Dreaming of Fate

Chapter 7

"What is it?" I asked, bending down to see the book she held. It was leather-bound and looked to be extremely old, the cover was adorned with runes and had a golden chain around it. "Oh my gosh what is that?"

"This is an ancient book, it was supposed to be in the safe, but it seems to have been removed." Sophia said, opening the book. "I don't remember putting this here."

I could tell by the look on her face that she was starting to get nervous. She flipped through the pages, stopping on one. "Aww hell!"

"What?" I asked, moving closer to see what she was looking at. It was a page with a poem on it.

A Tyrant and an Innocent, bound together by fate,

Together they will bring prosperity or destruction.

One of great power and one with a pure heart,

They will either save us all, or tear us apart.

"What does it mean?" I asked, reading through the page again and again.

"I don't know, but this can't be good," Sophia said. She grabbed a paper and started copying down the poem. "We have to show this to Ethan," Sophia said. "Books don't just let themselves out of the safe for no reason."

I agreed and followed her back through the library and into the main house, then up the stairs to the second floor where I assumed Ethan's office was. We knocked and Ethan answered.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Ethan asked. I noticed that his eyes were flashing gold, and I felt an anxious drop of fear in my stomach.

"Yes, I found an old book on my desk, and it had a prophecy on it," Sophia said, showing him the paper she had copied it down on. A prophecy? "This book should have been in the vault, so something must be going on."

"I see," Ethan said. "That does sound strange." He took the paper from her and read through it. "I don't like the sound of this, we don't know when it was written, so we don't even know what we are looking for."

"What do you think the Tyrant and the Innocent could be?" Sophia asked. "Is there a way to find out?"

"I don't know," Ethan said. "We could call the other Alphas and ask them if they know of anything. But I want you two to be careful. We don't know what kind of danger could be coming our way."

"We will," Sophia said. "I'm going to go through some of the other books and see if I can find anything else, maybe something that explains this prophecy better."

Ethan looked at me, his eyes still gold, "you should stay here tonight. It's safer with the pack than at Linda's house. I'll have someone grab your luggage and bring it back to you" he paused. "This doesn't affect your training. However, you'll work with Marc in the morning, him and Linda will show you the territory borders, and you'll learn what it means when you cross them. In the meantime, you should get some dinner."

My mind whirled with all the sudden information. First I was learning about laws, then I was suddenly in the middle of a pack panic attack, and their answer to that was more food, apparently. "All right, which way is the food then?"

Ethan's eyes flickered from gold to green for a moment before staying gold again. He smiled kindly at me "I'll show you, don't worry" he said, and started to walk towards the kitchen.

"Okay, I'll go through the other books," Sophia said as she turned to head to the library. I could still smell her fear lingering in the air as she passed by. I knew I should probably try to hide my own fear scent better, but Ethan had just told me a bunch of stuff that scared me and I didn't know how to hide that from my body's natural response.

As we walked through the house, Ethan pointed out different doors and rooms, telling me what was inside each one. He pointed out a few bedrooms, saying that they were guest rooms and that I could pick one of them when I was ready. I nodded politely, taking in all the information.

He led me into the kitchen. It was a large room with a couple of tables and a long countertop, there were cupboards lining the wall and a stove on one wall. There was a table on one side of the room with a bunch of food on it. I looked up at Ethan and asked "Is that my food?"

"Ah, yes, the pack tends to eat together a lot of times, so we make food in bulk usually, it's easier that way," Ethan explained.

I nodded and walked over to the table, taking in what I saw. There was a plate of eggs, some toast, a plate of pancakes, and some sausage links. "Okay, so this is all my food?" I asked again, wondering if I was expected to share with someone or something.

Ethan laughed "No, Riley, that's all yours," he said, "If you need more, just let me know and I can make it for you. But that should be enough to fill you for now, and we have a fridge full of food here if you need anything later," Ethan explained.

