3

November always like going to the borders of Tver forest where the distant scape of the city looked like Christmas lights shining and blinking. She and Jennie are the oldest females in the pack, both 18 and are very strong for their age, they had to be. Some of their males were brutally killed from the bloody battle two years ago against the Vetrovsky Pack of Moscow, Russia. That battle for the territory had wiped out half of the infamous Luna Puer Pack and that sent them running back to their roots, the damned forest of Tver.

Wolves in general takes territorial threats very seriously as it is in their nature, every threat to the territory has to be eliminated.

The first time they stepped foot in Russia, Luna Puer Pack thought they could settle and live peacefully and quietly among humans but unbeknownst to them there was another pack that owned and calls the lands of Russia their territory. The moment the Luna Puer Pack had landed in the country they were immediately ambushed, killing another seven of their males, they were mostly left with the pups. So their Alpha, November’s Father did what may be a cowardly move but the easiest route to survival, they ran.

Her father had found an unfounded territory, a forest in the borders of the central part of the country, the Tver Forest. But just because no wolves had taken the land as their territory it doesn’t mean that the Luna Puer Pack can settle down in there. They were not the only shifters anyway and soon they will have to deal with the other shifters who roam and own the lands as their territories, the nomads, humans. She knew too that full-blooded wolves and other territorial predators might come any time. With so little strength of numbers and power to protect November had to make herself stronger to protect the pups left in her care.

They could stand any form of battle but they’re always outnumbered by other packs.

The territorial wars between wolf packs had intensified throughout the years since World War II had ended in 1945. World War II where full humans had taken the wolf shifters for slaves and killer machines against the enemy countries and when the war ended a new world have been born, a new generation had started.

November’s pack, the infamous Luna Puer Pack is one of the many packs of wolves left scarred by the never-ending war. May it be a war of the countries turning against each other, may it be from the earliest times where different religions had fought each other for freedom and for what they believed or what most knew as the Holy War.

Luna Puer Pack is one of the scraps of war and they were at lost in the new world where wolves blended with full humans unnoticed, acting as if they’re humans as well, even breeding with them.

November’s generation is at loss.

For centuries, Luna Puer Pack had no home they can call their own. They’re always on the run, always moving, and fighting for home. November’s very own mother was killed in a battle for territories. November was left to her father, the Alpha of the Luna Puer Pack, not that he cared about November that much, or he is anything a good Alpha can be to his pack. November had it rough; she was born female, not a son to whom her father could leave the Pack to.

What’s more heartbreaking is the fact that her mother is not her Father’s mate; her father had certainly made it clear he had no intention of marking November’s mother his. Meaning there’s no love between them, which made November’s existence a possible threat to the future Mate and child of her father.

One day her father will find a mate and bear a child with her. But having the general rule of life, the first born will have everything of the father owned. And November is the first born.

November can only wish that the mate of his father is someone who would love her dearly, like a daughter. November snorted. Wolf mates are insanely jealous and mothers are overly protective of their children’s welfare, she will probably see November as a threat and have her killed.

November wondered what would be her life if she was a full human. She shook her head. It will never happen so she could only wish. She was born a wolf shifter, it runs through her veins, it’s in her blood and from her ancestors.

November had always known her kind had existed since the start of time, that one time, somehow humans found out about their existence along with other shifters. Her ancestors had been taken as slaves for the religious people when the Holy war started the wolf shifters were sent to fight the war against another religion, and in exchange, they feed on the dead they killed.

They were slaves; they hungered, they were chained, left in cold, left under the rain, left to die unless they kill. Her kind had lived through fear until the Holy war, that is. Wolf shifters realized they were a lot stronger, a lot more dangerous, and a lot more powerful than the full humans who treat them lower than dirt.

So the wolves had played the human’s games. They acted like the animal that they are, like what the humans expect them to be. They kill for the humans; they drink the blood of their kills and eat their insides in front of the humans they served.

