Mads

 

Eight years later.

 

My fifteenth birthday was a failure! Not because my birthday was forgotten or anything like that. No. My family loves birthdays. They would never forget one. Just like our neighbor with her six plagues, of which she recently got the youngest under my window. Because she had argued with her husband... I don't understand it. Not really. But apparently, she couldn't have her child in her house if her husband was a 'stupid, selfish idiot' who was also 'to blame for the whole thing and should apologize to her. On his knees. Her words. Not mine.

Now, said neighbor came with her husband and children to my birthday breakfast to celebrate me loudly. Among them was Mimmie, Adahlia's best friend. The older children, apart from Mimmie, solemnly gifted me self-painted pictures. One child was more untalented than the other, and their parents gave me a ball. I said thank you nicely and put the ball aside. I didn't like ball games. Mimmie gave me a thick, heavy dictionary. She grinned maliciously, which the adults didn't notice, and then sat down next to Adahlia, who stuck her tongue out at me. I immediately had some creative ideas on how to use the book right away...

It was terribly loud at the breakfast table, and I got a headache after the baby was screaming all the time and its siblings were trying to fight the screaming with equally terrible volume. Terrific. Luckily for me, my parents had also invited Emmie. I did not suffer alone. YAY.

My parents gave me a book of poems. Presumably, they had bought it at the market, from one of the merchants who crossed the border twice a month to offer their goods at our market. These traders were the only humans the pack was happy to have, and they came from a small town not far from the border.

Of course, there were also a few cities of humans in our territory, but they were all too far away.

I liked poems. Not necessarily because of the poetry, no. They were usually short enough that I didn't have as much trouble reading them. And I liked to read. With pleasure, in fact. Only letters just couldn't stand me... They were constantly running away. Poems also had another advantage: they could be sung. That was also something I liked to do.

My lovely sister didn't give me anything. I was grateful for that. Almost relieved.

The last time she gave me something, it was a painted stone. Sweet. Especially since it was a stone that some brainless bully had thrown through my tiny window with breathtaking precision.

Our neighbors finally said goodbye and Emmie and I breathed a sigh of relief. With all the noise, we hadn't been able to talk. My parents, on the other hand, were happy to have given me such a nice surprise. Nothing was better than a big celebration. And just for me, they had organized a smaller one. And Adahlia was happy that I had gotten a really bad birthday surprise. She knew I didn't like big celebrations. Strictly speaking, I had also told my dear parents, but our annoying neighbors probably did not count as a large group, but as a small, private party.

"I and Emmie will go up to my room", I announced. I desperately needed some rest. Emmie nodded at me in agreement.

"Oh. Mads! Wait", my father said quickly. "Your class teacher spoke to us yesterday. Your grades are more than just unsettling. He's not sure if you'll make it this school year, and we don't want you to have to repeat another school year as you did in second grade. We want you to focus more on learning! And also on hunting! Your teacher also wasn’t enthusiastic about your skills in hunting together the day before yesterday. Maybe the two of us and Adahlia should hunt together more often?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Mads?" My mother looked at me hopefully. "Don't forget, the puppy status ends at the beginning of the age of fifteen. We don't want you to end up as Omega later. This is your last chance." Yes. One year if I was lucky enough to prove my worth. Of course, you could still be labeled an omega later in life, and every now and then that happened, but nobody talked about it. As well as the fact that it was almost impossible to free oneself from this rank. Only very rarely did a wolf manage to work its way back up before it was sent to the witches.

"I'm a vegetarian", I replied. "I don't hunt."

"You're a werewolf. Hunting is part of our nature", my mother murmured and sighed. "How long do you want to be so stubborn? Mads? It's about your future!"

My future. Yes, exactly. But I had been disgusted with hunting since I was a child and at the age of five, I decided to stop eating meat. I couldn't stand the smell. Did that make me weaker? Perhaps. But I’d never been particularly wolfish.

Adahlia giggled softly. She could laugh. She was a good student, a good hunter... And a terrible person! "I don't think Mads could compete with us when it comes to hunting. He's too slow."

"We'll go upstairs", I said, ignoring her comment. This angered Adahlia. Snorting, she began to say something lousy, but my lovely, best friend interrupted her.

"Thank you for the breakfast!" Emmie got up and hooked herself under me. "It was delicious as always."

"Oh. You should enjoy it!" Adahlia grinned. A new opportunity had opened up for her. "This was probably Mad's last birthday breakfast, as he will soon be promoted to Omega."

"Adahlia! That's not funny!", my mother grumbled. I grabbed Emmie's hand and we fled upstairs. After this tiring hustle and bustle, Emmie presented me with a small gift, accompanied by the sound of the rebuke my lovely sister was reaping. The gift was a self-made friendship bracelet. She wore the same around her wrist. A thin bracelet in black and purple.

