1 01 I Don't Want To Go

As I run through the forest my massive body crashes through the underbrush. I love the feeling of my claws sinking into the soft dirt.

There is nothing better than allowing your beast free.

Finally I reach the river. This is my safe place. This is where I can relax. I'm not hungry so I just lounge on a rock and watch the fish swim by.

"Shayla Susan Walker! Where are you?!" My father links me.

"Enjoying a peaceful afternoon before you interrupted." I grumble through the link earning me a fearsome roar, and no it wasn't through the link I heard him, from the meeting hall, miles away. I look up and see the birds flee from the sound.

"Sorry, poppa." I quickly correct.

"You know I ordered a Clan meeting." He states.

"And that's why I'm at the river!" I respond. No way I'd be this attitudinal in person my father can be scary! But I am angry and don't want to be a part of this meeting.

"Meeting Hall, NOW!" He commands.

"I know what this is about! I don't want to go and you can't make me!" Yea I'm dead when I get home but... that's a problem for future me. I block him out which is immensely difficult because he is our Clan leader.

Before long I sence someone near and stand up looking into the woods. Before I can think two brown behemoths tackle me into the river.

"Karok! Kanza! You idiots! My fur is soaked!" I furiously link my elder twin brothers.

"Yup! And your hide will be tanned when we get home." Kanza taunts. Who talks like that!

"I'm not going to that meeting." I link them.

"You are if we have to drag you!" Karok growls.

"Don't fight us little sis. Take it like a man!" Kanza adds chuckling.

"I'm a woman sooo.... No." I growl back.

"Technically you're a bear currently sooo..." Kanza starts but gets cut off.

"Enough, Children!" Karok steps in. "Shayla. Home. Now!"

I growl and begin trudging back. You know this sucks! Karok is the next chief and therefore able to command me. So not fair!

"Quickly, cubby!" Kanza pushes me forward and I growl.

"I'm not a Cub!" I yell into his mind.

"I said Enough!" Karok ends the argument as he pushes me to go faster.

"Finally." Our Chief and father growls as we approach. We all three shift and dress.

"Hi, poppa." I say in my sweetest voice with my head bowed. He simply huffs as if he were in his bear form and nods toward the Meeting Hall.

I sit in the front with a massive twin brother on either side of me.

"You know you're dead right?" Kanza whispers as our father makes his way to the front.

"You know you're a doofus, right?" I quip back.

"Do I need to separate you two?" Karok quietly growls and we both focus forward as our father begins the meeting.

"Good evening Walker Clan. I apologize for the delay. We all know Cubs can be rather insubordinate." He begins and I look away cheeks red. "The elders are calling the clans. The wolves have allowed themselves to be perverted into soulless beasts. These demons are attacking shifters and supernaturals of all kinds. For the preservation of the species we are being recalled. Strength in numbers. We will be moving to join clans with the Chief of Chiefs."

Our clan of 20 begin to murmur. The teens are ticked. The adults are upset but obedient. The Cubs are simply confused.

"Silence!" My father's roar hushes the crowd. "We leave in the morning. This order is beyond me. I do not know if we will have our own dens or cohabitate. I do not know how this will turn out but it is the best for our survival. We will survive this. Dismissed!"

I go to stand but the twins grab my shoulders.

"You may be Daddy's little girl but do you really think he's gonna let you off on this?" Kanza asks. I sit quietly waiting for the hall to empty. As soon as the Clan has vacated the chief's gaze turns to me.

"Good luck, sis." Karok whispers with a kiss on the forehead as my siblings abandon me.

"Hi, daddy." I smile at him but quickly look away as I see his stern face.

"My own cub." He says quietly. "I'm trying to save and assure our entire clan and my own cub undermines me." He keeps his voice low and that is more difficult to handle than if he were to yell. "Do you think I want to rip you away from your home? Because I don't. I'm gonna miss all the memories in our den. You and your brothers growing up, your mother, your heights were marked on the door post in the kitchen for goodness sake! I don't want to leave here but do you know what I don't want even more?" I look up to answer but he continues before I even start. "I don't want to lose you. I don't want to bury my cubs like I did my mate. I'm leaving her here. I'll never get to visit my mate again. I'm trying to save your life, baby bear! Why can't you back me on this? Do you have no respect for me? Do you not trust I have your best intrest at heart? Do you think I simply don't care about you?"

"I...I..." I stammer as the tears fall. The disappointment in his voice is worse than if he'd just give me a whoopin' like when I was a cub. "I'm sorry, poppa. I trust you. I love you. I know you're doing what's best. I just... I just don't want to go!" I cry as he kneels in front of me wrapping me in a hug.

"I know, baby bear. I don't want to leave either, but at least we will be together. You, the twins, the clan, and me. We are a family... that family is just gonna grow." He tells me.

"At least tell me we won't have to live in one big house like the wolves do. I don't think I'd be able to handle that "pack life" I can barely deal with thing one and thing two." I say, referring to the twins, earning a chuckle as my father wipes my tears.

"I doubt it will come to that. We are solitary beings. The elders wouldn't jump to that easily." He assures me.

"Good." I huff. My father stands to his full nearly 7' height and sighs.

"Are you with me, baby bear? I don't have it in me to fight you." He asks offering a hand to pull me up. I take his hand and stand.

"Yes, poppa. I'm sorry." I tell him.

"All is forgiven. Go home and pack it's a long drive tomorrow." He nods as he leaves, his head healed high as a true chief.

"That is so not fair!" Kanza whines as I leave the hall. Of course they were waiting to hear me get reamed.

"She's Daddy's little girl. Right, baby bear?" Karok joins in. Now that he doesn't have to be all 'future Chief mode' he'll pick on me just like his twin.

"Only dad can call me that so you two can shut it before I muzzle you!" I respond as we head home.

"Yea yea princess we got it dad likes you best." Kanza rolls his eyes at me.

"I'm the baby and the only girl. Of course I'm the favorite!" I say bumping my shoulders between them.

"You look like mom." Karok says ruining the light hearted mood.

"And I look like mom." I agree.

"We'll be fine, Shay. We'll be together. We'll take care of Dad. We will survive. It will all work out, little sis." Karok hugs me and Kanza joins him on the other side.

"Look it's a Cub sandwich!" He jokes squeezing me tight and Karok laughs, effectively lifting our spirits.

"I'm 18! I'm NOT a cub!" I protest squirming between them.

"You just shifted two months ago. You aren't exactly a full grown Grisly shifter either." Karok says.

"Alright, dumb and dumber! You realize that the fact that I can shift DOES make me full grown! I could even find a mate!" I argue and we all freeze.

We are going to live with ALL the bear shifters in the Americas and possibly the world. We may just find our mates tomorrow.

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Okay so this is just an idea to expand the world most of my books take place in. Time line wise it would be running around the end of Orphan Wolf into Raised by wolves. That's where the "demon wolves" are introduced. So what do you think? Should I continue this?