Part two- Chapter 19

Watching clear midnight skies

suddenly intense storms come alive

showing her rage

as each lightning bolt strikes

Mother Nature no longer sits

idly by

A plink and a plank is heard outside

once she tears up

and starts to cry

Windows rattle

foundations shake

as the roar of her thunder

is heard miles away

Mercy her violence does not show

causing many to scatter

while others are shattered

This mother

has single handedly

earned her respect

proving once and for all

a match for no man

---Sherry Lynn Hull Richardson

ORSELINE P.O.V

May be Duncan was out of the house. May be he needed some time for himself. I thought and tried to convince myself. He also might not have gone out of the house right?

I wanted to check his apartment and so I ran upstairs.

When I reached his room, I didn’t bother knocking. I roughly pushed the door and went inside. His scent was all over the place but I couldn’t sense his presence. I walked into the room where his scent was the most. I gulped when I saw the closet empty and none of his bags were there.

Unable to believe it, I went to the next apartment where his pack members were staying but this room too was empty and I closed my eyes shut when I saw that.

He left.

Duncan and every one from his pack were gone. Slowly, I forced my legs to walk out of the apartment and then went back to Duncan’s place. His scent was calming me down but that didn’t make the pain in my heart any less. The mark in my neck was burning me alive.

I sat on the couch and closed my eyes. I never regretted killing anyone. They deserved to die for destroying the Elegance Pack. They deserved to die for everything they have done to those gifted pups. They deserved to die just like Remy, Tito, Orion and Austin. We couldn’t save Austin but we are going to save Darya, the last one left.

I would do anything to save Darya. I couldn’t save my brother but I will save Darya. We all couldn’t save those four but we promised to save Darya.

It all started when they attacked and destroyed the Elegance Pack completely. I was a kid back then and didn’t know much about it. The waters had calmed down but it rose again when Remy was killed.

In 1998, when Elegance Pack was destroyed everyone in the pack was dead. There were no survivors from the pack. That was what the news was spread everywhere. Rogues had cruelly attacked and destroyed the whole pack but what we and neither did the rogues know was that Alpha Victor Burke’s son was saved.

The Elegance Pack Beta, Jeffery, had saved him. The little boy ran to the Moreland Pack were their Alpha Peter Moreland took him in. The little boy was brought up by Alpha Peter Moreland as his son.

To protect his identity Alpha Peter lied that Cortez was his own son, born to a human fling. Everyone bought that lie. Cortez was trained by Alpha Peter to take revenge for whatever that had happened in the Elegance Pack. Alpha Peter never wanted Cortez to be known to everyone that is why he never sent him to the boarding school. The Hampton’s Boarding School. The best school for all the pups.

My pa never wanted me to go to that school. He never wanted me and Orion out of his sight and when Tyson’s dad proposed about the homeschool thing, my pa happily agreed.

Alpha Peter sent both Raven and Remy to the school. Remy shifted on his eleventh birthday while he was in the school. A shock as well as a surprise to his parents and every wolf. But that was just the beginning because Remy started controlling water two months after he started shifting. He didn’t know how to fully master the element and would often lose control. Within a month after he started controlling water, he was kidnapped and then killed.

His body was thrown on the streets.

Filled with rage after the death of his son, Alpha Peter had come to the Boarding School to demand how it happened. The school was meant to take care of those children who stay away from home to attend the school and Alpha Peter’s fury was justified. When he came to school, he realized that the rogues staying in the Elegance Territory had killed Remy. So, he went alone to kill those rogues. He was outnumbered that day and badly beaten by the rogues.

When those rogues hit him, they leaked the information to him that they are working for a group of Alpha’s. In fact, the destruction of the Elegance pack too was ordered by the Alpha’s. They even told uncle gleefully that they will kill all such kids who will be gifted with the power to master the elements. The rogues didn’t realize what a key information they provided to him that day. Alpha Peter couldn’t kill those rogues but he did manage to escape and save his life.

