THE LORENT'S PROPHECY

I knocked and popped my head into dad's office, "What's up dad?" I asked smiling widely.

"Had a good day at school?" Dad asked.

For the life of me, I didn't really remember. I shrugged, "More like I'm happy that it's over."

Dad looked like he was deciding if he should let that slide or start lecturing me about the benefits of education again.

"So, you wanted me for something?" I asked.

Dad nodded. "Alpha Lorent and his Luna visited us today."

I nodded, "Mum told me. They gave me clothes."

Dad nodded again, "Alpha Lorent also gave us some information about his son. I took the opportunity to ask him, in case, well you know..."

No dad, I had no idea. I didn't even know the guy's name.

"Do you know his name?" I asked Dad, "I'm getting tired of calling him Alpha James' son."

Dad seemed startled, "James, his name is James Lorent the Third."

Oh. That was obvious.

"But he also had a secret name." My dad told me, "He was also known as Rebel."

"Like seriously?" I blurted out. Was this going to be another Lorent Drama? They should make a series.

"A few year before your were born..." My dad begun, and for some reason, this only signaled something bad. Let us not forget how a few years before I was born, a lot of unexplainable bad things happened.

The Lorent pack was welcoming their Alpha and Luna's first pup, James Lorent the third.

At the center of their town, there was a stone pavilion. On one half of the pavilion were large drums. On the other were an array of large bells. As per custom, the birth of every Lorent pack member was announced by either the beating of drums (a boy) or the ringing of bells (a girl).

I've heard of this, I've learned about it in Lycan Study Group. I've always pinned it down as another over the top Lorent tradition.

Anyway, at the birth of the Alpha's first pup, everyone had gathered at the Center Pavilion to await the good tidings. That day, there was a visiting warlock.

Back in the day, our packlands was friendly with the warlock land next door. There was one in particular who often travelled the world and would stop by to visit our packs on his way back to his keep. He was a powerful warlock, particularly renowned for water magic and prophecy. His name was Fount.

Dad didn't know much about Fount's personal life, they never talked about such things, but Fount, Lorent, Dad, and the late Morning Light Pack Alpha, Daniel often met and discussed many other things. Fount was a very intelligent man who enjoyed vigorous debate.

To my dad, it was a pity he was not a werewolf. Fount was intelligent, but too much intellect without the warmth of passion.

Unlike my dad or Alpha Lorent who wanted to change the world, Fount had next to no desire for anything except to gain more magic and more knowledge...and no matter how much he got, he always seemed empty.

My dad laughed recalling Fount's favorite question, "What is love?"

"Poor man." Dad shook his head at that, "No matter how we tried to explain it to him, he could not understand it. He could understand everything, but not that."

So anyway, Fount was visiting and had come to the pavilion to experience the celebration.

The Alpha was there, the Luna appeared, she looked well, picture perfect even, radiant with baby cradled in her arms.

Everyone was there to look at their Luna and her new pup.

Maybe it was nerves from the sheer number of people, or the Alpha's presence, but at that exact moment, when everyone turned to the drums expecting it to start rolling, the person who was standing by the bells accidentally rung it.

It rang out loud and clear, reverberating just once because the one who rang it hastily grabbed it, hugging it with his whole body to silence it completely.

Opps. Awkward silence. And lead drummer took one look at his Alpha's face, and immediately lifted his arm to start the drum routine.

And then Fount appeared on the pavilion, holding out his hand to halt the drums.

"At the ring of the bell

His name would be Rebel

His army so fearsome

You will cower at his return

Master to the ring of vampire

Brother to the warlock's fire

He will not take a Luna mate.

The Last Lorent Alpha will be his fate."

My dad read the prophetic poetry to me from his computer. Alpha James had emailed it to him after their talk this morning.

In the email there was this short request, "I hope you can suggest a different meaning to these words."

Back to the flashback of the day Rebel was born, Alpha James got so mad, he pretty much shifted and tried to tear Fount into pieces. Fount had not expected that, but he managed to escape, back into warlock land.

After which, Alpha James declared warlocks in the same category as vampires (kill on sight). Fount never tried to return either.

And everything went back to normal. The boy was named James Lorent the third. The prophecy was kept secret. The rest of the Lorent pack was told that the warlock was trying to set a curse, but because the bells did not ring fully, the curse was nullified.

The man at the bells was hailed a hero for stopping the bell from ringing it's full course. And eventually retired because from that day onwards, the Lorent pack only had male pups.

Also wasn't that around the same time our pack stopped having babies?

Or Morning Light Pack's rogue attacks began?

"It really did seem like a curse." I told my dad.

But it stopped... After Jessica and I were born. Well, there was still this rogue problem, although we soon trained the capabilities to handle them. And the weather...it's just getting more erratic. It's only the second week of January, but the snow was all gone.

No one was celebrating though, and definitely no one is going to start planting. Experience taught us it will probably just snow again.

And the Lorent Pack was still only birthing boy pups.

So actually, only our curse got broken? Were they even related? Why would Fount do something like that?

"Why did he curse us?" I asked my dad.

Dad answered immediately, "Exactly, there was no reason for him to curse us. It was a prophecy. Fount just said it as he saw it. He probably thought he was doing us a favor even."

"But Alpha James sure didn't think so." I pointed out.

"No, but I don't think he could deny it anymore." Dad sighed, "He should have just called him Rebel from the start"

I made a face. Alpha James naming his son Rebel? Hahahaha

"There is no point denying the truth." Dad told me, "No matter how hard to swallow, truth is the bitter pill that leads to healing."

Okay... And now dad is going all zen mode again.

"Why are you telling me this dad?" I think this was the real question at hand.

"I wanted to tell you first." Dad said finally, "I will tell the others later, but I wanted to give you time to hear it before that, since it might... It might inadvertently be linked to your dreams."

"My dreams?" I repeated stupidly.

My dad nodded, "I won't tell you what I think right now. I hope you would think about it yourself and we might discuss the possible interpretations later tonight."

I swallowed, "Okay...ah, but I wanted to share some ideas, for urmm...for saving... James." That just didn't seem to suit a guy named Rebel.

"Oh." My dad froze, "So... Do you really think he might be your mate?"

I thought for a while, "No? I don't know, I haven't really considered that. I just want to help them."

Dad nodded, "Alright, we might hear out your ideas too."

"But not because he is my mate or anything." I reminded my dad, "I'm not planning to endanger any of our pack."

"Now I must admit to being curious, but yes, we will also hear your ideas, Sam. We must remember to never withhold good from our neighbor, when it is in our hand to give it." Dad told me.

I nodded and excused myself to do my homework, but oh... Those words, they wrapped themselves around my heart and I knew these words my dad had lived by all these years, would now be mine too.