Wolf Pack

I went to Hughes’ house, Jack was waiting for me having a cup of coffee sitting on the sofa in the entrance hall.

“So! How was it like?” He asked me settling down on the sofa.

“Is this curiosity or jealousy?” I was nervous, but I couldn’t help but ask. And I felt his insides turn when he heard the word jealousy.

“It’s curiosity.” He sipped his coffee without breaking eye contact with me.

“You forget that I feel what you feel? And you’re so cute when you’re jealous Jack Eastwood.”

I said falling on the couch next to him, hugging him.

“It’s just the thought that you’ve dated him, and been with him, I… Argh, I can’t think straight.”

I laughed a lot as I watched him get nervous about the situation.

“Relax my love, that was a long time ago, and FYI, it was amazing to see him today and realize I felt absolutely nothing, he was like a stranger to me.”

“And there was the fact that he was on the attack against you.”

It was true... I felt my stomach lurch with fear, and at the same time I felt the anger that Jack was feeling.

“But what did he want with you anyway?”

“Apologize…”

“A Forsake? Apologize? I really didn’t expect this You must have taught him good manners while you were with him.”

I felt his jealousy again in the last sentence.

“You torture yourself talking about it, you know?”

“I couldn’t help it” He took another sip of coffee. “Just that?”

“Actually there are one more thing…”

Jack realized the gravity of what was coming, he put down his coffee and turned to look at me.

“What else?”

“He came to warn me... About Otto Otto, he’s sure the prophecy is about us, and that he’s investigating you, and that he won’t stop, that he won’t leave us alone. He said we need to be careful. That I need to be careful and that you too.”

I was afraid for myself, but I was more afraid for Jack, he was my whole world now, I wouldn’t accept that anything happened to him, and even more because of me. Jack felt it, he knew my fear. He pulled my body against his, and made me bury my face in his strong chest, hugged me, the way I loved the most and felt safe.

“You don’t have to worry about me, see? You see that I can take care of myself, and my biggest concern is always to keep you safe. I promised you before and I promise you now as your life partner, I will always protect you.”

He ran his hands through my hair and promised to protect me, looking deep into my eyes, and I found myself wrapped in that green sea of his gaze.

“Love you.” I only realized when I had already spoken.

“I love you too.” He answered without even a second gap, without having to think.

The words came out and they were pure, beautiful and sincere.

“You know the day of your attack I held back from disemboweling those wolves, I have a very strong feeling of protection for you. And from the Moon Ball I... Argh, my wolf almost killed that idiot, if it wasn’t for Ed have stopped me.”

I noticed Jack getting nervous at the memory, his eyes lit up and his wolf was taking over.

“Shhh, hey, it’s okay. I’m fine and safe now.”

I snuggled into his arms and felt him hold me tight. We stayed there for a few minutes, holding each other, until Hughes and Alina arrived.

“I understand you had a visitor today? A Forsaken?”

“Yes, it was the wolf that Otto asked me to date in the past, and one of the ones on the attack, he came to apologize.”

“Sensible.” Hughes said before I finished.

“And warn me, about Otto….”

You could feel the tension in the air, Hughes knew what Otto was capable of, he gritted his teeth and set his jaw.

“That he won’t leave me alone, and that he’s sure the prophecy is about us, Marcus said to be careful, me and Jack.”

“Otto and those prophecies....They were meant to help us, not create paranoia.” Hughes said with a sigh.

“After all, what prophecy does he speak?”

“It was one that came out 3 or 4 years ago. It says ’By joining the excluded.”

“I don’t see much point in that.” I really couldn’t understand this fascination with prophecies.

Otto believes they come together. “When good and evil meet, the fruit of that union will bring the end of evil, by joining the excluded.” But there are several prophecies and they could be about other people.” Alina replied.

“But By joining the excluded.”? It doesn’t make sense to me. And how would Jack be an excluded?” I was trying to figure it out, but almost nothing made sense. “If it was a Forsaken, could the prophecy really use the term Forsaken? Or evil, if true the end of evil would be the end of the Forsaken or something like that.”

