The Last Mate on Earth

Part 1 - Chapter 1

* * * 200 Years Ago * * *

The werewolf race had enjoyed 800 years of prosperity. The wolves were the most revered beings on the planet. They had become strong, fierce and dominant.

The pack wolves and the council had long forgotten the implementation of the wolf sterilization law. For it had been many, many years since sterilisation was needed. The weak bloodlines had been bred out, there were now only strong wolves.

The packs and their lands had flourished, they lived like kings and queens. Because of this, the council rarely read their updates from the packs. If they had, they may have noticed sooner.

* * * 20 Years Ago * * *

During the first year that things began to really change, no one took notice. They perhaps laughed at all the male babies wrapped in their little blue blankets, not a sign of a pink blanket to be seen for months on end. Very few little girls, bundled in pink blankets were seen that year. Individual wolf packs would not have noticed or questioned it. They would not have known that this was happening in every wolf pack. Every wolf pack around the world. Little did they know that all these little blue blankets were just the beginning of what was to come.

During the second year, they were confused, they began to talk amongst themselves, confused at another year of mostly blue blankets. Mostly male pups being born. Only a handful of pink blankets and little girls were to be seen. It was not unusual for one gender to be more prominent for a year or two, and then the other gender would catch up. They decided that they would monitor this situation within their own pack. After all, they were submitting their review to the council next year. So many male pups wrapped in their little blue blankets, how extraordinary.

They assumed it was due to the selective reproduction law, the Y chromosome was more prominent because they had been bred to be strong. The X chromosome would soon catch up, they thought.

During the third year of this phenomenon, it happened to be the year they had to report births to the council. Every five years, they had to send a list to the council, informing them of all births and deaths within the pack.

Opening the first report, the council thought," It really is a man's world, so much blue. Of 20 packs, over the course of five years, there had only been 400 female pups born.

A written letter to the other wolf councils around the world, informed them that they were not the only ones to be experiencing this short fall of female births. This caught everyone's attention. The pack doctors and nurses realized that this was not normal and not only affecting their packs. Blue was taking over. Not just within a pack, not just within the country, but taking over the entire world. Where had the girls gone?

There were usually 20-50 pups born per year to each pack. There should be around 1,000 female pups born, not just 400. This sudden turning of the tide, the imbalance, could not be ignored.

But that is what they did. After another High Council meeting, it became law that all females must produce a pup every year. They had deemed that with an increase in births, the population of females would again increase.

In their folly, they agreed to review it in another 100 years. To allow enough time and enough generations to right this wrong. They could not have predicted that this meeting would be forgotten because the world went to war. Not just packs of wolves. The entire world was at war, guns were fired, people were stabbed and bombs were dropped. Not once, but twice. Before the wolves could fully regroup and back track through the things they had missed, the next war started. 10 years were lost to all. Things that should never have been forgotten were indeed forgotten.

As the council were finally able to regroup and figure out what they had missed, they then demanded an immediate update on gender births for the last 50 years. It was then they realised things had become much worse. Around the whole world, female births had continued to decrease in numbers.

They had ordered for wolves to be temporarily housed in each other’s packs, to see if mixing their bloodlines would bring back all those little girls wrapped in pink blankets. Women were used as breeding machines. They had become fit for only one purpose - to reproduce.

The councils of the world were called together for the most important meeting that had probably ever been held. Called together with their own doctors and nurses and even the human’s most respected biologists to try to understand what had happened. They had long ago abandoned the idea of caring about the basic rights of female wolves.

“What is happening”, several wolves exclaimed. Many times, over the years, at the sight of all the little blue blankets.

It was now threatening the survival of the entire wolf race, leaving them on the brink of extinction. That was when the council stopped being peace keepers and stopped being nice. The she-wolfs were more controlled and oppressed than ever before. They even encouraged the s****l exploitation of humans. Trying to mix genes and see if the female births would come.

