The Alpha's Pendant

chapter two

Chapter two

My eyes snapped open.

The sunlight shone brightly in my face blinding me momentarily. A fuzzy figure in front of me was shaking her head and clicking her tongue disapprovingly. I blinked a few times and my mother came into view, her hands on her hips and staring at me exasperatedly.

"You really shouldn't have stayed up to twelve on that playstation of yours." She said. "Get up. It's eight already." She said, turning and walking out my room into the kitchen.

I looked around fuzzily almost expecting to see a throne room, bearded men and wolves around me but it was my room I saw, dirty and messy as it always was. It was all a dream then but what a dream! It had been so vivid it was as though I had experienced it live.

"I hope you are already in the shower, Luke." My mom called from the kitchen. "You don't want to miss school again."

Slight Correction to that statement; I WANTED to miss school. I hated my school, a high school full of bullies and boring subjects, none of which I was particularly good at. It didn't help that I wasn't exactly popular in school. I had no friends. The other kids laughed at my threadbare clothes and worn out shoes as I walked by. School was nothing short of toture.

I yawned, stood up slowly and stretched. Damn! I hate Mondays, I thought to myself as I looked around my horribly messy room. Piles and piles of laundry, washed and unwashed lay on my bed, flung carelessly over the door and on the floor. Wrappers of chocolate bars I had eaten yesterday was mixed up in the whole mess of it all. As my mother often said, my room could have easily passed for a pig pen.

I dug into the mess until I found what I was searching for. My biology homework. The drawing and labelling of some insect I had quickly scribbled yesterday night before going to bed.

I looked at the rough, poorly sketched drawing for a while, shrugged and put into my school bag. It will have to do. I didn't expect to get high marks on it or anything but at least I would have something to show for myself when we were asked to turn in our homework.

I picked up a pair of stinking, coloured socks flung on my play station and lobbed it into my already full laundry basket. I trudged through the mess of clothes to the bathroom, pulled off my pyjamas shirt, and looked in the cracked mirror.

I was tall for sixteen years, with long, greasy blonde hair, a long nose and dark gray eyes. On my chest, there was a criss crossing of scars.

Perhaps the most unique thing about me were those scars. The funny thing about it was that I didn't even entirely know the source of the scars myself. It had always been there on my chest as far as I could remember. I had always asked my mother the cause of the scars but she always mumbled vaguely about something that had happened when I was little and never went deep into details. I had been left to assume that I had been involved in some sort of accident in my toddler years.

I finished brushing my teeth and looked myself in the mirror again. I ran a hand through my long tangled hair. I flexed my muscles and whistled appreciatively. "These bad boys are shaping up nicely" I said softly, smirking to myself.

I only let the water run over my body for a little while before I was out again. I put on some clothes, slung my bag over my shoulder and walked out of my room.

As a manner of habit, I stopped on the way to the kitchen and looked at the picture of my late father hung above the door frame. He was dressed in a black, pinstriped suit, smiling serenely. Unlike me, he had pitch black hair that was so dark, the colour seemed almost unnatural. I had inherited his eyes though, those intense dark grey eyes that seemed they could see through you, and know exactly what you were thinking.

Smiling to myself, I walked into the kitchen where my mom was laying toast on my plate. She looked tired and her movements were sluggish. She almost always looked and acted like this. She worked two extremely stressful jobs trying to keep up with the rent and bills all over the house. She hardly had time to sleep and some nights, when she probably thought I was asleep, I could hear her up in her room, sobbing.

"Eat quickly" she said, putting a glass of orange juice in front my food and then walked out of the kitchen.

I picked a toast and started munching on it, listening to the faint honking of buses and cars in the busy street. In the flat below me I could hear faint screams and shouting. Mr and Mrs Norris were up to their early morning fights again. There was a high pitched scream and a sickly thump. I winced. Just get a divorce already if the both of you weren't up to it anymore.

My thoughts strayed back to my father again. If there was anything I wished for, I wished that he was still alive. I always dreamt of him, sometimes addressing a large crowd of people, sometimes laughing hand in hand with my mother, his dark hair rippling in the breeze, even sometimes throwing a blonde, chortling baby up in the air. Of course they were just dreams but these dreams were so real to me it seemed like betrayal merely thinking they had not truly happened. Though, admittedly there were some strange dreams where he would change into a wolf and back to human form for some inexplicable reason but that couldn't have possibly happened, could it?

