Prophecy of the Alphas

Chapter 4

ARIA'S POV

"Shut up," Vivian said.

"I swear there was a wolf on Grandma Jo's grave, and I cut the barbed wire off its snout. It looked at me, then ran off."

Vivian looked at where I was gesturing and then at me. "That's just so crazy. And you said its eyes were glowing red? I can believe everything else, but the eyes thing is weird. Are you sure you weren't imagining that part?"

"I'm positive. I think. Maybe it was my adrenaline. I'm still determining. But they seemed to be glowing red. It was all pretty spooky."

Vi sat at the counter, looking at my makeshift job of fixing the door. "What are you going to do about all that?"

"I have Sam from Fixing-It coming over later this afternoon. He's got a new door and will replace it," I replied.

Before anything else could be said, a knock at the front door interrupted us. Vi arched an eyebrow at me. "I thought you said Sam was coming this afternoon. It's not even noon yet."

I glanced down at my phone to see if he had texted me telling me there was a plan change but saw nothing. "Maybe he was in the area and decided to come early. I'll be right back."

I made my way to the front door as the knocking continued. Sam was impatient based on his knocking. Not checking the peephole, I swung open the door. "Sorry, I wasn't exp..."

I froze. The man in front of me was not Sam. The man in front of me wasn't someone I recognized at all. He was over six feet tall, with dark hair that reached his shoulders and shoulders that almost fit the door frame of my entryway. In my shock, I stepped back a foot. He smirked, "Hello, Aria."

The man knew my name. I had no idea who he was, but he knew who I was. I said nothing but gripped the door tightly. "Aria! Are you going to..."

Vivian's voice wavered as she came up and saw the stranger staring me down. "Is this Sam?"

I shook my head, still not taking my eyes off the strange man. Vi looked at me and then the man. "Who are you then?"

He turned his attention to my friend. "I'm Leo. I came with an invitation for Aria."

He held out a long brown envelope. I stared at it, not taking it. Vi snatched it from him, Leo eyeing her. She opened it, reading over it quickly. "A party? At that weird place in the woods?"

Leo cleared his throat. "Our community isn't a weird place. But we heard about Mrs. Jo's passing and wanted to invite Aria to get to know our community. Mrs. Jo was an active part of our community."

I stepped forward. "What are you talking about?"

Leo's eyes gleamed, seeing he had caught my attention. "Yes, Mrs. Jo often visited us and helped us. We were sad to hear about her passing. We were hoping to get to know her granddaughter as well."

I narrowed my eyes. "why didn't she mention your community?"

"We're a private bunch of people. She probably respected that."

Grandma Jo was the sort to do that. He wasn't wrong about that. I was curious what she was up to when I wasn't here visiting. She always said she had a fulfilling life here in Silverwood but never expanded on it. I always wondered what sort of hobbies she had. Her house only showed that she read books, crafted, or did much of anything other than cook or clean. And you can only do so much cooking and cleaning for one person.

Vi looked between us and then grabbed the door. "We'll consider this invite. But for now, you should probably go. Luke, was it? Bye-bye.”

"Leo."

"That's what I said, Larry."

Before he could say anything else, Vi closed the door in his face. I stared at her before bursting into laughter. "You're my favorite person ever."

She grinned in response. “So, did you really wanna go?"

I shrugged. "Sort of. I am curious about the people Grandma Jo spent her time with. Also, how many times do you get to hang out with a cult? Because from its sounds, these people sound like a cult, right?"

Vi nodded. "A cult."

"Let's get ready to go to a cult gathering then!"

*****

The party was that night. Talk about last-minute invitations. It's kind of rude, to be honest. But after Sam fixed the door, Vi and I rushed to get ready.

We didn't know what kind of 'affair' the party was, but since it was a party in a compound in the woods, it was probably casual.

Vi, dressed in one of my black dresses, went down to her knees, swept her brown hair up, and did simple makeup around her large brown eyes. I went with a blue dress that also went to my knees and left my blonde hair down, doing a smokey shadow that brought out the blues of my eyes.

Casual but feminine. Hopefully, we weren't overdressed, if anything. If everyone were in jeans and T-shirts, we'd look silly. But we planned to fake being sick and leave early if things got awkward.

We drove to the compound, which is a weird thing to call the place if it wasn't a cult; per se, we saw gates. Yeah, this wasn't very safe. They didn't have guns, but the men standing outside didn't look like people to mess with. They stopped us, and I rolled down my window. The blonde guard leaned in. "Can I help you?"

Vi leaned over, shoving the invitation at him. "Lance invited us."

I snickered, but I swallowed my giggle when the guard glanced at me. He looked over the invite and then signaled to the other guard. They stepped back and motioned us to drive through. Success. We had gained access to the prestigious compound.

Vi leaned over to me. "I wonder if we're the only outsiders invited here tonight."

Good question. Because if so, you'd think they'd be expecting us. I shrugged. "There might be other townies coming. I'm not sure. We'll find out."

The invite had instructions to guide us where to drive within the compound to the banquet hall, so we slowly crept along, following the guide, and finally, we reached the destination and found a place to park.

Looking at each other, we exited our car and headed up the stairway, still not seeing a soul. Everyone must have already been inside.

Then we heard the music. And laughter and people talking. The knot of apprehension finally started to dissipate. People. Finally. I looked over at Vi, who also looked relieved.

Pushing open the door, we stepped inside. Expecting to walk into a lively room, we were surprised when the room went silent, and everyone turned and stared at us as if we were the main event. Why was everyone staring at us?