Jacob

It's a new moon tonight, and everything is still calm. The perfect conditions fora hunt. It's already late into the evening and

I walk silently into the forest. The fallen leaves crunch beneath my feet and I look up at the stars in the sky.

My inner wolf can't want to get out and howl. But not yet. I have to wait for the right moment. We don't want to scare away the prey.

Hunting at the new moon has been a tradition in my pack for centuries. There's something about the low light that makes the animals more ecstatic. And as a wolf, the promise of the moon's return ignites an energy that needs to be released.

The males have always met in the woods at midnight, preparing for the evening hunt. As my feet touch the ground, I feel like I'm walking in the footprints of the great Alpha's that came before me. I can feel the crisp night air on my naked skin. I feel at home, at peace, and with a sense of purpose. "Hello, Brother," I hear Derek's voice coming from ahead of me.

He's been waiting. He, too, is naked and ready. Without having to return his greeting, we both start running and transform into our wolves.

Now we can run hard and fast.

It's difficult to contain my wolf on nights like these. My Alpha is bursting with excited energy. He wants to break free. But we have a tradition to uphold. We need to wait until the animals are at their most active, right before dawn. Now we have a few hours to track, to plan, and to kill.

My paws beat the forest floor as I head to the south-western tip of the reserve.

Trackers a few days ago noted a few deer out in these parts.

The rhythm of my run speeds up, and I can hear Derek's wolf running right behind me.

We've done this before. We're totally in sync. After about an hour of running through pitch black forest, I catch a whiff.

A youngling and its mother. They are about four miles west from where we are. My mouth immediately fills with saliva. All I have to do is let out a low growl, and Derek knows exactly what's going on.

We ran towards the scent. Before we get too close, we stealthily slow our steps and split up. Derek will push them down into the forest, and I'l surprise them from behind. But first we need to stalk them. We track their scents, follow their steps.

It takes a lot not to let your beast go wild, but you risk scaring them away, or sometimes killing more than you're supposed to.

We have had an agreement with this land that goes back to the origins of the Moon

Goddess. Our human side allows us to have the consciousness to decide on our actions. Otherwise, we'd truly be killing machines, decimating the surrounding life.

There's a balance between everything, to our lives, and we must honor the symbiotic relationship we have with the land.

My father taught me that.

A few more hours passed, and I can sense

Derek is ready. We've had our eyes on the pair, watching them closely. They've wandered out of a clearing and into a thicket. Less opportunity and space for them to run away.

He moves forward; they move back. I come around from behind and within seconds, we both pounce for our kills, aiming for the necks for a quick kill. They barely have a moment to realize we were there. We break their necks with our jowls before they can think about reacting.

We killed both the mother and her faun.

It would be cruel to allow either to live without each other.

The neck of the mother lies limp in my mouth and her fresh blood spills out between my canines. The taste of fresh meat is so good; I bite down harder. Derek has the youngling in his mouth and I can see the restraint he needs to take, not to devour the whole thing right there and then.

We need to get these kills back to the pack.

It's easier to feed us in our human forms.

There is no amount of blood or flesh that will satisfy our wolves.

We begin the walk back to my Alpha house.

On our way, we stop at a river that reflects the night sky in all its wonder. We leave our kills by the water's edge and hop in the crystal-clear water and go for a swim. We transform into our human forms before we emerge from the refreshing water.

"What a night," Derek says. He lets out a satisfied sigh. Hunting truly makes us feel fulfilled, feel alive. "That's right. We hunt well together, Derek. It's a pleasure killing with you."

Both of us have left our clothes nearby.

This is our spot, our routine. We dress and head back home.

We leave the kills on the butcher's table outside in the back and we head in to clean ourselves up. I am covered in mud and moss. The remaining twigs that were stuck in my coat wash out of my hair in the shower.

When we meet at the butcher's block again, we can see the sun rising above the hills.

It's been a warm night and the colors of the sky change from deep blues speckled with stars to warm pinks and oranges as the sun rises, bringing in the new day.