I had always wondered how he had died. Of course I had asked my mom several times but she mumbled vague answers about some accident that had happened several years ago. Once again, I was left to assume that the accident that took my father's life was the same one that had given me the scars on my chest, but I wasn't entirely sure.

It seemed I was never sure of anything in my life. My mother gave a lot of these vague answers for a lot of questions I had asked her over the years. Like why she always disappeared once in a month and appeared back the next morning, her eyes red and her body full of scratches. Why I had never met any of my relatives whether paternal or maternal. Why the floor of her bathroom always had chunks of hair but when I touched it, didn't feel like any hair I had ever touched but rather suspiciously like the fur of some animal.

I finished my breakfast just as my mother came out, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, a green locket bouncing on her chest as she walked towards me. She always wore that locket. When I say "always", I mean like; 'I have never seen her in my life without that locket on her neck' kind of always.

"There is left over pasta and meatballs in the microwave." She said, combing her hair hurriedly and holding a hair clip with her teeth. "You can warm that up and eat if I am not home yet when you get back from school."

"Mom, I've got a soccer match today." I said.

"Really?" She said, distractedly. "What time?"

"Five. Will you be able to come?"

"I don't know Luke" she said. "But I'll try, dear."

She finished combing her hair, checked herself from the reflection in the kitchen window, planted a quick kiss on my cheek and walked out of the door.

I sighed and slung my bag pack over my back as I walked out of the house. I locked the door and put the key under the door mat. I had to be done with highschool quickly so I could get a job and help my mom with expenses. Working two jobs was making her get too stressed.

I walked down the stairs and to a hidden storage room on the ground floor where I kept my bike. I pushed open the heavily graffitied door, coughing as I inhaled dust. There was plenty of junk in the room; deflated balls, broken buckets, empty wine bottles and of course, my bike. I preferred keeping it there for several reasons but mostly for its own safety. The last time I had kept my bike chained outside, some kids in the neighborhood had punctured both tires with a nail after trying and failing to steal it.

I brought the bicycle out and cleaned the dust off its seat. I was about to climb it when a voice called my name from behind.

"Hey! Solace."

I looked behind, it was Marcus, a teammate from the soccer team in the neighborhood.

"Hi, Marcus." I said. I held out my hand for him to shake as he walked closer but he ignored it.

"Coachie's asked us to be on the pitch before the match starts, for training." He said. "He asked me to tell you."

"Oh." I said, letting my hand fall back awkwardly to my side. "What time?"

"Four thirty. Don't be late." He said and walked away.

I sighed and rode off on my bike to school. I could understand why the coach wanted us to arrive thirty minutes before the game started. We were in the semi finals of a local under-17 competition. If we made it to the finals and won, we would get five thousand dollars but we were matched up in the semis against a seriously tough opponent.

I had to get to the pitch quickly. School closed by three-thirty so if I rushed home, showered, had lunch and rushed out again, I should be able to reach the pitch on or before four-thirty.

I got to school in good time, chained my bike and walked quickly towards the school with the dozens of other chattering students. I entered the school hallway and went towards the lockers.

"Hey! Shoelace! Tushman!" A voice yelled at me from the end of the hall and a few people sniggered.

I sighed. Here we go again. Bullies. Those who had decided for whatever reason, that they were going to make my life in this school a living hell.

I tried to ignore them and opened my lockers to take my books. Perhaps if I just shut up and kept my head down, they would stop. I didn't want to get into any fights or trouble that would land me in detention, not when I had a match later this evening.

I had packed all my books when the locker doors slammed in my face.

"Hey! Shoelace, why didn't you answer us when we called you?" A voice said.

I looked up, it was Connor. A hefty, six foot tall boy with a short bowl cut and trollish, tattooed arms. Connor seemed to have no business in school than to go around harassing people. He and his band of gormless goons that followed him wherever he went, doing his bidding and laughing at the jokes he made no matter how silly they sounded, made up the most feared lot in this place.

He knocked my books out my hands.

