Enemies

Chapter six - Alyss

I was more optimistic about the lectures than Desmond, but the outcome exceeded even my expectations.

When I announced that he would teach reading and tell us about the history and running of the world, only a couple of people showed interest. But after the first class they realised he was a great storyteller and the next day they brought more people with them. A week into the lectures even Cayd and Ruth showed up. A number of people never missed a single day, they wanted to learn everything.

It was funny to watch insecure Desmond be utterly surprised that anyone would want to listen to him. But with time, he got more and more confident. Before our promised month passed, no-one had been disapproving of him being my Beta anymore. He himself also finally realised why I needed him.

Jude, Desmond's dad, talked to me for the first time. He thanked me for helping Desmond find his confidence. Before, he had always avoided me, but now we started to talk to each other quite often. Jude and Desmond were similar in many ways. Most importantly, they both loved books and were very knowledgeable. When Desmond was in a haze, his dad would take over and conduct the lectures in his place.

I went to Rod and Gwynn's stele every day. Since I learned how to read, their names written on it were no longer just a pattern for me. I ran my finger over the outlines of the letters slowly every time I went there and I read the inscription in a whisper. RODERICK FROM THE BULLOUGH LOWLAND AND GWYNN FROM THE SILVER MOUNTAINS. Back when I had asked Desmond to carve their names, I hadn't expected I would ever be able to read them.

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Desmond created a library of a kind. He only had about twenty books, but few people felt their reading skills were good enough to borrow one. I did, but I had Desmond around most of the time so I could ask him anything.

I read "My journal from the Great War" by Luelle from Nessville. She was the mate of Garrick from Ayerstown, the shapeshifter who started the Great War. She never agreed with his views, but she stayed at his side for many years hoping she would convince him to stop. When she lost all hope of doing that, she killed him. She spent the rest of her life hiding from his supporters and eventually she was tracked down and killed by them. Her friends took her diaries and they published them. Desmond told me that it became a prohibited book the same year it was released. The hunters didn't want a book about a shapeshifter who was trying to help humans to be available to the public.

After that I read "The history of shapeshifters' anatomy and physiology. Collected works". It was a book written by a group of scientists working at the Royal Academy in Nalaria about four hundred years ago. It was a very difficult book to read and I needed Desmond to explain something to me every time I turned a page. But I learned quite a lot about the functioning of hazes and mate pull. I learned that presumably at the beginning there had only been one kind of mate pull - lust - and it had only occurred between males and females. The reason for that was that the mate pull's primary purpose was boosting reproduction. But with time different factors (one of them likely being the evolution of emotions) caused the mate pull to be differentiated into three different types along with the mixtures of these types. At about the same time the first instances of mate pull between two same-gendered people occurred.

Then Desmond gifted me a book. He said I should keep it. The title of the book was "Tenneryan Tale". It was a story about a fictional kingdom of Tennerya. The people of Tennerya fought against The Evil Incarnate, but in the meantime they organised balls and some of them experienced fiery romances. Desmond said I reminded him of one of the characters - princess Vyera. He even started calling me Princess, which I found very annoying. Five chapters into the book I had no idea what I could possibly have in common with Vyera. She was glorious and distinguished and, as the narrator described, "the gaze of her beautiful eyes could soften even the hardest of hearts". I hoped she would kick some asses later in the story or else I would have to rethink the way people saw me.

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I resumed my mindlinking lessons. This time I practiced with everyone in our group in turn. As the Alpha I needed to be able to mindlink any of them. I was getting better and better and eventually I accomplished it.

More than half a year had passed since Rod and Gwynn were gone. It was my first winter as the Alpha. We were doing fine. Ruth shifted into her bear form to hibernate with her cubs. The birds didn't want to migrate, so we had to prepare a warm place for them to stay in case of a haze. Tigress, Star's youngest sister, reached maturity and she shifted into her human form for the first time. She learned how to walk quickly and she was doing quite well with talking. She still preferred being in her cat form though. Lillie, one of Gwynn's childhood friends, got pregnant. She was a hawk so if she shifted into her animal form she would lay an egg, but she really wanted to give birth in her human form, so all the birds and her partner, Neil, were putting a lot of effort into saving her from stress, so she wouldn't go into a haze. A lot of us spent most time in our animal forms, with furs protecting us from the cold.

Once in a while, when I was patrolling the borders, I felt the mate pull. I wanted to run to my mate. My instincts wanted to jump him and my mind wanted to kill him. But I talked it over with Desmond, Minah and some other people and we decided it was better to just avoid him. We didn't know what kind of mate pull I had. It could make it impossible for me to hurt him and then the humans would easily kill me. I didn't want to send anyone else either. I didn't want to put them in danger.

Since Rod and Gwynn had disappeared, there hadn't been any more incidents with the hunters. They never got deep enough into the forest to pose a threat to our encampment, they only patrolled the edges. We stayed put as well. We didn't want to attack them, hoping they don't know how many of us were hiding nearby. Until one day.

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I was sitting in front of my tent with "Tenneryan Tale" spread on my knees. I was reading the sixth chapter out loud for Star and Desmond.

Suddenly I heard a quiet *Alyss...* in my head. I figured someone was trying to mindlink me, so I focused on receiving the message.

*Alyss, can you hear me? It's me, Gwynn.*