The Alpha's Keeper

LXXXII: Meaning of Devotion

Joshua looked at the horizon at night, and the moon was rising over him as he anticipated the fight to come. It was inevitable, and thus he chooses to look forward to it and get over with it than worry.

Erika looked at him with concern before she approached him and patted his back.

“We will be as ready as we can be. Your girlfriend is actually doing wonderful things with her powers, and she is one of the most efficient people I have ever met,” Erika said with unmasked amazement. Witches were known to be very powerful. But they have a fatal weakness, and that is their humanity. Meaning regardless of how strong a witch was, one would still eventually die.

However, a witch that was basically undead was someone who was both worth being awed and feared.  

Joshua smiled smugly and replied, “It’s good that you like your sister-in-law.” He knew that Edith, with the necessary resources, could achieve impressive things.

Erika chuckled at that before she shook her head and said, “Yeah, yeah.”

“I know she’s amazing, but it didn’t mean I am not worried,” he said while looking at his sister seriously.

Erika saw him directly, then she put her hand on his shoulder and asked, “What are you worried about, brother?”

Joshua glanced at her before looking up at the sky. He could not help but remember his last fights.

Yes, he had won many of those, but the truth was that it was very difficult for him to think that he was fit to lead his pack in the condition he was in, to suffer from each enemy, and it was not something his father.

“I want to ask you something, Erika. What you did when we were with the witch hunters, is that magic?” Joshua asked, not bothering to look at her. His gaze was still fixed into the sky.

The girl smiled and, looking at his face, said, “Everything around us is magic, brother, but I understand what you mean. No, that is a gift from the moon goddess! A mark of devotion!”

He stared at her and questioned, “How can I do that?”

She shook her head and said with a smile, “You should already be able to, our mother is a witness to the moon, and you and I are linked to her by blood, only you have not yet awakened that part of your power.”

Joshua smiled and, seeing his sister, said, “You mean I can make wolves out of my blood?”

She shook her head as she said, “No! That is my gift! I think each lycanthrope would have his own manifestation of his devotion, but you must ask yourself first, are you actually a devotee of the moon?”

Joshua looked at her, and without knowing what to answer, he sat on the edge of that long precipice. His sister touched his head delicately, and leaving him alone, he thought of Edith and her new friends and also of her pack, of all the responsibilities that he had.

While still looking at the moon, he said with all the honesty that his heart could conjure up, “Do I give you my devotion? To say yes just because I need your powers seems rather low.”

The silence lengthened as he tried to remember the times he had prayed, suddenly behind him, a voice sounded calm when he said, “Praying is not the only way to show your devotion, darling!”

He turned and saw his mother walking towards him, she had a shiny jug in her hand with water, and when they got to where they were, she poured the water into the void, and Joshua, without understanding what she asked to her, “What do you mean, mother?”

She looked at him before she finished pouring the water. Then she said, “This water fell to the ground and will feed the earth, is the water devoted to the god of the earth?”

Joshua saw her confused when her mother was looking at the moon, said, “You are a creature of the night. Your existence is linked to the existence of our god, so much so that in his presence your image grows, so tell me, my dear son, do you live up to your own image?”

Joshua looked at his mother, and his mind tried to think of that question. Lowering his head, he said, “I denied my position as an alpha for a long time, and that led to this disaster. I have to say no, I do not live up to the stamp of my race!”

She smiled and reached out to stroke his face, and she said, “There you have it, son. Accept who you are, and you can undoubtedly find the gift of devotion.”

Joshua closed his eyes and thought of all the times that he had been proud of who he was, and his mind flew quickly to that time that Edith saved him inside him, Joshua opening his eyes, remembered the wolves inside him, and looking at the moon he clenched his hands and transformed.

He was a huge black wolf, his body was full of hair, and his muscles grew a full size. His mother, when she saw him, smiled when Joshua separated his wolf person from his human body.

His mother looked at him. She released a helpless sigh before smiling and said, “A person so focused on keeping the two parts of life separate from him, and that is what god takes as your devotion, we will never know what ideas go through his mind, but it is clear that that is what he thinks.”

Joshua looked at the wolf part of him, and he was clearly huge, a few steps away from him.