3. A Fresh Start

      "Perfect timing! Let me grab those for you Maeva. The bus pulled up just a minute ago. I'll load these on for you." David said as he grabbed her duffels from her. David was only a year older than her, & an Omega, so this was going to be his second year of attendance. He was her only friend in the entire pack, as she had spent her entire life as an outcast due to the rigorous training her father, well Daniel, had put her through. 

       "Thanks David." She smiled as she followed behind him. Just as she was reaching the door her right arm was grabbed forcefully from behind & she was jerked backwards into a hardened muscular chest. She knew his scent all too well, & she internally cringed. 

         "Gamma," she said as he pulled her into him. Though Alpha Maxwell technically had custody of her since she was an orphan, Gamma Clay had made it his personal responsibility to "care" for her. He was easily 6 foot tall, so he towered over her, & was 285lbs. of pure muscle. He was quite tanned & overall not bad to look at, but though she would never tell him, he wasn't her type. His hazel eyes held glint of mischief in them whenever he looked at her & it made her feel quite uneasy.

       "Maeva, love," he started as he lowered his head into the crook of her neck & breathed in her scent, "You are my mate, you know. And when you turn 18 we will be marked & mated properly. You are mine Maeva, don't forget that while your away. Don't you dare give yourself to a lesser man that doesn't deserve you. I will be very unhappy." He breathed out, threatening her as he tightened his grip on her arm. 

       "I won't." She told him with a meek smile as she pulled from his grasp. He had been insistent that she was his mate since her 15th birthday, but she felt no attraction to him at all. Infact, she found him vile & repulsive. The mere thought of being in the same room as him made her skin crawl, so she avoided him as much as one could considering that he had essentially become her main care provider. Her every instinct told her that the Gamma was definitely NOT her mate. 

      She quickly walked out the door to where the rest of the students and their families were. He wouldn't get handsy with her infront of the pack, so she would be safe from his grabby hands out here. Since she didn't have a family to say goodbye to, she made her way over to the bus door & climbed the stairs. Before beginning her search for a seat, she turned to take a last look at the pack she had known her entire life. She smiled & waved to Alpha Maxwell & Luna Michelle when their eyes met, before making her way down the narrow path to find herself a seat. 

      She found a double seat with no bags holding it near the back of the bus, so she threw her blanket & pillow into the corner. She pulled the bag down from her shoulders & sat it in the seat before sitting down. This was going to be a long journey, so she got herself comfortable in the double seat. Luckily there were only 23 of them attending the academy this year, so there was plenty of room for them to each have their own double seat on the large Charter bus. The academy had sent 4 warriors to accompany them to the school, but they were each comfortable in their own double seat as well.

       As the bus drove through the packland's entrance gate she let out a breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding. The further they drove away from the borders, the more relaxed she became. Sure there was a danger going into the unknown, but she was much more comfortable with the thought of fighting off unknown enemies than the enemy she had left behind. So long as she could help it, she would never return to Gamma Clay's repulsive grasp again. 

     She pulled out her phone & put her headphones in, fully prepared to completely relax in the seat & drown out everyone with some music while she mulled over the letter she read this morning. Thankfully, David was in the front of the bus, so she wouldn't have to worry about anyone talking to her. These wolves had never been friendly to her before, so they had no reason to start now. 

     As the music began blaring through her ears, she thought over the contents of the letter her father, well guardian, had left her. She couldn't seem to wrap her head around the idea that she was a Timekeeper wolf, THE Timekeeper wolf. She was a royal wolf, a princess. Though she had always known that she was different from the other wolves, she never could have imagined that she was THAT different. 

     She had learned about the Timekeeper wolves in her history classes at school. The were the first royals among the wolves. The line began as the very first of the wolves. The Timekeeper wolf helped keep the forces of good & evil among the wolves in balance. They were gifted with the power of time, and subsequently the ability to manipulate it. Not only did they have the ability to manipulate time, but they essentially kept the history of the wolves, it was embedded in their DNA, she had read. The Timekeeper line was magnificent & unique in that not only was it a known royal bloodline through its immunity to silver & high tolerance for wolfsbane, but the Alphaship of the bloodline passed differently too. In normal wolf Alpha lines, the oldest child, usually a son, received all of, or nearly 100% of the Alpha genetics, and then it tapered down  with each additional child. 

     In the Royal Timekeeper line however, the 1st & 2nd child received 60-80% of the Alpha genetics, whereas the 3rd child received 100%, thus, making them the Alpha & the most powerful wolf of the family. So that would mean she had 2 older siblings. The letter had spoken of an older brother, but hadn't mentioned her other sibling. Perhaps that was because her other sibling was too young to comprehend the severity of the situation at the time. 

     The Timekeeper family was known to have active powers as well. The Timekeeper ofcourse could manipulate time, but the first & second born's of a Timekeeper were known to have telekinetic &/or empathetic powers of their own. She wondered which of her siblings held which of the other powers that ran in the family. The history books at the pack school had never been specific on which child received which powers, so she wasn't really sure.

     When she got to the academy she would be sure to explore the library & find out all she could about the Timekeeper line. Until then, all could do was wonder what the extent of her powers would be when she finally decided to track her family down so her mom could unbind her power. She wondered if she would have witch powers as well, since her mother was a witch.

       That meant that she was a hybrid. She had never heard of another hybrid wolf before, but she and her siblings would technically be hybrids. There was the Alpha King ofcourse, technically he was a Demi-God wolf. According to all the books she had read, he was the child of the Moon Goddess herself, & no one truly knew his exact age, so he was assumed to be immortal. She made a mental note to research Timekeeper wolves, hybrids, & the Alpha King when she got to the academy.