Twelve.

Milo POV.
From the day I was born, I was taught about my role in life, about what I’ll grow up to be, it wasn’t optional for me to be this or that, I had one option and I was going to take it, love it or not, it’s my life now, and I had to live with it.
We’re not like others, my family is different, and coming from a different species means I’m more than just special, I’m special between the special people as well.
Back in the day, when the gods ran the earth before humans took over and the new world was created, the gods had a love toward animals that had fur and fangs, long nails, and paws. Those animals walked on all four, but they didn’t have any consciousness, they were animals, living in packs, running around, but they were guards, dog guards, but the gods needed their guards to be able to communicate with them, so they gave them some conscious, they made them human-like, and then they could shift into their animal form so they can protect the gods.
The gods came and went from the earth, but they left their creations behind, they left the wolves behind, and now they didn’t have the job of protecting the gods, they didn’t have a purpose in life, instead they went wild, they formed small packs, they tolerated each other, it’s better than living alone than being bored all alone. The wolves were so bored that they decided to entertain themselves, they killed humans, attacked them, enjoyed the chase, anything that would make them happy, anything to add some action to their lives.
The gods sent one of their own down to earth, the goddess Celine came down trying to get them to calm down, to stop attacking the humans, she even threatened to kill them all, instead of stopping or calming down their dark lust, they attacked the goddess, she ran back off to the sky hiding from them all.
The rest of the gods had to do something, Celine was the gentlest god, and the wolves were near being killed, all of them being burned down to nothing, the killing would end then, but they were loved by everyone, and Celine didn’t want them dead, she wanted to save them all, but she wasn’t sure how to save those creatures.
Their one and only solution was to give the animals a soul, they needed to have a soul to pull them back, a purpose in their life, someone to keep safe and loved, a soul that would entertain the wolves and keep them on their toes. The wolves refused to bend down for the gods, to allow them to give the wolves a soul, instead, they had to get creative, and they gave the wolf’s soul to the humans.
Humans a very specific human is holding a wolf’s soul, and that wolf is ready to burn the whole world for that soul, they aren’t bored anymore, they have another purpose finally.
And now years later, for us wolves, the ones who are living in the current world, we all know that when we meet a human they might be ours, they might be our mate, our souls. To figure out who your soul is you need to meet them in your wolf form, the wolf is the one who recognizes their mate, and then the human follows. There’s a link always, whether human or wolf you’d know that it’s your soul, you’d feel a pull toward them, and you can’t give up that bond, once you meet your mate, you can’t get too far away from the soul, and the soul would feel pain, a lot of pain due to being far away.
I guess it’s a way to make sure the soul doesn’t run or leave the pack land, if a soul tries to leave the pack land without its wolf to protect it, the pain and agony that they would feel would drag them back inside the pack land where they can cuddle with their wolf until the pain passes.
I said I’m special, and being special in our world is being different, I’m a royal, one of the origin families, I’m a descendent of the original wolves who found their mates and started a pack, they took a land of their own and made it their home.
I’m a royal alpha, after my father I’ll be the one who’s taking over the job of an alpha, we live a very long life, we’re not immortal, but we live a good couple hundred of years before we die, and finding our mate and having a good life with them makes us live a lot longer than living without them. I was very antsy, I wanted to find my mate, my soul, I was feeling very exhausted without my soul, it can be a he or a she, the gods know better, they know who to give us, and they know we’d love that soul no matter what.
I’m nineteen now, I have graduated from school, and I was taking a gap year before I head to university, I was thinking of moving into another country, maybe then I could find my soul, I’m looking for the place that my heart is pulling me toward, our wolves goes on a hunt to find their soul, and mine refused to run or leave home, maybe my mate was too young, or not ready to meet me yet.
Being the next alpha, it’s my job to keep an eye on the younger generation, my father has enough work on his plate, and so he leaves the younger generation up to me, I’ll be their alpha one day and it’s better to build bonds with them starting now, to grow up as a family and a pack.
They like calling me boss, especially when they introduce new souls to our world, the introduction has to go slowly, you can’t just throw them in, you can’t scare the soul, and you can’t just tell them hey! You’re my soul and I’m going to keep you, that doesn’t happen or work, the soul will freak out and it’s going to be very difficult to get them back, to get them to trust you, we date and then we come clean, it might take years before we do.
