Chapter 1

VLAMWOOD PROVINCE

RIVERVILLE PACK

"Safety!!" The alert scream of the scouts in sync with the blaring of the pack's metal bell shrieked.

Howls resonating, shredding of garments, cracking of bones, several colours of furred dwarf bodies, panic scream of infants, the pack was in rampage.

All trotting to the basement of the royal house, where their safety was guaranteed at that moment.

"The rogues!!"

The warrior panted between his words as he reported to the Gamma who stood beside the window, his forehead crinkled.

"Let's go!"

He left the room hastily, his bows and arrows hanging around his neck. The warrior followed behind securing his weapons onto his waist band.

Tens of rogues against hundreds of them, yet at their mercy, as they were incapacitated with weak,dwarf, wolves and only physical weapons as their defense.

After an hour of intense battle, with the rogues at an advantage, the living and unhurt retreated and calmness returned.

* * * *

On the highest peak in the province stood Sebastene Miles, his face writhed with sadness.

His gaze shot at the distance where artificial illumination, aided by the natural dispelled the darkness.

He turned to the south, his lips curled in bitterness. He should belong to one of those packs scattered around the province, but the goddess had stricken them in her wrath.

Away from his pack, on the peak was the only place he could enjoy a little serenity, and also the place he reminisced on his identity.

"Alpha, let's return to the pack." Chlyde his Beta, stood few meters from him.

He had been watching him wallow in sorrow, and wished he could extend a soothing hand, but their fates weren't different.

Sebastene shifted his posture and fired him a fierce stare. "How many times will I remind you Chlyde?"

A weak smile made its way onto his face. "No matter how long you remind me, you are my alpha and I'll address you as such."

Deep, scornful laughter escaped his lips. "Really? Your alpha? Don't you feel shame saying it?"

Chlyde smiled bitterly. He could feel the sadness emanating from his words, but that was the life they were born into.

"And a great one, Alpha Sebastene."

A deep and miserable sigh interrupted the tranquility of the night and he beckoned on the one who was his beta.

"Stand beside me." And he hastened to him.

"Look afar, to all points of Vlamwood, the moon is happy with them but our pack is forbidden to its light."

Darkness gathered in his eyes.

"The rogues attacked today Chylde. Remind me how many we lost."

"Twenty."

His brows raised. "Mmmh, twenty with children. And how many died in our hands?"

"Three." The weight of his gloom pressed on his voice that his words were barely audible.

Sebastene clapped. "Bravo to us! They took twenty! We took three! Isn't it great Beta?"

Ironically, he was a great alpha who couldn't protect his pack. A great alpha who would hide in the face of battle.

His warriors couldn't fight in their wolf forms because they were blessed with the best dwarf, wimpy wolves. Only with the aid of fabricated weapons could they triumph over few feeble enemies.

Chlyde peered behind, darkness covered the entire place, except the few artificial lights in use.

"This is the price we pay alpha, you can't change it, just live it."

He shot him a dark look. "Live it? How? I wasn't even born then."

"Neither was I alpha, and many others. Our grandparents lived it! Our parents too, so we should."

Life wasn't by choice rather by fate. Whatever was thrown at you, twiddle with it in happiness.

"Remember, you're the alpha of Riverville pack. We are weak but look upon you for strength, we mourn but look upon you for consolation, we crave but look upon you for satisfaction."

He pointed at the dark side of the province.

"Over there are living souls moving in the darkness, their hopes pinned on you. My alpha, your pack is waiting." He bowed to him.

Sebastene tightened his jaw. His pack was waiting for him! If only the goddess was merciful, but like his beta said, live it.

"Let's return!" And they transformed into their wolves and trotted down the peak.

The pack assembled before the royal house, some cuddling their loved ones, some holding the wounded while some sobbing and grieving silently.

From afar he could feel the gloom that had spread across every angle.

Shifting to his human, his servant wrapped a robe around his bare body and he walked in valiance to the elevated platform, gulping down the bitterness that had risen in his gut.