All female wolves were ordered to submit for testing. Pregnant she-wolves had to have repeated scans to determine the gender of their unborn pup. As more time passed with no females born and a reduction in the number of males born, all the she-wolves under the age of 70 were clinically examined, in the hope that they would find something, anything to explain the lack of little girls and their pink blankets.

Scans would show some she-wolves were able to get pregnant and the little bouncy pup on the screen was a little girl. They triple checked to make sure that there was no hidden little p***s. They began to hope. But not one she-wolf was able to carry her fetus to term and deliver a bouncing beautiful little baby girl.

After several more years of encouraged s*x, multiple tests, attempts at mixed breeding. The little girls spotted on scans stopped altogether. There were no more little baby girls on the screen and there were no more little pink blankets in the hospitals.

Despite the funding they threw at the humans, no amount of testing could provide an explanation for the cause of this phenomenon. Without knowing the cause, there could be no cure. And without a cure, the wolves were heading towards extinction. Their future ticking away with the biological clocks of any remaining she-wolves.

They vowed to never give up. They vowed to rise again. And they vowed that they would save their species.... somehow.

Every wolf played their part in anyway they could. They mated with multiple wolves to try to create female pups. They submitted for every test available and they prayed to the moon goddess. They even prayed to the human gods, hoping even just one god would hear of their plight and bless them with a miracle.

It seemed, for the longest time, not one god had heard them. They set up prayer temples and made sure that prayers were read to multiple gods for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. All wolves receiving their schedule with allocated times to pray at the temple. They called upon powerful beings with a new sense of urgency. Practicing their faith, following other religions and even creating new ones.

After 14 years with no births. No little girls with pink blankets and a handful of little boys bundled in little blue blankets. They began to lose hope. They had been cursed. There would not be anymore wolves. Ever.

They held yet another High Council meeting. Only this time, they uncovered something new.

“And what do the archives say?” asked a new Alpha. He was 20 years old and did not have a mate, nor did he have a wolf. That was another side effect of this phenomenon. Without the females, the males did not need a fated mate. Without the females, over 50% of the new male population were without a wolf. They were becoming human.

“I am sorry boy. What archives are you talking about?” Asked the councilman.

“I remember my great grandfather talking about all the writing the council did and that they stored it within the vaults, underneath this very castle. Why do you not know this? You are the council. How have you forgotten?” He asked the councilman.

“I do not know, son. Things have gone very wrong and things that should never be lost have been long forgotten. Alpha’s, would you please help me locate the vault if it exists and help me find something.” He asked of them all.

They found the vault, but they had not anticipated the volume of books and stacks of paper that stood before them. It took five Alpha’s and six councilmen over a year to read through the entire wolf's history. In that time, there were no births at all. One group started from the beginning of the recordings. Some 2000 years ago. While the other group started with the most recent entries.

They found not a single thing. “Burn it. It is useless”, one of the councilmen said in a frustrated tone. Drinking the last of his Coca-Cola can. He saw the waste bin at the far corner of the room and went to dispose of his can. It was then he saw a stack of paper, shoved into the bin. He picked it up and began to read.

“What did we do? What is happening?” He exclaimed, dropping the paper to the ground.

The information was shared with every pack around the world, and they began to renew their prayers to the moon goddess. This time they did not pray to be saved, they did not pray to be blessed and they did not pray for a miracle. This time they prayed for forgiveness for the actions their ancestors had taken. They begged and begged for divine mercy from the moon goddess, they prayed that she would forgive them and save their souls and they prayed for a second chance.

They spent a year praying for this forgiveness, maintaining their 24 hour, seven days a week and 365 days of the year prayer. They were now 16 years without any female births. And two years without any male births.

But the miracle was about to occur. Without any medical intervention, not a single white coat was to be found.

