The Prophecy of the Red Wolf [WattpadPrize14]

Chapter 11

“Can we see your wolf, Arianna?” My dad asks after I spill everything out without a pause.

 Arianna’s eyes flicker towards me hesitantly. She’s afraid.

 Getting up, I kneel in front of her, placing my hand on her knees, rubbing her soothingly in encouragement. I’m curious too, about how her red wolf looked like. I’ve never seen a red wolf. The only red wolf we all know about is the prophesized one. Most wolves are varying shades of brown or grey.

 Wolves with alpha blood usually had black on their coat – whether streaks or stripes or spots among other colors. When a wolf inherits an alpha position, their coat will change to black, except with spots or stripes of their original coat. When an alpha wolf retires or hands over their position, their coat returns to its original color.

 My dad’s wolf was almost black, except his four paws which were light brown as if they were sunk into sand. His coat was light brown with just a patch of black at the crown of his head when he first took over as alpha from my grandfather.

I am golden brown with a single streak of black running from the crown of my head to the ends of my tail. Nate used to tease me relentlessly about being mildly related to skunks. God, I hated it. But it also prevented me from hunting skunks whenever I ran into them. Something about their coat made me feel like I was killing my own babies. Yuck.

 Royal wolves usually had more white on their coat than any other color. The King on the other hand was always pure white –  not like I’ve seen any royal wolves before.

 Incidentally, the Council of Twelve would be an assortment of colors. But they all had a common trait – their right paws were silver. Could be because they all had the Moon Goddess’ silver tattoo on their right hands. But that’s only my theory.

 The warrior wolves who guard and protect the royal family all have white tipped tails. Warrior wolves don’t belong to one pack. They come from different packs around the world. Those who pass the final test would have white tips on their tails. They literally earn their stripes, or rather in this case – earn their whites.

 Turning my attention back to Arianna, I squeeze her knees lightly.

 “I…I… I only shifted once. And it was five years ago. I’m not sure if I can.” Arianna trembles.

“Just try, sweetheart.” My dad says kindly.

 “Keep your clothes on, baby. If it shreds, I’ll get you fresh ones. Don’t worry about it.” I say, not wanting her to stress about undressing in front of us.

 Arianna nods timidly and moves to stand in the middle of the room. She closes her eyes and clenches her fists tightly, concentrating on the shift. I’m not sure if she knows what she’s doing or if she’s doing it right. It shouldn’t be so difficult, you just will yourself to shift and you usually do.

 Arianna on the other hand, looks like she’s struggling to blow up a large balloon by the looks of the strain on her face. I start to worry when her face starts to turn red. If it weren’t so serious, I would have burst out laughing at the comical state Arianna’s in.

 Just as I was about to stop her – I was getting far too worried – a portion of her hair puffs into red fur. And I do mean flaming red fur. If the wind was blowing at her fur now, you’d think it was fire dancing around her.

 I’m momentarily stunned by the red tuft of fur sticking out on the side of her head. She looked so adorable. Releasing the breath she had held onto, Arianna’s concentration breaks and the red tuft vanishes in place of her blonde locks.

 Slowly opening her eyes, Arianna looks at me, disappointment and sadness marring her beautiful features. I swiftly get up and hug her close.

 “I’m sorry, I couldn’t shift.”