Spirit Wolves pt. i

MACK POV

It’s been two years since we met Harrison and joined this pack. Integrating into the group culture felt so natural and Jip and I quickly grew close with many of the members. Soon Tina suggested my name as the second official beta leader of the pack and to my surprise everyone agreed. John says I have natural leadership qualities despite being on the younger side of the pack. I share a title with the pack’s original beta leader named Kim and Tina would remain the official alpha and highest leader rank.

We’re split into three sub-groups that are each lead by one of the three leaders. It is mainly a formality and serves logistical purposes such as room and chore assignment. But occasionally it is used to keep track of everyone while traveling as a large group. 

Tina assigns the sub-groups herself. I lead six members: Raina, Harrison, Jip, Len, Jaiden, and Jone. My group’s average age is the lowest ranging from Jip as the youngest at eighteen and myself as the oldest at twenty-one. Our rooms and common-space is on the top floor. My responsibilities as a leader primarily consists of ensuring everyone in my group is on top of their weekly chores and to mediate any conflicts on our floor. This usually consists of me breaking up any wild shouting matches that occur and catching Harrison in his latest attempt to tick someone off.

Kim’s floor has a few younger members like Luana who is twenty and Jack and Piper who are twenty-one but they’re mostly a bit older than us. Interestingly, everyone in their group is multilingual so I often hear different spoken languages when they communicate together. They have the middle floor and Kim leads: Theo, Jack, Winnie, Piper, and Luana. Kim’s floor also take turns with our floor watching little Grace, the one-year old daughter of Jaiden and Luana. 

Tina’s members are on the main level and consists of Talyn, John, Drew, Jane, Yoko, and Dove. They are the oldest, apart from Dove who is nineteen, and generally have certain leadership roles within the group. For instance, Drew is our main cook and plans and coordinates meal preparation. With the assistance of Jone, he maintains the vegetable garden too. Another example is Yoko who is responsible for home security, and tracking any possible threats to our territory. She deals with threats swiftly and coordinates attacks when necessary. John use to coordinate the hunts with the rest of the werewolf members but that responsibility has now fallen upon me. I was a little surprised at first but John reassured me that he hated planning hunts and was relieved to hear I’d be taking over. At the moment I plan hunting strategies and organize the trips while John actually leads the team during the hunts. I know John tries to step away from leading more and more pushing me towards the real role as time goes on. I still feel I need to learn much more.

Originally I had thought that being the leader of the hunt would put me in Tina’s sub-group but I’m sorta glad that didn’t happen. In addition to leading hunts, I’m also the pack’s spiritual lead. As of now I am the pack’s only spirit reader meaning I am the only person with the ability to read a person’s spiritual energies and directly interpret the messages of the spirit wolves. As such, it is my duty to regularly organize meditations, visits to the spirit holds, and broaden my knowledge of the spirit wolves in order to maintain and strengthen our team’s connection with the spirits. 

“Hey, Mack!”

My concentration is immediately lost and I fixate on Harrison’s face directly beside my right ear. He grins brightly and I shove his face away with my hand. 

“You made me lose focus,” I say not bothering to hide any amount of annoyance in my tone. “I lost a connection.”

“Whoops sorry.”

“You’re not.”

Harrison giggles contently. “So how do you do the glowy thing when you meditate?”

I sigh. “If you’re referring to the spirit glow that occurs when you’ve established a connection-“

“Whatever you call it. The glowy thing.”

“It takes patience and the will to connect in a meaningful way.”

“How long does that take?”

“There’s not one answer. It could be an instant. It could be hours. It could be never.”

“That’s no fun,” Harrison says and then flicks grass at my face. I remain still for a moment and then spring myself towards Harrison. I see his eyes widen and grin form as he feigns innocence. I’m tackling him into the ground and he pushes back at me.

“Hey, hey,” Harrison says. “Stop that.”

“How about you stop annoying me,” I say, rubbing my hands into his hair. 

“I was just asking a question.”

I ease off Harrison and begin to stand. The moment I do Harrison stretches out his right leg and kicks the back of my knee, causing it to jerk forwards a bit. A slight growl comes out of my breath. 

“Whoa, easy there,” Harrison says. 

“You’re so annoying.”

I follow his gaze to my hands that have ever so slightly grown wolf claws. I revert my hands back. 

“We should get going,” I say. “It’s almost time to prepare for dinner.”

Just as we’re about to head down the path back to the house I hear a voice shouting my name. I turn around and see Raina and Len racing towards Harrison and I. They seem very giddy about something. 

“Mack!” Len says, shaking my arms so hard I can feel my whole body rattle. “Mack, Mack, Mack!”

“What? What? What?”

“We got it!” Len says. 

“Got what?”

“The calling mark!”

My eyes light up as Len and Raina display their individual calling marks on their wrists. It’s a small intricate marking that resembles tattoos but brighter - almost having a glowing effect. I confirm to myself they were definitely true markings of the spirit wolves’ summoning by visual confirmation.

“What? No way,” Harrison says, yanking Len’s arm closer to himself so he could fully inspect the beautiful mark of a wolf head etched into Len’s skin. “That’s not fair. You’re younger than me.” Harrison stares at me. “Mack!”

“Hey don’t look at me,” I say. “The spirit wolves’ summoning is not constricted by age.”

“But you said most people are summoned at the age of twenty.”

“Most but not all.”

“Len is nineteen!”

“And I was fifteen.”

“Ha ha,” Len says, mockingly and pointing at Harrison. 

Harrison gives Len a nasty glare and the next thing I know the two of them have their hands interlocked with each other and they are actively attempting to push each other over. Raina and I pull the two of them apart. 

“That’s enough,” I say. “We’ll perform a summoning first thing tomorrow morning. Now let’s get back to the house.”

“Tomorrow?” Raina says in a whiny tone. 

“Why not tonight?” Len says. 

“Come on you two,” I say. “It’s getting late.”

“Technically our curfew isn’t for another hour and a half,” Len says. 

“And we’re close by,” Raina says. 

I don’t say anything. I try to keep my excitement at bay and have a neutral expression but I can tell I’m failing at this.

“Please,” Raina says. 

“Please,” Len says. 

I sigh, glance at my watch, and then give in. “Fine,” I say and the two of them cheer. “But we’re heading straight home as soon as it’s over.”

“Yay,” Raina and Len say to each other.

“You going to join us, Harrison?” I say. 

“Duh,” Harrison says. “I’m not going to miss the opportunity to be the first one to know what cool powers you get.”