Aryn

They called themselves allies but couldn't even stand each other's shadows talkless of their real physical forms. Insults were being hurled like stones during a violent riot and threats were issued as frequently as the blinking of an eye. The atmosphere was rife with animosity and even the so-called modernity and age of enlightenment did little to reign in their innate feral nature.

I sat at the top of the large mahogany table, tapping my fingers to a silent beat as I watched as each Alpha wanted the other dead so badly but that desire couldn't come to manifestation as we were all tied together with one dilemma. The regressing lycanthrope gene.

Ironically even that matter had been set aside as the current discussion was centred around the Midwest border territory of North Dakota which was currently inhabited by rouges who had migrated from Canada. Surprisingly, they had not sought to challenge the authority of either of the five wolf clans and had stayed content with inhabiting a small part of the state amidst other humans who lived there.

"Let's all remember that my uncle's pack is in Wisconsin," Demetri chimed in, placing his legs on the table while he rocked slowly on the wheels of the chair. "It's only logical that I have North Dakota as my sub pack," he announced with a slight grin. "Afterall, you old bags all have subpacks and I don't,"

When Demetri had succeeded his father at the mere age of fifteen, the pack lords, which was basically a counsel of all the older generation Alpha's from the five clans, had resisted his usurp to power.

He was a mere cub and would never understand the politics of the clan, they cried.

However, the mere cub had outsmarted them by giving his uncle, Cohen William, temporary control of his sub pack at Wisconsin, unbeknownst to them. Thereby, making it seem as if he had reduced the amount of responsibility he would shoulder for his pack. However, despite his efforts to hide it I knew he was the grand master puppeteer between the two packs and his uncle was just the figurehead.

"Yeah, let's do that and sign away our lives as well," Leto remarked with a grin of his own. Then he slightly pushed Demetri's chair causing it to tilt and fall with a crash. "And the only old bag I see is your outdated leather suitcase," he said tilting his head towards the bag on the table. "Maybe it's time you went on another shopping spree and left this discussion for the grown men," he said, bending down to address Demetri who was now crouched on the floor scowling.

Leto Rehan was the Alpha of the Midnight pack borders of New Mexico and Colorado, where his sub pack was located. Sub packs were essentially an annex of a main pack still under the rule of the same Alpha. It was a strategy put in place to build parasitic relationships with the humans whom they dealt with. My pack was based only in Alaska and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Away from humans.... and these crazy Alpha's.

"Now back to the matter at hand," Leto continued, turning to address the seated Alpha's as Demetri slowly got up from the floor and stared daggers at Leto's turned back. "The rogues have built a pretty tight fort around their border which will be more difficult to breach considering the fact that we are relatively far off from them."

He promptly brought out a map from his coat pocket and placed it on the table. "My wolves are fast and can go long journeys with little to no food," he declared with a smug smile. "We'll have no problem breaking their barriers. All I need from you all is to provide me with more men," he finished.

"And what's in it for you?" Kali, the eldest Alpha, questioned as his cool green eyes narrowed on Leto.

He was a wolf of many years and was considered almost ancient. For no one knew his true age. His hair was silvery-white and the lines on his face told tales of stormy, windy wars that he had witnessed over the course of his lifetime. It was believed that he came from a lineage of white-wolves. His great-grandfather's had been mated to female white-wolves whom they procreated with.

Unfortunately, during the seperation era, when white-wolves went into hiding, their mates had left them and their pups had subsequently mated with lycanthropes outside of the white-wolf clan in an attempt to continue the Silver Dawn pack. Hence, the reason why he had no powers for the gene had become diluted with time.

"A quarter of the land," Leto replied, coolly.

"Never trust a Rehan," Orson bellowed as he slammed his fist on the table. "They are treacherous, deceitful and sneaky," he continued.

"Ah big brute," Leto clicked his tongue in annoyance. "What would you suggest we do? Bash their heads in and paint the land red with their blood?" he enquired with a raise of his eyebrow.

