Alcateia - The Alpha's Nightmare

The Alcateia

In Portuguese they’ve different names for a pack of dogs and a pack of wolves. The first one, it’s called “matilha”. The second one, it’s known as “alcateia”. This is the first thing a werewolf learns, the origin of our world’s name.

You may be asking yourselves why does our world have a Portuguese name. Well, the only thing I know is that the first werewolf was supposedly born on the shadow of Pena’s Palace, in Sintra, Portugal. That night, the full moon bled. Red covered her face. And a young lady gave birth to a baby boy with a body full of dark hair. The child was immediately abandoned. Throwed to the woods, left to die. But the howl of a wolf covered the skies and a beautiful grey animal approached the baby, with two cubs right behind. And then the she-wolf took the mysterious baby as hers and raised him. Or at least, its what History says about the first one of our species.

Then, the moon bled for ten years. And in every corner of the world a werewolf was born. America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania… In every piece of land, a man or woman was blessed by God with wolf’s blood. Of course, there is always a different version for every story.

My name is Xander OldBlack, born as Alexander Maiyun OldBlack in August 12 of 1989. I am the Alpha of the Endless Night pack and the descendent of werewolves from the Cheyenne tribe. But, when it comes to the tribe, I totally lost contact. Nowadays I live in the city of New York with my pack, running the OldBlack Group, my father’s family real-estate business. But I still have some memories from my childhood in Montana, with my mother’s people.

Between the Black Hills’ pack, one of the purest packs of Cheyenne’s werewolves, it is said that a fierce woman, a warrior, beg the old ancestors for a child of her dead love. They said the woman cried all night, under a bleeding full moon, and when the dawn came, a huge wolf, with a fur darkest as ebony and shinier as the most valuable jewel, looked at her with a pair of burning golden eyes, the same eyes of her lost love.

“When the woman touched the wolf, he started howling at the sun. A song that spread and echoed through the sky and made the woman lost her senses. When she woke up, the sun was already setting. Her skin was burned by the sunlight, her eyes and mouth dry, and in her abdomen… a deep heartbeat. She was with child. Nine months after, the moon bled. A child was born, all covered with fur. Black fur. And a pair of deep golden eyes. He was the first.”

I still remember my great grandma’s words like if it was yesterday. But I don’t know what to believe.

My mother found her half on a man that was no Cheyenne. And I was born between two very different worlds.

But History aside, Cheyenne or not, every pack is under one name: Alcateia. And we all work for the preservation of this organization, of this world of ours. It’s a survival question. If the Alcateia fell, every pack will be destroyed. Because our enemies never sleep.

Vampires.

If it is said God blessed the humans with wolf blood, it is equally said that the Devil bought human souls with power and turned them into monsters. And this, my dear friends, is a story that is shared in every culture.

There is no good in Vampires, maybe because they’re dead inside and outside.

That’s why our rules are so strict and, even with different visions of the world, every pack follow them. The Alcateia it’s our only way to assure the werewolves’ future.

A wolf should never steal. A wolf should never kill an innocent or a dog. A wolf and a she-wolf are equal in duties and rights. A pack should never cross other pack’s land without the Alpha’s consent. A werewolf that kills an innocent and r***s, must face death. A werewolf that steals must be punish as his or her Alpha’s desire. An Alpha must protect his or her pack, as every wolf of that pack must protect each other. No pack is superior or inferior to other, but they can still fight to prove their strength. The Alphas must be respected, still, they must not abuse of their power, and they can be challenged. A werewolf should never reveal his or her true nature to humans. But above all, no pack or werewolf should disrespect the rules of the Alcateia.

Those are the rules of our world and the rules that I follow… or try to.