United Glory

Chapter 6, Resa; The Meeting

We’re at the meeting and so far no other pack has shown up which may be a good sign considering I am black, Shadow warriors are black, and the Shadow warriors have wreaked havoc on all of the packs. I realize we are no longer alone and I swivel my head to the direction of the disturbance in the air I feel. I soon see the sun tanned coats of the Sun pack and this is all of the sudden too real for me. I will probably be attacked by them because of my coat pattern. My own pack is wary of me because of it and I have never been to one of these meetings before. No one will know me and will probably try to kill me. I subconsciously take a step backwards. I step forward again and sit tall even though my instincts are screaming for me to run, hide, do anything but just sit there. The Alpha spots me and her eyes narrow, but I am too in awe to notice. She must be the only pup of the previous Alpha, or her only other brother became a Healer like mine.

I snap out of my trance and sink down to welcome her here. My father looks very proud to have raised at least one well mannered pup. My brother just sits there, disgust written all over his expression. He seems to just now realize I will be running the pack when Dad dies. I feel her paw move to scuff his ear and I hear him yelp in pain. It takes all of my self-control to keep from sniggering. He deserved exactly what he got. Next is my turn. “You may rise,” she says, and I am terrified when I hear her tone of voice. She thinks I am a Shadow warrior. I set my claws into the ground and rise to face her. My legs almost seem to not be able to hold my body weight and I feel rushing through the air connecting her to me. She must be inflicting most of the fear on me. I then slowly block my mind to any of her inflicting and focus on her eyes.

“I am not a Shadow warrior madam, I am Resa, daughter of the Alpha of the Breeze pack. I may look the part but I am not looking to wreak havoc to any of the packs. Coat pattern is not the only thing that defines a wolf, it is what they do,”

“How do I know you are not lying?”

“With all due respect, if I were lying we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. If you know what I mean,”

“Are you threatening me?!”

“No madame, just stating the facts, speaking of facts, the Ocean pack is arriving,”

“I do not care about the Ocean pack arriving,”

“Why are you speaking to a Shadow warrior?!” The Ocean pack Alpha asks the Sun pack Alpha in a low growl of disgust. I lower myself in greeting so that he may not feel offended and cuff my ear.

“She is no Shadow warrior!” my father and the Sun pack alpha shout in unison. I am taken aback as here I thought the Sun Alpha thought I was a Shadow warrior but instead she is standing up for me. There is a long pause and I feel the Sun Alpha move out of the way. The air tenses and I quickly realize he will not take their answer and he will attack me himself. The other two Alphas are talking in low voices and do not notice him silently leap into the air. I wait until the very last second to roll out of the way. He lands with a loud thump and my father snaps his head around and sees me away from my original position and the Alpha preparing for another attack. He locks eyes with me and I shake my head. The Sun Alpha starts stalking toward the Ocean Alpha when my father stops her and shakes his head and gestures to watch me. The Ocean Alpha leaps again and this time I can feel his front leg muscles tense so instead of going off to the side I take a couple steps back and he lands with a louder thud than last time. He soon gives up jumping me and swipes toward me with his claws when everything turns into slow motion. I move out of the way, knock him down before he has a chance to react and lean close. The blur around me fades and I suddenly feel tired like I usually do when I use too much power.

“If this were a real battle you would be dead,” I leave him, return to my position beside my brother, and lay down to rest for a while.

“You are a cowardly Shadow pack warrior! You had the chance but you didn’t kill me! And what was that phasing thing?! Another one of Shadow pack’s secrets huh?!”

“That ‘phasing’ was my wind instincts kicking in, I did have the chance to kill you and at the moment I have the right-”

“You have no rights!”

“-to kill you but that I didn’t, means that I am merciful and do not judge based on looks or how people react when they first see me. You see my pack thinks I am cursed with the power of death, but-”

“You do have the power of death! You are a Shadow warrior!” I then notice all of the other packs have arrived and are staring at me. I just continue.

“-my brother and I are the Yin-Yang of our pack. Dark cannot be without light, nor light without dark. Life cannot be without death nor death without life. If you look closely you might notice, but you want someone to blame and you see my mostly black coat in the Breeze pack and use it as an excuse to attack me. You never noticed the white on my right eye nor the black on my brother’s left. You only saw what you intended to see and that was enough for you,”

“She is right, Finu,” says the Blaze pack Alpha.

“And who might you be?” At this question the Blaze Alpha steps forward, addressing all of the wolves here.

“I am Kelick, chosen by the late Alpha of our pack to lead it after he was assassinated by Shadow warriors. I hope I will be of help in our dire situation. I experienced this treachery first-hand when Shadow warriors attacked us in our retreat from a useless battle against the Sun pack.”

“Normally I would fully disagree with you, but based on the current situation, I agree with you,” the Sun Alpha announced, making almost everyone gasp.

“So can we end the current battle? At least for now?”

“Yes, I will agree to the terms of peace. At least for now,”

“Thank you,” Everyone looks shocked. Apparently she is one for war. “Now to discuss the growing power of the Shadow warriors. Who all has a thought of why this might be happening,”

“Well their power feeds off of disorder and chaos so that is how they are sustaining it, but how did they get it in the first place to escape exile?” I ask no one in particular. Then it comes to me. “How long was your battle?” I ask them.

“Two weeks. Why?”

“Well they are attributed to the element of death, correct? So what if that battle was just enough death to strengthen them and chaos to give them their powers to escape and then they wanted more so they went after certain wolves to cause more chaos and feed them more?”

“That would make sense if there were any deaths,”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean no one died during the battle,”

At that moment two unknown wolves arrive. One starts speaking. ”My Alpha is a traitor,” he growls and faces the Rock Alpha.

“No clue...talking about,” the Rock Alpha responds but he doesn’t sound sure of himself. I drop into a low crouch and growl at him. He has somehow been powering the Shadow pack and is now about to pay for his treachery. The strange wolf seems taken aback by me joining him. The other wolf that arrived with him also drops into a low, offensive crouch. Soon an Ocean pack member joins us. The Blaze pack Healer looks ready to jump into the fray and heal us whenever possible. The Rock Alpha looks extremely nervous so I wait until he will inevitably attack us. As predicted he hardens his gaze and leaps straight for me. A grave mistake. I easily slide to the left and, while he lands with a thump, pin  him down. He starts struggling and waves his head back and forth. I look up for confirmation from the Alphas that I am allowed to kill him. After a few nods I lean forward and whisper, “Vengeance is sweet,” and kill him with a deft bite.