Outliers

Twenty Two

"'I don't believe in magic.' 

The young boy said.

The old man smiled. '

You will, when you see her.'"

Atticus

THANE

5 WEEKS PRIOR

I hated these damn meetings, was the only thought tumbling through my mind as I stalked through the forest in human form, my Beta walking on four paws beside me.

I rarely allowed others to see me shift, or to see my wolf form at all. Only those closest to me in the pack had witnessed it. I was not like other wolves, not like this generation who could shift quickly at will. Instead, every shift was a slow, agonising affair, a fight between human and wolf.

It was a wonder I could choose to shift at all, when the wolves I had grown up amongst could only endure a forced shift once every full moon. I didn't understand the ways in which wolves had evolved over the last four centuries, I couldn't explain why I had lived for so long, when others had not. My parents certainly hadn't understood why my abilities had been so different from my fathers.

Sometimes I was thankful for my long life, for this gift that had been given to me, but more often than not I despised it. It was a lonely existence, to live and not really understand what I was. Lonelier still when I was reminded so blatantly of the ease of these modern wolves' lives.

I hated these semi-annual meetings, hated having to co-exist in these communities if only for a few short days, though perhaps not as much as my Beta did. As we entered the inner territory of the Idaho pack, escorted by one of their wolves, I could already feel the building irritation that rolled off my Beta wolf in waves.

Adriel Kristiennson - a trusted second, the Beta to my Alpha position - was unnervingly good at masking his true persona when it came to engaging with these pack wolves. But, that didn't mean he didn't hate every second of it. The male found it far easier to endure these meetings by remaining silent the entire time. Silent, for 3 whole days. I had never fully understood it, but perhaps for a male as chatty and prone to nonsense as he, silence was the only way for him to keep control of himself.

We had to maintain a sense of otherness around the other Alpha's and their packs. We question their authority, challenge their power, thus they always look for weakness amongst us. We had to feed into the image of fearless, all-powerful wolves that did not bow to their will. So we withdrew from our true selves, masked any and all emotions, and endured. Adriel and I would arrive for these meetings the day of, and leave exactly 3 days later.

We never stayed a minute longer than was necessary.

The Idaho Beta Male running ahead of us, escorting us into the pack territory, picked up speed. We didn't bother to match it. We knew where we were travelling. Hell, I'd explored every inch of this territory far before the young wolf had. I had been here for its creation, had scouted every inch of the land with its first Alpha. That had certainly been many years ago. I almost missed those days. The first Idaho Alpha had been a great friend of mine; I didn't much care for the current Alpha - he was too young, too disrespectful.

Eventually we lost sight of the Beta Male altogether. He knew we hadn't followed him, had huffed at our slow pace, and ran off all the same. A busy male perhaps, one far too busy to pander to two obnoxious enforcer males.