"You deaf?" He shouted. "Why didn't you answer us?"

"Look" I said, raising my hands. "I don't want any trouble this morning. What do you want? If it is my lunch money, I…."

"Shut up! Who needs your stupid lunch money." He said. "We all know your family's too poor to give you lunch money anyway." He added, smirking and his g**g burst out in stupid laughter. I felt a flash of anger.

"Well I bet my family's poverty is nothing compared to the sadness your family had realising they gave birth to a dunce like you!" I yelled before I could stop myself.

The g**g suddenly stopped laughing. Their grins were replaced by a stony look. Connor's mouth was open in surprise at first then his face contorted in rage.

"What did you just say to me, huh?" He shouted and grabbed me by the collar. His red face was close to mine and I caught a whiff of alcohol on his stale breath. Great. I was about to get punched by a drunk bully in the middle of an empty school hallway. What a wonderful way to start my Monday morning.

"I should knock a tooth out of that stupid mouth of yours." He growled, spraying me with spit.

"Hey, Connor." One of his goons tapped him on the back "Principal Jeffery is coming."

Connor hesitated for a moment, his face purple and a vein throbbing in his head, then he let me out of his grip.

"You are lucky today, d**k head!" He said and thumped me hard on my nose with his finger. He and his goons left.

I straightened my clothes and picked up my books slowly. It was extremely lucky the principal had decided to walk through this hallway at this exact time, if not, this whole episode could have gotten very ugly for me.

"Hey, why are you out of class?" Principal Jeffery asked when he got to where I was.

"Just packing my books." I said and hurried off to history class. The bell for first period had been rung long ago.

"You are late Mr Solace" Mr Gomez, our history teacher said disapprovingly as I walked into class.

"I'm sorry." I said, hastily. "I got, huh, held up in the hallways."

"Have your seat. The class started five minutes ago." He said.

I walked to my seat near the back of the class, settled down and put my history textbook on the table.

"Well as we were saying before Mr Solace walked in" Mr Gomez said "Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Britain back during the second world war……."

I tried valiantly for five minutes to give full attention to what Mr Gomez was saying but I could already feel my concentration slipping away. Mr Gomez was the most boring teacher of them all in this school. If you came down to my school you would know that this meant something significant because our school had lots of boring teachers. All I could think of was the fact that probably in the hands of some other teacher, the topic of alliances and battle strategies during the second war could have been made much more interesting. Mr Gomez however continued droning on in his monotonous drawl of a voice, oblivious to the fact that about sixty percent of his students were drowsy and the other forty percent had their heads on the desk, fast asleep.

I was about to join the slumber party when I felt someone tap me from behind.

"Pssst……pssst" A voice whispered.

I looked behind me. A girl with red hair was smiling at me. Her name was Sarah. She was probably the only person in this school that didn't treat and regard me as if I was some sort of trash panda or something. We talked occasionally but these days, she had become much more friendly to me.

"Hey, Luke." She said.

"Hey Sarah, what's up?" I whispered back.

"You've thought about what I talked to you about? About the debate club?" She whispered.

Or of course she had only started being friendly because she was president of the debate club and was hoping I would join, I thought and I felt a strange plummeting feeling in my stomach.

"Sarah…." I started to say.

"Please Luke, pretty pleeeease." She pleaded.

I looked at her hopeful eyes, exasperated. She had been pestering me to join the debate club everyday for the past one week. I kept telling her I would think about it, in a flippant voice hoping she would take hint and just leave me the heck alone.

"I don't know anything about debate." I said. "I don't even know how to debate. I am the opposite of the sort of person you'd want at a debate club."

"You don't need to actually debate. You could just sit with the audience and clap and stuff." Sarah said, imploringly.

"Sarah, I still don't think…."

"pleeeease, please Luke" She said and pulled a puppy dog eyes at me and I guess that's the sort of thing some guys can't resist.

"Fine. I will join your debate club." I said after a long pause, knowing fully well that I would most probably regret this decision later on.

"Great!" She said happily. "There's a meeting today immediately after school. Will you be there?"

I considered for a moment. I guess it couldn't hurt if I stayed in school for extra thirty minutes. I should still be able to get to the game on time.

"Okay." I said.

