Chapter Prologue | The Hunting by BookwormJSDK at Inkitt

Prologue

Generations ago, the great war changed the lives of all wolves. Feeling inferior and like they were only being left 'scraps', humans banded together in vast numbers to stand up against the injustices they were suffering at the hands of the werewolves.

What injustices, you might ask? Mates.

Humans often ended up mates to werewolves, leaving behind their human partners and children to be with their soulmates. The men felt degraded and unworthy, left behind and forgotten about, while the werewolf community grew and prospered.

The war went on for a long time, causing countless losses on both sides. In the last year of the war a group of people from the human and wolf sides came together to form the Council. The council then came to a mutual agreement with which the war was to end, the agreement was that the world be divided in half. One side would belong to all humans and the other side to all werewolves. No more inter-species mating.

The werewolves struggled, feeling frustrated and alone the Alphas at the time created the Hunting, a way for males to find mates. The need to procreate and have an heir, overpowering all other feelings and morals, to the point where they ignored the signs of wrongdoing in declaring that any male could claim any female, regardless of if they were mates or not.

Every year in November all the unmated she-wolves are taken to a closed off wooded area. It's a vast landscape, the surrounding fences guarded by the Council Guard, preventing females from escaping their fate. Once you turn eighteen you're eligible for the Hunting. For males this is a great honor, for females - their worst nightmare.

The females get a day's head start to run as far and as fast as they can, to hide and wait or to form alliances and fight. The Hunting goes on for three days, down to the last second of the 72-hours. If a female can survive that long without being found, she's free. That is - only until the next Hunting.