Eclipse Child

Sometimes I’m terrified of my heart;

of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants.

The way it stops and starts.

-Edgar Allen Poe

“So... they didn’t accept you?”

I look away from Doctor Schulman, glaring at the ground as I hold my hands towards him.

“What on earth are you doing?”

He squints at me in confusion as I push my hands closer to him.

“I have splinters in my fingers.”

“I can’t even see what color your shirt is, and you expect me to get splinters out of your skin?”

I sigh at the old man and slowly shake my head.

“Where’s Leo?”

“Leo!”

I glare at him, “I could have done that.”

But his call produces my younger brother.

“What happened now?” he sighs, his shoulders falling as he takes in the wooden pieces at are embedded into the skin.

I watch as he pulls a chair forward, sitting a first-aid kit on his lap.

He pushes his glasses back up his nose, looking through them and giving another sigh at the sight of the damaged hands.

“Did you punch a tree again?”

“Not this time.”

Another sigh leaves him. Leo was always sighing. His tall, 6′3 frame slumped down, making his height seem less as he leaned further in, and started the long process.

“I heard what you told Schulman.”

“She didn’t make it kid.”

I glare at the useless doctor. “No. They didn’t accept me.”

“Why not?” Leo frowns.

“I..I just wasn’t good enough.”

“Ha,” Doctor Shulman laughs, “all those Alpha’s don’t know what they passed up. Did you find your mate there?”

“I think I would have told you if I found my mate there Schulman,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Your mother and father-,”

“I’m aware Schulman,” I sigh, knowing he was about to go into a long-winded story about how mother and father met at the very same training camp.

“Training camp,” The doctor scoffs, “back when I was a pup we had no training camps.”

“That’s great Schulman,” I half nod his way, not listening as Leo pulled a long splinter from my palm.

"Mountains!”

Leo and I both jump at the sudden outburst of noise from Schulman.

“Hey,” I turn to the male, glaring at him, “pulling splinters from hand here?”

Leo mumbles a few words, shaking his head as he smiles affectionately at Schulman.

Leo had always been fond of the doctor. He had become his ‘apprentice’ at a young age and was training in the medical field himself.

It was a decision he had made long ago. Something that had helped him when he needed it.

“If you can’t train at the camp Soraya, then you’ll have to train somewhere else.”

“Great suggestion Schulman, except,” I turn my head around, clear exaggeration in my voice, “there’s only one training camp in North Americ-ouch.”

“Sorry,” Leo stares nonguiltingly down at the splinter he had roughly pulled from my palm.

I give him a withering stare, before looking back at Schulman but he is somewhere else. Lost in another time, another place. Another world.

“I remember when real Alphas trained with wolves.”

“What?”

“Wolves.”

“Like... a pack?”

Schulman nods his head, “Your grandfather did it for a month, but he never really made it through. And Atlas never did it.”

“Did what?” I asked, exasperation clear in my question.

Schulman raises one bushy grey brow, a thin smile on his face, “train with wolves.”

“Wait when you say wolves...” a slow dawning of revelation comes over me as I gasp and stare at the old man, “you don’t mean...not really...like real wolves?”

Schulman stares at me blankly, clearly not impressed with the long-timed conclusion I had reached.

“But that’s just...weird.”

Leo gives a small laugh.

Schulman glares at him before refocusing on me, “what’s wrong with it? You’re a wolf. You train with wolves. You become a better wolf.”

“Well, I can see that point but to actually live like one...”

“If you want to be an Alpha, then this is one way you can reach your goal.”

I look down at Leo, “What do you think?”

Leo pauses to push his glasses back up his nose, “it sounds hard.”

A sudden spark of challenge burns within me. Leo gives me a knowing smile. He had said the right words to make me interested in it. And he knew he had done his job well.

“I can do that,” I grin at Schulman, “It’s not hard. I can do it.”

“Well by all means, prove us wrong.”

My grin widens at his words.

They are exactly what I need to hear.

“I will.”

Leo pulls back, nodding in satisfaction to his work.

Before I walk out of the clinic, I turn to face Schulman, “by the way...where does one find these wolves?”

Leo and I both jump at the screamed, ”Mountains!"