs are in connection without any issue, especially smaller packs who had no reason to attend the larger events held at the palace in Montana. Zach would be attending a 6-month training session for future Alpha’s in the New Year, although Maddie refused to acknowledge that. Most young alphas don’t find their mates until post-training, so Maddie was one of the unfortunate mates who would be left for a long period of time. It was not only uncomfortable but increasingly painful to be away from your mate for that long. The inevitability of it loomed over Maddie from the moment she learned she and Zach were mated, and as it grew closer, she only grew more anxious. It was necessary for Alpha to attend the training until they finished their final training, so there was no way of not going.

“You know how he is,” I said, smiling. “Mom tells him to hop and he jumps.”

“Well it would be helpful if he jumped in a direction that doesn’t require me to set up tents and tables for 5 hours.”

“Aww was it difficult,” I said, giving him a mock frown.

“Ruby, stop being mean to your brother,” Maddie said in a motherly tone, standing up. “See, I can be fair.”

My brother watched her closely. “It isn’t fair if you say it’s fair right after you say it-”

“Oh shush, come on I want you to win me a prize-”

“Do you have all day?” I asked, thinking back on the many, many, many times my brother had tried and failed to win a carnival game. He was good at many things, but carnival games was not one of them. He shot me a look of helplessness as she hauled him to his feet, and I just shook my head at him, shrugging my shoulders.

“You coming?” she asked, glancing back at me as they began to walk in the direction of the carnival games.

I stared at them, and although my mind was telling me I should go with them and have fun, my gut told me not to. I couldn’t figure out why, but deep in my chest, there was a presence of something heavy weighing down on me. I had been trying to ignore it, but it was growing increasingly difficult as my only distractions began to part ways.

“Go ahead without me,” I said, waving them off with a soft smile. They weaved through people as Maddie dragged him to the game area, chattering away like normal, and I watched until they were out of sight. I waited for a minute before my smile fell.

“Dot?’” I thought to myself, trying to focus on connecting to my wolf.

The souls of Werewolves were thought to be partitioned. In the original story of how the Luna came to be, the Moon Goddess fell from the sky and met a young man–a human–whom she fell in love with. Their bond was so intense that their souls intertwined. When the Moon Goddess was called back to the sky, she was punished by the higher gods for her impudence, as was he, and while she was forced to leave her mate, he was turned into a wolf creature destined for loneliness. Even from so far away the Moon Goddess fought for him, fracturing her soul into tiny pieces which spread over the world, guaranteeing that those who would be cursed as he was would forever find the one they were meant to belong to. Her gift was also a curse, creating emotional bonds that could become deadly if they were not maintained.

As soon as a young wolf shifts for the first time, their inner wolf emerges. The piece of the Moon Goddess’s soul that only they can access.

“Dot.” I thought sternly, waiting for my lazy wolf to shake herself awake. Although our inner wolves did exist in a part of our minds, they form in the soul and can be felt as if they were in the room. I didn’t dwell on figuring out how it worked; I simply chose to accept it for what it was.

Dot woke up, stretching lightly as her energy grew stronger. For the most part, wolves stay dormant unless shifted- the only time they are able to take full control. They can wake when needed, but wolves like mine were best left alone to slumber.

“Is something wrong?” I asked myself, standing so that I could grab the trash on the picnic table and throw it away.

There was no response, although I knew Dot pricked up by the feeling in my chest. Inner-wolves could not speak, but it was never hard to know what they were saying.

“Never mind,” I thought, throwing my trash into a nearby trash can as I let my mind fill with silence. “I’m just being silly.”

My wolf huffed, unsure, but let it go quickly. She retreated back to where she came from, although she didn’t go back to sleep, instead keeping a close watch on me. I tried not to worry, brushing off my concerns as I began to walk towards the center of the event.

I wandered through the crowds, smiling at wolves I recognized and families in our pack. My mother was most likely in some corner of the grounds, going over the event schedule for the 20th time to some poor victim. She controlled the Oak Valley events like she controlled Blood Creek, with an iron fist and a firm smile. Her commitment was commendable, although sometimes scary.