They let it play until the Holy war ended, the wolves turned against humans. And for a while, wolf shifters had a peaceful life, until another war had started and humans found out ways to get the shifters right on their knees and serve them once again.

Explosives, guns, bombs. They found a weapon that was sure feared by wolves and all shifters, their only weakness next to their mates and children.

Silver.

Silver that would kill a wolf within seconds of it penetrating the wolf’s skin. Silver, every wolf’s weakness. And so wolf shifters came to their knees and kill for humans once again until another war started.

November may not know how her kind started to exist but she knew her ancestors… or at least, where they came from.

The Luna Puer Pack is the descendants of the wolves from Ossory or Osriage, the medieval Irish Kingdom of the old Ireland. Unlike other Packs of wolves, November’s ancestors worship the moon believing that the moon is the source of their strength, of their power, they see that the moon gives them energy and that the moon guides and protects them hence they are called the Luna Puer which meant Moon Child.

The wolf-shifters during the sixth century of the Ossory Kingdom had lived peacefully along with full humans, even without the knowledge of what they truly were. Until one day a human child’s carcass was found in the river, her skin was shredded, her insides missing a man had seen who did it and had pointed the wolf shifter’s family. Right then every human had turned against them, the wolves had fought back, killed, and fed themselves with everyone in the small town and then they followed the neighboring towns. Soon, the rumors of monsters eating humans spread throughout the country banishing every wolf shifter of every pack out of the nation. They scattered, some reached Europe, and others sailed and reached America, and November’s very own roots stepped foot in Korea.

A familiar howl from outside of November’s room reverberated and November jumped off her bed, pushed the window open and she waved at the black wolf below.

“Jennie!”

Wolf Jennie howled again, calling to her. She moved to the ground restlessly. Then she growled, Jennie was getting annoyed already. November giggled. She stepped up the window sills and jumped down, she gracefully landed exactly beside Jennie. Wolf Jennie growled annoyingly, she pawed November and she raised her tail as if giving November the finger before trotting away. November shook her head, smiling she followed wolf, Jennie.

“It’s not like you can’t shift to your wolf form right? Or you had any trauma right?”

November turned and blink at Jennie. The two best friends sat at the edge of a high cliff that gives the overview scape of South Korea. Their bare legs dangling at the edge carelessly.

“No. I can change to my wolf form anytime I want. Like you…” November made face as Jennie made face, continuing, “Like, every normal wolf shifter there is.”

“Then why haven’t I seen you change in your wolf form for two years now?”

November shrugged and turned her gaze forward at the distant scape.

Suddenly Jennie’s eyes widen, “Don’t tell me you want to be like those filthy humans? November! Humans are the lowest forms the Moon God had ever created! They’re filthy, powerless, disgusting, and horrifying!”

November smiled. She understand Jennie’s rage, she used to have a little brother but that little brother learned how to shift and in the first time he decided to go for a run, human hunters had shot him to death.

“I don’t want to be human Jen…” She started silently, “I just… I thought… I’ll only shift into my wolf form if lives are on the line…if our pack is in great danger.”

“And deny yourself all the goodness of being in wolf form? Are you kidding?” Jennie shook her head, “What about hunting with the pack? You go with us but you don’t shift, meaning you cannot eat our kills, you play but you never shift.”

November giggled then the two of them fell into silence. “Jen, do you think we can ever find a home that’s truly ours? What do you think is there beyond the borders? Isn’t the whole of Russia too big of territory for just one pack?”

Jennie turned to the scape as well, “You know it’s not just one pack of wolves that lives here… there are several but they’ve been there since the beginning… they rule that country. While…us… we are the strangers…the threats…the outsiders…and the name our descendants had left us to carry makes every wolf wary of us. Luna Puer Pack… human killers.”

Both November and Jennie turned back, smelling Eldric’s scent and smelling his agitation. His eyes settled to November, “Your Father is back.”