Savior of the Wolves

Aiden’s POV

I often wondered if Josh and I should be separated. Until we found a fem. Logically, the distance would draw the closest brother to her quicker. The imprinting would happen, or not, and life would continue without a disaster...a fight amongst brothers.

My understanding was that if I found the fem first and nothing happened, I would protect her until he arrived. Sure, the fates could have it that neither of us should imprint with her and we’d both stay to protect her. The plus side was...a noble knows the fem isn’t his mate when the uncontrollable need for her dissipates. The instinct to protect her stays and that’s really all that matters until her true mate, her noble, finds her.

I’ve thought about it a lot. How could I not? It was nearly all I thought about.

It didn’t help that my wolf grew stronger by the day. Even now, I felt him prying at my skin to shift. I already shifted that morning during training and sparring was usually enough for him. But tonight, it was more intense. He begged me to let him out. I wanted to, but not without a release. I was certainly not going to spar with someone this late in the evening. Not when he felt this aggressive. So out of control. I wouldn’t intentionally set someone up to be hurt.

He was my soul. At least that was how I could best describe him. He was part of me. So, I hated depriving him of getting this “whatever it was” under control. It killed me to listen to his ranting, his begging. He began to growl so high that I couldn’t even concentrate on reading.

“No!” I growled back at him as the sound settled to a whimper.

I’m not an asshole. I just didn’t think he was in control. I thought, at best, we’d end up halfway across the continent before I ever slowed him down. I was inexperienced. He was not.

I could be proud at times, but I was not stupid.

So, it had to wait. I would not shift till morning.

God help me. I would probably never sleep tonight.

Sitting at a large oak table, holding a delicately aged journal in my hands, I shook my head with my eyes closed. I took several deep breaths and tried to calm us both down.

There was so much to still study. To learn. Something we missed.

This couldn’t be what life was supposed to be like for me. Forever. For future generations.

Dad was generous enough to put these studies into my schedule at the end of every day. He knew deep down that no one would put more time or energy into this. So when I pleaded my case, this became part of my duties.

I was drawn to these books. I had to believe my purpose was to find an answer.

My fingers subconsciously rubbed the inside of one of the pages as I read, “How did they get to so many packs without us knowing? As news spread, it was clear that they were aiming to annihilate the strongest species first. The wolves. The vampires would clearly be next. Then the witches. With the daily murders of wolves, it was just a matter of time.”

I continued to read that many years ago when I was a child, a noble wolf traveled from across the seas and said he was tracking the scent of a nearby fem…and the scent just vanished. It wasn’t as though his need faded either.

It drove him nearly mad.

“The rantings of a lunatic.” The books read. “It had to be the result of a curse. He must have wronged a witch. Nothing existed that he spoke of. No one knew that it was the beginning of the scourge attacks. So, as with most intruders, he was chased to the farthest corners of the country…far away from our packs. We drove him away and drove away the only warning that they were coming.”

“This wolf behaved like a mad wolf because his fem was killed.”

Those words hung there ominously on the page.

It made me feel sick.

I pushed my dinner box out of reach on the table.

There was something gnawing at me. Packs had their own unique link. It was how we communicated, especially in wolf form. Alphas can open links with any Alpha, who in turn can open that same link to each pack. It gave permission for packs to communicate outside of their packs. . So what happened? Was there just no time to warn others? Did no one open the link?

Entire packs perished because they had no idea of the evil that was raging a war all around them. Destroying so many brothers and sisters.

By the time the scourge war reached us, it had already destroyed the smaller packs across half of the world. Smaller packs began to join one another to protect themselves. But not before most of the female nobles were slaughtered.

It was the most destructive and strategic plan ever implemented by the scourges. By any species.

Their focus had been on the young female nobles. The future Luna’s.

It took a while before the packs figured it out. Then the pieces began to fall together.

But by then it was too late.

Little to no packs were attacked that didn’t have a female noble amongst them and this made it all seem sporadic at first, like a loner passing by that attacked a random pack. Perhaps provoked by a detail on patrol. Perhaps a diseased one.

Then it all began to make sense. The scourges’ plan all along was to destroy the noble lines. Without a Luna, the Alpha’s line was weakened. Sure, the Alpha could take a beta or delta female as his mate and even have a family with her. And sadly, over the last ten years, many did.

