Joy looked at him for a moment before she looked back at Cory, “He is too young to learn this and there is too much to explain about it. Maybe one day…” Then she snapped her fingers and little Cory fell asleep on the couch instantly.
When he woke, he was still in the big room with the bookshelves. The man had changed now; he didn’t smell like a thunderstorm anymore. He smelled like a gust of forest air – clean and peaceful.
He kneeled next to Cory, “Welcome to the Lightpaw pack.” The man said softly, his blue eyes crinkled on the side as if he were happy, “My name is Alpha Aiden, this is my wife, Luna Sky.”
Cory looked at the man, tilting his head in confusion, “What is ‘alpha’ and ‘luna’?”
“I will explain everything once you’ve settled in,” Joy spoke in her flat voice. She was still seated on the opposite couch and watched Cory closely. She then stood up, “Come little one.” She walked calmly to the doors.
Cory immediately looked at Sky in terror, “Aren’t you coming?”
Sky just smiled but shook her head, “I stay here. You’ll live with Joy from now on but we can visit each other whenever we want.”
Cory just at the waiting Joy. He sat up and got off the couch.
Joy took Cory’s little hand and he felt a click, as if he and Joy were both magnets. He gasped slightly but Joy just squeezed his hand reassuringly.
She led him all the way out of the big wooden house, through the luxurious tunnel under the hill and back to the gate. The crowd noticed Joy and they dispersed almost immediately, none of them spoke but every so often some of them eyed Joy warily. She stood patiently and firmly until they were all gone. Then she started walking left along the rocky hill towards the forest.
“Cory,” Joy spoke, “You must never tell anyone about the purple lights. Do you understand?” She said fiercely.
Cory’s head snapped up to look at a sombre looking Joy, “How did you…”
“I will explain one day. But for now, keep it a secret... From everyone” She said just as fiercely and squeezed Cory’s hand.
Cory nodded in understanding – despite not knowing anything about where he was or what was going to happen. He just felt like what Joy said was… right. An answer to a question he didn’t even ask.
They walked between the trees for a while before they got to a little cottage. It looked like it had been built in a hurry, with grey bricks and dry, uneven cement. The roof looked to be made of some kind of thick straw. The little cottage didn’t look nearly as nice as the other ones he had passed with Sky.
Joy opened the door, still holding Cory’s hand, and as she stepped inside the fireplace roared to life by itself.
She let go of Cory’s hand and closed the door, walking towards one of the wooden chairs in front of the fireplace. She sat down and let out an uneasy breath, massaging her temples.
Cory stood uncertainly in the middle of the cottage, looking around. It had deep wooden floors, the left side housed what looked like a kitchen. The opposite side of the cottage had a rickety old bed. The farther wall had a fire place. A little to right of the fireplace was a door which led to, what must be, a bathroom.
Cory felt more at ease in the dingy cottage than the big fancy house.
“Come sit,” Joy spoke in a tired voice. She pointed at the chair next to hers.
Cory waddled over on tiny feet and climbed onto the chair, looking into the calm fire. He and Joy sat in silence, listening to the occasional crack of the burning logs.
Eventually the old woman spoke, “They will ostracise you. It’s not your fault, nor is it theirs,” she whispered, “It’s just their nature. Don’t fight with anyone, keep to yourself. It’ll be lonely at first, but you’ll get used to it. Don’t tell anyone about your mother or the purple lights. Only speak when you’re spoken to. I’m very sorry that you’ll have to go through what you’re going to go through, Cory.” Joy closed her eyes and started massaging her temples all over again, “I didn’t think it possible, and I should’ve known better than that…he always understood that” she whispered so softly.
“What am I going to go through?” Little Cory asked in confusion.
“You’re different, Cory. And here, being different is a confusing thing. Be it animals or humans, they’re both afraid of what they don’t understand. Scared people do scary things. ” Joy whispered morbidly, now staring into the fire as well.
At the age of five, Cory didn’t quite understand what she meant.
So, on that typical night, twelve years later, Cory innocently got up to leave the massive tent of the pack mess hall. As he made his way to the opening, he obliviously passed Lucian and Grayson. Lucian was the future pack Beta, and was almost always seen beside Grayson – both out of friendship and station.
Cory kept his head down, thinking about what he would do for the rest of the night. Debating whether he should just go to sleep, or perhaps he and Joy could play a card game again.
There was a harsh grip on his right wrist and he looked sharply at the source – it felt like his wrist was igniting in brand new warmth, warmth he had never felt. It had him questioning if he had ever even been warm before.
Grayson Lightpaw looked at Cory with his freezing blue eyes, “A male?!” He yelled in that baritone, authoritive voice both he and his father possessed.
Cory stared back with frightened hazelnut eyes. What had he done wrong?
“Look at you!” Grayson growled lowly, “A weak wolf who can’t even shift. You’re a disgrace to this pack – you bring shame to the Lightpaw name! I REJECT YOU AS MY MATE!” Grayson lifted his right arm, forming a fist. He was going to punch Cory square in the face.
