The Wolf Keeper

Chapter 2 Ball

            As the sun began to lower in the sky, the guests began to show up. Most of them I knew from school, as those deemed human attended a different school than the wolves. We all went to a school to teach us how to act like we are from the human world, to learn the rules and laws we would have to be obeying once we left home. This was basically a farewell for those of us who lacked mates. My family would be entering the ball room at six o’clock on the dot, as we were the host and that was the true start time.

            We enter with the youngest of my brothers going first up to the oldest and his mate following behind father and mother, and I would enter last. “Now enter Darwin Opal, followed back Zachery Opal, followed by active Beta Joseph Opal and wife Linda Opal, followed by former Alpha and Luna Samuel and Lauran Opal, followed by active Alpha and Luna Paul and Penelope Opal.” The crowd clapped for my family, as I smiled over to them, wishing them the best as the outcast.

            Though I had never been treated differently than my brothers, I knew I was. I was the first of my family to be born with blue eyes, and so I was assumed to be the first to be born without a wolf. I wasn’t the same as them, and so I was never included when they were announced. It hurt, yes, but I couldn’t be included as I would not have a roll in the pack.

            As I watched them enter, I smiled as they walked before the members of my future team. I watched my brothers’ look at their mates, and my father look at my mother. I remember the stories of the feeling you get when you see your mate for the first time. That your world is completed, that you could feel your wolf pacing around your mind, before that moment, you could hear her sigh or purr with pure joy and love. I smiled seeing that vision painted on their faces.

            I knew I was different from my pack, but my family never treated me like I was, they loved me no matter who I was. “And now to announce, Lady Mina Opal, first alpha to the Keeper of Wolves.” I looked to Burt, the announcer, shocked at what he called me. But I stepped forward, holding my head high as my mother had always taught me to. I kept looking at the people, holding only a small smile. I joined my family in our spot.

            I leaned in close to mother and whispered, “Thank you,” knowing it was her who gave my title to me. There was a slight bow of her head, accepting my thanks. She always wanted me to have a roll in the family and now I would have a reason to remain part of my world.

            The night moved on with only a couple of my classmates joining other packs feeling the pull to their mate. I smiled watching as they would get to be adopted by a wolf on the day they met their mate. They would finally be a part of a real pack on that day. I chuckled remembering one lesson was the myth of how we became werewolves. We have to be bitten by a werewolf on a full moon, not meet our mate and be adopted by our wolf, unless we are born with one.

            I was lost in my past lessons when Avye started to growl, low at first, but it got darker, I looked around, wondering why. Then my eyes locked with King Alpha LeRoy. For a moment I thought I was wrong, because that was when Avye growled even louder in my head, she didn’t declare him as her mate, but demanded I run for my life.

            I took one step away, and bumped into my father. My body started to shake, “Mina?” I pulled my eyes from the king, I couldn’t even remember his face, only that he had dark green eyes. Father looked at me, seeing me shaking, I felt his arm on mine, trying to calm me down. He had never known me to be scared of anything. “Mina?” I could barely hear his voice, his face was starting to blur. Avye was close to surfacing. My secret was about to be known.

            With a shake of my head, I pushed him away, running toward the exit, trying to hold Avye off until I was outside, but my brothers were following me, yelling my name. Too late.

            “RUN!” My voice growled at those closest to me. Then they heard a sound no wolf ever made after the first shift. My bones snapped, moving to reveal Avye’s wolf. Her snow white fur blooming from my skin. I felt my eyes blink, knowing they were changing from my blue eyes to her violet one. I watched at those around me run back, even though a wolf shift was not as scary when you grew up around it.

But months after she woke up Avye explained to me she wasn’t a real wolf. She was the last female of her kind, a lycan. What made her even more unique for a lycan was only a queen was white.

            I could feel Avye’s eyes fixed onto King Alpha LeRoy, growling at him, teasing him to come out for a fight. Avye, please stop. Don’t do this.

            Her legs turned away, walking from the ball room, outside to our fields. She loved being outside, she loved the clean air. Once her paws touched the ground of the field, she laid down, waiting. He is marked to be the mate of a lycan. He must prove his worth. Her voice was as sweet and calm as always. Though you would never guess that from her growling.

            With a sigh, I felt my mental legs sit down by her mental wolf. Please don’t say we have to fight him.

            Her laugh was as beautiful as the full moon. No, he must know my name. The true mate of a lycan has his mate’s name burned into his skin. Then he will have to accept us before all. And declare your fate is to live not die. Not in words, but in actions.

            Our eyes looked up to the moon, it would be simple enough, just depends on if the king understood what Avye really was. The night moved forward, it wasn’t until around midnight, when once more a full moon watched over me, that a black wolf jumped in front of us, my family following behind. This wolf was bigger than a normal wolf, even Avye smiled at this.

            With a shake of her body, she stood up facing him. “Mina, King Alpha LeRoy had declared war on our pack if you don’t stand down.” My father looked so sadden by what he was saying, “As we never took you into our pack, as we didn’t know you had a wolf, all we can only ask you to protect this family.”

His head bowed, my brother Paul stood up next to him, his eyes dark, as though his wolf was close to surfacing, “But you are our sister, our blood. We came to an agreement. If you let him take you as his mate, he will let you stay with us. And train you as a wolf, and future Luna Queen.”

Avye looked to the wolf, “What’s my name?” Her voice only carried to him, as he had to be the only to tell her name.

The black wolf looked at us, his head leaned to the side, puzzled at this question. Avye lowered her head, baring her teeth. He looked at her, sat down on his hind legs. His front paw moved across the dirt in front of him, what looked to be a word.

            My father stepped up and went to see what the ground said, “Avye?”

            Her head nodded, then sat herself, waiting for his to declare what he was to declare. He seemed to understand he had something to do, so he went shift back to human, with his suit back on. It was a black suit with a white undershirt. His green eyes stood out under his brown hair. His skin was clearly tanned by the sun. Though he looked annoyed he stood before us, lowed his head, almost like he was bowing, “I, King Alpha LeRoy Blackworth, declare, Mina Opal, daughter of Alpha Samuel and Luna Lauran Opal, barer of blues eyes and companion of the Lycan Queen, to be my mate for this life and the next, and her life will end by the hand of the elders.”