"You're going to hurt yourself badly, Riaha. You only failed a test, a mere test - you didn't kill anyone."
Riaha's eyes were closed, her sister's words echoing in her mind. With her legs shaking, she swayed away like a leaf and landed on a tree trunk before her sister's hand could reach her fluttering hands. Her chest thudded as she managed to gasp for breath.
"For the one hundred and tenth time? Yeah, sure, sist, I have done worse than killing someone. Everything has changed. Can't you see? And my entire life would crumble sooner or later."
"You're just being hypervigilant. Nothing of such is going to happen to you. Riaha, this is a real world with real people, not your fancied Disney Junior world. So consider yourself fortunate, except this path you have decided to take. Mother and father love you unconditionally. I myself can't trade you for anything. Plus, you have a powerful beta mate who won't think twice about taking the silver bullet for you, yet here you are killing yourself over something that is of minimal importance." Her sister's voice echoed as she rush towards her. Her words touched Riaha, yet she believed she was unfortunate rather than fortunate with these people in her life.
"Please allow me," Riaha gasped, her chest thudding.
"I feel all your pain and fear for the outcome of your nurtured frustration. I'm telling you to take things easy on yourself. Surri isn't a stranger to you, and you know this as well as everyone does. She passed the test a winter ago," Siah cupped her face, stepped aside to allow her grope her away on all fours.
"She didn't even fail 40 times. How can you compare her to me when I have failed three times as much as she did?" She smirked, her voice shaking.
"Forget the math. What matters is that in the end you'll find yourself. But if you keep going like this, submitting yourself to isolation and taking it to extreme lengths even when your body beckons you to stop - I'm afraid you'll let death catch up with you fast" Siah cautioned while Riaha coughed ceaselessly, still groping on her fours found another tree trunk and held onto it.
"Look how pitiful you are, gasping for breath, darling sister! You don't have to go through all this." Siah added hoping to ease Riaha's heartbeat which felt like the Titanic nearing its end.
"I have told you countless times that it takes more than what you are to persevere. You'll need to be patient. Someday, you'll be like me or even better than me." She dipped her hand into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small sachet of glucose. Her fangs out, she tore the sachet with it.
"Lick! This should at least calm you down. Gosh!" She lunged and forced the glucose down Riaha's throat, then offered her hand a minute later.
"Don't be a silly jerk. Just take my hand," she ordered Riaha, but she didn't want her help, so she forcefully grabbed Riaha's left hand and dragged her to herself. Riaha leaned against her so heavily that her feet shifted to balance. There was heavy panting, groaning in the darkness.
"Riaha! Riaha! I heard something. Someone's coming" she whispered, her ears pricked. Riaha didn't bother responding because she hadn't heard anything. The rustling continued.
"Just listen, Riaha!" she whispered again, her coquettish sweet voice brushing Riaha's left ear. Siah, her sister, is everything Riaha is not. Riaha envied Siah so intensely that not a day passes without her wishing they could trade places. Every day, Riaha would wish this to happen. If there were a way to make this wish come true, she would have done so three years ago, and this predicament wouldn't have presented itself.
"I sense something strange. Do you? I can feel it that someone or something is watching us behind those trees. Riaha, are you sleeping? Wake up!" She shook Riaha. Riaha wasn't sleeping but weeping inwardly. Indeed nightfall has a way of concealing outright pain. Siah kept shaking Riaha until she noticed tears turtling down her cheeks. The moon emerged fully, the rustling grew obvious to Riaha, and as Siah's hand tried reaching her cheek - boom; Riaha found herself laying on wet leaves. Siah had disappeared, along with her alluring scent and delicate warmth as the cold night wrapped Riaha with its shadow. She gritted her teeth, hands clamped between her legs as she curled herself into a smallish figure on the ground. From nowhere, a deer came running and trampled her, injuring her arms, legs, and head. While she was struggling to get up, she saw glowing red-hot eyes- lurking in the woods. She gulped, tripped backward, then landed in a shallow pit, still it wouldn't go away, the red hot eyes glowed like jewels from the pit of hell that she had no choice that she fixed my gaze on them revealing a ferocious giant glittering black fur wolf moving across trees, cornering her. The wolf noticed Riaha tried to crawl out of the pit, then came her deep snarls. Riaha had never seen such a wolf like her before.
"Grrrg" she growled weakly, covering her sweaty face while the giant wolf sniffed, smeared and cornered her.
"Grrrg" The wolf retorted with a growl after pouncing in front of her.
"Grrrg!" She strained to intensify her growl, but it came out as a whimper instead.
"Grrrg... Grrrg... Grrrg," The wolf growled, baring her steel-milky fangs and long steel claws. Riaha stood up and tracked the wolf as she paced between trees, her glowing red hot eyes locked on Riaha. She wasn't shifting or anything, but a strange bravery made he not to run.
"Nothing to lose," She muttered to myself. Her parents despise weakness. She must not give in for weakness. How long will they harbor her when weakness is a crime? Even her parents are weary that her weakness will cost them a life-changing opportunity, and Rico, her betrothed mate has convinced her that he would never abandon her no matter the situation. In a few days, their union would become official as they would walk down the aisle, and he assured her even if she fails the shape shifting test, he would still wed her. And she did fail the test and the main reason why she is frustrated was because she had a nightmare last night. She dreamed her beta mate rejected her. And that is terrible, it would shatter her family's political ambition in the Waivers pack. It has been the cherished vision of her clan to rise to the table of elders. Should her marriage go on as planned, her clan automatically becomes second in command forever in the Waivers pack. But if her dream proves true...no, she would rather die than allow that. She will risk her life for the unthinkable, and impossible. She will risk her life for the dreams that are not only hers but also of those around her.
"My mate must not reject me" She uttered silently, then leaped at the wolf. The wolf caught her mid-air with one big paw to her neck, and a deafening roar blunted her ears as she found herself laying on wet leaves, writhing in pain all over until her eyes rolled back into still blackness.