WolfLore: Vocatio Papilionis

Chapter 4

My whole body tensed, I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I was forced to stare in shock at Solis's confession. We're in Oak's birth pack!

"Excuse me!" Luna growled. "You mean to say that the wolf that killed our father and brothers in cold blood was born here!? That cold-heart coward!?"

"Luna be quiet!" I snarled under my breath.

"No, Papilio, it's OK," Solis sighed. "I suppose I should tell you the full story. Get comfortable, it's not exactly a short one."

"Oak, Swift, Pebble and I were born to our previous alpha, Kestrel, and Flash, one of our current seniors. We all grew up happy, and kind, but something happened to Oak when we started training. He would never eat with the pack, he would never socialise with anyone, and when he did, it often ended in a fight," Solis paused and took a deep breath. "Then one night something really riled him up, he went mad. He challenged Father for alphaship of this pack and he won."

"He challenged his own father?!" Luna exclaimed. "But that's against Wolf Lore!"

"I had never seen anything like it. I had never seen Oak's eyes so full of bloodlust. Oak managed to be alpha for one night before he realised that we would never accept him as alpha, we drove him out. We struggled for seasons without an alpha, our only way of leadership was an occasional omen from the Starry Skies Pack. For days on end, we battled hunger and thirst because no one could agree where to hunt or where to find water. Eventually, Swift and I had had enough, we left on a journey to bring back someone who could reunite our pack. We travelled day in, day out occasionally stopping to rest and wonder about our family."

"And then we found the one, Tune," She nodded towards the sturdy wolf. "We couldn't wait to go back home and tell everyone our news."

"But I wasn't convinced at first," Tune interrupted. "I wasn't sure that I was ready, but when Solis and Swift told me the whole story, I set aside my worries and tried to help."

"Yeah, right," Solis flicked his ears playfully. "I can clearly remember almost every night the panic attacks that came out of the blue."

"Ha! You would too if you suddenly had the whole pack thrown upon you to care about!" Tune laughed.

Luna and I smiled, despite being in a pack that was completely unknown to us and a pack that could turn on us at any moment. But as I looked closer into their eyes, there was a darkness beyond interpretation.

Before I could ask what was going on, in a blink of an eye, it was gone.

What are they trying to hide?

"Deer!" Solis called.

Deer looked up from where she was gnawing on a rabbit by the pool. "Yeah," she replied.

"Why don't you take our guests to meet the rest of the pack," Solis requested. "I assume you will stay for a while?"

"Um- we- we aren't sure ye-"

"Great!" Solis said quickly before we could answer. "Go on, Deer."

We leaped off of the boulder and padded over to where Deer was sitting before. As we turned to be introduced to the pack that seemed so much bigger than ours, Tune and Solis gave us a glance shrouded in secrecy.

But WHY! I furiously wondered. Why did they turn us away so quickly!

"You already know Swift, my mother's sister," Deer started. "This is Pebble, Mother's other sister, and these are her cubs." She nodded towards the three cubs playing in the shallows of the pool. "Peak is the male; the light grey female is Ember and the paler female is Free. Pebble, this is Papilio and Luna, we found them on the border this morning."

"Nice to meet you," Pebble greeted. "I trust that you're enjoying what you've seen so far?"

"Yes, yes, we have thank you." Luna responded, I was grateful that she was over her bout of hostile attitude, and back into one of her good moods.

"Pups, say hi to the new ones!" Pebble called.

One by one, the pups came out of the water, each drenched from head to toe, but with a quick shake, they were as dry as Oak's attitude.

"Hi!" They all squeaked at once.

"Are you going to play with us?" Ember asked.

"Yes! Are you!" Free asked, her eyes wide. "We've been stuck with just each other for the past 3 moon cycles! We're dying for a new play mate!"

Deer laughed. "No, not today pups, Luna and Papilio are surely tired from the walk we had earlier, I'm just introducing them to everyone and then we are going to sleep."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaw."

Seeing their eyes made me wonder how Squirrel and Mouse were going back at the Dawn Howl Pack. Has their father managed to corrupt them yet?

Deer was already padding away to a circle of wolves on the other side of camp before I could say something back to the pups.

Luna and I trotted up to her side.

She gestured towards the group of wolves.

"Hi guys!" Deer greeted. "Hi, Grandma." She nuzzled one of the older wolves in the group and laid down beside her.

"Deer, how are you starshine?"

"I'm great! We met some new wolves by the border, Mother wanted to chase them off, but Swift said that they should stay for a while, until they're older." Deer gestured towards us, I felt uneasy. Were they going to chase us off? Would they not like me or Luna? "Everyone, this is Papilio and Luna. Luna and Papilio, this is my grandmother, Flash. The pale grey senior over there is Breeze."

"Hello, young ones." Breeze said. "Welcome to our pack." Flash nodded her head in agreement.

"And the young males, are my brothers," Deer started. "They aren't quite old enough to leave yet. The pale brown one is Petal and the grey one is Saltu."

"Hello!" Saltu welcomed.

"Hi..." Petal sounded nervous, but his eyes betrayed his act. He wants us to think that he's nervous, but really, he's as confident as a lion!

"Hi," I replied. "How are you all?"

"Um- I think the better question might be, how are you?" Petal responded.

"Come on, Petal," Flash rolled her eyes and laughed croakily. "Drop the nervous act! You only pretend you're nervous in situations like being held captive!"

Petal giggled. "It's fun, though!"

"You're not that great at it!" Luna observed. "Your eyes betrayed you! Try to look up timidly at the wolf, rather than having bright confident eyes."

Petal tried it, then, his big, gorgeous, brown eyes met mine. I couldn't move, I couldn't even speak. I was stunned by the beauty in his eyes.

"Papilio," Luna whispered. "Do you have a crush?"

"N-no!"

We slept with the pack for the rest of the night, despite our short time with them, they were starting to feel like real packmates.

And Petal, well he and I. We had a destiny yet to come...