A Wolf Scorned by Taylor Spratt

Syrus

Twenty years, twenty long years we have searched for a way to break our dreaded curse and today we have finally found her.

Amira could never know how we had suffered, how I had suffered to be forced into such a situation.

I was raised for the single goal of taking care of my pack. Every blood moon Alpha who came before me inherited a healthy pack, thriving and free.

But what could I do? I inherited a pack in shambles? A pack doomed to impulsively kill one another after doing what comes most natural to us, shifting to wolf form.

What use was an Alpha who couldn't save his own pack? The simple answer was, there was none.

My parents, though ruthless and stern, imparted one piece of wisdom in me before their dying breaths, one that I had carried with me to this day. ‘The only way for the Blood Moon shifters to find salvation is to break the curse.' There is no other way.

The only way to dissolve the shame that follows me everywhere I go, like the cloak of the Grim Reaper, is to awaken Amira’s power.

My thoughts were broken by the sound of Miles pushing open the gym door. He strode in, walked over to the towel rack and tossed a towel over his shoulder. He then lifted up a hundred pound dumbbell and began his work out.

I sat at the leg press, completely forgetting my count.

“You seem distracted today, Syrus. Don’t tell me you're going soft,” Callum snarked, pulling himself up for another chin up a few machines away from mine.

“Why don’t you come over here and say that,” I teased before straightening my legs to push against the resistance of the machine and continuing my work out. “Miles, how’s our house guest doing?”

“I showed her to her room, the one with the queen bed, just like you said,” Miles exhaled between reps. “Gave her a bar of soap and other supplies to bathe herself with. Poor thing looked like she’d never seen most of them in her life.”

“Good.” Callum did another chin up as sweat coursed down his face. “Maybe she can wash off that hole stink she’s been carrying around with her.”

“Hey, man, take it easy. She could be the one to save us. You should at least try to be nicer to her.” Miles dropped his dumbbell to stare daggers at Callum.

“I am being nice. I haven’t killed her yet, have I?” Callum released the pole and landed on the floor before wiping his face with a towel.

Callum shared the same burden I do as Alpha of a cursed pack, and it’s made his heart cold over the years. I only hoped that once our curse was lifted his heart may find some of the light it once held.

“Killing her would not help anything.” I rose from my station to lay flat on the bench press and began pressing a three hundred pound barbell up and down. “The Oracle... returns home tomorrow. She will… tell us how to awaken... her powers. Then you’ll see.”

“That old crone is like, what? Eight hundred years old? How do we know she hasn’t gone senile yet?” Callum said.

I dropped the barbell hard on the rack and Callum jumped from the sudden noise. “The Oracle is wise, powerful, and more importantly, her counsel is our only hope.”

Callum reached for his boxing gloves on a nearby stool and slid them on. He pounded the gym punching bag with a force so hard you’d think he planned to break the thing.

“You should just listen to me- and put more focus on my training sessions. Teaching the pack control… in their wolf form... is a viable- option.” His words were choppy and broken up by his blows to the bag.

“Last week two pack mates nearly killed each other,” I reminded.

“Five minutes they remained in control, before anyone got hurt.” Callum showed me five fingers. "Just think of how long they can remain in control with more practice.”

I rose from the bench, walked over to Callum, and held the bag from behind as he punched it.

“I know it’s hard on you seeing the pack this way. And I know it’s still not easy for you to share power with another alpha,” I said and immediately regretted it.

Callum’s arms fell and he gave me a pained look.

“Neither of us were born to share power, Syrus. I know it’s not easy on you either.” Callum rolled up his sleeve. He broke eye contact with me, not wanting me to see the pain in his eyes.

Though we are both Blood Moon shifters, Callum’s father and mine originally led separate packs. The curse affected us all and forced us to band together or wipe each other out. Since then our two packs became one, with two Alphas.

“We’ve been together twenty years, I think I can stand to be around you for a few more years.” Callum stretched out a hand to me.

I smiled, taking it, and replied, “I think I should be able to deal with your temper tantrums for a few more years as well. Let's just hope it’s less than two hundred, okay?”

