RUNT

the runt and her mates

The dry leaves crunch underfoot as my paws strain to push me faster and faster. I can hear the assertive  growls and the joyous screams of the women. Sliding up to the forest edge I roll myself among the rotting leaves and dirt to mask my scent. Peeking out from a patch of thick bushes I watch the scene before me with disgust.

Tonight there is a party, a great celebration, the soon to be Alpha, Carl Kraft, was turning eighteen. Packs from all over the states had come to celebrate the weekend. A immense line of people wait to greet the assembled Alphas from the other packs, tables lined one side stacked high with all kinds of culinary delights, and the unmated ran about flaunting their assets.

I of course am not invited to such things and if they ever found me here I would be killed. I am the runt, the smallest wolf ever born in this pack. They never expected me to live when at seven, when I unexpectedly had my first shift, they threw me out of the pack house and told me I had better stay out of sight. I was a disgrace and a blight on my family or at least that’s what they told me. In my defense most wolves don’t shift till puberty, so of course I would be small.

Runts were useless after all and why should the great Lupus Major pack provide anything for a insignificant wolf such as myself. Lupus Major is the third most powerful pack in the US, feared by many with a huge territory. I was dumped in that territory on the brink of death and without my wolf I never would have survived the first night. Alone and cold I had to figure life out on my own. So I of course adapted and learned to survive on my own, an unseen shadow that stole from the pack what I couldn’t hunt on my own.

Right now that thing was cake. Cake wasn’t something I could track down and kill, and it wasn’t something that ever got thrown out for me to scavenge. No the only way I could get cake was to sneak out and take it from right under their noses. This was something I excelled at. I have after all had fifteen years of practice, and I never, ever miss cake.

I watch as the parties attention is grabbed by another arrival, some important pack they all seem drawn to. Now is my chance. I dart around to the far side of the table, glancing up at the warm inviting food but stay focused.

Cake! Cake! My wolf cheers in my head and I can feel a grin. Come on cake!

I dart under a table as one of the young omegas round the end of tables with a tray of food and continue to tiptoe towards the desert. I hear two loud growls from somewhere and I freeze, something isnt right. Curious I poke my head out of the cream colored tablecloth.

Alpha Collin is bowing his head to three people who are looking around as if searching for something. Two large muscular men and a only slightly smaller female stand before him all with startling silver white hair. The female suddenly freezes and is staring beyond Alpha Collin to the podium where his son, Carl, sat staring back at her.

Shifting into my human form I snatch a few plates from the table above me before sitting and watching the scene unfold. The two males are still looking around as the female steps around Alpha Collin and up to the stage. Carl stands and lets out a possessive growl.

The two meet and you can almost see the sparks flying between them as they press tightly in each others embrace. I look wistfully at the two, love was something I would never understand but I still feel it is also something that I desire with all of my being. Cheering erupts from the crowd and I smile. Carl had been one of the few who had been close to me before I was kicked out. 

I quickly shovel my second piece of creamy, delicious, cake in my mouth, loving the sweetness exploding on my tongue, the pure bliss of tasting sugar again. I am so absorbed that I almost don’t notice the Luna walk over to the table, her foot steps angry. Abandoning the plates I slink backwards.