“To love is to self-destruct…I am proof” - …
Over the course of years, things just dull – it was the same moon, same stars in the very same sky. Altogether it seemed like a typical night at the Lightpaw pack mess hall…
Somehow, in his bones, seventeen-year-old Cory knew that particular morning when he woke up something important was going to happen. He was on edge, he was anxious and a small part of himself was excited. He attributed the excitement to the pack’s jubilant energy caused by the return of their future Alpha – Grayson Lightpaw.
Many pack members had approached Grayson throughout the day, greeting him and showing their respect. Cory watched from the sidelines as the tall, eighteen-year-old, heir inspected each person closely.
The scarlet-haired Cory did not pay his respects.
It wasn’t a matter of being rude or cold on Cory’s side. He had been instructed to only speak to a pack member when spoken to. Cory had been raised with that sentiment. Being found at the age of five wandering through the woods, he was just happy to have a roof over his head.
It was on that unordinary day, twelve years ago that the Luna – Sky Lightpaw – happened to be walking through the woods surrounding the Lightpaw pack lands. She came across a little boy with scarlet hair, sitting among the foliage at the edge of the pack territory. Seemingly indifferent to where he was or what he was going to do.
She inspected the child closer and recognised the vague scent as that of a werewolf, however, it was fused with the smell of Wisteria. She knew that because she had an extensive garden not far from the Alpha’s manor. The scent confused Sky Lightpaw, not all werewolves smelled the same – but they all had an earthy undertone. This child didn’t have that undertone, yet she could tell that he was a werewolf.
“Hello,” she spoke gently, casually sitting next to the boy.
The child finally acknowledged Sky; he looked up at her with his slightly yellow eyes. That solidified Sky’s conclusion that the child was a wolf. All werewolf children have yellow eyes, as they age their eye colour eventually morphs into a typical eye colour to help them blend in amongst humans. Yet again, this child seemed an exception as his eyes weren’t the typical bright yellow like that of polished gold. The scarlet-haired boy’s eyes were a pale yellow, as if the colour was diluted.
When the boy said nothing, Sky spoke again, “My name is Sky Lightpaw. What is yours?” She asked, thinking if she could get a full name she could locate the child’s pack. There were no packs remotely near Lightpaw – so it confused the Luna how a child could get this far by himself.
“My name is Cory,” the boy answered.
“That’s a nice name… What’s your last name?” She asked.
“It’s just Cory,” the boy whispered. His eyes fell to the deep brown soil of the woods surrounding the Lightpaw pack grounds.
“Cory, where are your parents?” Sky enquired, tilting her head to the side. Her long black hair fell passed her shoulder as she did so.
Cory raised his head to the midday sky, “Up there.” He pointed with a small finger.
Sky nodded sadly, it was an old belief that werewolves who died are said to rest among the stars – accompanying the moon that had a major impact on werewolves. Cory’s parents were dead and he was too young to understand what that meant.
“What is your pack’s name?” Sky asked.
Cory looked at her curiously, “Pack?”
She studied the child’s vaguely yellow eyes in confusion. It was werewolf nature to know their pack name, to recognise and associate it with safety. But as she stared into his eyes, she could tell that he was genuinely confused.
“Did you and your parents belong to a pack, like a group?” She enquired.
Cory just shook his head, indicating that he and his parents weren’t part of a pack.
The child was a rogue.
Sky debated what to do, but her maternal instincts had already decided. She wasn’t going to leave this child alone in the woods.
“Do you want to come to my pack?” She asked Cory with a soft smile.
Cory’s eyes returned to the sky, “Can mommy and daddy come too?”
Sky looked at the innocent little boy with adoration, “Yes, they can come too. And, you know what? I don’t think they’ll ever have to leave.”
She took the little boy’s hand and guided him through the woods. The pair walked for hours until they emerged into a vast clearing. Cory’s eyes bounced in curiosity from big tents to small cottages, taking in all the sights. In little Cory’s mind, the entire scene looked like a village, the kind of ones hed see in his little storybooks. As they walked through the pack grounds, many people stopped to stare at him. He started feeling scared.
Sky noticed that, “Don’t worry; no one here will hurt you.”
They walked further into the humongous clearing, more and more people noticed him and joined the crowd that followed the pair. They came to a stop outside a gate, it had black iron-cast bars separated by a few spaces. The thin iron bars were tall and adorned with spearhead shaped spikes at the top. The grand gate was attached to thick columns of sturdy sandstone slabs that merged into a hill. Cory craned his head and saw the gate fed into a steep, rocky hill. The hill seemed to stretch endlessly to the left and right. The gate slowly swung open for them after Cory heard an electric buzz. Sky led Cory through it and they walked through a short cave-like hallway, they were under the hill but it wasn’t like a dugout tunnel under the hill. They weren’t surrounded by dirt and mud; instead the hallway was covered with glistening white slabs. Perhaps the hole was dug and then fancy white slabs were laid in the cave to make it look like a short castle hallway.
After a few minutes of walking through the lavish hallway under the hill, Cory saw a staircase made of the same white slabs. It was illuminated by the midday sun. Sky led Cory carefully up the stairs after she noticed he stumbled here and there, his tiny feet struggling to reach the next step.