As I walked through the grass, I spotted my other best friend, hunched over a table underneath a white tent. She sat alone, a pile of canvases and heavy paper sitting around her, with a single sign that said $10 charcoal portraits.

“Sara,” I said, walking closer. She glanced up at me, her eyes skimming my figure before her focus returned to her craft.

“Hey,” she said. In her hands she held a charcoal pencil, and she was scribbling on paper, her lines forming a loose picture. She drew with confidence, not returning to any of her previous lines as she began to form a person on the page.

“I don’t know why you get convinced into this every time,” I said, picking up one of the drawings she had done earlier of a young girl.

“Extra credit,” Sara said begrudgingly, grabbing an erasure that she put to her art. “Not even my art can save my attendance grade.”

“Must be worth it in the end,” I replied, leaning against the table as I watched her nimble fingers move against the page.

Sara’s shoulder-length blonde hair contrasted the dark green sweater she was wearing, although it complimented her blue eyes. Someone had once said she looked like an ice queen, and I had been hard-pressed to disagree. Her cold disposition matched her ill temper. She was beautiful, but the kind that left a shiver running down your spine. She rarely smiled, although when she did, it was normally directed at me or Maddie. It was often quickly lost, replaced by her normal somber, unchanging expression.

“Luckily they shut the stand down early,” Sara said, looking at a reference photo on her phone as she copied the photo in charcoal. “Something about them needing the table for something else.”

We fell into a mutual silence, Sara working diligently as I watched on. In the background, children played and laughed, but it fell mute to my ears. I loved watching her work. The way her eyes skimmed the picture and the crinkle of her nose when she messed up.

When Sara joined our group, kicking and fighting every inch of the way, it seemed like she would never really fit in. Maddie was convinced she would fit perfectly with us, “like a puzzle piece”, she had explained. One difference between Maddie and I, was that she had a thing about people where she could always tell if they were meant to be a part of our lives or not.

Her first interaction was with both of us after her parents, and she became claimed into the pack. Her parents were royal pack relations representatives sent from the royal pack to become pack members after Blood River entered the national pack circuit. At 11, Sara was dropped off in Oak Valley, and ever since, her parents had kept a loose hold on her as they traveled the country dealing with pack issues. It was at 11 that I met her for the first time, in Gym class. By the end of that encounter, we got into a fight, my first, resulting in our separation from the teacher, a docked grade, and two weeks of detention. I swore vengeance on her that very minute.

Of course, it didn’t pan out. However, there was the simple pleasure in the fact that she was now incapable of escaping Maddie and I. Maddie clung to her, and I followed until she began to trust us. After a few years, it became clear that she didn’t necessarily want to escape, and her claws retracted. Just a bit.

“What are you brooding about?” she asked, her crystal eyes lingering on me for a few seconds before they looked away. I stared at her before shaking my head lightly.

“Funny you asking me that,” I said, crossing my arms. Normally she was the brooding one.

“Not an answer,” she responded, blue eyes meeting mine again. Her tone was serious and firm, and it sent another shiver down my spine.

At times her cold exterior would melt away into one of concern. When no one was looking, she was the most conscientious person I had ever met. Not because she was quiet or sweet- in fact, half of the time, it was her throwing insults- but she has the unique ability to catch when someone is really, deeply not okay. Even those programmed to always be okay. She could always see past it.

I looked away, sighing as my eyes fell onto the crowds again. The patronage was beginning to dwindle down as parents were beginning to leave to flee the heat. It would pick up again in the evening when local bands would begin to play. Till then, the midday sun was becoming too much for most to handle.

“I have this uneasy feeling inside of me like something about to happen and I can do nothing to stop it,” I vocalized, frowning.

She stayed quiet for a bit, letting her pencil loosen in her fingers.

“What does it feel like?”

