She Wolf will not find her mate. I won't fall in love!

Prince Caelestis are you going to be ok?

The mortal world. They lived in peace and in many ways made a lot more progress than the mythical world. Or at least their technology had almost caught up with magic. That's how I saw it, with awe and wonder. The other wolves beside me hated it. They much preferred the forest where they could run wild and shift. They thought I was stupid for seeing the beauty in such a place.

I was being shown one of the patrol routes which happened to venture into the mortal world. Our pack lands merged with the mortal world and we protected the myths who lived among it, much like Sahar, Yami and Deion. They would pay us a little and we would keep them safe from the myth hunters.

We tried our best to blend into the mortals, though the other wolves around me kept sniffing the air quite obviously. I tried to hold back my laughter at that. But it wasn't just the sniffing that made us stand out. Four extremely tall buff guys with one small girl. It was like I was some kind of celebrity and they were my bodyguards. Which wasn't entirely wrong, they were here to protect me.

I looked around at the street, a ramen shop with a stream of customers lining up. Must be the best place in town. There was a cafe with a bunch of teens in their high school uniforms all chatting loudly. I smiled to myself. Despite the differences between us, teenagers were the same. I wished I could be going to a cute cafe with my friends rather than on patrol with Mr sniffy here. I regretted not bringing along Ryan.

Although there was someone young with me. Hugh Munson. He was a few years older than me. Now a junior warrior in the pack. We grew up together as pups. He had amazing artistic talent. And would always show us up in class with his amazing doodles, sketches that would just about bring things to life. I had a few of his drawings framed in my bedroom in fact. One of the forest he had captured a sunset over the tops of the trees so perfectly when we sat together as a group on top of the pack's mansion. The others were busy playing around but I was mesmerised by the way he brought the scene to life. From a blank piece of paper to something that looked better than what I had seen before my eyes. I was so jealous of him back then, as I struggled to draw even one flower. But he told me, everyone had their strengths, that just happened to be his. He gave that drawing to me and I treasured it. The second was one he did of me and Ryan. Done from a photo, Ryan was resting his big hulk-like arms on top of my head. I loved how he captured the short person rage in my eyes.

A few years ago Hugh turned 18. When wolves turned 18 they were invited to a debutante ball, where they would meet other wolves from all over the country with the purpose of finding their mate. Now days there are so few female wolves at these dances. Most of them are wolves that have been recently bitten, not werewolves that were born a wolf such as myself. But still it takes a while for the males to find someone acceptable as a mate. Hugh returned to these balls for 6 months before he found a mate. A recently bitten wolf. That's when he changed. The drawings stopped. It was all about her. Before long she was pregnant and to support her he became a warrior rather than an artist. It paid far more and would give him a far higher position in the pack. Now here he was, a shadow of the old Hugh.

I missed the old Hugh.

As I looked at him I wondered if he had thought about drawing at all recently.

He didn't show me the kindness he once did. That had all faded away, he stood beside me now alert and stiff. Not even so much as a smile.

We came to an intersection, a large highway. Cars rushed past at high speed.

"This is the edge of our territory Varinia," one of the wolves told me.

I nodded, "what, too scared to cross the road?"

Not even a smile from Hugh.

The patrol was boring, though it could have been worse, seeing the mortal world was always exciting. It would please the Luna that I got something like this done. She wanted me to be familiar with all of the patrol routes.