ORION: RISE OF THE TRUE ALPHA

The night Orion was born, seven stars disappeared from the sky. No one noticed the first one. It happened a little after midnight, above the northern edge of Aethera, where the mountains rose like dark walls against the horizon. The people of Valen were accustomed to strange things happening in the night. Their city was enormous, restless, and bright enough to make the darkness beyond its walls seem almost imaginary. Airships moved between the towers, trains glided silently above the streets, and thousands of windows remained illuminated long after most of the city had gone to sleep. The stars were hardly visible from the lower districts anyway. But in the Royal Observatory, where the sky was studied through enormous lenses and ancient telescopes, one star suddenly disappeared. Elias Venn noticed it while recording a routine observation. He frowned and leaned closer to the telescope. The star had been there less than a minute ago. He checked the coordinates. Then he checked them again. The star was gone. Elias adjusted the telescope and searched the surrounding sky. Nothing. He looked through another instrument. Still nothing. A cold feeling settled in his stomach. "Impossible." He hurried to the observatory's main window. The sky above Valen was clear. He could see hundreds of stars. But one was missing. He had studied that section of the sky for nearly twenty years. He knew its constellations better than he knew the streets of his own neighborhood. Stars did not simply disappear. He turned back toward the telescope. Then a second star vanished. Elias stopped breathing. A third disappeared. Then a fourth. He rushed toward the alarm console and activated the emergency signal. Within minutes, members of the Royal Astronomical Council were running through the observatory. "What happened?" "Where are the coordinates?" "Is this some kind of atmospheric interference?" "Run the instruments again." Everyone spoke at once. Elias barely heard them. He was staring through the telescope. The fifth star had disappeared. Then the sixth. When the seventh vanished, the entire observatory fell silent. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. An elderly historian named Theron stood at the back of the room. He had been invited to the observatory because of his knowledge of ancient astronomical records. He slowly walked toward the window. His hands trembled. "What is it?" Elias asked. Theron didn't answer. "Master Theron?" The old man looked toward the empty section of sky. "I hoped I would die before seeing this." Elias frowned. "Seeing what?" Theron turned around. "The beginning." "The beginning of what?" Theron's eyes were fixed on the darkness above them. "The return of the Alpha." Far away, beyond the city walls, a newborn child cried. His mother held him against her chest. The room was small and warm, illuminated by a single oil lamp. Outside, the wind moved through the trees surrounding the little settlement where she had chosen to give birth. She looked toward the window. Seven stars were missing. The old woman who had helped deliver the child stood beside the bed. She had noticed the change in the sky too. "What are you looking at?" the mother asked. The old woman didn't answer. Instead, she looked at the child. "Orion." The mother smiled faintly. "That's his name." The old woman shook her head. "No." She reached out and touched the baby's forehead. "That's more than his name." The mother looked at her strangely. "What does that mean?" The old woman looked toward the dark sky. Before she could answer, a howl echoed from somewhere in the distant mountains. The sound was deep enough to make the window tremble. The baby stopped crying. For several seconds, everything was silent. Then the old woman whispered, almost to herself, "He has returned." Seventeen years later, Orion Vale stood on the edge of a skyscraper and wondered whether he had made a terrible mistake. The answer was probably yes. He looked down. The street was far below. Too far. Vehicles moved along the roads like tiny streams of light. People looked like dots. The towers around him rose into the clouds, their glass surfaces reflecting the blue glow of advertisements. Orion stepped away from the edge. He checked his watch. 11:47 p.m. His mother had told him to be home before midnight. He had thirteen minutes. "Plenty of time." He pulled his hood over his head. Then he ran. His boots struck the rooftop. Five steps. Six. Seven. He reached the edge and jumped. For a moment, he was completely weightless. Then he landed on the next building. The impact nearly knocked him off balance, but he rolled and came back onto his feet. He kept running. Orion had been doing this for years. The rooftops of Valen were his escape. Down on the streets, there were rules. At the Academy, there were expectations. At home, there were questions his mother refused to answer. Up here, there was only the wind. He reached another gap. This one was wider. Orion slowed. He looked across. The next building was almost four meters away. He took a breath. Then jumped. His boots landed hard on the other side. He stumbled. For a second, his arms swung wildly. Then he regained his balance. "Still got it." A blue light suddenly appeared above him. Orion stopped. A security drone hovered several meters overhead. Its mechanical eye focused on him. "UNAUTHORIZED MOVEMENT DETECTED." Orion sighed. "Of course." The drone began scanning. "IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED." Orion looked around. There was nowhere to hide. Then he noticed a large ventilation unit near the edge of the roof. He sprinted toward it and crouched behind the metal structure. The drone moved closer. Its blue scanning light swept across the rooftop. Orion held his breath. The light moved over the ventilation unit. He waited. Three seconds. Five. Ten. Then a voice came from behind him. "You're getting slower." Orion nearly shouted. He spun around. Lyra Chen was standing there with her arms folded. She was wearing the black-and-silver uniform of the Aethera Academy. Her