WOLFLESS RIVER

River Ravenwood's eyes, red from crying, stared back at her from the mirror. Her twenty-first birthday, supposed to be a celebration of her coming of age as a werewolf, had been a crushing disappointment. The full moon had risen and set without her transformation.

Suddenly, the door of her room burst open without warning and River quickly sat up on the bed. Her step mother, Cecilia strutted in, with Lily, her nineteen year old daughter.

“It’s your twenty-first birthday River. Did you get your wolf?” Cecilia asked.

Before River could answer, Lily moved to River’s bed and yanked the cover off her. She checked River’s body, chest, arm, thigh and hair. Lily hissed and shook her head.

“No wolf, Mother.”

“You never cease to disappoint me, River.” Cecilia said in a triumphant tone.

River bowed her head in shame as she awaited more insults from her stepmother.

“I had my suspicions about you before, now I have confirmed it.” Cecilia paused for effect. River lifted up her head as she awaited Cecilia’s next words. She prepared her mind for the onslaught of insults.

“You are cursed River. You are under a terrible curse from your mother’s lineage and I cannot have a cursed being under my roof. I have endured your existence in this house for years already. You must leave, River. Only Lily can be the heir to your father’s alpha throne.” Cecilia concluded.

“I am not interested in becoming the alpha, Mother. I don’t even have a wolf. Just please, let me stay here. Where will I go? I have no other family.” River begged.

“No, you must leave. Your time is up!”

Raymond, River’s father and alpha of their pack, arrived at this moment.

“What is this about?” He asked Cecilia.

Lily ran to her father and hugged him. He drew her closer and looked at her adoringly.

“Father, River remains wolfless.” Lily informed her father.

Raymond’s eyes became red, his forehead squeezed and brows slanted as he turned to River, who was now cowering on the bed.

“Again? You missed your last chance to shift.” He shook his head in disappointment. “You are useless to the pack without your wolf, River. What will I do with you?” Raymond made to turn away but Cecilia pulled him back.

“That was what I was telling River before you came in, my love. Her fate must be decided. She cannot continue to stay in this pack house. She is a stain on our family; an alpha’s daughter that cannot shift. No, she must leave.” She hissed at River.

Raymond squeezed his face and touched his head, as if having a headache. He glanced at River then asked Cecilia.

“What do you suggest?”

“Find her a mate among the guards so she could leave this house.” Cecilia answered.

“Father, River can be a breeder with her alpha lineage.” Lily chipped in.

“I will not sell my own daughter!” Raymond said and stormed out of the room.

“You see, you already made your father angry. You really are cursed.” Cecilia threw at River, who still cowered in shame in her bed as her destiny was being thrown around like a dice.

The scene unfolded like a nightmare. Cecilia and Lily manipulated Raymond, playing on his disappointment and anger. River's fate hung in the balance, her future decided by those who saw her as a liability.

“You had better agree with my idea or I will sell you as a slave to the king. At least, I will get a good price for your physical advantage. You could hit gold and become the king’s bed warmer.” Cecilia threw at her and flounced out of the room with Lily.

River’s heart shrank inside her at the thought of being a bed warmer. Could that be her destiny? Lily suggested being a breeder, one who would continuously give births to pups forever? She shook her head. She got out of bed and decided to go out to clear her head. She decided a good run would help, as usual. As she ran, she thought about her life; her unhappy childhood.

River had always been overlooked. Not forgotten, really, but nobody ever made an effort to include her. Her father had always been cold toward her, one who viewed his daughter as a liability. Her mother, whom she never got to meet, had died when she was still a baby, and River had always been told that her mother's bloodline was nothing but a curse.

Even when River turned twenty-one, the supposed coming-of-age day for most werewolves, there was no celebratory pack feast, no special attention. No proud acknowledgement from her father. Not even a simple "Happy Birthday." Who would celebrate the failure that she was? It was just another day, another opportunity for her stepmother, Cecilia, to find more ways to make her feel miserable.

River slowed down and wiped sweat from her face. She felt dry and thirsty but there was no water to quench her thirst, just as there had been no relief to her painful existence. The run didn't clear her head, but it did lead her back to the pack house.

Her mind wandered to her family life. What River was not, her half-sister Lily was: pretty, popular, and strong. Lily had grown into a lithe beauty, and at every step, every gesture, people clapped. Lily came into her wolf on her eighteenth birthday. Their father threw a pack party, only River was excluded because, that day Lily was portrayed as the next alpha of the pack. River saw it in the manner of her father looking at Lily; as if she were the future of the pack, the legacy he had waited so long for, unlike River. She was wolfless; she had been born with no wolf inside of her. But worse still, her father knew that. She was nothing but a reminder of his failure with his first mate.

“Get out of my way, River," Lily snapped, as she went into the house.

"You're ruining the day for everyone. It's your fault, you know.”

River realized that she had reached the house then, still lost in thoughts. She ignored Lily, for she had learned that silence was just easier when it came to confrontations. She couldn't stand fighting against the truth, since it was as clear here as crystal: she was a stain on the whole pack. She walked into her room, with each step, which now took four or five times longer, the emptiness inside her grew heavier.

River felt helpless and alone, without any supporter, no voice in a house whose noise was so loud it drowned out the least sound that did not meet the perfect image that her father wanted to uphold, where only appearances mattered and everything else was ignored. After she closed the door behind her, inhaling stale air, she sat on the bed and finally felt everything she had been trying to avoid so far: the pain, the shame, the loneliness.

“Why?” She asked in a low tone, as if the universe would answer her. “Why am I like that? Why am I never enough?” But the universe didn't respond, neither did her wolf.

The universe didn't respond, but Lily did, bursting into her room with a declaration that changed everything:

"River, Father is calling you. You're getting married."

River's world tilted. Married? To whom? The question hung in the air, unanswered.