"Exactly!" He agreed. "Why waste my time with algorithms, plans and maps," he snarled in disgust.

"Because then we'd be able to enjoy the spoils of the battle," Leto dragged out slowly. "Women, more wolves for our army and of course control over the second food chain," he said with a roll of his eyes. "But I don't blame you, your pea sized brain could never comprehend," he muttered under his breath and this caused a snicker from Demetri.

"What did you say?" Orson asked deathly quiet before he lunged for an unsuspecting Leto across the table and tackled him to the floor.

Orson Duncan was indeed a hot-headed brute with his seven foot tall build decorated with an array of scars and tattoos lined across his back, forearms and face. His long dark hair, he kept braided, and his muscled build was as solid as his deep bass voice. His blood-thirstiness was reflected in the name of his pack, Scarlet Moon, and was only second to mine for he lacked the cold, calculated, meticulous nature of a sadistic pain inflictor. He loved the thrill of war and the bloodshed that resulted from it. However, unlike me his moves could be anticipated as he didn't possess the calm deceiving facade that fooled many enemies as to your real intentions.

I looked back at the wrestling men and as always Orson had the upper hand as he delivered punches that were sure to leave permanent scars. Demetri wore a smug smile on his face as he videoed the sparring duo and Kali watched on unimpressed.

Just as always the meetings turned out to be a mess. I wondered why I bothered coming in the first place.

"Enough!" I thundered, finally reaching my limit.

Orson's fist stopped mid air from delivering another punch to Leto's bloodied mess while Demetri's phone slipped from his fingers and clattered noisily to the ground. Kali acknowledged me with a silent sigh.

"He could have given a warning before that," Demetri murmured before he bent to pick his phone, however, Orson had sighted it as soon as it fell and with one long arm stretch, reached it before he did and crunched it in his large palms. "What! Wait! No. Why would you do that?" Demetri shouted, hysterically, as he got to his knees and tried to salvage the destroyed electronic remains.

"Try that again next time, pretty boy and it'll be your face in my palms," Orson threatened before he stood up from Leto and walked to his seat.

I placed my fingers to my temples, trying to massage the dull ache that was growing by the minute before I looked up at them.

"I know it goes against your nature to behave civilized," I pointed out with a scowl. "I can sympathise," I added with a sly grin. "But unless you have nothing else to say I suggest we never ever have these meetings ever again," I finished.

"Not our fault that you don't concern yourself with land ownership," Leto teased as he wiped his bloodied nose off his sleeve. I should have let Orson do more damage. "High and mighty, untouchable lycan who won't mix with the Alpha's. How pathetic?" He taunted with a condescending tone.

"Why would I fight over land that is already mine?" I asked with a shrug of my shoulders as I relaxed into the welcoming comfort of the chair. "North Dakota has always been mine and the rogues there are my allies with Canada. It was an agreement we reached," I stated as a matter-of-fact and they all looked towards me with mixed emotions.

Orson was more than ready to maim me, Demetri was irritated, Leto just stared open-mouthed as he let that piece of information sink in and Kali looked on in his characteristic unbothered way.

"So since that topic is now out of the way," I continued as if I had not just dropped a bombshell some seconds ago. "I'll take my leave," I announced.

"You can't own that land," Orson argued as he tried to calm down his raging emotions. "It goes against the clan codes,"

"What do you know? The big dummy actually knows something," Leto muttered but Orson only acknowledged him with a slight growl.

"I can and I just did," I answered simply. "It was a freeman's land belonging to no pack and harbouring a minute number of humans," I stated. "The code is only restricted to other wolf lands of which this isn't," Orson took a long stride towards my chair and I continued speaking as I ignored his close, violent proximity.

"Besides what's the use of amassing more lands when our kind is becoming extinct?" I laughed and stood up slowly. Then I faced Orson. "Before you know it, your pack," I said, pointing to him. "My pack," I pointed to myself. "All our packs," I gestured to the whole room. "Would be gone. Poof! In a cloud of smoke," I clicked my fingers and chuckled. Roy was sure to be proud of my theatrics.