* * * 16 Years Ago * * *

Lottie and Harry, who were of the last generation of wolves with fated mates, were finally able to conceive. They were 60 years old and had been trying for a pup of their own since their 20’s. Lottie had suffered multiple miscarriages. Cradling the lifeless half-developed bodies of her pups, until the doctors had taken them away for tests. The moon goddess had not heard their prayers, until now.

It had been unplanned, but Lottie had never forgotten the feeling of a foetus’s first flutter. She was scared. What if she lost this little one too? She did not think her heart could take another loss. She booked in at the pack hospital and welcomed every test she was going to be offered.

Her heart burst with love when she saw their little bean flickering and bouncing on the screen. It was their baby. It was their love and joy right there on the screen.

The nurse who was examining Lottie had been in this job for too many miserable years. She had become bored of the usual, “I am sorry, you are not pregnant. What you are experiencing is known as a phantom pregnancy”, or the worst line, “I am sorry. But there is no heartbeat. Your baby has died”. She did not expect to see a single thing on the screen. She gasped in surprise when she saw the little jumping jelly bean.

And then, she dropped the transducer when she saw what was NOT between the baby’s legs. “I will just be a moment. I have to get the doctor”, she said, rushing from the room. She returned with the doctor who repeated the scan.

There it was. Clear as day.

A girl.

There would be a little girl bundled in her cute little pink blanket.

The result of the scan caused a panic within the waiting room, the hospital, the pack and the UK. What do we do to protect her? Many people asked themselves.

The result of the scan sent shockwaves of hope, excitement and apprehension around the world. Were the girls coming back? Everyone asked themselves, daring to hope.

Because of their advancing age and Lottie’s history of loss and the fact that this was the first girl in over 16 years. They were advised to move into the hospital. They were told they would be given their own ward. They would receive routine screenings, vitamins, and care for the duration.

The doctors and nurses were scared to do anything more, in fear of angering the moon goddess. They decided to let nature run its course and the only thing that they could do was pray.

For the duration of her pregnancy, Lottie did not leave the hospital ward. She ate nothing but the doctor approved foods. Her heart rate was monitored 24/7. Her little precious jelly bean was checked twice daily. They were allowed no visitors. Lottie did not resent these restrictions, the safety of her little girl was too important to her. She was just happy that the rest of the world thought her little girl was special too.

The pregnancy went smoothly. Apart from the odd dizzy spell, headache and heart palpitations, which she had put down to her carrying a child at her age. Lottie had encountered no difficulties.

It was during labour, in the delivery room that Lottie encountered her first complications. Lottie had experienced preeclampsia. She could not help thinking that perhaps the doctors should have monitored her more closely. But why would they? She had appeared well and they were scared to piss off the moon goddess.

Lottie and her little girl were left fighting for their lives. The doctors then decided to intervene and delivered the little girl via a cesarean section. The little girl had stopped breathing, the doctors worked on her tiny body, so determined that they did not notice that Lottie was beginning to bleed out, quicker than her wolf could heal her.

Lottie passed away that day, without ever seeing or holding her little girl. And the only person who seemed to care, was her husband and mate, Harry.

The doctors and nurses rejoiced. The little girl was stabilised. And there she was, laid in her little crib, wrapped in her little pink blanket. The first girl born in over 16 years.

Harry was unable to cope with the loss of his wife, his mate. He walked out of the hospital to clear his mind and sort through his grief. To get some fresh air while he came to terms with what he had lost but also what he had gained. Little did he know that the hospital would now be locked to the outside world, that he would be unable to get back in.

He never got to kiss his mate goodbye. He never got to hold or kiss his sweet little girl. And he was never able to tell her that he and her mother loved her so very much.

The world rejoiced at the news that the baby girl had been delivered and was doing well. The first girl in over 16 years. They prayed to the moon goddess, to express their gratitude to the saviour of their race.

Against all odds, this girl, this little miracle, had survived. She was the first girl born in over 16 years and she represented the rebirth of the wolves. She was all they cared about. She was their last hope.

They named her ‘Hope’.