Second Chance Luna (Phoebe and Jason) novel Chapter 1

“Miss Phoebe! Miss Phoebe!”

The chorus of excited squeals greeted her as she entered the packhouse kitchen. Phoebe smiled sinking to her knees as the ten young pups ranging from four to thirteen rushed to greet her. She laughed hugging each of them tight, rubbing noses with a few she was particularly close to.

“Thank you so much for taking them today,” one of the female wolves said carrying a two-year-old.

Phoebe stood accepting the pup who giggled at her and said, “It’s no problem at all. This is my favorite part of the day. All right everyone let’s go on a scavenger hunt!”

“Yeah!!”

Phoebe herding the pups out of the packhouse and led them to the woods. This was how all her days started since her rejection.

* * *

The Rimrock Pack was located in the southwest of Washington State about forty miles from Mount Rainier. Only a few miles to the north was the similarly named town. The town and the pack had been there so long no one remembered which had been established first. If you are not reading this novel on Jobnib.com know that it’s some paragraphs are not complete. Visit Jobnib.com to read it for free. Regardless the pack used the city for most of their needs including shopping and schooling though their pups sometimes had a difficult time adjusting to a human-run school. Pack members who went on to college generally only went as far as Seattle or, more rarely, Portland and Phoebe was no exception.

Their pack was not overly large, about four hundred members, a respectable size carefully nurtured by their previous alpha. While most pack members lived in the packhouse Phoebe still lived in the small cottage she once shared with her parents. She was not an omega but also not one of the high-ranking members.

Like the majority of pack members she was one of the unranked masses: the nameless cogs without which the pack would cease to function. Her parents had been fated mates and also unranked members though not without their own bit of prestige. Her mother had been head cook and her father the chief groundskeeper in charge of the pack gardens as well as a tutor for members struggling with their studies as he was one of the few with a college education.

Human beauty standards didn’t mean much to wolves who skewed more toward voluptuous profiles. High-ranking wolves were fit, muscular and aggressive whether male or female especially if they were warriors. The unranked members below them were not quite as extreme muscle-wise but still physically strong. Below them omegas lacked physical prowess and stamina. Though they didn’t stand a chance in a fight against a high-ranking wolf or even most unranked ones omegas were still far stronger than humans.

As an unranked member Phoebe was…average. She was average height, if somewhat petite by wolf standards. Her form was pleasingly curvy though her breasts were only B-cup. Like most wolves she had a mane of thick mousy-brown hair that reached just past her shoulders though her skin was on the pale side. Her only notable physical feature was her silver-gray eyes. Phoebe was average in every way: except her wolf.

Wolf spirits usually awakened in their mid-to-late teens. The more powerful the wolf the sooner it emerged. Alphas, betas and some gammas awakened as early as sixteen while omegas might awakened as late as their early twenties. Phoebe’s wolf awakened when she was fifteen.

Phoebe was in a deep asleep when Máni suddenly woke her up with a bright, ‘Hello, moonshine!’

To say she was surprised was putting it mildly but Máni proved to be excellent company for a wolf san siblings. An even greater surprise awaited Phoebe on the first full moon after her sixteenth birthday. Máni woke her in the dead of night and insisted she go out into the forest behind her parents’ cottage. Sleepy and confused Phoebe nonetheless obeyed her wolf’s directives.

Once outside she greeted the rising full moon only to be wracked by a sudden excruciating pain as her joints popped and bones lengthened and realigned. Fur bristled covering her body as her nose elongated to a muzzle. Máni talked her through the pain urging her not to resist and to let her wolf spirit take over. After an excruciating hour Phoebe stood on four padded paws.

‘Shall we see ourselves?’ Máni suggested bringing them to the water’s edge of a nearby pond.

Looking at their reflection Phoebe saw a silver-white wolf. Their fur practically glowed in the moonlight with silver-blue eyes that shimmered like water.

‘We’re…beautiful.’

‘Yeah, we are. Let’s go for a run.’

Phoebe let her wolf take over. They stretched and sniffed the cold, clean air before rushing off into the woods. It felt good to run, to feel the wind through her fur and fill her lungs. It all ended too soon and they returned home. Máni talked her through the shift back and they safely returned to bed before the sun rose.

For some reason Máni insisted on keeping their early shift secret and usually stayed quiet deep in the recesses of Phoebe’s mind to avoid others sensing her. Phoebe didn’t argue though she was confused since the first shift was an important rite of passage for every werewolf.

Even more confusing was her wolf’s color. Gray was a fairly common color but Phoebe never heard of a silver wolf. Even Máni was at a loss to explain, or at least unwilling to. Desperate for answers Phoebe spent long hours in the packhouse library as well as her father’s study researching werewolf history and silver wolves without any luck until she found a book of werewolf lore. According to it silver wolves were even rarer than white wolves. They were wolves of prophecy and considered harbingers of chaos and upheaval.

Máni shrugged off the book’s description saying, ‘you read too much,’ but refused to give any definitive explanations. It was strange to think her own wolf would keep secrets from her but without anyone else to consult Phoebe let it go. She was just happy to have a faithful ally.

Phoebe thought her wolf’s secretive nature was just to hide its early awakening but as her eighteenth birthday approached Máni showed no signs of revealing herself. As far as others could sense she was wolfless which led to some ostracizing and bullying. She didn’t particularly mind it and Máni was amused by the pack’s efforts to ridicule them. It was easy to ignore and she focused on her studies to graduate early and go on to college.

She assumed like most she-wolves everything would make sense once she found her Goddess-given mate. Her parents were fated mates and she never doubted their love and devotion to one another. It was sweet and she looked forward to finding her own. Little did she know reality would be a far cry from her dreams.

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