Isabel's Choice

Chapter 1 - Lars

Place and time : Kari's pack (Land Core), some morning in March

"Bow to me, wolves, for I have defeated you...again," my mother Ayn laughs, looking down at us from the top of the rock where she landed. She stands tall and raises her arms in victory.

My brother Eino and I bow deeply several times, with a fake humble face.

My father Kari however doesn't bow. First, because he is the Alpha, and he doesn't bow to anyone. Second, because he is too busy climbing the boulder where my witch mother perched herself, to hug her and place a kiss on her neck.

"I am really looking forward to getting my wolf, so that I can timely partake in the bowing," my brother Sven comments, as he removes his helmet and dismounts his motorbike next to me.

"It's only a month left, sweetie," my mother tells him, jumping down from her rock. She then signals him to bend down, so that she can kiss his forehead. "We'll come up here so you can shift, and then we can race down to the valley," she adds, tousling Sven's hair which is, as usual, an unkempt mess of curls.

"Down to the valley is the good destination," I comment, and everybody chuckles.

We are all pretty sure that Alejandra - Ale for short - my mother's goddaughter, will be Sven's mate.

She is of Beta descent and lives in what we still call Rio's valley, although Rio moved on to join the Shifter's Council and his son Javier became Alpha last year.

Ale and my brother were already inseparable as pups. Since she got her wolf three years ago, she has been defending herself viciously against any male who tried to claim her, and even more viciously against her mother Alma, who attempted for a while to match her. I think that, even if Sven and Ale end up not feeling the bond, they will choose each other as mates. This would give my brother the peace of mind he needs to follow his two main dreams:  sleep with Alejandra at last and be my acting Beta.

As Sven is opening his backpack to share the sandwiches, he tells us smiling:

"Also, people, when I have my wolf, somebody else has to bring the food."
As the last wolf-less one from the brotherhood, he is the designated picnic carrier for the brunch we share on Sundays, at the base of Eagle Rock.

This has been a family tradition for some years now, to take an hour and connect just the five of us, far from the rest of the pack.

"I'll carry it when I have my wings," I say and then I add, pointing to my father and my brothers: "And then you all will bow to me."

"So.. threat level zero?" Sven raises an eyebrow at me before adding dismissively: "You are a slacker with the craft, Lars, you will never get your wings."

As I point my finger towards Sven and he raises an ominously glowing fist in my direction, Ayn cuts swiftly through the air with her hands, creating invisible walls around each one of her three sons.

She could have done it without moving a muscle, but she knows it's much more terrifying when we see it coming.

As my ice arrow falls limp to the ground in front of Sven's little firebolt, Eino asks, insulted:

"Why do I get a wall?"

Our little brother has never glitched or shown any trace of a magical core. Kari and Ayn held their breath until he became a teenager, and then they sighed a sigh of relief. They thought their lack of self-control when it came to keeping their hands off each other had only yielded two hybrids and an easy-to-tame shifter.

But then Eino shifted on his fifteenth birthday into a ridiculously large and fast Alpha animal named Hail.

There is a reason why the inner wolves awaken at the end of their human partners' teenage years and not earlier. It's the same reason for which fifteen-year-olds, regardless of subspecies, are not allowed to drive or carry weapons. They still lack judgment and self-control.