Claws (Rewritten)

Prologue

Markus

I'd been waiting for what felt like forever - pretty much since the last semester ended - for my second year at university to begin.

Kaden, the alpha of my pack, had asked me to go back to the pack house over the summer, and by God, had it been a long summer. In all fairness, it did both me and my wolf good. It had been a while since I'd last ran with the pack, and I have to admit, I missed it.

Caleb had sorted out a house for our group to live in for our second year. It was a humble little cottage and backed onto the forest, much to my wolf's joy. And it was a hell of a lot closer to the pack house than the flat had been. I was yet to decide whether that was a good or bad thing.

He and Adelyn had been staying at the house over the summer, whilst Chloe had returned home to her father. She still visited pretty much every weekend, and I had managed to escape the pack to see the others, too.

Take now, for example. We were a week away from our official move-in date, and I was sneaking out of the house early in the morning.

The plan was to avoid a training session with Tyler and the others, who would no doubt make me work for hours since I'd be leaving soon. I wanted nothing more than to escape that fate, and so I persuaded Caleb and Adelyn to let me hide with them.

But, as it turns out, werewolves were creepily good at realising when someone was sneaking out. Weird. It's as though they have super hearing, or something.

"What the hell are you doing up?" My brother, Lewis, asked loudly as he opened his bedroom door. I just so happened to be passing it at the time, and I leapt towards him and covered his mouth with my hand. He glared at me, and I shrugged helplessly, letting him go and backing up once I was certain he wouldn't speak again.

"Fancied a stroll," I told him sweetly, already heading down the stairs before anyone else could stop me. I froze when my gaze landed on my mother, who was walking in through the front door. "Shit," I muttered as Lewis laughed at my predicament, closing his bedroom door and leaving me alone to deal with the wrath.

My mother stared up at me in confusion, as though she couldn't quite believe she was seeing me. "It's seven in the morning," She said simply.

"Hey, what do you know, I've become a morning person." I forced a laugh before trying to get past her out the door.

She stepped in my path and stared at me expectantly. "What are you doing?" She asked, a hint of humoured warning in her voice.

I sighed and decided to tell her the truth. "I'm going to see Caleb and Lyn."

"This early?" She questioned, frowning lightly. "I thought you had a training session this morning," She added, though the flash of mischief in her eyes as she spoke made it clear that she knew my plan.

"Whoops, my bad. I can't really cancel, you see--" I said quickly, ducking around her and making it outside. "Send Tyler my regards!" I called back as I sprinted towards the forest.

"He'll sniff you out!" She called after me, laughter lining her voice.

I laughed as my wolf paced in the back of my mind, anxious to see the others. It had been a few weeks since I'd managed to successfully get out of doing my chores, and believe it or not I actually missed them.

He huffed impatiently, urging me to run faster.

I made it to the house in record time and begrudgingly skirted around the back garden to 'go in through the front door like a normal person', as Caleb had so kindly requested of me.