I put the bracelet around my wrist and beamed at Emmie gratefully. "This is the best gift. Thank you!" And to testify to her how happy I was, I embraced her. Which I didn't do often.

"That's good!" Emmie laughed and pushed me away from her. "And don't listen to your sister. You're not going to be an omega."

"And if I do?"

"No! That's what we train for. Shall we go back into the gorge?" Emmie looked at the pictures on my wall. Pictures of pressed flowers and leaves. I also had drawn ghostly figures dancing in forests of flowers and between leaves with ink. "You're so talented. I still can't believe it. That's so pretty."

"Thank you."

"Well, then, Mister Talent! Let's go to the gorge!"

So we made our way into the gorge. My parents wished us a lot of fun, then we were already out of the house. In recent years, it had rained less than usual, so fewer plants were growing in the gorge. Only the gorge herb continued to bloom unshakably. Emmie had told me that when you made tea from the flowers, they became a sleeping drug. A tea that immediately sent the person who drank it into a deep sleep.

As soon as we were there, the training began. Not one of my favorite things to do, but Emmie was relentless. Who doesn’t like to be beaten up regularly by his best and physically superior friend while fighting? And of course, she won.

This was not exactly a surprise.

She always won.

I already mentioned the part with physical superiority. She was an alpha. Tall, but not as tall as her twin brother, and relatively muscular for a fifteen-year-old girl. Me, on the other hand? Normal size and lanky. But Emmie wanted to make a formidable wolf out of me and I didn't want to end up as a 'servant'. But it did not look as if her endeavor would be crowned with success.

Humiliated again, I put on my clothes. "I'm going to be an omega. That's it. The end! My downfall! Goodbye, you sweet life..."

"You're pretty dramatic, Mads." She quickly slipped into her clothes and looked at me with pity. Pity. Terrific. That makes a wolf feels much better!

"Dramatic? My life as a free wolf is at stake! I will be labeled an omega. And then? I don't have a chance to work my way up. Have you forgotten? And the weakest go to the witches! Everyone from fifteen to twenty-five knows and fears that!" Older wolves usually weren’t wanted by the rich humans as new servants.

Good. Not all humans wanted personal servants bound to them. The mortals usually could not afford any and some were even against it.

"We don't know what's going to happen. And you're not an omega yet. It will stay that way. Certainly. But your parents are right. You have to start hunting and participate in friendly brawls. And win them! Better grades would also improve your chances..."

"You can't promise me that Emmie! And I’m no good at school. School success can not make me valuable for the pack. And they don't attach any importance to pretty pictures. Let's go back."

"You're right... But do you really want to give up?" Emmie stroked her short-cut hair. "Come!" She reached for my hand and I let myself be taken back to our village of three hundred souls. Including thirty teenagers who would soon struggle not to end up as Omega.

"You know Mads. I could also lose all the brawls and have to go to the witches."

"Never. You are an alpha. Alphas and Betas have never been sent away!", I snorted.

"And if I'm the first?"

"Then they won't let you." But maybe I wouldn't lose? My chances were unmistakably bad.

"And if we end these fights for a personal place in the pack?" That was Beta Lifa's voice. Emmie quickly pulled me behind a wall so we could listen to the conversation.

"They can smell us anyway!", I protested, but Emmie covered my mouth.

"And then?" That was Jarl. Alpha Ava's husband and Emmie's father. Unlike in other packs, in ours, the spouses did not share the position. Pretty backward, I know. Emmie and I looked cautiously out from behind the wall of the house. In an alley, Alpha Ava, and her husband Jarl argued with Beta Lifa and her wife Sif.

"What then?", hissed Jarl. "If we don't offer wolves to the soldiers, they will take some. What if they take one of our alpha children? Einar or Emmie? Or the young beta? Adahlia? We would lose valuable wolves."

"But this competition is cruel! Especially the kind of competition you're planning!", Sif replied. "The children live in fear!"

Such a competition?

"The children would live in fear even without the constant struggle for their own place in the pack." Emmie's mother, Ava, snorted. "This ensures that our pack remains strong. In this way, we secure our independence. Our freedom!"

"We are not free!", contradicted Lifa.

"But we live by our rules and not by the rules of the Witch Queen!" Jarl smiled. "Competition is important. Mads will lose. That is foreseeable. We can do without the boy."

"It's not going to be a big loss. Rather an advantage. The boy fails at being a werewolf. He has missed his existence! And Emmie will develop better without him as a burden." Alpha Ava nodded contentedly. "Only his parents don't want to acknowledge his failure. But to send him away without any chance, the pack would resent us. He gets his tiny chance."

Rigid with fright, I stared at the alpha couple. They had noticed me and Emmie long ago. Ava smiled at me with raised eyebrows.

"Mads", Emmie whispered, reaching out to me, but I could only do one thing. Run. I was running for my life.

 

(As I said: My fifteenth birthday was a failure. At least until this moment...)