dark hair was tied back, and she had the irritatingly calm expression of someone who had just watched him nearly get caught. "You scared me." Lyra smiled. "Good." "You could have said something before sneaking up on me." "I did." "You whispered." "Because there's a drone." Orion glanced upward. The drone was turning. Its scanning light was moving toward them. Lyra noticed it too. "Run." They sprinted. The drone immediately detected them. "UNAUTHORIZED MOVEMENT DETECTED." A pulse of blue energy struck the rooftop behind them. Orion jumped over a wall. Lyra followed. They raced down a narrow section between two buildings. Another pulse struck the wall. "Keep moving!" Lyra shouted. "I am moving!" "You're too slow!" "I'm faster than you!" "Then prove it!" Orion laughed despite himself. They reached the end of the passage. There was a drop. Lyra stopped. Orion didn't. He jumped. Lyra stared at him. "You're insane." Then she jumped too. They landed on a lower rooftop and disappeared into the darkness. Several minutes later, they stopped inside an abandoned stairwell. Lyra leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Orion sat on the steps. "That was fun." Lyra stared at him. "You have a strange definition of fun." "You followed me." "Because you were going to get arrested." "I wouldn't have been arrested." "You were trespassing." "Technically, I was exercising." "On private rooftops?" "Running is exercise." Lyra shook her head. "One day you're going to get yourself into serious trouble." Orion smiled. "Not today." "You said that yesterday." "And I survived yesterday." "That's not how survival works." Orion laughed. Then the laughter disappeared. A strange sensation had begun spreading across his shoulder. At first, he thought it was nothing. Then the burning became stronger. He pulled his jacket aside. "What is that?" Lyra moved closer. Orion looked down. A silver mark had appeared beneath his skin. Seven tiny points formed the shape of a constellation. At the center was the unmistakable outline of a wolf. Lyra's expression changed. "Was that there before?" "No." "Are you sure?" "I think I would have noticed a glowing symbol on my shoulder." The mark pulsed. Orion touched it. Pain exploded through his body. He fell to the floor. "Orion!" Lyra grabbed his arm. But he couldn't hear her. The stairwell disappeared. The city disappeared. The world disappeared. Orion opened his eyes. He was standing in a forest. Snow covered the ground. Tall trees surrounded him on every side. The air was freezing. Orion looked down at himself. He was wearing the same clothes. "Where am I?" His voice echoed through the trees. There was no answer. Then he heard something. A footstep. Crunch. Another. Crunch. Orion turned. A massive black wolf emerged from the forest. It was enormous. Its shoulders were nearly as high as Orion's chest. A scar crossed its left eye. Its remaining eye glowed gold. Orion couldn't move. The wolf stopped several meters away. It stared at him. Then it spoke. "Finally." Orion's heart pounded. "Who are you?" The wolf lowered its head slightly. "My name is Kael." "You're a wolf." "Yes." "Wolves don't talk." Kael's golden eye narrowed. "Neither do humans in dreams, yet here you are." Orion looked around. "This is a dream?" "No." "Then what is it?" "A memory." "Whose memory?" Kael stepped closer. "Yours." Orion shook his head. "I've never been here." "You don't remember." "Remember what?" The wolf turned toward the dark forest. The temperature suddenly dropped. Something moved among the trees. Kael's ears lifted. "They have found you." Orion looked around. "Who?" "The ones who killed your father." Everything inside Orion went still. "My father?" Kael turned back toward him. "You carry his blood." "My father died before I was born." "Yes." "Then how do you know him?" The wolf stared at him. "I knew Cassian Vale." Orion swallowed. The name sounded strange coming from the wolf. "You knew him?" "He was the last Alpha." Orion stared at Kael. "What does that mean?" Kael stepped closer. "It means you are the last Alpha." The forest suddenly began to shake. Cracks appeared across the sky. Orion looked upward. The world was breaking apart. Kael's voice became distant. "You must remember." "Remember what?" "Who you are." The forest shattered. Orion woke with a gasp. He was lying on the floor of the stairwell. Lyra was kneeling beside him. "Orion!" He sat up. "What happened?" "You collapsed." "For how long?" "About thirty seconds." Orion looked at his shoulder. The mark was still there. Lyra stared at it. "What did you see?" Orion hesitated. He didn't know whether to tell her. "A wolf." Lyra blinked. "A wolf?" "It spoke to me." Lyra stared at him. "Okay." "What?" "I'm officially concerned." "It said its name was Kael." Lyra's expression changed. She had heard that name. Orion noticed. "You know it." "No." "You hesitated." "I didn't." "You did." Lyra looked away. "Come on. We need to get you home." Orion stood. "What are you not telling me?" "Nothing." "Lyra." "Orion." They stared at each other. Finally, Lyra sighed. "I've heard the name before." "Where?" "My grandfather used to tell me stories." "What kind of stories?" "The kind adults tell children when they want them to stay away from dangerous places." "About Kael?" "About the Alpha." Orion's stomach tightened. "What Alpha?" Lyra didn't answer. Before he could ask again, a distant explosion shook the building. Both of them turned. The city lights outside flickered. Then another explosion followed. And another. One by one, entire sections of Valen went dark. Lyra stepped toward the window. "What is happening?" Orion followed her. Dozens of black aircraft were descending over the city. They weren't ordinary military vessels. Their designs were unfamiliar. Their sides carried the silver emblem of the Crown of Valen. Orion felt a sudden chill. "Why would the Crown attack its own city?" Lyra shook her head. "I don't know." A fourth explosion shook the building. Then Orion's communicator began vibrating. He looked down. His mother's name appeared on the screen. TO BE CONTINUED....