Music played in the center of the fair- the county high school band performing- and I felt my shoulders relax as people began to walk towards the sound.

I sat down next to her chair, crossing my legs as I looked up at her.

“It feels like when I know I have a really big presentation but I can’t bring myself to begin working on it even though the date keeps nearing closer and closer,” I said slowly. “It feels like a bundle of nerves in my stomach which keeps tightening and tightening. Like vines covering my body, squeezing me until I can’t breathe properly.”

I stopped, shutting my mouth as I looked into her eyes again. Her eyes were quiet, and her demeanor was calm. She listened patiently, not saying a word.

“Something is going to change,” I said, my hands tightening into balls. “I feel it in every part of me”

We sat, unmoving, quiet, until her hand reached out, wrapped around one of my long, unruly curls. I watched, my heart rate slowing as she handled my hair, our way of communicating.

“Change isn’t inherently bad, Ruby,” she said, her lips falling into a straight line. “It’s inevitable.”

Her hand fell, and I looked away from her. She was right, I knew, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth. I resisted change like the plague. It had never been good to us before. With my brother's soon departure and the fact of my unplanned future hanging over me, I was being faced with change on a daily. It made me want to curl up into a ball and not move for a minimum of a year.

“Go on now,” Sara said, turning slightly away from me. “You’ll just distract me and I need to finish this.”

I rolled my eyes, but my lips turned up. “You always have a way with words, Sara.”

“Mhm..”

I stood, giving Sara an unrequited hug before darting away from the tent to avoid her claws. The fair wasn’t calming my heart, so I decided to step away. The fairgrounds were settled at the edge of the forest, which was at the edge of town. The state park that surrounded the area was filled with wilderness trails, which meant humans were constantly trampling through our territory. It had once been a quiet area, home to only a few families. When the coal mining industry blew up, the town became a stopping point for miners heading further south or into the Appalachian mountains. There weren’t any major landmarks, but travelers could eat a meal and rest for a few nights, meaning the town inevitably grew. Blood River grew along with it, positioning itself as the crux to the town. If the town fell, so did Blood River, so they were deeply intertwined.

The state park was one of the only things people from out of town came to see now. My mother arranged for me to work for the park when I crashed her car into the garage. She said it would be my way to “pay back the pack”; the "and her" was a given. It wasn’t the worst job ever, although it required strange hours and more bug bites than I could count. The state park team living in Oak Valley had to be made up of at least four wolves in order for there to be a watch on what was going on in the valley at all times from the human perspective. I was the unlucky draw, thanks to my mother.

What it did mean was that I knew the best spots in the valley. There were four trails that led off from the fairgrounds. I took the easiest trail, knowing my converse wouldn’t get me far on the others. The tree cover kept me cool, although the mosquitoes buzzing around started biting quickly.

“Dot?” I thought. Dot rustled unsteadily, letting me know she wasn’t doing good. My anxiety had transferred over to her by my mistake.

“I’m fine,” I said out loud to myself, taking a deep breath as I made my way further in. “It’s fine.”

I looked around the woods. The trees created a canopy of leaves over top of me, shielding me from the sun. I walked further down the path until it finally broke off into a large, grassy clearing. It was somewhat untamed, covered in wildflowers and a mix of grasses. There was another path that broke off towards the side, heading further up the mountain.

I slowed, walking further into the clearing as I took in the environment. Everything seemed quiet… the trees, the birds, even the insects. I pushed further, contemplating where or not I wanted to turn around when the hairs on my neck began to prick up.

I could feel it before I knew what it was–a deep, thumping feeling underneath my feet. I frowned, looking down at the ground as I listened closely.

Finally, I could hear it. The sound of pounding footsteps. Wolf paws.

Stupid, I thought, how did I miss it-

I turned around, knowing it was coming from behind me, but it was too late. All I saw barreling towards me was a humongous wolf–larger than any in my pack. The size of an Alpha.

“What the fuc-”

This fucking wolf just ran straight into me.