Falling for Adrian

Breaking Bad.

Administering a pack came with a lot of responsibilities. With a pack as vast as Blaze, which ranked second most populated pack in the Kingdom of Magma, these responsibilities meant making sacrifices, one of which was spending a lot of time away from family.

Beta Charles was a burly-looking man with large auburn hair in human form, who loved his family dearly. Yet, all the love in the unbelievably vast kingdom could not keep him with his family when the duty to Blaze pack came calling - and it kept calling most of the time.

Little Brie was at a loss for parental attention. Her mother had died shortly after her birth, leaving her an only sibling to young Damien. But look after his little sister, he did. He filled her childhood years with fond memories, taught her how to defend herself, guided her through her first shift into wolf form, her first hunting, and taught her all about pack life and survival.

By 17, Brie was a tall, beautiful, and slender werewolf with long Auburn hair that glistened in the sun and made the male wolves whistle when she passed by. It was at this stage that Damien was sent to the Lycan Court in preparation for his future beta role.

Brie was distraught, but it gave her opportunities to dive deeper into the pack socially and make new friends. Among her firsts, was Phina, the alpha's daughter.

*****

The Alpha's stately home was a few stumps away from Beta Charles's, yet Brie always had a run in her wolf form to reach it. She loved her wolf, Jade, and loved to feel the air rush at her unique reddish-auburn fur as she ran. It gave her an urgent thrill, a blooming excitement that emanated from her and spread outward like a wild fire in a forest.

It was what she needed today after last night. She had woken from a nightmare, of that, she was sure of. She couldn't remember any details of the dream. It was all fuzzy in her head,yet she felt a deep foreboding sense of doom that weighed heavily on her chest like a heavy stone.

In these moments, she missed Damien ever so much. She wished he would be here to listen to her and brighten her melancholy feelings. Her father had not come home the previous night.

He's probably still at the pack house, Brie thought. She didn't want to bother him at work so she discarded the thought of mindlinking him.

Time to let off some steam, Brie linked her wolf. Despite her obvious unrest, Jade yipped around in excitement.

Brie took a pink blouse and a pair of denim shorts. Pink, because it complemented her auburn hair, Phina had said. Brie took a deep breath and reached inwards. She connected with Jade, taking the back seat of her mind, and became one with her wolf.

The shift began as she imagined it. Bones snapped, canines formed, body parts grew rapidly from new places; and a reddish brown wolf with hazel eyes emerged. It dashed off in one direction with purpose, then ran round at a point, and continued in its original direction.

Jade ran into the woods adjoining the Alpha's house.

The auburn wolf was headed for the cool blue waterfall meters away from the forest's borderline.

Once in her human form, Brie dived into the water. It refreshed her. She made slow strokes and could feel the tension in her back muscles dissipate. She waded in the water for some minutes and got out, quickly changing into her clothes.

The statuesque house was disturbingly quiet. The Alpha's house was not always this quiet, Brie thought. Usually Luna Red was having some young wolves over, or grilling with the mother wolves. Whatever it was, Brie was sure the house shouldn't be this quiet.

She walked up the front porch, mindlinking Phina at the same time.

'Brie's around, yay!,' she mind-linked Phina.

There was a moment of hesitation before Phina mind-linked her back.

'That's great. My favorite friend is here!'

Now Brie was sure something wasn't right here. It didn't help that feeling she had after the nightmare. She could feel it hovering around her like a cloud of doom.

'What's up, Phi? It's really quiet around here.' Brie mind-linked her.

'Nothing, really. Come on in. I'm in my room on the second floor. Third door by the left. Please avoid the kitchen, it's a disaster in there, you know Mom and the pups,' Phina mind-linked back.

'Thanks for the warning. It must have been a major disaster,' Brie chuckled. 'And I know your room. Stop reminding me everytime!'

Phina giggled.

While this was going on, Brie was walking up the stairs to the front porch. The Alpha's house was a big white mansion, because...well this is the home of the second most powerful Alpha in the Magma kingdom!