"Demetri says you have the ancient white-wolf power box," Kali spoke up in a solemn voice which broke Orson and I's intense stare.

"He does?" Leto asked, incredulously.

"I'll repeat what I told him the other day," I sighed, irritatedly. "Until you all find something rational and worth investing my time into let me know," I dismissed and walked around Orson towards the exit. I needed to check in on Star regarding her progress with the power box.

"So you don't believe it exists?" Kali enquired. "Am I not proof that the white-wolves exist and we can find them through the box?"

I turned around and smiled slightly. "Why would I believe a century old wolf such as yourself? You could have gotten senile with age," I commented. "Moreso, you are only proof that they once existed," I added with air quotes for emphasis. "But not anymore,"

With that said I turned around and walked out of the meeting room sure that they would still plot on how to gain control over North Dakota. But most importantly I gave them the space to truly talk about what they were planning. They might be a rowdy bunch but they were certainly not stupid.

They were trying to throw me off a scent and I was eager to find out.

☘︎

"The box resembles an equiangular quadrilateral with an internal angle of 90° pertaining to each corner thus it's surface area would be..." Star trailed off as she bent to pick up a fallen ruler while trying to balance her oversized glasses with one finger.

"Two into brackets lw+lh+wh," Roy promptly filled in before bending back to jot a few words onto his clipboard.

If you thought a meeting full of rowdy Alpha's was worse then you hadn't ventured into the astronomical room before.

Their mingled voices were the only sounds in the large fantastical themed room and I leaned against the window while surveying my surroundings. The sight never failed to amaze me.

A large overhead mural wallpaper of the planets lay attached to the ceiling and it casted soft glows of red, blue, gold-and whatever other colours of the planets-into the room. Several globes were positioned, undisturbed, in glass cube display units and DIY star constellations hung from the ceiling and swayed gently from their goldstring attachments.

A loud crash brought back my attention to the two geeks in the room and I noticed Star was hunched over a pile of fallen road maps and book files as she scrambled frantically to gather them up.

"Another delivery of extra strong glass lens coming right up," Roy snickered, earning a bright blush from Star.

I took two long strides away from the glass windows and intercepted Roy who attempted to help her.

"A classical example of a pot calling the kettle black, don't you think?" I asked bending to pick up the maps in one big swoop.

"I guess," Star giggled, blushing even more as she picked on the threads on her skirt.

"I'm much better compared to her," Roy grumbled behind me. No doubt staring daggers into my back. He was making a bad habit out of a lot of things.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," I retorted, turning to smirk at him as I placed the maps on the large oak table but he huffed and returned to his writings with an irritated look and a roll of his eyes.

"Uhm thank you Alpha,"

I acknowledged her with a smile and she returned it with her usual lopsided grin.

Star Hailey Brown was the best astrologer and mathematician in the whole pack. A classical geek with her large oversized glasses perched above her delicate nose. An array of freckles lined her cheeks in intricate patterns, her fiery red hair was forever in a bun and her grey eyes together with her soft, light voice encapsulated her good-natured aurora.

One would think of her as nothing but a little child, however, I was only a year older than she was making her twenty-eight.

"So what have you got on the power box?" I asked as I sat lightly at the edge of the table next to her.

"I still don't understand why people refer to it as a power box," she squinted her eyes as she looked up at me and scrunched up her nose in her characteristic cute way. "This is the most complicated tracking slash astronomical slash mathematical slash highly scientific device I have ever seen," she squealed, turning to peer at the power box, placed in the middle of the table. "The inventors of this baby right here were geniuses," she praised.

"Okay let's go through that one more time," I drawled. "And from the very beginning,"

"Oh sorry Alpha. I got a little too excited," she apologised with a sheepish smile before she moved to switch on the light touch interactive projector.

A translucent light beam shone towards the centre of the room before it formed a holographic touch screen monitor. A replicated 3D drawing of the power box rotated slowly on the monitor and with one touch a slide show of it's four sides were presented in gradual procession.

