Visionary Wolves

Chapter 8: His Memories

The funeral ceremony for Keiron's father included plenty of prayers, condolences, and offers to help. Keiron's mother graciously accepted assistance but Keiron could already see that her face had changed. It was as if she had aged ten years in a day. Her smile was practiced. She was barely holding it together.

Faeden saw it coming before Keiron as death had just cast its shadow in the forefront of his mind. He warned anyone who would listen, not least of all his mother, that she was getting sick. Faeden said it would be his mother who would die next. Many of the pack chastised him for thinking so morbidly and placing doubt upon such a powerful person but he had been right. Within ten days, perhaps of a broken heart, she passed away on the very floor where her husband had died.

Keiron couldn't begin to process the loss of his father but to lose his mother nearly broke him. He remembered shifting and sprinting out into the fields toward the mountains until his legs felt like they were going to buckle. In the early evening, he howled. His anguish was carried for miles.

The world that he had known for eighteen years was now foreign. When he returned to the pack, they began to look at him like he was faltering. They pointed out the cracks that were showing and finally, a week after his mother's death, he was challenged. Obviously, his pack didn't have faith in his ability to lead. But that would change.

It was early evening while wandering around the territory. A testosterone-fueled fight between one of his kin and two outsiders was about to start. It wasn't unlikely to have the west-end pack members fighting with other wolves from outside or even within their clan. That is what he came across the day he was challenged.

Instinctively, he shifted attempting to even the odds. He and the other wolf, Nick, stood their ground, as one. They tussled with the wolves until they were tossing them left and right. Nick and Keiron soon made short work of the others and after one's white fur was covered in huge red splotches, they yielded.

Panting and in need of respite, Keiron plopped down on his haunches. Unexpectedly, a huge force hit him from behind, the world turned on its head. When he was rising, he saw that it was his pack's Gamma, Oscar. This was not a case of mistaken identity on Oscar's part.

Keiron and Nick stood shoulder to shoulder.

Oscar attempted another attack on both of them. After Nick had already exhausted himself with the others, it wasn't hard for Oscar to take Nick out of the fight. He whimpered when Oscar stood over him.

Keiron became irate and dove onto Oscar. He toppled him to the ground and began clamping down on Oscar's neck and chest with tremendous force. He kept his jaw locked as tightly as he could and began to shake against his throat.

Soon he punctured the skin several inches deep and the thrashing served to flay the wounds more. Keiron felt anger surge through his animal side but once he sensed that Oscar had yielded, he released him.

Oscar's blood spilled onto the ground and he immediately showed his belly. Keiron stood staring at him. After a few minutes when he was satisfied that Oscar was finished, he stepped back. Oscar's ears were down and his tail was low as he abruptly scuttled away. Keiron wasn't sure if Oscar would live.

Keiron's beast was still seething and primed. When another pack member challenged him, he took that one on as well. Inside of him a strength he had never known filled every cell. A spiritual calmness fell over him and he knew that Selene was guiding him.

The goddess and he were one as he fought each challenger after another. His movements were wild, yet poised. They were tactful and patient. He allowed himself to be her vessel and through her embodiment, he won.

As his tongue lolled out due to exhaustion, he stared at the different wolves who had stepped up to him. Many were higher up and as he watched them slink away in defeat, he felt pride. The hierarchy had shifted and a new order was upon them.

That night, he and Nick swam in the cold river that had been filled by the melting snow and washed their wounds. They didn't speak as they did this and when their eyes met, only a brief nod was exchanged. He had earned his place. Keiron was going to be one of the youngest Alphas their pack had known.

Luckily, his experience with an Alpha and Luna pair of parents and his grandparents helped to prepare him for the more adult responsibilities of council meetings about war and territory. After several gatherings where Keiron had spoken with outside pack members, they were impressed with his calm, yet dominant nature.

People's skepticism about a “child" running things, began to wane. They trusted him. When they went to war he was prudent but also quite formidable. His pack became known and feared in their area.

Over two years he had connected with Selene while fighting many times. When she was guiding him, he felt invincible. Then, as if for payment of these powers, he began to have dreams again. These dreams were about a future with black earth beneath his feet and fire in the forest. It was an apocalyptic hellish place that scared him more than death. The scenes could drag him down for days. He tried to stay awake for nights on end to avoid seeing it, but then it began to happen when he was awake.

When he couldn't take the toll on his sanity anymore, he decided to speak with their healer. Perhaps she could concoct something to help him rest. They met in her shop and he got straight to the point. Because of his honesty, she was frank with him. She suggested that he may be one of a very gifted group. A group of people that had been forced to stop living in the open by fear of death.

"Visionaries? Visionary wolves? This sounds completely made up."

"Shh. Not so loudly," she whispered. "These aren't stories. There are people who are selected by Selene."

She beckoned to him. The two sat on the floor behind her shop counter and cash register in the dark. She explained to him that four Visionaries were chosen each century by Selene. They experienced visions, dreams, and sometimes predictions of the distant future. When Visionaries were in close proximity, it was possible to connect directly to Selene. Keiron sat in silence. He no longer objected to the concept. Jasmine was describing what he had been going through. It was the only thing that made sense.

Jasmine opened a locked cellar in her shop. She stepped down into it and then fetched a book. When she handed it to Keiron, he noticed the intensely musty smell. Dirt and oil from fingers flipping the pages throughout the decades had collected at the edges. Smudges of blood, fur, and something sparkly were also sprinkled on some of the pages. She pointed to the section about the Visionaries and he began to read. In the barely lit room, he learned more about what used to be considered an amazing bestowment, had turned into a crime. Anyone speaking about it was snuffed out after wars were waged against the chosen four.

When she flipped to the center illustration it showed four wolves with rope-like connections to the goddess holding her arms up to the sky. It made him smile as their eyes met. She pointed to him.

"That is what you are."

"But I can't talk about it?"

"It has been the way for a very long time."

She explained that it was proven dangerous to both Visionaries and common wolves. The Visionaries had the power to destroy on their hands but the pack members had numbers. Jasmine warned about this as she flipped to another page that showed decapitated wolves and rivers of blood.

"Who is that?" Keiron pointed to a man depicted with long claws and fangs. His hair was white and his eyes were red.

"That is Lucien. Lucien Nottyngham. An ancient vampire. Farther back than the 1500s. He'd bring wolves under his thrall with powerful visions of his own. They'd drain their victim's blood and haul it in large tubs covered up with the skins of their own kin. All for him."

"Why?"

"Everlasting life. Power. He thought drinking the blood would bring him closer to Selene in a vision. And he promised them the same. But I don't think that is what happened. She would never appear to those who had committed acts so atrocious."

"Where is he now?"

"People used to know, but not anymore. It's been centuries since anyone saw him."

When Keiron shut the book, Jasmine put it back in the cellar and locked it.

"Can't I take it with me?"

"Goddess, no. If anyone knew I had it, at the very least I'd be fined and laughed at. At worst, I'd be banished completely. It needs to be kept a secret. This is one of the last copies."

Keiron's head was spinning.

***

Then he disconnected the tether from Hadleigh. He looked into her eyes for a moment.

“Visionaries? That's what we are?" she asked.