“Alpha, I think I found him,” Calesti says happily, she’s one of the younger wolves that I’m responsible for, I don’t like being in charge of the really young children, but Calesti is sixteen, and she has a good head on her and she helps with the younger ones.
“That’s good Cici, how did you find him?” I asked her with a smile on my face, I was happy for her, there’s no age limit to when we find our mates, never too young since we might not understand what the connection we have to humans means.
“You know how Theo found his mate,” she starts and I rolled my eyes at her, Theo is a hot head, he’s a troublemaker, and he loves challenging me, I enjoy the challenge, it brings me some happiness and kills most of the boredom from not finding my soul yet.
“Yeah?” I say with a groan, Theo was something else that I didn’t know how to really deal with him, I didn’t want to hurt him really, but I wasn’t about to bow my head for him, I’m still his alpha.
“Well you see, she has a younger brother, and I was running, and I came near their house,” she says, and I knew she’s lying to me right now, but I’m going to let it pass, as long as she found her soul.
“Yes? Is he the lucky one?” I ask her with a small smile on my face.
“Well he came out and our eyes met, and he’s…” she says sounding very dreamy and in love, of course, she’s in love it’s her soul and mate, it’s love from first sight.
“How old is he?” I ask her next.
“Fourteen, I’m gonna be the best friend ever, and when he gets older and confesses his undying love to me, I’ll tell him that I feel the same, and we’ll live a happy life, happily ever after,” Calesti says and I chuckled, I was happy about for her.
“That’s good Cici, Congratulations,” I say with a big smile on my face.
Theo was something else and his soul is driving me insane, I’ve been thinking about her ever since we met, I tried to push the idea and image down from my head, I tried not to dream of her, she’s Theo’s soul and although I wanted to kill him and keep her, she’s not mine and hurting her wolf would hurt her, she can’t survive without him and he can’t survive without her. But still, I’m here without a mate, crushing on someone’s else soul, I tried to not think about her, she’s not mine, she’s Theo’s, like it or not, I’m going to have to wait until I find my own soul.
I tried to run and take my mind off her, I shouldn’t be thinking about her, I didn’t have a lot of work to do, and even running patrol wasn’t my major job, but I loved running it helped clear my mind, it’s not night yet and I’m going insane, I had to clear my mind.
I ran through the woods, I enjoyed the woods, I could feel my connection to my pack, I felt some love, some anger, a couple of teasing and playing, being the alpha means I could talk through my mind to anyone in the pack, order them around.
I heard a wolf howl, one that was a call for help, right away, I tried to connect to whoever called me, it was one of the patrols running wolves.
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask him, opening a link, and letting him talk back to me.
‘A human girl is running through the wood, and Theo is following her in wolf form,’ he says and I groan, I’m going to kill Theo.
‘Stop him, drag him home, ask for help if needed, keep him under control until I’m back,’ I order him, and start running through the wood looking for the little star, what did this idiot do? Why is she running through the woods, what a stupid guy, doesn’t he understand our ways and knows we don’t tell the humans the truth right away, they run, unless if he thought giving her a chase would be fun, still I’m going to redden his ass.
I ran through the wood until I heard some noise, knowing it was her, I shifted back to my human form, and walked in trying to sound non-threatening, I didn’t want to scare her, there was no reason for either of us to be here in the woods, but we’re here now, when I found her she was injured and she looked like she has fallen face first.
I talked her into letting me help her, and we went toward my home, she washed her beautiful face, and I checked her ankle, I wanted to keep her in my house, I wanted to wrap it up and put a movie on for her, make her a snack, but she wasn’t mine.
“Let me take you home, maybe we can talk tomorrow?”I say unable to keep her around, I couldn’t just keep her in front of me, I felt feelings that I shouldn’t be having with her, she’s Theo’s mate, not mine, I had to remind myself.
‘Is Theo detained?’ I ask the same wolf who caught him.
‘He’s in the basement of the pack house,’ the wolf answers me.
I got her sitting behind me on the bike, she held tight to me and I enjoyed it, I loved that feeling, I hit the accelerator trying to get her home, so I can think clearly, and I could deal with Theo next, whatever he told her, he’s screwed for it.