The Don's Daughter

A letter from beyond the grave

A letter from beyond the grave.

The whole car journey home, we were silent. Which was normal if I’m honest, my father was always so conscious that the car phone had been tapped into by other mob leaders, so we were always silent during car journeys. Although I didn’t talk to Akeliah on the way home, I couldn’t help but notice how different I felt knowing that I had someone there with me. I cant believe I had never sensed her before.

Then it dawned on me, how many others were like me? Is mother a wolf? What about father? Jesus, what else is real? Is the Mafia in on this?

When we got back to the house, I bolted up the stairs and into my room shutting the door behind me. I walked over to my closet to find something to wear, I was super conscious that I was still very much naked underneath this coat. I wonder what happened to my clothes.

 'When we shift, your clothes get torn to shreds! always best to carry back-ups around with us in future' chimed Akeliah.

'Makes sense, I mean I’m pretty small and you’re a giant mythical creature of course you're not gunna fit in my clothes' I replied with a chuckle.

I opened the dark wooden built-in wardrobe, most of my clothes were just basic and modest which worked for me, I’m invisible and I like it. I chucked on a pair of sweatpants and plain black long sleeve Tee, I glanced at my watch realising it was only just 10am.

'What the hell? I thought it was like 2pm?'

'Time works differently for us Andy, were faster than humans so we can do things quicker. Quicker thought processes, quicker reaction times you get the gist'

'oh, right'

As I got to the top of the stairs, I could hear my family talking louder and clearer than normal.

'Is super hearing part of the fun too?' I asked my wolf.

'You'll learn to drown it out'.

I walked down the marble staircase and turned left into our living room. The whole house was incredibly boujee but the living room especially was a show of pure wealth and power. The walls were covered in Ancient medieval paintings, which looking at them now it was like I was seeing them for the first time. The portraits were all centred around mythical/fantasy creatures, talk about hiding in plain sight.

We had deep red chesterfield sofas, which lined the enormous fireplace in the centre of the room. The fireplace was made entirely from Italian white Marble and the mantle was solid gold. I found my gaze wondering up to the portrait in the centre of the room above the fire place on the chimney breast, it was a painting of a huge pack of wolves mid battle in the middle of a baron land.

My eyes finally fell on my family as I sat down on the couch.

'So, tell me everything and start from the beginning. I don't want you to miss a single bit out.'

My uncle got up from his seat and travelled towards the old bookcase, his hand falling on a particular shabby book written in Italian. He shook the book and out fell a letter, he picked it up and handed it to me.

'Your father wrote this the day you were born, in case he wasn’t here to explain things on your 16th birthday.' his tone was sad, and his eyes glazed clearly lost in the memory of his friend. 'Read it, then we can talk.' with that he exited the room followed silently by Donovan.

'Did you get one of these?' I held up the letter to Salvatore, searching his face for answers. 'If you remember, we were 17 when dad passed on. They had told us on our 16th birthday what to expect. I'll errr leave you to it.' he awkwardly stood up and left me alone in the room.

 Well not entirely alone, I thought to myself.

'I'm glad to have you here with me Akeliah.'

She let out a soft whine in reply, her mood felt calm and without another thought I ripped open the letter and began to read.

'Andrea,

If you are reading this, it means that me and your mother did not make it to your 16th birthday and for that I am sorry. Just know that wherever we are, we are proud of you and the young woman you are becoming. You may not be able to see us and talk to us, but we are there in your heart and in your memory.

Our history is a long one, and It starts with the legend of a man that could turn into a beast when the moon is at its fullest.

In the beginning, there were nothing but wolves. Half man, half beast we roamed the earth at peace with each other, living in packs and living very simply. Our one and only goal in life was to survive (think cave man times). As time went on, we evolved; we came to realise that although we were animals with a pure instinct to hunt and kill, we were also human. So we felt pain, anger, suffering, happiness, love…

As we as a species evolved some of us started to detest the inner conflict between our human minds and our wolves. We were forced to give into our wolves every full moon and shift, the pain I am told was excruciating for our ancestors. When we took on our wolf form we had no control, no say in our actions; and wolves follow the  number one basic instinct… to kill.

Many wolves would slaughter members of their packs, their mates, their children… and our human sides could not take the anger and guilt that they felt, and so they learned to suppress their wolves and cut all ties with them. As more wolves began to see the allure of cutting ties the population of wolves began to dwindle, and that is how humans evolved.

But as evolution and mother nature continued to fight back against the abomination that they saw humans as the wolves gained more strength, were able to learn to control their wolves therefore the regular full moon shift from man to beast was no more. We could talk through our minds with members of our packs, we gained strength and we learned to sense our soul mates if they were close. Everything became heightened to our senses; anger, fear, love, passion everything.

