POLAR

0.1

***

I stood in a black dress, the hot sun hitting my back as I stared down at the 4 fresh graves in front of me. I watched as they were lowered down in the ground, emotionless eyes staring at my family being buried. I felt a hand rub my shoulder, trying to comfort me, but how could you console someone who'd lost their entire family. I couldn't bring myself to cry, how could I?

They were terrible.

How do you mourn the people that harassed you, your entire life? The disappointing child, the child that wasn't even supposed to be. It wasn't like it was my fault, maybe Dad should've kept his dick in his pants. Still, I stood in front of the graves, sadness coming off my body in rolls. My ears tuned into my surrounding, hearing how people began to leave the already commenced funeral, none of them wanted to leave an 18-year-old girl by herself after her family was just murdered...

because of me.

Soon, everyone left, and here I was, left still staring at the graves, the dry dirt covering their boxed corpses. I stayed, staring at them before looking up at the sky solemnly before I heard footsteps come towards me. I sniffed the air, smelling the familiar scent of my godmother, Lydia. I turned my head to stare at her as she looked at me with a comforting stare.

I walked towards her, quickly enveloped in a hug before she pulled away and stared at me. I knew this would only last an hour or two, as I had to be on a plane in an hour going all the way to Forks, Washington to live with my Uncle Charlie. An extremely cold, and small place.

"It's okay, we got them, they're dead now," she murmured in my ear. I nodded as I hugged her tightly because this was all my fault.

"Do you remember what I told you?" she whispered in my ear. I pulled away from the hug and looked at her with a nod.

"Never forget your roots, embrace my inner beast, love it and it shall love me," I recited. She was extremely close to my mother, my birth mother that is. She taught me all of my heritage, she and her brother even trained me into what I am today. My mother was a type of Shifter, specifically not a Wolf Shifter, but more accurately a Human shifter.

There were small but unique differences between us and them. They shift into their wolves, their wolves are them. We had wolves, spirits apart of our bodies that bind themselves to our souls at the time of our birth. We had a different type of connection to the world around us and our wolves give us the knowledge we seek when we need it. My wolf's name was Adrea, and she was actually pretty talkative, but right now she remained silent to allow me to grieve, as she sat in the corner of my head comforting me simply by being present. Our mothers give birth to us in wolf form, and we come out as wolves. Then after a couple of days, we, very painfully might I add, shift into our human forms.

It matters not if someone mates with a human, there were no half-breeds. You either had the genes or you didn't. I was blessed with the genes, along with the alarming strength, sense of smell, hearing, and speed of a wolf as both a human and a wolf, it increasing when I had to shift.

My birth mother had dropped me off at my Dad's doorstep as soon as I'd shifted into a tiny baby and left soon after that. Giving birth was taxing on a wolf, especially one who lacked the mental and physical want to take care of herself, and her body was soon found, dead.

Lydia drove me home, helped me pack the last of my things, fed me, then gave me thousands of kisses on my face before we finally broke the pack bond.

"I, Lydia Smoke, Luna, set you, Audre Swan, free of the sacred pack bond, and bid you goodbye my dear," she said.

My chest enclosed in pain making me involuntarily wince as I felt the mental connection shatter, a tear falling from my eye, which I quickly wiped away.