Chương 24: THE FIRST DREAM

I was standing on a white stone platform in front of a vast arena surrounded by large pillars. A row of men stood to 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 ponytail, 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 started chanting in unison, one word over and over again. Their voices clapping together like thunder. The chanting was silenced with a gesture of my hand. It was a man's hand though? Omo. The tall, black-haired man withdrew from the center stage, and was now by my side.

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 was pulled out of the body with the deep voice and facing him, and I realized that as much as I wanted to stay a part of this person, I wasn't. I helplessly stared into the golden eyes, watching as a darker amber swirled within them. And suddenly they narrowed, as if my intrusion was discovered. I backed away in a blind panic.

I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have seen this. 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 started to ring. Welcome to Friday morning. (I hope you're reading this with the cool sarcastic teenage sophistication I could only wish for). 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 in my mind. This dream didn't seem to shake off. I definitely felt better when I went downstairs for breakfast and found my family there as usual. The everyday early morning bustle in the warmly lit room soothed my frayed nerves. This novel is published on a different platform.

Support the original author by finding the official source. 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 doesn'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 color 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 (but only because as a pup I was taught that proper coloring meant I couldn't use blue on everything on the paper). 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 at her first shift, her hair turned so blond it was almost white.

She told me she used to hate it; it made her feel like an old woman even at the age of 14. But over time, she started to accept it, particularly after meeting my dad who 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 really didn't want to hear the specifics. But because my mum was a pure white wolf, it was generally expected that at least Savy or I would be a white wolf too.

There was no scientific research done to determine this. It was just what people in our pack had been guessing. Some said I might be a white wolf, and I did heal faster than most pups. But that could also just be the alpha blood. According to Beta Lucas, it was obvious I had inherited my dad's Alpha blood. And if so, then I probably wouldn't be a white wolf. My dad's Alpha wolf was so black, it was probably the absolute measure of black. My guy friends called it obsidian black.

He made Beta Lucas' black wolf look dark grey.

"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 don't want 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 was 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. (Or the black and white cow patterned wolf.) Now that I was older, I knew Savy and I would in all likelihood inherit either black or white wolves. (I had never met a cow patterned wolf yet.) Since white wolves weren't much for camouflage and wouldn't be quite as fierce-looking as a dark-colored one, I would like to revise my preferred dream color from purple to black.

Size-wise, if I took my height and gender into consideration, I would probably be above average to large. (So not the size of a house like I had drawn as a pup). I hope not too large, though. What if my mate's wolf was smaller than mine? But if I were too small, I might end up looking like a black dog. And that would just be disgraceful. So if I could choose my size, I would be as big as possible, so long as I was smaller than my mate's wolf. So superficial, I know. And I was probably going about this all wrong.

It wasn't the size of my wolf that needed changing. Dear Goddess, please make my mate's wolf larger than mine. There! Why should I be the one who had to shrink? Suddenly, I flashed back 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 kinds of men. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks at the thought. What~ OMG. I dreamed of an arena full of handsome male wolves. What on earth was I thinking? 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 got there!)