Tamming My Wild Lycan Mate

The cool morning breeze of the Adirondack Mountains hit my face, sending a cold shiver down my spine. I could feel it seeking shelter all over my body, and it took all my strength not to fall. Why? I couldn't risk climbing back up again. This is the third time I will be hiking today and the seventeenth time I've attempted it this month, yet I've never made it to the top of the mountain. I exhaled softly, making a great mist emitted from my mouth and nostrils. I can't give up, I thought inwardly, shaking my head. Not now when I'm about to reach the top of the mountain. I stretch out my hand and use it to grab another gagged rock that protrudes out from the side of the mountain. I clasped my hand tightly on it, making sure that my grip was firm, before pulling myself up again. I balanced my weight by placing my feet inside my hand's previous hole and clasping my hand into another rock to avoid falling. I glanced down, and I was awed by the height. I had climbed higher than I thought. I think I'm twenty thousand feet above where I stopped earlier. At first, I thought of going down. I thought of giving up and returning to the camp. Especially with the harsh wind that was seeking shelter under my short top and leggings. “You won't dare!” I heard a harsh voice warning me. Hell No! I murmur in my mind. It's Sarah. She won't allow me to go back. She's always bossy, rude, dirty, and caring. She's my mom. When it comes to pranks, she's a master. She had just read my thoughts again. “Dirty mother,” I murmured under my breath, loud enough for her to hear. I didn't grow up with my family or know any of their relatives. The only person I grew up knowing in New York City was Sarah. According to what she told me, she found me under a drainage pipe on the outskirts of New York. I could remember a few months ago when we pulled a prank on Delta Logan at school. We smeared his new vehicle's handle with ink and then punctured the four tires with a nail. “I'm not like you,” I cried out. The wind howled back, making her invisible again. By the time the wind went down, she was gone again. I doubt she even heard my complaint. I felt something cold touching my skin, and I jerked back, totally forgetting that I was hiking a mountain. She quickly grabbed my hand. “I couldn't hear you earlier, baby.” She smirked. Liar! I screamed at her in my head. I argued, “You can hear me!” “What makes you think so?” She said, winking at me. She made me position myself at the back of the mountain,. rolling her eyes like a doll. “Because you're a coyote,” I clarified. “You had extra strength and extra ability.” She smiled widely and said, “Meet me at the top in twenty minutes, or else you aren't eating tonight.” She said it strictly. Before I could blink, she was gone again. “Gosh!” I mumbled under my breath and set out to climb again. I knew better than to disobey her. She won't take her threat back, and I don't have the strength to miss dinner. She was doing this to train me, and for her fun. She was trying to make me harness my special ability. I felt it once, but it was a long time ago. I could remember that day clearly. It was my first day at Valerie High. I was returning from school when these three seniors crossed my path. They were werewolves, and I..I'm a newbie. They were harassing me when I felt this strange hunger pang in my stomach. It hurt so much that I could feel my liver burning while my intestines were twisting in my stomach. Before I knew it, my teeth grew longer, and my fingernails turned into claws. I felt myself getting stronger than usual, and I suddenly felt the urge to drink blood. Like a possessed being, I jumped at the three seniors and hit them, slashing their skins with my claws until they could no longer move. I broke all the bones in their bodies, and it took Sarah's intervention not to bite them. The howling of the wind, which blew snow into my face, brought me back to reality. I searched deep inside myself again, willing for the power to take over. I knew it would increase my strength, but I don't know how to harness it. The idiot appeared whenever it pleased and vanished as quickly as a needle is thrown into the sea. It's like a woman's menstrual cycle, which comes once a month. “Baby,” Sarah said into my ear once more. It took all my strength not to fall. “You've got ten minutes left.” Ten minutes left! I thought in my mind. Hell No! There's no way I could make it to the top in ten minutes without this strange power of mine. Sarah mumbled in my ear again, “You're running out of time, little one.” “Can you stop doing that?” I asked, rolling my eyes. She rolled her eyes too and asked, “And why should I stop?” “Because you're scaring me!” I screamed at her. However, the wind of the Adirondack Mountain made it look like I was talking from afar. Regardless of the wind, I knew she heard. She has this strange ability to hear things from more than a hundred miles away. “Five more minutes to go,” she mumbled instead. “Meet me at the top.” Before I could reply, she was gone again. I cursed under my breath, “B*tch!” before deciding to try my luck again. I used my hand to clutch the rock at the top of my head and tried using it to push my body up. As I was doing this, my hand slipped. Before I knew it, my leg had lost its balance, and I was defying the law of gravity. “Sarah!” I screamed at the top of my voice. I couldn't believe it. I was plummeting down to the beginning of the mountain again. Not ready to witness the boulder my back would hit, I closed my eyes. I didn't know how long I'd been falling, but I felt her grip on my arm. “Lazy girl,” she scolded and threw up. Like magic, I found myself at the top of the mountain. My backbone collided with a boulder at the top of the mountain, and I let out a whinnying sound. Another bone is gone. I thought in my mind. Gathering the remaining strength in my body, I managed to drag my body up. “You're one of the laziest beings on earth,” Sarah chastises me. “What if I hadn't saved you on time? You might be lying at the foot of the mountain with your head shattered now.” I raised my hand to stop her. “I'd heal,” I said proudly. “This isn't the first time I'll be falling, and I always heal.” “What if you hit your head on a boulder this time?” She asked, holding her waist and closing the little gap between us. “What if you died because of your carelessness?” I closed my eyes to absorb the pain I was feeling and thought of a good way to respond to her. Eventually, I finally found a good reply: “Silent.” If there's anything I have learned so far from Sarah, it's to know when you're losing and when to keep quiet. Now, I'm going to use her lesson against her. Instead of replying, I turned around and rested my back against a nearby tree for quick healing. That's one thing that baffled everyone, including me. I haven't unlocked my werewolf side yet, or it might be hidden inside me. Yet I'd still heal from any mortal wound. No matter how deep or harsh it might be, I'll heal. Though it might be slow, unlike the real wolves, it will heal. “I'm talking to you!” Sarah screamed, jerking me forward by the shoulder. “You shouldn't ignore me.” “Then I'd tell the moon goddess that you sent me to my death instead of protecting me like a mother,” I said with a stern expression. “That's a wrong accusation...” She was talking when she suddenly covered my mouth with her palm. “Did you hear that?” She asked while looking around. “Have you forgotten that I'm not like you?” I replied plainly. She yanked me closer and made us lie behind a nearby boulder for protection. It's huge enough to accommodate the two of us. “What's that?” I asked, trying to know the reason why we were hiding. I've known Sarah for a long time, and I hardly see her hiding from something or someone. That made me conclude that she's hiding from something or someone dangerous. Nope, we are hiding from someone because no creatures can scare Sarah away. “Shut up,” she said, closing my mouth for me to remain silent. “They're coming.”