The Rise of Carolyne Magna

Chapter Eight

Julius Magna

We should just kill her in her sleep.

But we like the hunt too much-

The thrill of it-

"We need to hunt." The dark-haired man says out loud, shaking his head, crouching down to shift into his wolf form, his skin prickling as his coat springs from his pores.

"Yes, Alpha." Delaine hums as she bows her head respectfully, clasping her hands in front of her body.

Julius doesn't respond as he jogs off into the woods, away from the pathetic wolf's home, deeper into the trees, where the prey were hiding. Julius huffs, sneezing as he lowers his head to the ground, trying to scent something to hunt.

We should be resting to kill the girl.

I have plenty of energy, besides, we need food.

Yes, but we should send a weakling to go hunt for us. We are Alpha, they have to do as we say.

Now that they are closer to their true Alpha, they'll resist us more. Their wolves will not allow them to obey us.

And that is why she must die?

Yes. Julius's wolf, Laine, whines slightly at the thought. That is why we have to kill her. Remember?

As Julius caught the scent of a small herd of deer traveling west, he thought about his past, about his journey. Finally, he would have a pack, a true family—a people. And no one could take them away from him this time.

1974

"What should we name him?" Dana asks. Her curly black hair was stuck in sweaty ringlets against her skin, and her face was pale and sunken in.

"You know that I will not favor him." Hank frowns slightly, holding their first child against his hip. The yellow hospital lights made all of their faces have a sickly glow.

"How about after my father, then?" The woman smiles down at her child, his skin red and wrinkled, a tuft of raven hair crusted against his scalp.

"Julius?" Hank's face screwed up in confusion, before shrugging. "Sure. Julius. Julius Magna."

The woman lets out a small cry of joy as she kisses her newborn's head, leaning back in her bed, sighing. He may be the youngest of their children, but no matter what, she swore that she would protect him. She knew that he would have a hard life ahead of him, but she would always be there for him. She would treat him like an Alpha.

1982

Julius's head hung low, his hands clasped in front of his back, his dark suit the same inky black as his hair. Dark clouds rumbled overhead, and light raindrops pattered to the ground as if the world itself was in mourning with them. His father stood at the base of the pyre with a torch in his hand, his brows furrowed in a permanent glare, his eyes not focusing on anything.

"... bound together by the souls of our ancestors, a part of her soul will be left with us, to remind us of her beauty and her kindness, and her strength. May her spirit age and grow as it melds together with the soul of her wolf in eternity, and reincarnate, binding itself to that of another powerful she-wolf, such as herself." Hank drones on monotonously, before raising the torch in the air. "And by the burning of her earthly body, may her spirits remain strong in the circle of life, for all eternity."