"Stop it! You have put me in trouble so many times already! Don't you have enough?" He growled, bending over, trying to hide his eyes away from the others.
It was a good thing that they were busy scrambling onto Wolf's head. The piece of rock perched on the side of the mountain resembles a wolf's head hence the moniker.
He gritted his teeth trying to control his wolf who was creating havoc inside him, wanting him to turn. He could not let him control him. Not now of all the days.
He glanced at the other kids and saw that it was Kei who was now climbing. He did not move from his position, keeping a distance from them.
He could not understand what was happening to him. Two years ago, he had already kept his wolf in control. He no longer turned unless he allowed it but tonight, his wolf was not listening to him. It seemed like he was enraged over something and the anger was making him dizzy and his control was slowly slipping away.
The moon rose behind Wolf's head and illuminated the dark forest, casting shadows everywhere and Gray had no place to hide. He watched the horror in Kei's eyes as he stared at his wolf form.
Gray wanted to run away but his wolf had different things in mind. He jumped on the mountainsides, landing gracefully on the top of Wolf's head, and howled at the moon.
Kei and the other two boys screamed in horror and ran deeper into the forest.
They knew that Gray can turn into his wolf form. He was different from them and they heard tons of stories but it was the first time they had laid their eyes on Gray's wolf form.
It was magnificent but they had no time to admire it for terror shook their core and they did what a lesser animal would do—escape!
Gray was unaware of what happened to his peers. His wolf was jubilant to be able to get out, however, his happiness was cut short when he felt danger.
He jumped off Wolf's head and ran into the forest. He passed by Kei and the other two boys when he realized that he did not know their names. He differentiates them in his head based on their physical appearance.
He heard Kei shouting his name but he ignored him and continued running. His wolf had been in the holy ground multiple times in the past. The Old Man made sure that he knew every crook and cranny of this part of the forest.
He could no longer hear Kei's voice but he did not stop running, not even slowing down. He ran as if his life was on the line.
He relied on the keen senses of his wolf, no longer thinking why he was running away or where because he had long left the holy ground. The ground that he was on now was unfamiliar.
Gray ran and ran and when he stopped because of thirst, he noticed that the sun had replaced the moon in the sky. Squinted in the bright sun, he honed his senses and the danger that his wolf had been running away from was no longer on his heels.
When his thirst was satiated, he decided to look around to check where he was. He had looked around thrice but still got no idea where the hell he was.
Not feeling any more threat, he chose to go back.
'The Old Man would kill me,' he thought to himself as he slowly trod back, taking the same path he came from.
Thirty minutes of running the same path, he confirmed that he had crossed borders.
"Good thing I was here in the jungle because I didn't bring my passport," he chuckled to himself, adding speed, calculating how many hours had passed with the same amount of time he needed to go back home.
He was gaining speed taking and enjoying the view and the freedom of his run, thinking of asking the Old Man if they could do this kind of run soon.
But then, he remembered that it was his choice not to shift into his wolf form because he believed that his wolf brought nothing but a curse.
No matter how many times, the Old Man and Samara told him that what he had was a blessing and not a curse, he still could not take it that way because his parents were killed because of him being able to shift into his wolf form from the young age of seven.
Maybe if it was not because of him being different, the elders of their pack and the other pack would not take interest in him. He would grow up just like any other kid, he had to wait for the first full moon of his seventeenth birthday to shift into his wolf form, but no, he had to be different.
He remembered his parents were clueless about why he was able to shift into his wolf form so early when there was nothing special from their parents.
His father was an Alpha but he had given up his position when they joined a bigger pack when his mother became pregnant with him.
His parents' love and union were bound to be challenging since his mother belonged to an enemy pack. It was one of the reasons why his father had chosen to give up his position as an Alpha of his own pack and joined a bigger pack to protect his wife.
Yet in the end, he failed to do so.
"Briare," he let the name of the man roll off his tongue, tasting the rage he had been nurturing since that night.
He sped up as his rage lit up his chest but just as he jumped on a log lying on the damp earth, he stumbled into his two feet.
"What the hell!?" He groaned in pain, grabbing his ankle and throbbing. He shivered in his nakedness, wondering why in the world did he suddenly shift back to his human form.