I give Derek a knife, and we cut back the skin. This is tradition. If you kill it, you clean and prepare the carcass. It is our responsibility to honor these animals and ensure the pack consumes the animals with the same dignity awarded in the deaths. "So, how's things with Medeia?" I ask as I plunge a blade deep into the thigh of my kill. Preparing to separate muscle from bone. "She's amazing. She's my everything. I'm sure we'll be fated by the time she turns 18," says Derek. "How do you know?" I ask.

I don't. But we've been together for so long, surely the Moon Goddess would be kind to us. I mean, man, that girl can drive me wild. Pd be happy to be with her for life, if you know what I mean." He gives me a wink, and he tears the last of the skin off of the faun.

We're both working away, feeling the sun on our backs as it gets hotter and hotter.

The rest of the pack is waking up now and we can hear the morning bustle begin.

Breakfasts being prepared. School books being packed. "Well, when you know, you know," I say. "What in the forest does that mean?" He asks with a laugh. "When you're fated to be with someone, it's a feeling like no other," I explain.

"Will you tell me about it?" he asks, a little shy about the request. He cracks off a bone with his bare hands, trying to mask his vulnerability. "Man, it's like someone ties a rope around your guts and around their guts too and ifyou don't follow it, it gets tighter and tighter. Like if you're not near them, the constraints feel like it's tearing you apart.

Or it feels like something is erushing you from the inside. And only when you're together, the pressure releases. It sounds painful, and it is to a point. But it's also the happiest feeling Ive ever had." "Whoa-" "And if you think sex is good now, you do not know what it's like making love with your true mate." I say, trying to lighten the mood.

We both laugh a little while we carry on separating steaks and tossing clean bones into large buckets. "Have you considered what you will do if she isn't your true mate?"

Itry not to think about that. I want her.

I like to think she wants me. I- I think Id break the bond if it's someone else," Derek says. "That's a painful decision brother, not a lot of wolves even survive that," I say with a bit of concern for my friernd. "Well, I want Medeia, I want her andI want her to carry my pups," he says.

He is speaking so candidly. It's nice to see this side of Derek. I never realized how sensitive he is.

I don't know if it works like that. My father once told me, only true mates can have pups. I don't think severed bonds will enable reproduction," I responded matter-of-factly, not really thinking about the news I just broke to my friend.

His dream has always been to have the perfect high-ranked farmily. I can see worry across his face as he freezes mid action. We complete our tasks in silence for the rest of the day.

Once we've cleaned things up, put everything away and washed up again, it's already early afternoon.

I head inside to the office to take care of some pack paperwork. "Derek, do you mind helping me with some papers?"I ask.

Derek's rinsing out the last bucket.

Something has distracted him all day.

But he responds happily enough, "Yeah, sure thing."

We head inside and start the next task. "So only fated mates can make babies? That's pretty crazy, man," he finally says.

I knew that was still bothering him. "What if I get fated with someone I hate, or lower than me? Are they really the only ones that can carry my pups?" Derek continues, but he's thinking out loud more than actually asking me a question. "Look man," I say, "Don't worry about it too much. I'm sure itll be fine."

I'm trying to focus on my work and this is getting distracting. "No, I think we need to get all the lower females out of here, like Anastasia and the rest of the Omegas. So, we should narrow my chances of being mated with a high ranked pack member."

I knew he was joking, but it sent a rage through me that I couldn't explain. "Ana is not that bad, Derek. She's a bit of a fuckup, but you know better than to speak about her badly in front of me."

A growl releases from my throat, and I break the pen in my hand. "Now you're being protective of that bad omen? Your attitude is giving me whiplash.

Be honest, Jacob, she's trash. Look at everything she's put you through!"

I knew Derek wasn't fond of Ana, but I did not know he had so much hatred toward her. "Get out Derek. Go Home, cool off." No one should ever speak to their Alpha that way. "But "Now," I say with a fierceness that him out the door fast.

Derek slams the door loudly behind him. I hear him stomp on every step as he heads down to the street.

It's now the late afternoon and neither of us has slept, so our tempers may run a little high.

Maybe he'l be better tomorrow.