And just like that, she was alone outside the gates of The Eclipse Pack.
Completely at the mercy of the Halen Forest.
Aurelia had read about this Forest in The Lores of Valdera.
Being wolfless she was outcast and not particularly wanted amongst the other wolves so she spent most of her time reading about the five packs.
The five packs packs all had distinguishable traits;
The Eclipse Pack - stuck up, skilled traders and business people, gold and white furs.
The Blood Moon Pack - humble, farmers and miners, strict with fated mates, red furs.
The Razor Claw Pack - purely emotionless, stoic at all times to keep a guard, fighters and mercinaries, brown furs.
The Lycans - angry, ruthless, asassins and murderers, hired killers and the the most unpredictable pack, not friendly, black furs.
The Rogues - all of the outcasts from the varying packs. If you did not fit your packs criteria, you were outcast and the Rogues would find you.
Trading happened between packs, and sometimes mating too. Fated mates were not always garuanteed to be in your pack so when others came to visit for trading and business, your mate may also be with them.
There had been peace for some time, allowing mates to be together if their mate was frim another pack. But for a price.
Only the Eclipse Pack would not let their own leave.
But wolf shifters were not the only creatures of Valdera and Aurelia knew she was at the mercy of them all.
The forests were techically shared territory, between the packs and the Fae.
Packs stuck to their gated lands spread out in the vast Halen Forest.
Fae lived in the trees, homes made from woven vines and canopies of massive leaves. The Fae had large pointed ears, 2 pairs of eyes and braided hair to their feet.
Aurelia knew to avoid the Fae as they are tricksters who can corrupt your mind with riddles and smart tongues into deals and oaths that bind you. A life of slavery would await.
The Halen Forest was the southen part of Valdera.
The Humans lived in the West, the Goblins in the mountains to the East and the Vampires in the cities and castles of the North.
Aurelia had never encountered any creature othere than the shifters of her own pack. But her extensive reading made her feel confident in her ability to avoid the other creatures of Valdera.
Her Mother would tell her storeis at bedtime about the Fae and the Goblins but the tales of the Vampires were here favourite.
They were enchanting, horrific and fascinating. And the sworn enermy of the wolves.
Their bites were toxic to one another, but campires had the upper hand. While wolves were excellent trackers and had the keenest senses, Vampires could mask their auras. Making them appear human.
It had been 15 years since Aurelias Mother told her last story.
And now at 20, Aurelia was on her way to starting her new life.
Aurelia stood just past the gates of the Eclipse Pack. It was midday, the sun high above her head and rememerbing the maps and journals she had scoured for the last 7 years, she knew to walk dead ahead.
This way, she would be walking towards human territory.
Humans were were weak creatures and posed the least threat to her life.
A few steps in and Aurelia felt a weight had been lifted from her chest. The bond was broken. Still a completely surreal feeling and something she never thoight she would experience. She shouldn't even have a mate, she had no wolf but her desire to run to him was overwhelming.
Now outside of the packs boundaries she felt herself again. But impossibly free.
Out here in the Forest of Halen, she wasn't the wolfless defect, the blue haired freak.
She was just Aurelia. And although the realisation pf being totally alone scared the hell out of here, she could be whatever she wanted and nobody hated her anymore.
She felt no more sadness nor pull to Grant and started walking.
"Right, keep walking this way until the trees clear. Don't speak to Fae and don't stop. Don't speak to Fae and don't stop..." she uttered to herself, the the shadow of a smile accross her subtly red lips.
It became a chant with every step Aurelia took.