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1.

I remember seeing the black shadow standing there in the darkness, a shadow that would change my life forever. A few minutes earlier I had just put down White Fang, and had taken off my glasses about to head off to dreamland after a long day. A few minutes passed by and I was heavy eyed, about to drift off into unconsciousness, when I thought I heard the bedroom door creek open. I figured it was a roommate coming in from one of their late night meetings. The draft caused by opening the side door often made it so my bedroom door sounded like it was being opened. I rolled over in the protective warm womb of blankets, expecting to see the lights come on and the familiar sound of foot steps, instead the crack under the door remained dark and silence greeted my ears.

It was now that same silence that greeted the wolf's ears as he sat on a cold boulder emerging out of the ground overlooking a large open field. The wolf heard nothing but the rustle of dead leaves in the night wind, grasses still uncovered by a lack of snow cover, and the rapid heartbeats and scurrying of a group of mice in the field. They were about five hundred feet and slightly to the right of the wolf's white paw, the wolf's mouth salivated at the thought of crunching down on them. The wolf cried to be released to chase them but there was a voice in the back of the wolf's mind telling him no. You have to stay at your post. You have to what has been planned. A snap of a twig right behind the wolf, forced him to turn his brown furred body and snarl at the intruder.

"Stop Beta," came a warning growl, as the shadow of a black monstrous wolf came forth from the very pine trees themselves.

The wolf halted his aggressive stance right away as the massive black wolf walk right past the slightly smaller frame of the brown wolf. A voice inside his head sounded annoyed at the title, but the wolf knew his role in the pack. The distinctive smell of cedar and a heavy musky smell of male greeted the black nose of the wolf as the wolf's scent filled the air around him. The breeze carried the wolf's scent away from other other's nostrils. The brown wolf lowered his head a bit as the black wolf gazed coldly over the field with his piercing bright yellow eyes surrounded in darkness. The wolf's gaze lowered to the gray ground dashed with a splash of washed out browns of dead grass. The wolf had no perception of color as the voice in the back of his mind did. The voice was always annoying the wolf with its strange concepts that were foreign to it such as colors. There were some shades of brown, orange, reds, but mostly all the wolf could perceive was washed out and gray sepia in tone, which was all it needed.

_"There's no need to lower your head Beta," replied the black wolf looking over to the other wolf.

The brown wolf didn't look into the eyes of the other but did raise his head and looked at the wolf's nose instead. One thing the wolf knew well was never look into the eyes of the Alpha for any length of time. The wolf has a scar down his rear right leg that taught him the follies of that. To stare down the Alpha was a sign of challenging his authority, along with keeping your tail in the lowered position, lowering your head, amongst a litany of body language that even after several years' part of the brown wolf did not understand fully. It was that voice in the back of his mind, the voice that was growing stronger and stronger. The wolf whined as he remembered his human side the side that wasn't aware of how powerful body language was to the wolf. Were they lying, cheating at poker, find you cute, sexy, ugly, or have they stolen from you were concepts the wolf did not understand but the human side did. Just as the human side was still learning how the body language could be read, and how as a werewolf it was a secondary sense, almost a reflex to pick up on. Body language was a means of telling rank in a wolf and werewolf pack, hostility and even if you were having a bad day or night could be told.

_ "Sorry sir," apologized the human, which brought a snicker from the Alpha's muzzle.

_"You never cease to amaze me Beta in how much of a pup you can be at times," mused the Alpha as he turned his attention to the field.

The wolf let out a slight whimper out of his brown and creme colored muzzle. The Alpha was right of course. The wolf felt the human tug at his mind as he flashed back to the past, time being a concept the wolf hadn't yet learned to appreciate._ It had been six years since I had been bitten and brought in the local pack. It was strange but I never knew werewolves could exist much less they lived in packs unlike what the films on the subject had shown. As far as I knew werewolves were not lone, mindless killers out in the dark forests of Germany or England. Surprisingly I was to find out that thanks to the actions of an overzealous lead of the 1930's, werewolves in Germany were few save for one small pack that still lived in the Black Forest. Contrary to their image, the German werewolves were a bunch of crazed partiers than stringent precision killers. England had more packs in the north and as far as I knew from my research, only one pack of twelve lived in London. In the United States werewolves were found in most urban areas, mostly in the suburbs. My own pack was located in the southern part of Maine and New Hampshire. We called ourselves the Sebago Lake Region pack, most packs taking their names from the territory they presided over. Ours was the territory of he lake region of Maine which included most of southern Maine including Portland, Napes and as far south as Portsmouth. We were slightly small by only six members but there weren't that many humans in the area to hide away in.

