Dangerous Beauty

Chapter 5: The Gray Wolf

“Who is Luther?” I ask looking up.

With a heavy sigh Aiden finally puts his book down on the table, “Luther is someone who wants you dead,” he tells me, “Long ago he was the alpha of the U.S. pack,” he begins, his story playing out before my eyes, “he was the strongest of us at the time, stronger than even your grandfather, though not by much. But he was power hungry. He wanted more than he could rightfully have, control over all packs. Seeing this your grandfather started getting stronger, predicting the on coming struggle when Luther confronted the elders with his request and was denied. You see no-one can have that much power it would make things unfair. The denial sent Luther into a downward spiral and filled him with rage. He wanted to destroy the elders, “the others join us at the table listening carefully to the story, “he was determined to defy he elders, and their rules to get the total power that he wanted. He began to gather followers with false promises of power of their own when he rose to his own power over all” at this part Aiden sighs heavily, as if feeling some sense of loss, “he gathered quiet the army to fight for him against those of us who knew better. See no-one can have total power it’s not possible no-one is that strong or just.”

“But Luther thought he was,” I add.

“Yes, he did. So, he continued to push his cause and fight for it. That’s when he met Arianna. She walks the line of us who aren’t sure what we want out of life in the pack. She too was power hungry and saw in opportunity in Luther that she didn’t see in her previous mate Jake, so she left him to manipulate Luther to bend to her will with her own false promises that he would spend her eternal life with him if he shared his power with her. And he believed her and fall hard for her. The two of them began attacking the places where the pack would gather taking on more followers and killing those who tried to fight against them. They had started a war,” images of dead bodies strewn across an empty battlefield fill my mind, the others remain in solemn silence as they listen, “he was ignorant to believe he could win. We lost a lot of people then as they struck unpredictably and took hostages who would later join them to save their own skin. Cowards my father called them, until he did the same. Then they became survivalists. I resisted, I saw the power your grandfather gained and found my own purpose. When they started losing ground Arianna left Luther leaving him in an even greater state of rage as he tried desperately to win her back. Eventually your grandfather defeated Luther and sent him to exile making him the new pack alpha.”

Things begin to fall into place as he finishes his tale of blood and darkness, “Then you were born with even more power than your grandfather and Luther knew if he was to ever gain power again he would have to kill you, and he has been hunting you ever since, now we call him The Gray Wolf” he finishes.

My body is vibrating with fear and rage. So this is why my grandfather had to die, to protect me from this arrogant asshole. Suddenly the atmosphere changes and we are being watched again. This time the gaze is hungry and I look out to see the gray wolf standing at a distance in the field like a dark omen. I have to do something. Before I know it I am out of my chair and out the door. The others trailing me at a distance as I approach the gray wolf.

“You want me!?” I yell, “Where here I am!” my voice deepens and fills with an unknown power my body fills with a new powerful feeling clawing to get out, and I let it.

The world shifts and changes in front of my eyes. The ground moves further away from me as my body shifts forms. “You’re mine now!” I snap and lunge at the gray wolf. I go for the throat. A fight ensues. Fur flies as I tangle with Luther his orange eyes burning with rage. I will not lose. Suddenly I am not alone in this fight. Another two wolves join me in the tangle of teeth and claws. One with green eyes with brown and white fur almost coyote looking another with electric blue eyes and a mixture of gray black and white fur. They fight with me, not against me. Soon Luther relents and takes off the gray, black, and white wolf following on his heels. Black out.

I’ll be back.

When I wake it’s dark out. Was it just another dream? No, it was real, I remind myself. As I move to sit up in bed my body aches as if I had just run a marathon. When I look around I see Aiden asleep in the corner of my room covered in healing scars. He was hurt, somehow I know it was my fault. When I examine my own skin I find the same kind of scars on my arms and legs. Slowly I get out of bed and check the time. It’s midnight. I have to work in the morning I remember. With a sigh I get up to check on Hades who is curled up on the floor next to my bed. It’s then that I notice a bandage wrapped tightly around his abdomen. What happened to him? I am filled with so much panic I get out of bed forgetting the pain I am in to kneel beside him to inspect his wounds. Carefully I unwrap the bandages and find three long scratches on his side. Who did this to him? A memory flashes before my eyes.

