"Do you still remember him?" Clarissa asked Hazel as they both stared at an old picture.
The picture was from six years ago and in that picture, there was the youngest son of the Alpha, Axel.
"Of course, I remember him" Hazel affirmed.
There was no way she could forget him easily. He had been with throughout her entire childhood and even her teenage years but there was never a pleasant experience with him anyways but then unpleasant memories were harder to get rid of so she did not forget him at all.
"He must be a man now"
"Yeah and a tease like he has always been" Hazel added and Clarissa chuckled.
Hazel was the daughter of the late beta and Clarissa was her best friend, the daughter of the newly installed beta.
"He would have grown out of it" Clarissa guessed.
"I do not think so" Hazel shook her head and flipped the picture book.
"I do not want to stare too much at his annoying face, it angers me" She muttered and Clarissa chuckled once more.
"Everyone found him sweet but he was different with you. I guess he liked you a lot" she added.
"Liked me? He definitely hated me, always ruining everything for me" Hazel groaned.
"No more talks about him" Hazel closed the subject as she felt memories about him rushing into her head.
He was her childhood bully. To others, he did not bully her, he was just a tease to her but Hazel considered it all nothing but bullying.
He had traveled away about six years ago and she was still glad to the heavens for that favor.
"Do you think there is a possibility that he will come back home soon? I mean, the Alpha is getting old, he would be needing someone to take over the position of the Alpha"
"There is Rex, he is the first son of the Alpha, he is good enough. Axel does not need to come back home, ever."
"Well, well. That is what you say because you have a huge crush on Rex" Clarissa remarked.
For years now, Hazel had feelings for Rex, the first son of the Alpha.
Rex was the complete opposite of his brother, Axel. Rex was gentle and calm with her. He never passed unpleasant comments or teased her to no end like Axel would always do.
Hazel could only hope to no end that she would turn out to be the mate of Rex who had not found his mate yet.
" I heard rumors that Axel might be coming back soon." Clarissa mumbled.
"What? Really? Are you joking now?"
Clarissa shrugged.
"I just heard it amongst the others"
"It would better keep being a rumor. But wait a minute... Why do you keep hearing about everything when I barely hear about anything?" Hazel questioned, dropping the picture book and turning to face her friend.
Clarissa sighed.
"You know the reason behind it, Hazel. The others think it is weird that you are 24 and still haven't shape shifted" Clarissa said honestly.
That was one thing about Clarissa, she never bothered hiding the truth even when it was going to hurt.
"They are isolating you, Hazel." She completed and Hazel bit her lips.
She got up from the edge of the bed and walked towards the window, staring out of it blankly.
It had been a long time concern for her, she had not had her shape shift at the age of 24 while others had theirs during their teenage years.
"You do not have to feel too bad. You can always be assured that I will never isolate you." Clarissa assured her, holding her right hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.
"The rumor that I might be a human is still out there, right?" Hazel asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Clarissa nodded in affirmation.
"But you are not just human, you are a wolf, I at least know that"
Hazel sighed and looked back out of the window.
"It is fine if they all doubt me being a wolf. I mean... I doubt that myself too." Hazel mumbled.
"Never doubt yourself" Clarissa mumbled and Hazel shut her eyes.
"I might really be chased away to the human world."
She remembered her eighteenth birthday, how everyone had been waiting for her to finally shift but she had not been able to.
And till now, six years later, everyone was still waiting for her to shift and she was still keeping them waiting.
"Don't think about it. Our world, Wolfbrim is your world too. You do not belong to the human world. If you were human, how would you get into Wolfbrim in the first place?. I am sure you are going to turn out to be a powerful wolf. Powerful wolves take a long time before having their first shift" Clarissa rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.
Hazel nodded her head, her eyes still closed.
"C'mon, do not let this ruin your mood. Let's go out for some practice" Clarissa nudged her and Hazel opened her eyes.
"You are going to beat me up anyway" Hazel chuckled, trying to lighten her mood herself.
"You might be lucky today" Clarissa winked and started pulling Hazel towards the door.
Hazel let out a small smile, glad that though everyone was deserting her, there was still Clarissa who stuck to her in every situation.
Hazel was not as strong as Clarissa was but she was definitely not the weakest in the pack.
Clarissa was quite sure that Hazel's strength would come with her first shape shift and though Hazel hoped for it, she was starting to lose hope gradually.
As Clarissa pulled her along, Clarissa bumped into a maid. The smile on her face disappeared immediately and a disgusted look flashed on her face.
In less than a second, she had slapped the maid hard, sending the maid sprawling to the floor.
"I am sorry. I am really sorry. Please do not kill me" the maid immediately got onto to her knees, begging for mercy.
Clarissa took in a deep breath and let the same out.
"I will be merciful to you this once, disgusting wolf" she scoffed and walked away, still pulling Hazel along.
Hazel turned backwards and her gaze fell onto the maid who was wiping away her tears.
The maid was also a wolf but from a different pack. The maid was from the white wolf pack, a pack that they had conquered and captured since about 24 years ago.
Before 24 years ago, the white wolf pack and the dark wolf pack had been against each other for some time the animosity led to a war that the white wolf pack lost.
The white wolf members were slaves, servants and maids to the dark wolf members. They were even lower than omegas of the dark wolf pack.
And being treated like slaves was their entire life but Hazel found it hard to treat them like that.
She could not understand it but she knew that even when she had tried to treat them like trash so as to fit in, she was always unable to do that.
Hazel and Clarissa finally got out to the training grounds and Clarissa readily struck a fighting pose.
Hazel was about to do the same when her phone beeped, reminding her that she still had it in her pockets.
"Just a minute" she mumbled to Clarissa and removed the phone from her pocket.
It was a message from an unknown contact but Hazel went ahead opening the message anyways.
"Hello, pretty head. How have you been?"
Her lips parted in a gasp. There was only one person who called her pretty head.
Axel.
