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The White Downs packhouse was virtually a palace, set admist lush lawns, a gorgeous forest, and miles of pasture as far as the eye could see. There was a maze, a beautiful garden with lots of hidden spots where you could sit and get away from everything, and three pools, all of which were larger than even the largest olympic sized swimming pool, so that it felt like you were swimming in the ocean. They were even tiled in dark blue and green to further the illusion, with tiny lights set in the tiles that gradually disappeared the deeper you went, until you could almost imagine yourself swimming deep under the waves.
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The only downside to this opulence was that I didn't get to enjoy it. The day I arrived, I was hustled to a separate wing of the palace which had seemingly been set up for me, and Roger told me in a cold voice I was not to speak to anyone unless spoken to. I was a "guest" of his pack, but in reality, when the gold-embossed door slammed shut behind him, I realised I was a prisoner.
I shivered and made my way through the gorgeous halls until I found a bedroom, but I was too miserable and disheartened to take pleasure in how gorgeous it was. Instead, I dropped my suitcase on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, burying my face in my hands as I began to cry. Reality finally sank in; I'd been cruelly tricked, and now I was a prisoner - to what end I didn't know. As I cried, I had room for only one fervent prayer; that my siblings would be left alone, and that no one within the pack discovered my secret. If they did, all bets were off.
For I wasn't a werewolf at all; I was a witch, having gotten it from Dad's side. Witches and werewolves had always been at loggerheads with each other, the reasons for which were lost in the mists of the pasts. Witch/werewolf pairings were rare, and the children of such unions were either scorned or turned into breeding slaves. My pack had proven the exception; I was treated no differently, and I learned how to mimic the abilities of werewolves so well that even my own family couldn't tell the difference. I could shapeshift, use a wolf's strength in whatever situation required it, and so on. Mum and Dad had warned me, however, that Wanda must never know. I'd never asked them why Wanda couldn't know of my heritage, but as I sat on my gorgeous bed and cried, the reasons became crystal clear. Wanda wasn't seeking cubs to breed a perfect bloodline; she was seeking cubs to breed so she could create powerful witches and werewolves for her own twisted needs, which I still hadn't worked out. It explained why she'd tried to mate Candy with uncle Jonas; Candy was a full-blooded werewolf, but she had the witch genes in her, and any cub produced with Jonas would have had a fifty/fifty chance of being a witch.
Zach, Cory, Caleb and Joanna were all full witches like me. Wanda had only seized on Zach because he'd been a toddler, and thus hadn't been able to defend himself, or hide his heritage. And Sienna was a half-witch on her deceased mother's side. Any child born of their union would be the beginnings of whatever empire Wanda wished to create, and I shivered as my tears ran dry. If Wanda even suspected I and my other siblings were all full witches, she'd go to all sorts of lengths to seize any children we produced so she could add them to her breeding stock. My younger siblings, however, had likewise learned how to mimic werewolves, right down to the tiniest, most insignifcant traits that would mean a life of freedom, and a life of being a slave, like I was.
I took a deep breath and stood. I wasn't going to let Roger's pack break me. If they wanted to keep me a prisoner for whatever twisted ends Wanda had in mind, they were more than welcome to try and break me. I had one advantage they didn't; I could mask the deepest recesses of my mind from even the most determined wolf, and if anyone did try and break through, they'd be in for a hell of a nasty surprise.
And Wanda was going to get the most immense headache of all for deceiving me like she had. I was going to enjoy rubbing her face in it when I broke free and warned my pack of her plans. I still didn't have all the details, but I knew enough to put two and two together; Wanda wanted something badly, and whatever it was, it was big enough to drive her to do the things she was doing.
Whatever it was, I was determined to put a stop to it.
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