I can feel Luther’s jaws like a phantom around my throat, teeth digging in, blood spilling to the ground. Hades joins the fight biting at Luther’s hind legs causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. He strikes out and his claws dig in. a loud yelp sounds through the tussle and I am too engaged in the fight to notice that it is the sound of Hades in pain.

This is my fault. If I had kept control Hades would be fine. Gently I change his bandages and lift him onto the bed so he is with me. He will be okay for now. With Hades tucked away under my arm I begin to doze back off into a dreamless sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When my alarm goes off at 7:30 I struggle to get out of bed. My body is filled with unknown aches and pains that make it difficult to move. As I slowly sit up I disturb Hades who begins to whine pitifully in pain and I see that Aiden is long gone. I force myself painfully out of bed, though the more I move the better I feel. Gently I help Hades out of bed to get something to eat and drink before getting ready for work. It takes me long than usual and I am running late as I get into my car with Hades, unable to leave him home alone in this state. On my way out I am sure to grab my grandfather’s journal to read more while I am at work.

The air outside is cold but humid making my hair frizz. You look like a lion, an interesting more refined voice whispers in my head, I like wild hair. It sounds as though it is from another time. I ignore it and head down my driveway where I see Luther standing in the middle. I put the petal to the floor and speed up toward him. He stands his ground but as I come closer he darts into the woods. I win this round too. When I get to my work I am almost late as I sneak Hades into the office where Mr. Hendrickson sits grading papers.

“Late night?” he asks almost knowingly.

“Yes,” I tell him putting Hades behind my desk.

“Is he alright?” he asks

“He will be,” I tell him

“I remember training him, he’s a good dog,”

Lightning strikes my brain. He knows. He was in grandfather’s journal.

“You take it easy today, catch up on some reading,” he tells me leaving the office.

What the hell is happening? How many people know? How many of them do I know? I have to find out so I grab grandfather’s journal from my bag and begin to read.

January 17, 2002

Today was Annie’s birthday. My sweet girl has come so far. I am so proud of her. Even as my time ticks away she still surprises me. She has seen things that have made her believe me. I knew she would. I needed her to believe so I could continue to teach Lili. Tomorrow I will take her fishing and tell her the story of how I became alpha. It isn’t a simple one but it Is important.

It starts with Luther as all things do these days. He approached the elders with the intention of taking total power into his hands. Even going so far as trying to do away with them as a whole. Of course, they told him no. This aggravated Luther and he left angry. Angrier than I have ever seen him before. Orion, the lead elder turned to me that day and made me swear that for the good of the pack I would get stronger and defeat Luther before it was too late. Not everyone agreed. Zenon believed we should follow Luther to the end and seize control of all the world’s packs and unite them all under one alpha. Luther had him convinced of the idea that this would make the world a better place for our people to live. Little did he know Luther truly wanted to reveal us to the world.

Zenon was regretfully exiled to live as a rogue outside the grace of the pack, though still under their law to not reveal himself to the humans or kill them or he himself would face death. He rebelled in his exile and killed a woman named Hannah. He was put to death for what he had done out of rage. It was then I took his place and began training day and night to take my steps toward defeating Luther. I was favored by the elders at this point which raised questions amongst the pack members and several teamed with Luther against me. That was when we had our first real battle.

Luther had begun an attack on one of the pack’s greatest gathering places in the red woods. Our people scattered among the trees and hid while others stayed to fight. Others however joined Luther under the threat of their lives. If they rebelled against him their fate was sealed in death. We lost a great number of the loyal that day. I became filled with anger and a thirst for vengeance that I forgot that my strength that was not yet near that of Luther’s and I attacked him in an attempt to stop this mass murder he was committing. But I failed. Luther fought me until I was within an inch of my own life.

This is the longest entry I have read so far. As I stare at my grandfather’s careful writing I try to imagine what he must have felt in his defeat. His determination to save the loyal. It is a new side to the story Aiden told me yesterday. With more detail and insight to the real problem at hand and my place in it all. This is it, I tell myself , I have no choice but to fight, There is always a choice, Joseph’s voice whispers in the back of my mind, Not this time, I respond looking up at the poster above my desk.

Fate whispers to the warrior “You cannot with stand the storm,”

“No,” I say reading the last line, “I am the storm!”