Chapter 2

Ryeleigh

As I get ready, my mom knocks on the door and does not wait for me to answer. She enters and declares, “Oh honey, you look beautiful. This is such an exciting day for you and the family. Your dad and brother are downstairs, waiting to see you in your ceremonial dress.” She spoke it so fast; I wonder if she even took a breath. My mother is having a hard time knowing her only girl is growing up.

“Thanks, Mom. I really love you, but I need to meditate, and the Elders said, ‘no stress or talking one hour before the ceremony.’” I answer to get her to leave and give me my last few minutes as a non-shifter. The ceremony is still more than an hour away, but if I gave her a chance, she would talk the whole time.

“You don’t have to ask me twice. You take your time and come down when you are ready.” She leaves quietly, watching me as she shuts the door. I love my mom, but she is more nervous than all of us combined. This is the first time she is not an Alpha’s wife but the mother of an ascender. Usually, she would be at my dad’s side, but since my dad is leading the ceremony, she is walking me up to the platform as my sponsor.

My dad is the Tora Feline Clan Alpha, and she worries that if I am something different from a Feline, it will affect his rule. The funny thing is that I have already talked to my dad, and he has said no matter what I am, I have a place in the clan after I finish my shifting training. Wherever the Elders want me to go, I will. All I know is I want fur and four legs along with the speed and strength, and I am secretly excited to start the hunt for my mate.

No shifter may date until their first shift is complete. A shifter cannot recognize their true mate until after their shift. As a human, you can date anyone. The Norns pick matches for humans, but it differs from fated mates that shifters get because humans have free will to go with possible matches or make their own. Arcas made a deal with the Norns that shifters receive one perfect match to complete them. Ragnarök is something I only know as history, but something the shifters work to not repeat, and mates is the way we prevent another war. Arcas loved women, but when he found his mate on the side of the enemy, he knew love was the only power to win against Ragnarök. We can see our animal mate in the eternal fire during our first shift ceremony to give us hope. Once you meet and complete the mating, a mark appears on the skin connecting you together forever.

I take one last look in the mirror before I head downstairs to start my time of silence before the ceremony. My dress is an empire waist wrap, deep purple (the color of the feline house), along with a gold piping around the bust. There is a replica of feline paws lining the bottom of the dress. Being that I am the oldest child of the current feline Alpha, and the first to change, there will be a clan ceremony tonight after I shift.

There will be 174 others ascending to shifted across the world with me today, including my best friend and Clan dorm mate Raven. No one would confuse us. I have dark crimson red hair and she has light blond, almost white hair. Her eyes are a robin’s egg blue, while mine are a stormy-dark violet. We are only 10 months apart; me being older. She says that she does not care what her animal is as long as she is not a cow or a whale.

I keep telling her those are not a possibility for her, but she is still stressed her animal will make her look fat. She is hilarious, but I am sure she will be a wolf because we fight like cats and dogs. Her father is also the Alpha of the Lyall Canine Clan and my father’s best friend. If the Norns declare us Alpha material, we have a chance of leading our clans when our fathers are ready to step down. To be an Alpha, your mark of the animal will have a clear Alpha inscription inside the paw mark, and even though it helps, it is not a requirement to be related to the last Alpha. Like mates, the Norns pick the Alphas and the Elders will confirm during the ceremony.

I just want to be a normal shifter, anything more is a plus. My animal has always been just out of my reach. To touch her and feel her, I will almost be complete. I really have someone I hope is my mate, but I know it is not up to me. Today my life will have purpose and I should know the man I spend the rest of my life with.

Quietly calming myself in the back seat of my parents’ car, I can hear my mom explaining the ceremony to my brother Bram. Bram is not eligible for the summer ceremony but should be ready for the next ceremony in the winter. We have a ceremony at the change of every season when the veil to Yggdrasil is the thinnest. I am so excited for him because he is already top of his class and so levelheaded. Dad has been preparing him to be the third in command and the clan enforcer; this means he commands the hunters and fighters. I am glad I am not the enforcer; I do not mind fighting; I just have no interest in doing it every day.

As my mom walks through the steps of the ceremony, I envision myself performing this ancient ritual. When I get there, I must change into my robe, no clothes on during the shift, otherwise, while the body is changing, the clothes can bind and injure the shifter. All chosen will stand in a half circle with a bowl carrying the sacred fire in it. Across from the fire, the Elders will supervise with the screen of the Amory above, speaking the ceremonial words.

During the words, we will prick our finger, and when the ultimate words are said, we all drop our blood in the fire and shift. I have never been to a shift, so that you just shift scares me, and I heard that the fire burns high after we drop the blood. What if my robe catches on fire, or as I shift, I fall into the fire? I fear these parts, the clumsy shame of the silly girl.

As we pull up to the ceremony venue, I can see my best friend Raven jumping up and down as we park and before I know it, she pulls the door open. “Raven! You better not say a word to her; the ceremony is in less than an hour,” Raven’s dad yelled. She rolls her eyes in classic Raven fashion and pulls me out of the car. I look at her, wearing a dress similar to mine, except for the color, canine’s house color is blue. Being we are both the eldest children of an Alpha; our dresses are the same. Differences are in colors and where mine has feline accents, hers has canine.

We wave goodbye to our parents as our mother’s bawl like babies and our fathers must pull them off us. I grab Raven’s hand and look at her before we take our first steps into our new life. She smiles her mischievous smile, and I know she does not have an ounce of fear. I have a feeling my life will not follow my well-made plan. We will meet up with our mothers again, but, for now, the aura of my best friend soothes me.

As we are walking into the Ceremonial building, I see Cormac out of the corner of my eye. He is my brother’s best friend and Raven’s adopted brother. It is strange he is walking all alone. I wish I could go to him and make him feel included, but without speech, I am not sure how. Raven’s family must not be able to be with him because they are not blood. Cormac was adopted by the Lyall pack, but I never asked about his life before us. My brother told me he had it tough, but he knows we are his family now. I just hope it will relieve him when he can finally be part of a clan, and, with luck, my clan.

Going into the dressing area, I change into my robe and meet back up with Raven. Now we sit on the stage with our backs to the audience. The fire between us and where the Elders Council will be. I can feel the power of the Elders’ fire from my seat. Not the heat, because, as I have learned, no heat comes off the Elders’ fire. We know it as a gift from the Norns and a portal to Yggdrasil that our animal uses to get to us during the ceremony. It cannot burn us, and it will never extinguish.

As I lower my head to relax and meditate, I feel Marshall sit to my left and grab my hand. Looking at him, I smile. It is good to have him on my other side. Marshall, Raven and I have been friends since he punched a bully for me in the first grade while Raven held the kid down. His father, the clan healer, was so mad, but Marshall never got into trouble. Marshall, Raven, and I are three peas in a pod. I love being from a large clan, but I could be alone as long as I had these two, and that is another source of fear. What if we are all in different Clans?