He then began to research and find about the Alpha’s who were involved in the killings. His attempt was futile and he was almost ready to give up until Tito shifted a year later when he was eleven.

I was surprised to see Tito’s wolf. I had not known about Remy back then. I still remember to this day his white wolf with red eyes. He was beautiful and big then a normal pup. A month after shifting he started controlling the air. It just happened one day; I, Twin bro’, Tito and Orion along with our other friends were in the woods that day. We were about to have a small picnic near a river. Just us kids, play and have fun on the banks. We were about to go to the river in a short cut, but there were some dead leaves blocking the route and none of us knew the short cut route. We were all kicking the leaves apart to find the way. When Tito began to kick the leaves he lost patience and using his hand he brought a gush of wind spreading the leaves apart at once. We were all too surprised to react. It was magical for us.

We immediately ran back home and informed our parents. Two weeks later Tito was kidnapped and killed. Tito’s death was a huge shock to the whole family. Uncle Grier blamed my pa for not protecting Tito very well. Twin bro’s went to Grier Pack, their pack after Tito’s death. Our family was divided because of Uncle Grier but that didn’t make me and Orion lose our lovely relationship with our cousins. We were still close to them because we all missed Tito.

Orion’s eleventh birthday was a month after Tito’s death. I was surprised to see my little brother shifting at the age of eleven just like Tito. His wolf was a beige color one just like mine. While I had golden eyes his were dark red. It was like burning red. We were expecting him to have some gift and hence we weren’t really surprised to see him controlling fire two months later.

Orion was actually quite dangerous because he had no proper training how to control the element. He had burnt so many trees in the woods because he didn’t know how to stop.

Pa was proud of seeing Orion being gifted and he boasted about it to everyone. Not even a week later my little brother was gone forever. I never ever got to see his body. None of us know where he was buried but we all felt our mind link being broken.

A mother can always feel a special connection with her pup and if the pup is killed, she will get to know it because her wolf will howl in pain at the loss of her young one. My mother felt that and she fell on the ground in pain. His death was really devastating. He was not only my little brother, he was my friend too. We were very close. We became closer after the twin bro’s left our pack.

I was distraught after his death. I had refused to talk to anyone. Pa and Darya’s father along with some fighters had gone to the rogue’s territory that day just like Alpha Peter did to fight with them. Pa came back with the dead body of Darya’s father and few of our pack fighters who were killed in the attack.

Darya was a member of my pack ever since she was born. She was good friends with Orion and Tito back then but after their death she and I became closer because Pa started taking more care of Darya since he considered himself responsible for the death of her father, Marvin.

I was still mourning for Orion when I got a call from an unknown number that day. Thinking it to be a service call I disconnected it. But when I got another call, I took it.

“Orseline Norwood?” a gruff male voice asked me.

“Yes, it’s me” I replied.

“I need to share something confidential with you” the speaker said before I could ask who he was. So, instead of replying to him, I asked my question.

“Who is this?” I asked him.

“Alpha Peter Moreland” he replied. I stared at the phone wondering why he called me. May be it was a prank because when we were kids we used to call our neighbors and irritate them just like this. “It’s not a prank” he said and I blinked. “I am Alpha Peter Moreland”

“Okay” I whispered softly. “What do you want?” I asked him. I wondered why he called me. If he wanted to make a treaty or something, he should have called my pa because I wasn’t an Alpha yet. The title will be handed to me four months later on my birthday.

“I know who killed your brother, Orion” he said and a deep thunderous growl broke out from my chest.

“Who?” I asked him holding my cell phone in a tight grip. “Who killed my brother?” I asked him.

“I cannot answer you in the phone.”

“Answer me now” I snarled at him.

“No, not now” he said calmly and paused. “Coming Sunday, I need you to come to my pack along with your twin cousins” he said and I growled.

“Tell me now” I roared.