“Even if Jack were a Forsaken that wouldn’t be a problem, our Pack accepts the Forsaken as long as they follow our rules, just as we accept your father.” Hughes said looking at Jack.

“Has your family always lived here?” Now I asked Jack.

“I know they came from the South, but I was never told much about it, but I was from a Southern Pack, they never talked about being Forsaken, and I just lived with them until I was seven.”

“Did they hide something, about you coming from some alpha DNA? Because of that reaction we had.”

I asked about our conversation, from what Jack told me he shouldn’t feel anything if he wasn’t alpha too.

“What reaction?” Alina asked

I looked at Jack a little embarrassed to say that we lost our minds when we touched.

“Well, we felt something before Soulmeet, like an electric shock through the whole body when we touch each other, it was something like Soulmeet.”

“That’s why you asked me that child.” Alina told me with a smile.

“Did they have a Predict?”

“What is Predict?” When Jack himself asked I understood that it was something unusual.

“We all get… “emerged” in Soulmeet season, something instinctual in wolves to facilitate mating, and that in alphas is a little stronger. But there is a kind of legend, that when two alphas are predestined to be together, with one great achievement on their paths, they meet, even before the Soulmeet, they have what we call Predict which is destiny giving a taste of what is to come.”

“But Hughes I’m not an alpha, my parents weren’t.”

“Maybe it was in their DNA, the alpha family doesn’t always follow the Pack, but if you felt what you’re talking about, it was probably a Predict. Never let Otto know that.” Hughes said with a hint of fear in his eyes.

“Perhaps indeed the prophecy was right, and it was about you.” Alina said what we were all thinking but didn’t have the heart to say, and hearing it out loud made it even more real, a shiver ran down my spine.

“But Jack makes sense that you come from some Alpha bloodline, your leadership ability shows that, and your parents were always very brave and gave their lives for this pack, something two alphas would do without a second thought.” Hughes finished his sentence and I remembered that Jack’s parents died in battle, on the same day as mine, we were orphaned together, but because of me.

A caramel wolf, and a gray wolf, they ran, suddenly they were dead, their fur bloodied.

The headache took me again, it was flashes, flashes of Jack’s parents, somehow I knew it was them, I blinked hard trying to get it out of my mind. Jack wrapped his arms around my shoulders asking:

“More memories?”

“I saw your parents, they died that day, because of me.” My eyes were wide, I was scared and there was no thinking that his parents died protecting me too, the war between the Pack and the Forsaken, and this War was because of me.

Jack looked at me with parted lips, he was thoughtful and scared too.

“None of this is your fault Luna, the war is not your fault, the deaths are not your fault, you didn’t kill anyone, the deaths are the responsibility of those who attacked, and it was the Forsaken. And I still think these prophecies were more of a pretext for Otto to try to bring us down.” Hughes would say running his hands down my back.

“Hey, none of this was your fault. You were just a kid. It was the greed of an unethical man that caused all of this, don’t blame yourself like that again, okay?”

Jack said taking my hands and running his thumb over my tears.

********

That night I couldn’t sleep, I went down to the kitchen to get a glass of water, sat on the island and thought for a few minutes, I was going to get up and make some tea, when the lamp light came on.

“I felt your side of the bed empty.” Jack said yawning, adjusting his robe around his body.

“I couldn’t sleep, I thought I’d make some tea.”

“What ails you my love?” His strong arms wrapped around my waist, I opened my legs and hugged him still sitting on the island, and I remembered how safe I felt in his embrace.

“Not really, it’s like I hear the prophecy in my head, repeating itself. And what does excluded mean? Does it make any sense to you?”

“I’ve been thinking about it too, and I can’t figure it out. But you shouldn’t worry about it dear.”

Jack stared at me and ran his hands over my cheek, I got lost in his eyes, and in his embrace, I didn’t care what the prophecy said, for me he wasn’t excluded, he was my Soulmeet.