His Reluctant Luna

Alicenoveldrama

I was looking at the disappointed faces of several juveniles after I had relayed the

sad news that they could do none of the things they had planned.

"Will we at least have a pack run?" One of the girls asked, while coyly eying Zaiden.

"How about the pack barbecue? We can't cancel that?" Another one voiced.

I rolled my eyes and silently cursed Eliza for leaving me with these hormonally charged teenagers.

"I am not sure about that. But I will confirm with the Alpha. Now, get back to your training."

Once, the kids were busy. I had a choice. I could either visit Olivia and see how she was doing or check about the prophecy in the pack library. I wasn't sure what

I was looking for, but possibly, there would be something in the old archives.

I decided to visit the library.

************

It was a cool autumn day, and the leaves from the oak trees on the grounds littered the ground. It was one of those days when it just felt like the clouds could open up at any moment, and soak everything below. Lucian was away for his Alpha council meeting. Which seemed to be happening a lot lately. I had never been to the Crimson Shadow's pack library. It was huge!

Not all packs could maintain an archive. Constant displacement and pack war made it difficult to maintain an archive. Only the most powerful and oldest of packs were able to keep their records or archives. Looking at some dusty manuscripts, they could be 100s of years old.

"Madam Luna," an old man aged around 50 bowed to me. "What brings you here?"

I knew him, he was a teacher in the pack's school.

"Mr Sullivan, I was looking for some information. Didn't expect you to see here."

"I am part-time in charge of the archives, history fascinates me." He smiled. "Excellent! Then perhaps you are the correct person to ask about prophecies." I smiled pleasantly.

He raised an eyebrow. Then turned towards one of the several rows. "Prophecies are a tricky business, Madam Luna," he said shaking his head.

"Earlier we used to have a council of elders, their sole job was to analyze and study prophesies, some even helped in bringing them to fruition."

I followed him as we passed through the narrow ally of books and manuscripts. "That's very helpful, what happened to that council?"

"They all died," he said flatly.

"What a pity! No one replaced them? " I said, casually looking around.

"There are few oracles who do that, but most people have stopped believing in prophecies. They are complicated and doesn't give direct instructions. Too much symbolism and mystery. People just lost interest. "

"Not everyone, I suppose," I mumbled.

"And here we are." Mr Sullivan said.

In front of me stood a rack of books and parchments which looked at least 100 years old. They were covered with dust. I had no patience to go through all of them.

"Me, Sullivan, what do you know about the Obsidian prophecy?" I asked. "Oh, that's right here."

Me Sullivan pulled a big dusty book from the bottom of the shelf. He laid it down on the table and shuffled its dusty pages, "here".

I read the lines which Sullivan pointed at.

"She will be begotten from a line of witches, shall have the hybrid blood of a wolf. She will be powerful and bring good fortune to her mate. The maiden shall become the mate of an Alpha on the night of the Blue Moon. The child from the union shall rule for centuries to come, and the land shall prosper in their love."

"Wow!" I mumbled. Re-reading the lines.

"As per the legend, the child conceived on the blue moon shall become a powerful ruler. Do you think it's true?" I asked Mr Sullivan.

"Well, it could be true; however, there is a theory about prophecies. They are purposely vague about the meaning. When writing out the prophecies, the oracles leave several key points open for interpretation. Not because they want to mislead. However, oftentimes for a prophecy to come true, the people involved have to be ignorant of all the facts, or their preconceived ideas of how things should corrupt the events. If people involved fully understood their destiny before the time was right, they might not be able to take the actions necessary to succeed. Some might even try to change the outcome. Hence, the chosen one must discover the true purpose on their own and at the right moment."

"I am sorry, I don't understand," I replied.

"What I mean is, prophecies are cryptic, they need proper interpretation. Moreover, this was written almost 300 years ago in France. There would be some context of the legend behind it. Parts of the book is lost. The prophecy may be already fulfilled. We don't know."

Sullivan was right, but if people were ready to kill over it, then there must have been some truth in it, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it somehow concerned

me.

"Is there more to this? Why were the parts of it lost?"

"We are talking about 17th century Europe. It was a dark age. Witches were being hunted and burned. Wolves packs were still pretty wild back then. Most of them couldn't read or write, so the legends and prophecies were passed down orally, which led to several inaccuracies. Furthermore, numerous old lineages of witches and wolves were decimated or lost. So, we don't know which line of witches the prophecy is talking about."

That made sense.

"It's interesting that you are the second person who asked me about the Obsidian prophecy. The first one was the previous Beta Killian." Sullivan added.

I wasn't surprised.

"That's fascinating! Any idea who can interpret this prophecy?"

"We used to have a brilliant oracle in our pack. Unfortunately, she died a few years ago. There hasn't been a new oracle born in our pack." He said regretfully. Oracles or seers, werewolves who had Luna's gift of visions. They could see the past or the future. They were honoured and sometimes acted as advisors. "Hmm, that's very unfortunate. Thank you, Mr Sullivan. I appreciate your help."

I would have stayed in the library and done some more research, had it not been for the frantic call from the hospital. Olivia was having a fit due to her withdrawal symptoms. Her scent had been altering as the effect of those injections waned.

I walked into her room smiling and bearing heavenly-smelling paper bags of food in one hand and a cup holder with two tall covered tumblers in the other. Thanks

to the kind Katherine who had delivered those edibles to me in a jiffy. Olivia inclined her head at me. She looked pale and even thinner than before.

"I brought food for you. Figured you're probably bored with the bland hospital food. You need to eat more to keep your strength up, Olivia."

I carefully laid my burden on the table.

She didn't respond, but I could hear her stomach rumble.

Nudging the bag closer to her, I continued, "Fried chicken, with Katherine's secret garlic dip, salad, baked potato, and some of her freshly baked cakes. I am sorry, I don't know what you like, but I can assure you Katherine is a wonderful cook."

"Thank you," Olivia said in a soft voice.

I watched as Olivia absently picked up a piece of chicken and started to eat. I closed the door to her room for some privacy and sat down on a chair.

Likewise, I waited until she had fished, eating.

"How are you feeling now ?"

She lifted inquiring eyes at me while carefully keeping down her napkin.

"I am fine, Mam. I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure?"

"When can I leave? You people have done a lot for me. I want to avoid being a

burden anymore. I need to get back to my life."

I stared at her for a few seconds. Likewise, I had no idea how to break this to her.

"I am afraid you will have to stay here, Olivia. You can't leave......please hear me out." I said as the fear and panic returned in those blue eyes.

"You're not the same anymore Olivia, you are a shifter now. Though not a full shifter but you have changed. You can feel it too right? I am sorry but leaving is not an option anymore."

"Why? Why can't you just leave me alone? I never wanted to be a part of all this. I swear I would never tell anyone anything. I just want to get back to my old life." She pleaded.

"We werewolves have a saying that, whenever a human stumbles upon us. It's the Godess Luna guiding them to us because he or she is fated to become one of us. We are not all monsters Olivia. I know you have been through worse, but I can assure you not all wolves are bad."

She still looked suspicious.

"If you are ok, I can take you around. You can live with other unmated girls and do whatever you like. You can resume your studies or work. I will help you." I gave a reassuring smile.

"I wish I would have died." She sighed, tears spilling from her eyes.

I sighed. It was going to be a long day.