“Two hundred years? If I’m still seeing your mug every day for that long I may just gouge my own eyes out.” Callum pulled his hand from mine and screwed up his face in a way that made Miles and myself laugh.

“Guys, I wanted to wait until we finished our work out session but I have bad news from the Sentinels.” Miles wiped the sweat from his arms and legs before tossing the towel to the ground and coming over to meet us by the punching bag.

“What’s happened now? Another unauthorized shift?” Callum interrogated and Miles shook his head.

“I wish that's all it was. But we’ve got much bigger problems.” His face looked feverish and his head drooped low.

“Ragnaron is at it again.”

Damn it, not this again. Ragnaron was the Alpha of a rival pack of Blue Moon shifters. They inhabited the neighboring territory and were the biggest pains in the ass I knew.

“Once again he’s been moving his wolves further and further into our territory and forcing our border watchmen to shift in order to defend our pack lands. Last night there was an all out brawl between six of ours and five of his.”

“And the casualties?” I prodded.

“All of Ragnaron’s wolves were killed,” Miles said with a somber tone that told me this wasn’t good news. “And all our wolves went on a blood thirsty killing spree through Coral Springs city. Our guys killed three gargoyles and a fae.”

“Damn it!” Callum threw a punch at the bag with such strength it ripped and his fist went clear through it.

“This is exactly what Ragnaron wants. If he keeps drawing us out and making us shift, soon we’ll be the enemies of every other magical being for a hundred miles of here, and then…”

“War,” Callum finished my sentence through gritted teeth.

“We had to pay the families of the gargoyles and fae in exchange for them not reporting it to their elders. We got lucky this time. But we won’t always be so lucky,” Miles said.

“That opportunistic bastard! If he had any sense of loyalty to his fellow wolves he would never use our curse against us like this.” Callum turned his back to lean against the punching bag.

This was no way for wolves to live. I was so tired of living in this constant state of unease, never knowing when our empire would crumble from the inside or due to outside attack. How many more would have to die until it was over?

“That coward needs to die before he runs us out of our home. If he were to show himself to me for just five minutes I’d rip his damn throat out.” Miles spoke with a fiery rage I’d seldom seen in him.

“Indeed, you are right. Which is exactly why we should not be betting the lives of our pack on the fairy tale of some powerless half-breed solving all our problems.”

“She will not be powerless when the Oracle tells us how to summon her power,” Miles argued, only for Callum to snap back viciously.

“Not if the Oracle was wrong about her. She is a weakling who cannot help us. We must save ourselves and the sooner you two wake up to this fact the better!” With that, Callum was off, disappearing out the gym door and down the hallway back toward his room.

A sobering silence descended on the gym as a chilling thought worked its way into my mind.

What if Callum was right? What if Amira really had no powers and she could never break our curse?

“Oh, I know that look and I’m telling you right now you need to cut it out.” Miles pushed his finger on the tip of my nose as if he were pushing an elevator button.

“Huh?”

“That look of hopeless defeat you’re wearing. You need to just cut that out right now. Amira is the one. I knew it the moment I set eyes on her. So don’t you even think of giving up hope now. You owe it to the pack and to yourself to see this through till the bitter end.” Miles’s words bore the encouragement that only a great Beta like Miles could bring his Alpha at his lowest of moments

I gave a slight nod and it seemed to be enough to bring the cheer back to Miles' face.

“So there might be just one more teeny weeny little problem I didn’t mention yet.” Miles squinted one eye.

I slapped a hand over my forehead. “What is it now?”

“The pack wants to see Amira, demanding it even. We can’t keep her from them any longer or they’ll storm the cabin and steal a peek for themselves."

“Really, now? They would dare break into their Alpha’s home?”

“You underestimate their interest in our fabled spell breaker.”

“Fine then, it’s time she meets the pack,” I said, and Miles left to make the arrangements.

Just how would this go, I wondered? She wouldn’t receive a warm welcome from most. Callum’s doubt mongering would see to that. Well, let’s just hope we could get through at least one day with no casualties in the Pack lands.