They emerged onto a plush green lawn. Cory saw a big house standing proudly not too far from them. It looked to be built from light coloured wood and adorned many large windows. The house appeared to have a second floor – he saw a balcony high on the right of the house. There also seemed to be a luscious garden to the left of the massive wooden house – but he couldn’t see straight into it as his view was obscured by the corner of the wooden mammoth. He could smell the flowers though, the sweet sharpness of roses, the soft scent of what could be daisies and a strange smell – it might have been perfume, he thought.
“This is my house,” Sky said proudly, noticing the awe in the little yellow eyes.
“It’s so big.” Cory replied softly as they walked across the thriving grass.
They stepped up a few stairs and the large wooden doors of the even larger house opened, much like the castle. But these doors were opened by two towering men who bowed their heads at Sky.
“Luna,” they said in greeting, not even looking at Cory.
“Where is Aiden?” Sky asked.
“In his office, Luna.” One man answered – eyes still on the ground.
“Get Joy” Sky instructed while leading little Cory up grand stairs that stretched to the second floor.
Walking through the big house was so overwhelming for little Cory. There were too many images and hallways. All sorts of scents attacked his nose – there was one scent that was getting stronger and stronger as Sky led him to a second set of large, dark wooden doors. Just before Sky opened the doors Cory planted his feet firmly, “I’m scared.” It smelled like there was a thunderstorm in the other room; an angry blue sky shooting down violent bolts of snapping light.
“No one is going to hurt you,” Sky reassured. Cory took a deep breath, trying to ignore his bouncing little chest, and Sky opened the doors.
Behind a solid wooden desk sat a focused man with snow-white hair – illuminated by the sunlight entering from the spacious window behind him; he looked like a king at his throne. His eyes were trained on papers on his desk before they snapped up to look at Sky. His direct blue eyes then zoned in on Cory and the little boy froze in blue fear.
Neither Sky nor the man spoke, but to Cory it felt like they were talking in some mysterious way.
After a few moments of silence the man spoke in a scary, deep voice, “I see. We’ll let Joy have a look and decide from there.”
Sky led Cory to one of the dark green couches that faced each other in the middle of the room. Everything seemed to be made out of wood; his yellow eyes hesitantly scanned the tall bookshelves around the room that reached the ceiling. He felt the scary gaze of the man behind the desk trained on him. Cory started nervously fiddling with his hands, his little fingers tumbling over one another and his began swinning his small legs. He felt like he was in trouble, as if he needed to convince everyone that he was innocent of whatever the accusation was.
Sky placed a smooth, tan hand over Cory’s restless ones and looked at the muscular man again. He looked back down at his paperwork and Cory immediately felt less scared.
After a while there was a knock on the large doors, Cory sat up straight for some reason – the knock sounded personal to him. It was just a knock, but his ears perked up as if someone had called his name.
“Come,” the large man said in that frighteningly deep voice of his. Cory flinched at the deep baritone.
A woman opened the doors, she had long black hair like Sky but there were streaks of grey in it and it was all held hostage in a strict bun. She wore a long black dress and had several strange rings on her fingers – one particular ring caught little Cory’s attention. The ring held a gray-white stone. She paused when she closed the doors, turned around sharply and her eyes found Cory’s immediately – the lighting from the ceiling caught her large black rimmed glasses so Cory couldn’t see her eyes.
She then looked at the large man, “Aiden.” She greeted in a monotone voice and walked calmly over to the opposite dark green couch and sat down.
She then looked at Sky, “Sky.” Her eyes then found Cory’s again. She had soft brown eyes and they held a sense of timelessness in them and, for a moment, Cory thought he could see tenderness before they froze over.
“Child, what is your name?” Joy asked Cory in that robotic voice.
“Cory,” he answered, looking at the woman with equal curiosity. She smelled familiar – like candle wax. He had smelled it before.
“Do not be afraid, Cory.” The woman spoke calmly.
“I’m not,” Cory responded quizically.
Sky immediately looked at the man named Aiden; they both shared some kind of peculiar look – confused.
But, Joy wasn’t shocked, “I need you to keep looking in my eyes, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Joy closed her eyes and took her glasses off. The atmosphere in the room changed, Sky tensed slightly and Cory thought he could smell a moonless night. The scent was strange – it smelled like thick midnight air, clear and clean but also purposeful. When the women named Joy opened her eyes, they were no longer a warm brown. Instead, they were a cold purple colour; they didn’t glisten like normal eyes. It was as if the purple in her eyes dried all the shine from her eyeballs.
Cory felt his curiosity grow as memories he didn’t know he had flashed through his mind. But they were going too fast for him to recognise any of the pictures or sounds. The eye contact only lasted for a minute, but it felt like an hour.
Joy put her glasses back on and her eyes were then brown again, “He is telling the truth. He does not belong to any pack and his parents are-” Joy spoke in that monotone voice before Sky interrupted her.
“In the sky.”
Joy nodded in acknowledgement of Sky’s words, her eyes never leaving Cory’s, “He is of wolf…” She paused in hesitancy.
The man named Aiden noticed this, “But?”
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