Lost Treasure: Into the City

Expectations for an alpha’s daughter are high. Sure, we get the best bloodlines to pass on to our pups, and generally are good looking. I would say I’m okay looking, my sapphire blue eyes with long dark lashes are my best attributes. My long brunette wavy hair is usually up in a ponytail. I keep my body fit and lean. But it also brings in new challenges other girls don’t have to deal with. Every act of accomplishment or defiance is a reflection on the alpha.

Luckily for my parents, I strive for excellence in everything I do. You would think the look of astonishment and pride in their faces would get old. I get a rush at each new challenge they place before me, putting the bar a little higher. I never back down, I step up and achieve. I’m either successful or I make a comeback that will knock you on your back.

My family’s bloodline is different from other packs. Our genealogy traces back to the first werewolves created. I’m the second child out of four, an older brother, and the twins. My brother is 18 this year, he’s been groomed for alpha since birth. My parents put a lot of time and energy into him, so I have to put in extra effort to be noticed around here. With all the accomplishments I’ve done so far for my age, I make it hard for them to forget me.

I’ve been training in my self-defense class for my age group for almost a year. This year we start to learn basic skills with a weapon. I’m already at the top of the class and I’m only fifteen. The sixteen year old’s struggle to keep up with me. I asked Father the other day if I can be moved up to the advanced class, with the seventeen and eighteen year olds. Father did say I was mature for my age, after all.

I started training at the age of five as the priest’s apprentice. The second child of the alpha is chosen, so I have ten years under my belt. Shadow says I'm a quick study.

Fighting and strengthening my body is my favorite part of my busy schedule. Especially now that we are learning weapon skills. So far, the bow staff is my go-to. It feels so good in my hands, like an extension of my arms.

My schedule every day consists of early morning endurance runs, high school, homework, any duties Father has for me, lessons with Shadow, a quick fitness workout before the self-defense class. I eat whenever I can in between.

My pack, the Smokey Mountain Pack, is located south east of Gatlinburg, TN deep in the forest. I’d say there’s about 50,000 acres to our territory with about 500 members. Every Spring and fall, a migration of deer come through every year. This used to be how our pack would get through the winters before Father decided to start selling our most prized resource, Moon Shine. The pack is well known for being the oldest in the US territory and is the equivalent to the Vatican; Shadow like the Pope. The alphas run the pack leaving all spiritual duties to the priest. It's the religious pillar; part of the three pillar government: King, Council, Church.

Our culture, traditions, and rituals date back to the first werewolves created by our Goddess. The King and council treats us like we are a piece of treasure. Whatever my father asks for, he gets, no question.

The shine, called Smoke on the Water, started as a medicine due to a special ingredient that’s added with the corn and yeast. We’ve had to add ten more stills to keep up with the demand. Now the migration has dissolved into a tradition we look forward to each year. Taking care of the special ingredient has been my job since I turned ten. Only the alpha family knows the recipe which has been passed down from generation to generation.

My brother has been anxious lately on account of all the rituals he’s going to do this year. There’s the Alpha Coronation, the spring and fall hunt, celebrating the harvest, and the biggest one of all. The renewing of our ancient bloodlines with our ancestors. Which happens every fifth generation.

My brother is the fifth generation, so our Goddess did not give him a mate. In this ritual, Shadow and the pack elders bind the alpha in his wolf form, making him more animal than human. Then instinct will drive him to the sacred breeding ground where a special pack of wolves are kept. A mate will be selected, divinely of course. After breeding, he will bring her and the pups back to the pack. Every alpha from a religious pillar in every kingdom goes through this ritual. It keeps our bloodline pure to communicate with the Goddess. Like the Jewish priest and the holy of holy chamber.

All the alpha family’s wolves are white and silver wild arctic wolves. Just a little bigger, and wilder and more difficult to control. We also get an ability, I already have an idea what mine is, but it only works as a defense. It will get stronger as I get closer to my first shift.

Today is no different from any other day. I shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast. Then I do my laps and head to school. After school, I tend to the special moon shine plants, then change into my training outfit. After training I go to my room and plop down on my bed. The sun is beginning to set as the light dims coming in through my window.

An eerie silence hangs over the house, and an unnerving tension is building in my chest. With no warning at all, growls, screams, and confusion break out like a freight train outside. Father bursts into my room, commanding me to take my siblings to the panic room.

I run down the hall to their rooms, but they are already waiting for me. I take a hand of both and lead them to the laundry shoot. I slide down after I push both down first. Now in the basement we hurry to the door to the panic room and lock the door behind us.

I turn on the lights and get both the kids comfortable on the cots. Then I turn to the surveillance monitors, looking to find my parents and my brother. For hours I watched helplessly as these rogues wreak havoc on everyone, women, children, they didn’t care. They had no mercy! They came by the thousands. What am I going to do?! It was obvious my parents and brother were dead, and they’d be coming for us next. I can’t just sit here; we’ll have to leave. The safe house is hidden in the mountains. Father would take us there all the time. We ran drills once a month just for times like this. It was stocked with supplies for months. I wonder if he had a feeling something like this would happen one day.

I gather three survival packs around and got the kids ready. I take a deep breath as I open the back hatch that gave us access to a hidden tunnel that leads us to the edge of our territory. The safe house is far enough to stay hidden, but close enough to get there fast.

We have done drills hundreds of times, but now that we have to actually do this, alone without my parents, I’m nervous. I put up a good front so as not to scare the kids. I take a hand from each sibling and head into the darkness of the tunnel.