Midnight Howls

Chapter Eight - To A Better Year

*chapter eight*

[unedited]

-

Just like Rome said, we spent each month practicing new skills. We spent one month improving our senses like hearing, sight and taste, the next we spent learning how to camouflage and blend in with our surroundings, and then recognizing animal scents, sounds and signs, that way we could spend the last month on Rome's side exploring and hunting.

With 5 months left in the year, we spent the first month on my side exploring. Phoebe had a guard stay with us because we were still pups, and we hadn't been trained in fighting yet. We mapped out the boundaries, where all the other Packs territories ended and began, where all the rivers, creeks, ponds and streams were. After our first month was over, Phoebe, Romulus and Remus took turns physically training us. Our endurance, speed, strength and flexibility improved tremendously.

Next, they trained us on leadership and appearance. Our posture, our stares, our growls, snarls, barks, and howls, especially our howls, were focused immensely on. If every aspect of us didn't command respect, we would never receive it. By the end of the month, our howls were deep, loud, clear, and terrifying. Our growls and snarls were low and vicious, and our barks were strong and sharp. We no longer sounded like pups, we sounded like leaders, Alphas even.

We spent the next month learning about the history of packs and how they worked. How packs were ruled, what the rankings were and how they were passed down or earned. How territories were divided among the packs, what the rules were, and how they were established. We learnt about the ruling and maintaining of packs. Even what was expected to be done in case of war, along with what punishments were assigned to each rule that was broken. We learnt about what made a pack, how packs were named and how the wolves, no matter their rank, were important. When our month was up, we had learnt everything that there was to learn about packs.

We now had one month left, almost a full year had gone by.

"This is one of the most important months of training. You need to pay attention and work hard, you must learn to defend yourselves. Rome, you will be the Luna of the second largest pack in Canada. You need to learn to fight because you do not rule without challenge. But I know you will make a superb Luna." Phoebe turns to me. "Artemis, you're still too young to understand the role you will have to take on, but give your everything to this. You will be sore, bruised, cut, broken and you will feel utterly destroyed, but don't stop. You will see that it was all worth it in the end, I promise."

I look at Rome, confused, but she just shrugs. "I will see you at the end of the year, girls." She nuzzles our necks and we say our goodbyes before we turn and leave.

Our last month of the year is going to be our hardest, we're training and fighting with the Bloodstone Pack. The largest, cruellest, toughest, and strongest pack in the world. They're spread out with millions of members across the world, most members are in Canada, then the US, Russia, Germany, Brazil, and more. The territory in Grimmview Valley is the strongest though, werewolves from across the world are sent there for months at a time, only for training. We had been to the Pack's territory once before when we did our pack exploration trips, and that's when I realized I could feel the mate bond and tell who his mate was. We run in silence as night begins to fall, and I push my thoughts away.

I look at Rome while we run, she's changed, a lot. She bigger, we both are, but her changes are different than mine. She fits her coat now, but it's no longer white, it's a goldish brown. The gold in her coat, it's not very noticeable, but it's there, it glows warmly when the moonlight reflects off of it, it catches your attention and holds it. Dragging you gaze to notice how elegantly she runs, how her feet barely hit the ground and she's so quiet that it could be deadly. Her eyes are brown, yellow and gold, captivating like the rest of her, and that's when it clicks. She's changed, she's still a leader, she'll always be, but she won't be the leader of the Rune Pack. Her Aura isn't strong enough, she doesn't radiate power like Romulus, Alpha Shadow, or any other Alpha. Her power is like Storm's, the bloodline of an Alpha, the strength of an Alpha, but not quite an Alpha. There was a different aura that Storm had, and Rome has it too. A Luna aura. Destined for greatness, but not to lead it, but instead to stand beside and help control some of it.