Eventually the humans grew jealous of what we had become, in their anger they began to hunt down the packs one by one until we were all but extinct. So our ancestors hid amongst the humans, never revealing their true form and eventually as the world forgot, we turned into myth.

There have been many rebellions of our kind against the humans, but the humans learnt fast how to cultivate the magic of the earth and created other abominations of nature to match our strength and speed. You know them as Vampires. Andrea its all true, everything you’ve ever dreamt of is true.

A war is coming, I don’t know when and I don’t know how but please hide yourself. There are legends about white wolves, I’m not even sure myself what is real and what isn’t but please don’t risk it. Your uncle will explain more.

I’m sorry I’m not there with you’

As I finished the letter tears began to hit the paper with a small ‘plop’. My mind was reeling at this, I’m not sure how much more I could take but I had to know the truth. Why must I hide? What war did he warn me against? I stared into the roaring fire, I couldn’t tell you how long for when I began to feel my eyes getting heavy. I laid down on the sofa and looked up at the painting of the war of the wolves, I gently closed my eyes and let sleep take me.

The sound of bullets and broken glass surrounded me, I turned to see what was happening to find myself in a baron wasteland surrounded by fire and blood. The smoke from the fire was stinging my eyes and as I squinted, trying to see what was going on I was met with the eyes of a thousand wolves. Fully surrounded I prepared myself to fight, theres no doubt I would meet my end here tonight but I’ll be dammed if it happens without a fight. Suddenly without warning my wolf took over, the sound of my bones cracking filled my ears and the pain made my eyes sting. I let out a loud and authoritative howl, and to my surprise the wolves surrounding me joined in. This was our battle cry. I looked up ahead to see a huge army of wolves charging towards us, I looked into the eyes of their leader only to find an odd sense of familiarity. Frozen to the spot, the giant black wolf descended upon me, his teeth snapping and already covered in the blood from his previous victims. I closed my eyes ready to met my end. 

My eyes snapped open, my breathing heavy as I searched the room for some sort of explanation. I sat up and slowed down my breathing, while wiping the cold sweat from my face. It was just a dream. I shook my head bringing myself back to reality, remembering the jaws of the wolf as they enclosed around my neck. 

I stood up and checked my watch, it was 3pm “s**t I’ve been out a while” I muttered. I made my way towards the door to the living room when I turned and gave the painting one last look. 

“A war is coming” I heard my fathers voice echo in my head. 

 I made my way groggily to the kitchen, and to my surprise it was empty. I grabbed myself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter trying to take in everything I’d found out today. Before I could even sit and think about it all my brothers entered the room, followed by my uncle.

'Finelmente sorellina'  (Finally Little Sister) boomed Salvatore as he sauntered over towards the kitchen island. I noticed they had both changed from their suits to matching grey Nike tracksuits, I swear these two could not get anymore cliché. s**t  ''You missed training.' Said my uncle, disinterested.

'Well I did just kind of turn into a werewolf in front of the Mexican mafia and half my school faculty.. I think you can cut me some slack' I retorted, my attitude oozing from my voice. At this point I wanted answers, I couldn't give a s**t about martial arts. I looked between the three of them wondering who was going to speak first.

'So, I read dads letter. which pretty much explained the basics but he said I would need to know more, so spill it' I took a sip of my coffee whilst eyeing my uncle over the rim of the cup.

'Can I read it?' asked my uncle curiously. I silently passed him the letter that was on the kitchen island and studied his face intently as he read it. But of course, he gave nothing away...

'Your father covered most of it, vaguely... There are books in the library here at home if you wish to read more about your ancestors, but sit down a sec there's a few things he didn't mention. Yes there were rebellions and war but now there is peace, that is thanks to the council.'

'The council?' I asked furrowing my eyebrows.

'The council is made up of representatives of the different races of super naturals, and together they bring up issues of territory, goods ect ect I wont bore you with that.'

'No uncle please, I want to know this stuff. Are the council like the super natural police or something?'

My brothers sniggered looking at one another, I sent them both a glare which made them stop abruptly.

'Kind of. They are ultimately peace keepers and negotiators, they don't tend to arrest anyone unless they break our number 1 rule- keeping our existence a secret from the humans.'

'Okay, so why do we have to keep it secret? to stop wars? I mean you can pretty much have any gender nowadays im pretty sure humans would be open to the idea that there are fairies living in their gardens'

'Fairies live in forests, not in peoples back yards.' Said Donavon, very smugly.

'what the f**k?' I muttered out loud by accident.

'You've got a lot to learn kid, hit the books, talk to your wolf whatever just know that you're still starting your new training after summer break. We need you in the field STAT' Salvatore clicked his fingers at the end of his sentence, causing me to glare at him.

'You seriously expect me to just carry on my life as normal joining NYPD and be a werewolf?' I shrieked at him.

'Yes, you still got a job to do here Andy. Just because you're a wolf doesn't mean you can shirk off paying rent around here.'