His fist seemed so big in that moment. Terribly large; a catastrophic meteorite.
Catastrophic indeed…
Cory’s hazelnut eyes widened as already spoken words began registering in his electrically flooded brain. His eyes widened further when he saw the blue hatred – the blue murder – in Grayson’s icy eyes. Everything slowed down, almost to a complete stop; he was under the waters of time.
“I REJECT YOU AS MY MATE!” Grayson’s words finally reached Cory’s comprehension.
Ice slowly slithered into Cory’s veins, stalking into his chest before creeping slowly into his heart.
His mate had just rejected him.
The ice continued to slither sadistically slow into Cory’s heart. The blissful burn of Grayson’s clutch on his wrist had shifted to being ice cold. Cory snatched his wrist out of the iron grasp, hissing in pain – unsure if it was internal or external. His vision blurred on the edges but he could see that Lucian had grabbed Grayson’s angry fist, shakily preventing it from slamming into Cory’s conflicted face.
He heard the laughter in the tent, the dark snickers of delight aimed at his humiliation.
The red head spun around and ran out of the tent, his mind moving much faster than his feet ever could. He made it to Joy’s cottage, heart frozen and body freezing.
He slammed the door closed and looked around with panicked eyes; the cottage had changed over the years. He now had a bed, not far from Joy’s – just as rickety. He didn’t recognise it as his.
“Mates are often seen as a romantic notion in the Were species, in some sense it is and they are. But, in nature, wolves do in fact have mates” Joy explained as she took another sip of her tea, “They’re just different in werewolves.”
“How are they different?” Cory asked, realistically discarding his math homework.
“Werewolves are, essentially, a combination of human and wolf. Humans are more capable of expression – and so we have such romanticized artpieces. People have gone feral over love and lust – written great volumes of poetry, made lavish sculptures or murdered their competition. Now take that and mix it with a wolf’s loyalty to it’s mate; the result is an unprecedented obsession, dedication and – at least I believe – love... Maybe the truest form considering how mates are paired” She smiled smally at the end, looking distantly into her black tea.
Cory frowned in deep thought, his lips always pursed when he did so. Joy’s smile grew at seeing the expression, “The Moon decides who will be mates. And, before you ask, mates are always attracted to eachother. The subconscious wolf in each pack member is wholly embracing of who their mate is – once they see them; they are perfect in everyway. Goodluck trying to survive, let alone convince, a wolf of any flaw in their mate. On some level I envy that, to be wanted and accepted wholly by someone who has been hand selected by the Moon herself… How can that not be the truest of true love?”
“I hope I find my mate” Cory sighed dreamily, being loved like that must move mountains.
“You must remember, Cory, a werewolf is both human and wolf. And if time has taught anything, it’s the hubris and cruelty of man…”
It was Joy’s hand on his bouncing chest that snapped Cory back to the cold present.
“I know. Here.” She handed him a dusty duffel bag, “Go West. The nearest town is named Blackwood. Once you’re there… well, you will know what to do.” She had aged, her hair was completely grey and she had sad understanding in her framed brown eyes; cold eyes that would only ever show emotion to Cory.
Cory was still frozen, heaving in panic and pain, she just hugged him tightly. “I love you…Cory… It was an honour to have known you.”
Cory closed his eyes, feeling an itch in his left eye as a silent tear meandered down from it. He hugged Joy back desperately, not wanting to ever let go, wanting to hug her with such force that the universe broke – at least they would break together. He knew, though, that he had to; had to let go of his bestfriend, teacher, and mother… and walk out the door, never to come back. He took a deep inhilation of her hair, imprinting that vague wisteria smell deep inside his brain and tightened his arms. Like ripping off a bandage, he let Joy go and dashed out the cottage, sprinting as fast as he could. Panting in strained breath after strained breath. He heard a commotion further within the pack lands but, crushed Cory kept running.
Through the woods where he would watch as his pack-mates practiced shifting. He couldn’t shift.
Passed the spot where the pack trained together. He was not permitted to train with them.
And, passed the spot where Luna Sky Lightwood had found him twelve years ago – on the very edge of the pack lands.
Cory stopped on the periphery of the scented mark of the Lightpaw territory, looking up at the night sky. The stars, now different, stared indifferently back at him.
“I… revoke my clanship to the Lightpaw pack”, Cory whispered, feeling the sadness compress then explode within him. The wind picked up slightly, and to his luck it blew in such a way that his scent wouldn’t reach the camp. He let out an uneasy breath, settling into his new position as a rogue, a packless wolf.
“I suppose it’s not that new,” Cory whispered despondently.
He opened his eyes, the left one was itching more severely. He braced himself and carried on running to the direction of Blackwood. Blocking out the pain, blocking out the ice, blocking out the humiliation and blocking out…the unspoken loss of a, now, unattainable love.
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