A Prophecy of Faith and Fear

Flashback: 8 years earlier

BZZZT, reverberated the sound of the buzzer, signaling half time. “And that’s the half folks. A current score of 38-42 with your Half Peak University, Wolves, trailing their rivals.” Bellowed the announcer.

Tuning into the college game day radio station, “The University of Triton, Foxes have absolutely dominated this game!” Began the radio hosts. “Looking at the half, I think it is safe to say that Andrew Kirston, the Freshman, has been holding this Wolves’ team together. Would you agree that he was the player of the half?” The first host questioned.

Melody is invested in this recollection of the first half. As soon as the buzzer sounded, she put her headphones in and tuned into the station to hear their analysis. She has always had a strong interest in basketball and has developed quite the talent playing with her brothers. She envelops their dissection and agrees that Andrew was the best player on the court, even though their team was losing. She and her dad left their seats to grab some popcorn and she only hoped they wouldn’t wait in line too long; she didn’t want to miss a minute of the second half.

Hardly able to stay in her seat, Melody stared at the court as her team was working hard to make their comeback. “71-72, 30 seconds left on the clock; the Wolves have the ball and have time for one last play. Can they pull it off?” The radio host examined the current play of events. Melody had decided to keep one headphone in during the game for an immersive experience; Hearing the radio analysis only added to the thrill of the game. The stadium was electric with cheering, jumping, and chanting; It almost pulsed through Melody’s veins.

Andrew receives the inbound and takes it to the top of the key. He takes his time with some fancy dribbling - bouncing the ball between his legs. 10. 9. 8… the crowd starts counting down the clock. The beat of the chant jolts under Melody’s skin.  Andrew passes off the ball and makes a run towards the hoop; he receives the ball back 3…2…He goes up for the layup, the ball is released. BZZZT. The crowd is silenced as the ball bounces back and forth on the rim. No one dared move a muscle, all held their breath. Until it suddenly drops through; the crowd erupts with excitement.

“The wolves have done it! 73-72 is your final score. Thanks folks for coming out and supporting your home team,” was the final message provided by the announcer before the spectators climbed down from their seats in the stadium, and began to leave. Still high off of the thrill of the game, Melody begged her dad if she could get her limited edition cup signed by the team. Mostly, she wanted it signed by Andrew… She and her dad, Alpha Michael Nickels, head down to the court to get their chance.

Yep you heard that right, Alpha. Melody and her family were werewolves, but not just any werewolves, they were basically “royalty”. An Alpha is like the king, the leader, and his whole family was leading the pack, or “village”. If you weren’t told, you would never know that their town was any different than a human town. They have generations of practice blending in with other human towns.

As Melody approached Andrew, her father’s eyes glazed over signifying he was getting a mind link from someone back at the packhouse. Almost like a built-in cell phone werewolves can talk through their minds without ever saying a word out loud. Werewolves will mindlink when they can’t or shouldn’t speak out loud; however they can only mindlink family or a member of the pack. If you haven’t given your loyalty to the pack, you can’t mind-link. Melody’s dad frequently received mind links about pack business. This way other people wouldn’t hear anything about the inner workings of the pack or private financial information.

“Uhg they couldn’t wait until he was home to talk pack business”, Melody thought? She never gets to go to events or basketball games, let alone with her dad. As her dad is mind linking, Melody approaches Andrew and hands him her cup. He may be a freshman, but he is no doubt the best one on the team. As she stood there waiting, she couldn’t help but notice his disheveled, dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. The sweat dripped down his face, which only added to the appeal, in her mind.  No wonder he was the talk among the town. He was dreamy, she thought, and practically drooled… Just as he was about to hand the cup back to Melody, she was scooped up and thrown over her dad’s shoulder with a thump. It knocked the wind out of her but she was able to breathily squeak out, “dad, what was that for?”

“Rogues! We are under attack! We need to get home! NOW!” Exclaimed her father, quietly but with conviction, in her ear.

Crap! Rogues were no good. They are villainous wolves with no pack who seek to destroy any pack around them. Their mentality is if they can’t have a pack life, then no one should, and they don’t care who they kill to tear down a pack. Women, children, warriors, medical staff, no one is safe from rogues. Fair fighting doesn’t exist.  If Dad was mind linked about rogues, that can only mean their pack was in serious trouble…Usually the warriors would be able to handle a couple of rogues stepping into the territory. If dad has to get involved, then we must be outnumbered… Melody watches Andrew’s tall, muscular frame get smaller and smaller as her dad runs out the door and towards their car. Disappointment overtakes her as she realizes that he is standing there holding her cup, watching her be carried away.

…

Melody reminisced about attending the basketball game while she scrubbed the tile floors on the Beta family’s floor of the pack house. That was the last time she was allowed to leave the property. Her home used to be a welcoming and open pack, now she described it as a compound where she was on lockdown day in and day out.

Ever since the attack, Alpha Nickels has blamed Melody for its severity. He spent months lashing out at Melody for taking him away from the pack that night of the basketball game.  He firmly believed that if he had been home, he wouldn’t have lost any pack members. That day when the rogues attacked, the Gold Peak pack lost many pack members; nearly half, and most of them were the female warriors. Alpha Nickels thinks they were too weak and being punished by the moon goddess for straying from their role as women. From the conversations about the attack that Melody overheard, she always thought the female warriors were targeted.

Now Alpha Nickels had devoted himself, his family, and his pack to the moon goddess, to atone for his sins and misguidance as the alpha. Although it was Melody who did the most to “atone”.

Melody POV

Thinking about my last happy memory, the basketball game, always helps me get through daily tasks. My day is always the same: First up, head to the Moon Goddess temple to atone for my sins and the sins of my father. Over the last 8 years I have been convinced that it is my burden to bear what happened to my pack, and my father wouldn’t let me go a day without remembering it. Second: serve and support breakfast service in the great hall. Third: clean the hostels and pack-house. Lastly, serve and support dinner service. On summer and fall days, I have an added responsibility of working the farmer’s market.

Today I jumped out of bed as the sound of my alarm blared at 5am. I wasn’t worried about waking anyone else up. My room is soundproofed and on the opposite side of our 4th floor living suite. Dad had a large pack house built for the ranked families (Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta) while the rest of the pack lived in large hostels. The hostels and pack-house sit