I nodded and took a seat, starting to dig in as Ethan walked away, likely to finish talking with Sophia. I ate quickly, hungry from the sudden shift in atmosphere. I guess my reaction to stress is eating now too. Hopefully werewolves have a decent metabolism, I thought as I ate my way through all the food in front of me.

Finished, I took my plate to the sink to rinse it off and left it there. One of the pack members had already brought my suitcase from Linda's, so I made my way back the way we came and decided to check out the guest rooms to see which one I liked better.

There wasn't much difference between them. Maybe the color of the walls was a little different, but otherwise the layout was the same. It made sense though, they probably had important guests from time to time and having different set-ups might cause some contention between guests. I know in the human world people would think getting a blue room would mean you were the most honored guest if the others were green or orange. So off-white made sense to me.

I picked the room in the middle of everything. I would be able to get to the kitchen quicker and, if anything happened, I would be able to get to the front door easily. Also, the room was closer to the library, so if I needed information I could get to it faster too.

I spent the last few minutes of the night in my new room organizing my things in a way that made me feel better, and was about to lay down for bed when Linda knocked on my door. How did I know it was Linda? I suppose I've already started to subconsciously recognize scents, even through a solid wood door.

"Come in," I called out.

Linda walked in. She smiled when she saw that everything was organized and tidy. "Just let me know if you need any help. Oh, there's a meeting going on, and I know you aren't an official member of the pack yet, but you should still be there so you know what's happening."

I nodded and stretched, glad I hadn’t changed into bedclothes yet, before following her out the door and down the hall. We went down the stairs and down another hallway before we reached somewhat of a ballroom where the pack was gathered.

"Welcome everyone," Ethan said with a smile as we entered. "Linda, you brought our new guest, great!"

"Of course, Ethan," Linda said with a small respectful nod of her head.

"Now let's get down to business," Ethan said, turning his attention back to the pack. "I've received news that suggests a new struggle will arise soon, and I want us to be prepared. I want a patrol out at all times. Of course, we will take shifts so no one gets burnt out. Marc, I want you to take Riley and show her the territory, then, Linda, I want you to head the next-"

Ethan had given me my instructions, so I began to zone out a little. I wonder which wolf Marc was? I'm sure he'll come and introduce himself after the meeting, and I've had a good rest and a good meal since my shift, that I'm sure I'll be fine going for a little walk, or run I guess, depending on how big the territory actually is and how long a patrol is supposed to be out.

By the time the meeting was over, I noticed Ethan hadn't once brought up the prophecy and that piqued my curiosity. I was going to walk my way over to him to ask when I got intercepted by a solid man, He was short but obviously strong, not in the muscle builder sort of way, but more farm-boy strong.

"I'm Marc, are you ready for your first patrol in the morning?" he said. He had a smile on his face, but his tone had an undercurrent of no-nonsense that said, it wasn't a question, be ready or stay behind. I couldn't stay behind if I wanted to stay with the pack.

"Yes, I'm ready. I was hoping to ask Alpha Ethan a question before bed, but he looks busy, my question can wait."

"Just call him Ethan, he hates that Alpha stuff," Marc commented.

I gave a relieved sigh. I didn't particularly like the idea of stating titles constantly myself, I just didn't know what was appropriate in any given situation and all the snippets of novels I've read insist on using the honorifics at all times. Thank goodness for humble leaders.

"I'll remember that, so are you going to shift first so I can get a good look at your wolf?" I asked.

He looked at me funny, before deciding to answer.

"No, I don't shift unless it's absolutely necessary," he said, "plus we're running the territory on foot, only one of us will be shifted, and you and I need to be able to communicate, so I can show you the ropes."

"Allright, where should I meet you? And what time?" I asked.

“We start running at 5AM, just meet me by the front door” He said simply. 5AM? I felt the unconscious urge to look at a watch I didn’t own, it didn’t sound like I’d be getting much sleep.

“Alright, 5AM, I’ll be there” I said finally. Marc just smirked as if knowing my internal monologue and nodded before walking off.

With that out of the way, I finally trudged back up the stairs and went to bed.