"Mr Solace, miss Johnson." We both looked up to see Mr Gomez looking at us disapprovingly, as though disappointed that we were the only ones in his class who didn't have their heads on their desk and snoring away.

When I walked into the debate club a dozen set of eyes turned on me coldly. I could almost hear their thoughts screaming; "what's this wierdo doing here!?"

Most of them were high intellectuals. The A and B students in school. They most probably did not want someone like me joining their debate club.

Sarah had her back on me as she was addressing the audience. I cleared my throat, she turned and saw me.

"Oh, yeah." She said. "Everyone, this is Luke. Luke is our newest member of the debate club."

I raised a hand in greeting, feeling like I was in a bright spotlight. All eyes in the room stayed fixed on me.

Sarah cleared her throat and they turned their eyes back on her.

"Round of applause for Luke please, as he takes his sit."

There was a scattered, unenthusiastic sort of applause as I walked to take my sit at the very back of the room. I felt immensely out of place.

"Right." Sarah continued. "The topic of debate today….."

I let Sarah's voice wash over me. I was just going to stay thirty minutes and after that, I was getting out of this place. I looked at the time, it was 3:36. I would stay till four, then excuse myself and go home.

My head almost hit the table. I was dozing off. I couldn't afford to sleep off. I had to stay awake.

I fought valiantly to stay alert for five more minutes. I tried concentrating on what the debators were saying but honestly, I couldn't because I didn't have a remotest sense what they were blabbing away about. They could have been gargling for all I knew. I could already feel myself going sleepy again. I felt my consciousness ebbing away as I fell into a light sleep.

The next thing I knew, everyone around me was applauding and I woke up with a start. I wiped the sweat off my face and looked around, confused. Everyone was up, packing their books and writing materials. I looked sideways. Sarah, who was sitting beside me was also packing up.

"What's going on?" I asked groggily. "Did the debate start yet?"

"Yeah it did." She said, rolling her eyes at me. "it started an hour ago. And now it's over."

My mind was still fuzzy from sleep and it took a few moments for me to fully digest her words, then suddenly, the impact of those words struck me.

"Wait!" I said. "Did you just say the debate started an HOUR AGO?!"

"Yeah." Sarah said, looking at me curiously. "Anything the matter?"

I quickly brought out my phone and checked the time on it. Goodness! It was already 4:38. The match was supposed to start by five.

I snatched my bag from the desk and slung it over my back.

"I've got to go!" I told Sarah hurriedly.

"Really?" She said, looking at my face. "I was hoping maybe we could walk home together…."

"I've got to go!" I repeated foolishly, barely registering what she said.

I dashed out of the classroom into the hallway, ignoring the indignant grunts of the school janitor as I ran over the floor he was mopping. I ran out into the parking lot where my bike was chained. I unchained the bike as quickly as I could and rode out of the school premises into the main road.

I pedalled as fast as I could, furious with myself. How could I have been so foolhardy? How did I let myself doze off and wake up one hour later with twenty two minutes to go to a seriously important game? Why did I even agree to joining that stupid debate club anyway?

I looked at my phone again. It was already 4:45. I wasn't even halfway home yet! I would definitely have to skip lunch. All I could do was change into my football kit and rush out again but even at this rate, I would definitely not be able to make it home by five o clock talk less of the game.

Then an idea popped up in my head.

There was a shortcut through a web of alleyways through our neighborhood. If I took that shortcut I should be home in roughly five minutes. The problem with that was that the alleyway always had g**g members, criminals and d**g addicts who stuck around in shady corners, partaking in shady deals and selling drugs. My mom had warned me seriously about taking that route but these were desperate times and they required desperate actions.

After looking around me furtively to see if I was being watched, I took a left turn into the alley. I looked at my phone again, it was 4:48, but I was no longer panicking. I should be able to reach home in five minutes and get to the match in good time. I took a right turn, going deeper into the maze of alleys. It was strangely empty today. The usual hordes of youths smoking and drinking were absent. Perhaps the cops had raided or something and they had been arrested.

I took another right turn when suddenly, two men walked out of the shadows and faced me. They had been so well camouflaged against the wall of the building they might have just melted out of the darkness. I held my hand brake hard and screeched to a stop, just barely avoiding hitting them.