Another misconception, werewolves didn't normally eat humans. A wolf like any other animal finds humans quite bitter tasting and of course any killing would raise needless suspicions and investigations that were messy to pick up after. I should know, being the young beta of the pack, it was one of my duties to make sure our presence was undetected by humanity just like any other pack of werewolves. So killing a human was out, especially when there was plenty of wild game to be had, deer are better sports than humans are at chasing anyway. The real reason most werewolves lived near humans was to hide. After all it is hard to convince anyone you are normal if you live in the middle of nowhere, disappear at night, and have no social interactions with humanity at all. It raises the suspicions of anyone who may go looking into places where they probably should not. That and you don't just drop the life you had lived when you became a werewolf, you still needed a home, clothes, and a job to pay for food, so being near an urban area made sense. It helped with the "cover story", a term Bryan had coined to describe the double life most werewolves lived.

Thoughts of Bryan brought me back to where the wolf had been, standing next to the Alpha, or Eric as I knew him. As Beta it was also my duty to stand by the Alpha in any decision made by him, and to occasionally disagree if he was wrong, or the idea presented problems for the pack. I was the check and balance of the pack, where as Eric was its benevolent dictator. All the pack knew Eric's word was law; he was the biggest, strongest werewolf for hundreds of miles, perhaps throughout the whole east coast. One time Eric could have taken the Manhattan City Pack, one of the larger packs in North America. He backed down, not because he couldn't do it, but because he was wild and preferred the woods to pavement. The wolf whined a bit as it recalled the feeling of pavement under its paws in the large city, there was no substitute for fresh grass and pine needles. The Alpha commanded respect though and gave his protection to his pack, which demanded loyalty to him. In many ways I looked to Eric as the father figure in my life since I had been bitten. Perhaps there was more truth there than I gave credit for.

"Bryan's late, as usual," I muttered, which to both the wolf and to human ears was merely a whine, in fact all _werewolf language would be hard for any human hear to hear beyond howls, barks, whines, and huffs of air.

"Well Nick doesn't help; probably found a rabbit to chase. What are you thinking?" asked Eric._

It was so typical of Eric to raise questions out of the blue. It was also keen of him to be so perceptive. Most outside of the pack, even humans who knew him thought he had ESP or was psychic. Neither was true as far as I knew, he just was in tune to the world around him as a wolf even when he wasn't in wolf form. Bryan attributed it to Eric being one of the rare few that was born a werewolf, I pinned it on the fact he was just focused on his environment, as any Alpha should be. Of course as always Eric was right, I was thinking. I also knew that with Eric's perceptions, I wouldn't be able to hide it from him, so with a heavy sigh I let it all out.

"I don't think I should be Beta," I blurted out without much ceremony. The wolf snarled in my head growling its disapproval.

Eric gave me a look only Eric could pull off. It was a combination of wolf expression with a hint of human emotion. He was giving me a confused look, which meant that what I had said didn't surprise him but instead puzzled him. I knew he knew why but he also wanted to hear what I had to say. It was his nature to do so, sighing I gave in.

"With all due respect, Kevin and I don't get along, Bryan, Nick, and Chris keep their distance and I know the pressure coming from them and other packs is mounting. I think it would be easier if I stepped down," I admitted.

Eric simply stared out into the field even as the familiar form of the cinnamon colored fur that was Bryan made his way out of the woods. Before we began what had to be done, Eric stood and turned to me. His golden gaze washed over me and I met his gaze for just a second. For an eternity, I was lost, I was with him....both wolf and human...It was hard to describe an alpha's look into a subordinate. It froze, captivated you, like a deer in the headlights of a semi, and yet it was dangerous. All my worries fell to the way side as his hold over took me.

"If you are still concerned with your natural desires then that will always be a problem. Until you accept it is merely your concerns that make the other keep their distance. This is especially true for Nick...As far as Kevin, you know why that is and it is something that he and you will need to work out. In my judgment you will make a good second charge and so far have done your duties well considering the short time here. Come. We have got work to do." Answered Eric as he silently and swiftly descended down into the field bellow.

The wolf sat there for a second gazing down at the black wolf as he moved down towards the field. Eric was a guiding light to help me when the darkness of the first change came to me and I had to confront the wolf. It had been too much as it often was for any one their first time, as I found out later. He had helped me and continued to do so. The wolf saw the other wolf named Nick move into the field about six behind followed the wolf named Bryan. If Eric had been my light to face the darkness, then Nick was the pathway to the light. It made sense, despite making great strides in coming to terms with all aspects of being a werewolf, I still clung to certain human misconceptions, a lot was personal and Eric was right about that. There was no need to cling to them any more, now if only my brain would accept that as easily as my wolf side did. The wolf was yowling away, mocking the human side of its nature as he made his way down the slop of the forest and into the field. If it had a human voice it would be saying: I told you so, I told you so. I hated it when the wolf was like that.