Brie avoided the kitchen, just as Phina advised. The first time she had flaunted Phina's warning, she had almost gotten burns from the grilled steak being tossed around the kitchen by errant young pups.

When Brie walked into the blue-wall room (Phina had nicknamed it so), Phina was sitting on the edge of her bed, her long black hair tousled over her shoulders. Her posture flashed an image of someone brimming with information and waiting for a trigger to spill it all out, in Brie's mind.

Phina got up and ran to Brie. She almost knocked her over with a bear-hug. Brie hugged her back. Phina was the first to pull back. She turned Brie round and inspected her closely.

"How are you, Brie? You look positively flushed!" Phina said, finally looking at her friend's face.

"Really?" Brie slapped her hands to her cheeks. "Well, I couldn't help it".

Phina smiled knowingly.

"The Blue Pond called out to me today, as always." Brie continued.

"Of course it did. It 'always' calls out to you." Phina said as she led Brie to the grey-color bed.

There was a moment of silence. Brie noticed it and looked at Phina. She was toying with a stray strand of thread on her bed with a contemplative look on her face.

"What's up, Phi?" Brie began.

Phina glanced up, berating herself on being caught.

"Nothing. Nothing is up, Brie. I was just thinking we should bake some cookies today. You know, to take sometime off and clear our heads."

"Bake? I thought the kitchen is off-limits today?" Brie asked perplexedly.

"Oh yes. I had said that hadn't I?" Phina mentally smacked her head.

Now Brie was looking at her suspiciously.

"And clearing our heads? Clear our heads off what?" Brie asked. "I don't remember saying anything about me needing to clear my head, did I?"

"No, no, no. Of course not." Phina stammered.

She received another probing look from Brie.

"Well, I have two news. Leta was coming now too, she just mindlinked me. I thought I should probably hold on with the news."

Leta was the third in their friend circle. She was Beta Lambert's daughter. But Brie was having no excuses.

"Come on, spill it out, Phina. We can always tell Leta when she comes."

Phina fidgeted a bit.

"Okay. I guess so. I'll be going to the Lycan Court this Season."

"That's great news!" Brie squealed, and hopped round the bed in delight.

In truth, it was good news. Daughters of Alphas and top Betas spent a Season at the Lycan Court at special periods in the Royal Calendar. This was to enable the Crown Prince, Prince Adrian at this point, to find his mate or pick a worthy suitor among the female wolves present to be his Luna.

Moreover the top female wolves invited got to go on hunts with the Royal Family, find their mate (the Crown Prince if they were very lucky), or catch the eye of the King or Queen Lycan or some influential Lycan at Court.

Brie was very happy for her friend, but the feeling that this news was only a ray of hope before gloom came crashing kept tugging at her. Why else would Phina have that look in her eyes?

"Really Phi, that is exciting," Brie pressed on. With the fast fading look of excitement in Phina's blue eyes, Brie continued cautiously, lowering her voice to almost a whisper, "But why..."

Phina sighed, exhaling a deep breath she wasn't aware she was holding.

"Now, don't withhold anything from me, Phi. We're like the best of friends, and we both know you don't want to tell me the last news. Is it that bad?"

Brie did not wait for Phina to answer. "Okay, I get it. It's bad. But I was never in a better mood to receive it. I had this pressing feeling after a nightmare I couldn't remember. Can you believe it?"

Phina looked at Brie and hoped her friend would continue to ramble till Leta came. She couldn't bear to watch the effect of this news on Brie. It would break her. But at that moment, as if on cue, Brie stopped talking.

"Okay, Phi. I'm ready to hear the news. Shoot."

Phina murmured a silent prayer to the Moon goddess for her friend.

"Brie,..." Brie leaned in anticipation.

She wanted to hear this supposedly bad news. She wanted badly to convince herself that the feeling of doom weighing her down was irrelevant, just a rare bout of depression.

Phina's next words quelled any of these rising hopes within her. It shattered her, a fatal blow she didn't see coming.

"Damien is dead."