"Let everyone depart, mourn the dead, tend to the injured and console the heartbroken!" And at his command, everyone dispersed.

He returned to the court with a heavy heart. How he wished he could encourage them, promise them an end to their misery, but he couldn't give them hope, since the truth was right before them.

Many generations ago, Alpha Cyrus of the largest pack in Vlamwood province was the strongest known and commanded respect from other alphas.

His rule was powerful and the sound of his name made all trembled. He was an iron-fisted alpha who created unimaginable laws.

Then a time came, an alpha of another pack challenged him to a duel. The battle was fierce but no vanquished.

Cyrus wouldn't accept the result and sought means to defeat his fellow royal.

Disregarding the caution words of his council, he broke one of the great laws, crossed the border between his kind and the full breed human to seek the help of the later.

For days, the heaven darkened, the moon hibernated, a sign of Serene's rage. Through the seers, Serene's verdict was declared.

On his return, he was ambushed, but when he shifted to fight, his once hefty wolf diminished into a dwarf, his strength vanished and his mate bond broken.

His fate was same with his loyals who embarked on the journey with him, and right there, their curses were pronounced. They were banished never to associate with other wolves.

They were the outcast, the forbidden. They were werewolves, but lesser wolves.

"Is that all you could say?"

Marco, the gamma pushed the door and barged in. A thick layer of fury sealed his face, his chest expanded like a helium balloon which would rupture at any moment.

Despite his knowledge of the visitor, Sebastene made no attempt to take a look.

He knew what he came for, to provoke him just as he does each time the rogues attacked.

Subjecting his heart, mind and brain of fifty years life span to stress was absolutely not in his list, though he had inserted it severally with an erasable pen.

Perhaps, silence could be the temporary solution, and that, he seized.

"Your people die everyday and you do nothing alpha!!"

Why does he feel Marco's words were more of contempt than question? And he realized how wrong he was. Silence wasn't the solution.

His heart was already racing in his chest and at that pace, he shifted his blazing gaze on him.

"What exactly do you want me to do? This is our fate gamma!!"

"A fate that we can change alpha!!"

He might be a feeble gamma wolf made by one who claimed to be meek, but wouldn't be feeble in mind. Fate might not be changed but can be redesigned to fit.

Sebastene felt a flash of increased irritation as the baseless and senseless utterances hit his ear drum.

"How, if I may ask? It can be changed and generations in the past did nothing?" His fury seethed like an ejected lava.

"They didn't doesn't mean we can't! You're just a frail alpha!"

"Get out Marco!!" His thunderous voice vibrated through the court, but was obliterated by a disdain laughter which reverberated through the court.

Marco took several steady steps, shortening the distance between them.

"And if I don't? You lack the wolf power to attack me! You have no quality of an alpha just like your fathers." His daring eyes bored into him.

"We are the same Sebastene, no difference! Use the wolfsbane and we'll be safe."

Sebastene's anger faded and replaced with a gnawing grief. "No matter how much you insult me and my fathers, I refuse to break another law!"

The use of wolfsbane was a serious crime in the wolf kingdom. His pack were agonized because of a singular law flouted by a power-hungry ancestral alpha and he wouldn't be the one to contravene another.

"Does it make a difference? Aren't we cursed already?"

The cursed had nothing to fear. Even death at fifty was one of the numerous maledictions against them.

They hold off, they perish. They attack, they die, so they should as well take the risk and either live or die.

No matter how sweetened and luring Marco's idea was, he would rather live an outcast for hundred years. "I won't concede to that!!"

Marco raised his shoulder. "I'm 48, I have two more years to live and don't mind taking the risk."

48 years as a pariah and 2 years as a rebel was fair, the goddess should kick his ass for her contentment.

"I, Alpha Sebastene of the Riverville pack wash my hands off your intended atrocities!!" Then he stormed out of the court.

Marco sneered, glance around the court and made his exit. "I don't care alpha."