I pushed my bike backward cautiously. Who were these men? They didn't look like the usual sort you've find around here. The first one was short, bald, with bloodshot eyes and a twitching mouth. The second, was of middle height, wearing a eye patch. A long scar ran down the side of his face and disappeared into his thick, curly beard. They were both oddly dressed, in thick coats that reached their feet and woolen hats. I wondered why anyone would wear such thick clothing in this burning April heat. Behind them, I noticed a red car crammed in between two buildings in the alley.

Our silent staring contest went on for several minutes before I finally got the nerve to speak.

"Um…sorry but I….can I pass?" I asked in my politest voice.

"Well, well, well if it isn't the famous Luke Solace." The short man said.

I blanched. How did these men know my name?

"What is it the elders say, Rowan?" The taller man continued. "The young 'uns grow up fast? Eh?"

"Ay." The shorter, bald man said, smiling and revealing yellowed, decaying teeth. "Don't I jist remember when he was a baby crying and screaming in the Beta's hands all the time in the wolf house?"

My mind began to beat uncomfortably fast. Their words were hard to understand. What were they talking about? Beta? Wolf house? Who exactly were these men?

"I'm sorry" I said. "But who are you guys?"

"Did you hear that, Carvin? He asks us? He asks us who we are?"

And to my further confusion, the two men doubled up in raucous, humourless laughter. I didn't understand. Why were they laughing? What I said wasn't even funny. I looked on, perplexed as they went on all fours, banging the floor with their large hands, their eyes streaming with tears of mirth.

The men finally stopped their laughing frenzy and straightened up, wiping the tears off their eyes. The taller man spoke.

"You ask us Luke Solace, who we are? Didn't you mother ever tell you anything?"

"Tell me what?"

"Let us show 'im." The shorter man said. "Let us show 'im who we truly are."

There was a sudden, horrible choking sound. Something strange was happening. Fur was filling the men's face, claws extending from their hands, except what was formerly a human had now transformed into paws. Inch long fangs grew from their mouth, their noses were turning into wolf snouts. I watched in astonishment. In a matter of three seconds, where two men had stood talking to me, there now stood two adult, gray wolves.

"You ask who we are Solace?" One of the wolves said. They spoke in a strange combination of human speaking and wolf snarling. "We are faithful servants of alpha Lucas Wolfe and we have come to take you home, Luke Solace Junior."

I stood, paralyzed in terror as the wolf leaped at me. I couldn't even raise a hand to defend myself. I felt razor sharp claws tearing at my shirt as it pushed me to the ground.

I tried to stand back to my feet but the wolf slashed at my face and I fell to the ground in pain, tasting blood in my mouth.

"You are just like your father." The wolf snarled while the other barked in laughter. "Self centred, over confident. You think you have all the strength and power in the world, but in reality, you are weak and lazy and obnoxious and when you face a real adversary………you crumble as easily as clay."

The wolf ran at me again. I threw my bicycle at it as hard as I could but with amazing reflexes, the wolf managed to dodge it, rolling on its back onto the floor and standing straight back up. I felt a stab of regret as the bike landed hard on the ground, the handle bar dislodged from the rest of the bicycle.

The other wolf ran at me and before I could react, it leaped at me and bit hard into my left hand. It started dragging me towards the red car. I screamed in anguish. I had never felt pain as excruciating as this in my life. It felt like the whole of my hand was on fire. My skin scraped and grazed on the floor as the wolf dragged me mercilessly towards the red car.

My right hand suddenly closed around something on the floor. Something hard and heavy. Without giving it much thought, I swung whatever it was at the wolf with my right hand. It hit it's head and it crumpled to the ground, whimpering.

I looked at what I had used to hit it. It was a piece of iron rod. I stood up to my feet, wobbly, blood rolling down from the bite wounds in my left hand and dripping to the ground.

The other werewolf walked towards me, growling angrily. It ran at me again and leaped but this time I was prepared. I swung the piece of iron with all my might and smashed the wolf in the ribs. It fell to the ground in pain.

I dropped the piece of iron on the floor and ran as fast as my legs could carry me, out of the dark alley way, listening to the frustrated howling of the wolves behind me