"So, the power box with it's old age design, ancient allure and artistic carvings actually fools you to the real intention behind its use," Star explained as she motioned to each side.

On one side of the box was a carved drawing of a female white-wolf captured in the middle of a shift. The she-wolf was suspended mid air, her silvery-white hair splayed about her, as she jumped and out of her body she emitted a mist of azure, emerald, scarlet and aqua coloured fog as a small but feral snow-white furred wolf burst out with its teeth bared and an array of jewels lining it's forehead. The backdrop of the drawing was one of natural greenery as the trees and flowers were poised, bending in submission. A sign of her power.

The carved drawing pulled me into its world of regality and elegance and I subconsciously moved towards the hologram to touch it.

Adolf stirred inside me and I peered intently at the she-wolf. She had green eyes just like the mysterious lycanthrope who plagued my dreams. Before I could ponder more on my brewing thoughts the 3D image changed sides and with that the spell was broken.

"The drawings are absolutely AWE-MAZING," Star cooed and I gave a silent nod. "But I'm sure they have a meaning behind them," she mused, staring intently at the second drawing.

This side was less regal and peaceful. The she-wolf was now hunched over in the middle of a battle field with a sword sticking out of her back. Her hair was dull and dirty and it flowed down to provide a curtain against her hidden face. The atmosphere was one of gloom as the lit thunder strikes from the clouds raved violently and the desolate area was strewn with menacing looking trees. It was a dystopian world frozen in time but the feelings that it evoked were very strong and ever-present.

Upon further scrutiny I noticed the tall black clothed figure who blended in with the turbulent battle field. In the individuals' hand was a sheath as the sword itself had been lodged into the back of the she-wolf. However, much more disturbing was the fact that she reached out her hand towards him, in a plea for help or maybe trust. It was hard to tell.

"I'll have to send this to Fred," Star spoke up and clicked once more on the hologram to display it's aerial view. "He'll be able to discern the meaning behind the carved drawings," she continued with a slight lift of her glasses. "Anyway, it's only logical that upon seeing these magnificent drawings one would mistake the box for an antique artistic masterpiece but it's more than that. And my guessing is that the drawings were purposefully placed there to mislead. Pretty ingenious, right?" She bobbed her head excitedly.

"Very," I answered with my eyes still on the drawing.

"So right here on top of the box," she motioned to a white glass hole with a laser pointer pen. "Is a thermocouple device which converts heat to electric waves," she paused and looked towards me for confirmation.

"I may not be as good as you when it comes to science but I get the basics," I replied dryly and she stifled a giggle.

"Okay, so these emitted waves enabled a connection to an optical astronomical satellite which was then used to observe the moon for directions," she explained further. "In other words this was like their compass, a highly sophisticated one at that time, if you asked me," she acknowledged with a cross of her arms.

The more I learnt about the white-wolves the more I realised that they were not as ancient as the tales made them out to be.

"This compass was then used to locate a place for their hiding," Roy continued clicking on the holographic touch screen monitor. I had almost forgotten he was even in the room. "It is my thinking that because they were a few road maps, at that time, that marked out the lands. Most of the packs were unaware of other territories beside their own and so this box was used to locate faraway lands. One of which was eventually used as their hiding destination,"

The 3D image promptly changed to an old map out of lands.

"What map is this?" I enquired as I studied it.

"This right here is an aerial recreation of what the land divisions might have looked like then," Star explained and with another tap on the screen a modern aerial map of the USA appeared to the side of the old map.

"My guess is that here lies Tennessee," Roy pointed out on both maps. The modern map markings were much more pronounced than the haphazardly placed tectonic plates on the old map. "Just above here should be Kentucky," he continued, pointing out every modern state on the old map.

"The only problem now is that we don't know where they migrated from," Star chimed in. "A possible theory could be from Alpha Kali's main pack in Louisiana or his sub pack in Mississippi seeing as his clan is the only known tribe to ever have affiliations with the ancient white-wolves,"

"True," I acknowledged. "But which one of the packs?" I asked.