But their offspring could never be nobles...because there was no Luna. The Alpha was the protector. But the Luna…she was the heart of the entire pack.

Any female who wasn’t a noble and married a noble became his consort. Her role was important. Crucial. She handled responsibilities as Luna would. The pack protected her like a Luna. But their offspring would be beta wolves. Not a noble. Never an Alpha or Luna.

The goddesses gifted the Alphas and Lunas with superior strength, speed, wisdom, passion, kindness...everything. But most importantly they were also gifted with a unique power. Some, with more than one.

Just like my mom and dad.

Dad siphoned power. He could use it or destroy it at will.

Mom…she could read minds. And as with most of nature...there was always a catch. The nobles would never come into these unique powers unless they imprinted with their destined mate. Their noble.

Of course there had to be fems born since the attacks. That would make them around ten years old. They would still have eight years before turning, imprinting with their mate, and coming into their powers. This meant there was no foreseeable relief to the scourge threat.

In the elders’ meetings with my father, they were convinced that there had to be other female nobles close to maturity, like my sister, Sophie, who we hid. We never spoke about Sophie outside of our pack. We took every step to hide her. That gave us hope that other packs could be doing the same with their surviving fems. That was the hope my mom clung to...every time she looked at me and my brother.

Our wolf numbers had been greatly diminished, so we had to be patient. That was not in a wolf’s DNA. What our wolves wanted to do was scour the forests and kill as many scourges as we could find. But we couldn’t. More would perish. We still didn’t understand what happened.

It would be suicide.

Now, it’s been years of nobles not imprinting. Years of these powers missing. We were weaker than ever before in our history.

Even though different species may not always get along, we didn’t battle them. That’s why the witches, who were most vulnerable, sought our help. They sought refuge with us. Keeping witches secretly near the compounds made the alliance strong...but rebuilding wasn’t complete. We still had a long way to go.

Wolves now lived within their Alpha’s compound. A short distance was allowed long ago. But it just wasn’t safe anymore. This was for the protection of everyone.

Within each compound we work like a small city. That’s basically what we were anyway. Each member is assigned a job based on talent. Much like any other species.

The strongest betas were our protection detail. They patrol our entire area in shifts. Once a month, every wolf patrols along to stay familiar with our surroundings. For their safety and the pack. But the protection detail, this was every day for them.

The rest of the pack was like any other city with teachers, maintenance, communications, technology, councilmen, yard crew, housekeepers, kitchen, etc.

Then there were the elders.

The elders may look fragile in their human form, but their wolf was as young as any newly transitioned wolf. Because in wolf form, we heal completely. But in human form, the body feels the effects of aging. So, as they age, we cater to them. Celebrate them. They no longer had a full-time job, but every single one of them took on a new “unspoken” job. Supervision. You could spot them by their wolf form. Most of us used our human form on the compound unless we were sparring or running. The elders were mostly in their wolf form, and they knew what everyone was up to...especially the young ones. So, they are even more needed in their new capacity.

It seemed that everyone in the pack was fated to their life’s purpose…except for me and my siblings.

I shook my head again, subconsciously reminding my wolf to settle down.

Desperation built up in me lately. Logically I knew that we couldn’t be the only noble children left. Others must be suffering the same ill-fated existence as we were, but perhaps they were too young. I reminded myself daily that my mate could easily be coming of age anytime. She could be a few years younger than me. Just because I was alone didn’t mean she had been killed by the scourges.

My wolf howled within me. He was tortured by the thought. My fate had been tampered with by a murderous species and the life I should be living felt completely on hold. My wolf could feel it. And no matter how antsy I was in my human form, to my wolf it felt maddening. I felt his hunger for his true self. The power we were supposed to receive once we imprinted. The connection we would have with our fem. It felt as though my wolf was being held down by ropes. He was feeling primal, less controlled than lately. He felt desperate. This kept me distracted. That was my disconnect with the pack. But I couldn’t stop it no matter how much I wanted to. There were no books or stories to offer advice to me on how to deal with this. It had never happened before.

I slammed the journal closed with a soft thud as I looked over toward the windows. I saw it was dark already and assumed that was why my wolf was losing it. It had been a long day.

I left the library without talking to anyone and turned in for the night.