THE FIRST DREAM

I was standing on a white stone platform in front of a large arena surrounded by large pillars.

There was a row of men on my left. I didn't turn my head, but I could see them standing, shoulders squared, expressions unyielding, staring straight ahead. I could not see them all for they were obscured from my angle. I didn't recognize these men, but in my dream I knew I could count on them.

There were a flight of stone steps leading from the platform down to the rest of the arena floor. On one side of the steps were two strong warriors. They stood by their rank, the higher one above the lower one. I knew the other side of the steps had similarly two more warriors, even though their positions were out of my sight.

The rest of the arena was filled with men all built like warriors in their prime. They were standing as if on display, showing off a remarkable array of wolf bloodlines in their riot of hair and eye colors.

Then the man standing right next to me took a step forward. He was tall, broad shouldered, muscle bound, with tanned skin, and long black hair tied in a pony tail, falling straight like a blade behind him.

The man gave me a curt nod, his eyes a slate grey flecked with silver, and then, as if having ensured my permission to speak, his deep voice rang through the air, and even in the dream, I could feel the alpha strength resounding in his words.

But I could not make out what was said, the men in the arena could though, their eyes brightening and the air humming with a collective excitement that shone so bright, it felt like there could have been a magical spell beginning.

And then they start chanting in unison, one word over and over again. Their voices clapping together like thunder. The chanting silenced with a gesture of my hand.

The tall, black-haired man had withdrawn back to my side, and I realized that we were of the same height. My voice rumbled deeply, as if a wolf was speaking in human tongue. The sound of it was surprisingly sensual.

I blinked and suddenly I am facing myself and I realized that as much as I wanted to be, to be a part of this person, I wasn't. I helplessly stared into the golden eyes, watching as a darker amber swirled within it.

And suddenly they narrowed, as if my intrusion was discovered. I backed away in a rush. I shouldn't be here.

No. This was someone else's dream.

No! I had to get away. And then I woke up with a gasp, still in my bed.

It was just a dream. The moment I realized this, my alarm starting to ring.

Welcome to Friday morning.

I stumbled out of bed, I think I was still trying to get away from the golden eyes.

For some reason it haunted me.

Even while I showered in the early morning, I was feeling spooked. And when I looked into the mirror to wash up, I imagined my eyes turning gold and shuddered involuntarily.

Forget about it. Forget about it. I repeated to myself trying to shake the dream off.

I definitely felt better when I went downstairs for breakfast and found my family there as usual. The usual early morning bustle in the warmly lit room soothed my frayed nerves.

Technically, the dream wasn't bad in any particular way. It just freaked me out. It was as if I was seeing something I shouldn't know about. And those golden eyes... I think they scared me because... Why? They are just eyes, unnaturally colored eyes, yes, but that wasn't anything strange.

For wolves, especially those with strong bloodlines, it's not uncommon for our hair color and sometimes even our eye color to alter permanently after our first shift. It didn't always happen, but in our pack and the packs in our surrounding lands, it did happen regularly.

As young girls, Savy and I used to draw pictures of ourselves and colored them in different hair colors, dreaming up what beautiful long tresses we would own one day.

Savy favored red, while purple was my color of choice. Now that I think about it, we would look absolutely garish next to each other.

I remembered how Jessica's hair used to be a medium brown, and after her first shift when her dark brown wolf appeared, her hair color turned a similar dark brown. The new color gave her a deeper edge, and I felt it was very becoming.

I'm kind of curious about what my wolf would be like. I wonder what kind of change I might expect.

My mum for example, was a white wolf and her hair turned white at her first shift. She told me she used to hate it, it made her feel like an old woman even at 14 years old. But over time, she started to accept it, particularly since my dad told her it was beautiful...

I asked her to stop at this point. I didn't really want to hear the details about my dad and mum. I mean, it's nice in general, but I didn't really want to hear the specifics.

But because my mum is a pure white wolf, it's generally expected that at least Savy or me would be a white wolf too. There was no scientific research done to determine this. It's just what people in our pack had been guessing, some said I might be a white wolf, and I do heal faster than most wolves. But that could also just be the alpha blood.

According to Beta Lucas, it's obvious I had inherited my dad's alpha blood. And if so, then I probably won't be a white wolf.

"Then it would be Savannah who is white." Gamma Harry decided.

Savy had told me after hearing this how that didn't make sense at all. "Just because you have the alpha wolf, doesn't mean I must have the white one. Maybe you would inherit both. Or even if you just have the alpha wolf, it doesn't mean I must be white!"

"Well, it's more likely that you are white then red!" I had pointed out.

"I want to be rainbow." Savy declared. And I knew that any further conversation on this topic would be pointless.

Actually, it was completely pointless to talk about this at any level because nothing we say can change our wolves.

But let me tell you a secret. I really hope not to be white. It's precious and rare, and expected that at least one of us would carry on the bloodline, yes. But I know I am the alpha. I already got a good helping of alpha blood. I hope Savy gets the white one. I don't want to be the sister who took it all.

On top of this, white wolves aren't much camouflage, and it really won't be quite as fierce looking as a dark color one. If all goes well, my wolf would very likely be dark in color (due to the alpha blood), and in one solid color (because of the strength of my bloodline.) At least that's what I'm told.

Size wise, if I take my height and gender into consideration, I would probably be above average to large. I didn't want to be too large though. What if my mate's wolf is smaller than mine? But if it's too small, I might end up looking like a black dog. And that's just disgraceful.

So if I could choose my size, it would be as big as possible, as long as it's smaller than my mate's wolf. So superficial I know.

And I'm probably going about this all wrong. It's not the size of my wolf that needs changing.

Dear Goddess, please make my mate's wolf larger than mine.

There! Why should I be the one who has to shrink?

Suddenly, I flash-backed to my dream again, the golden eyes... And then to all the men in the arena. If only all the stupid boys in the world really grew up to be those kind of men.

I felt a blush creep up my cheeks at that thought. Why was I thinking of it like that?

OMG. I dreamed of an arena full of handsome male wolves. Where did I get that from?

Maybe this was a teenager thing? My cheeks were still flaring. But thankfully I was already walking up Winderhill to school. I tucked my face deeper into the warm soft scarf around me, it's time to get to school! (And I should probably think of something else while I get there!)