"I'm betting on Louisiana as they were always mated to the Alpha's," Roy mused and Star nodded in agreement.

"Then what about Greece?" I asked moving to touch the box on the table. "Why would Linda Rodriguez find it next to Alexander's tomb? Almost 6000 miles, across the North Atlantic ocean, away from Louisiana," I reasoned and turned away from the box to look at Roy and Star.

"That is still a mystery," Roy huffed while scratching his chin where a 5 o' clock shadow was beginning to form. Just how many weeks had he spent in here.

I looked towards Star and noticed that her white coat had small smears of coffee stains together with her disarrayed hair which was reminiscent of a bird's nest.

"But if we go along with Roy's theory...." Star announced as she turned to click on the hologram.

"And the numerous calculations that we have conducted," Roy added as he rummaged through a pile of papers containing mathematical calculations.

"Then their hiding place would be in Arizona right next to Alpha Leto's pack and a few thousand miles from here," Star finished with a point towards the map.

"Spot on," Roy winked towards Star as he waved a piece of paper before placing it in front of me.

"Arizona," I echoed, glancing at the calculations.

"But with regards to Greece and how it got there, that's still something we need to look into," Star sighed, turning back to the box.

"No, that's enough calculations for a week," I said, getting up. "You both need to rest and rest you shall," I ordered, shutting down a reluctant Star.

"Well don't mind if I do," Roy grinned, packing his bag and walking out the room with an exaggerated salute.

"I swear he was waiting for me to say that," I mumbled before hearing a soft thud as Roy spewed word after word of apology.

The clumsy creature had bumped into someone.

"What a clutz," Star commented softly with a giggle and I chuckled along with her. "Once we find them will we be able to reverse the effects of the regressing gene?" She asked once we had quieted down. "Because there is absolutely no scientific backing for that assumption," she continued as she cleared the table.

"The white-wolves are magical beings just as we are lycanthropes. Our very existence eludes scientific theory and if what the old literatures say are true then there is no harm in trying," I shrugged and she nodded before avoiding my gaze with an awkward cough as a slight blush crept up her cheeks.

She always did that whenever we were alone. Almost as if she was nervous being in the same room as I was. I was about to question her on her odd behaviour when Tina's voice disrupted the silence.

"One day he's going to clumsily fall off a cliff and I won't be sorry," she murmured before sighting me. "Hey Alpha," she greeted in a sultry tone much to Star's annoyance as she rolled her eyes.

She walked a few paces into the room before she sighted Star next to me.

"Star," Tina acknowledged, curtly.

"Tina," Star responded, trying to imitate her tone but not quite getting it and so she resulted to raising up her chin.

She-wolves. You could never quite get them, that's why I never bothered.

"Any information?" I asked reffering to her ealier assignment.

Tina broke off her stare and smiled brightly at me "Yes! However it would be highly appreciated if I could debrief you in your study," she pouted. "This place gives me the creeps," she shivered.

"Savage fights and bloodshed don't give you the creeps but astronomy does, unbelievable," Star noted with a laugh.

"Not so much the room but the person who inhabits it," Tina amended as she eyed Star's appearance and smirked.

Star opened her mouth to protest but I was fed-up with this back and forth. Besides it was only going to escalate and I'd choose the Alpha's bickering, without a second thought, than their banter. Because at least I would know the reason behind the Alpha's disagreement. With females, you could never tell.

"My study now!" I ground out through clenched teeth and they abrubtly looked in my direction. Star sent an apologetic look my way and Tina tried to hide her glee.

"And you better get some rest, that's an order," I reinstated to Star before I strode out with Tina behind me.

Females were more scarier than war, a cunning ploy to the eventual downfall of an unsuspecting male, and that was why I only needed to find her for the good of my pack. Absolutely nothing else but that.
-
-
-

Please do not forget to vote. Thanks ☘︎