Millennia by Raven Slake (free books to read .txt) 📕

just one creature, like there was a second, but it was amongst us already. A traitor perhaps, or maybe someone who wanted out of the life the creature had offered it. Whatever the cause, there was a monster coming straight for us, and I could practically smell the bloodlust it carried with it.

The death and despair had only just begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Fair Warning

There is this rush, as a wolf, when you kill your prey. You can feel their life drain right out of them, just like in the human stories that speak of vampires and other blood-sucking creatures. A feeling, almost like a newfound power, rushes through your veins. The kill itself fills you with adrenaline and gives you the mindset that you are immortal. But you aren't, which is why many hunt to scare. Killing your victim is almost as good as the hunt, but the hunt by far, is superior. Kaire is not one for killing, unlike me. Frankly, I enjoy hunting and could do it all day if not for limitations on my energy. Being a wolf gave me that much, and I'll hold onto that with my last breath.

Kaire was staring at me. What had I done this time?

"Zeke says you're gonna be needed at the next ceremony. He refuses to say why," Kaire reported, fighting a devious smile. He was playing me, and he was not all that good at hiding it. After him being my twin since birth, I have some to discover how he hides things from me, and it was always in his mischevious smile.

"Or, you are refusing to tell me," I assumed. The tiny, hard to find smirk grew into his bright joking smile. He never kids about the ceremonies, but he will hold secrets about them. And I hated not knowing why the alpha wanted me there. Ceremonies were not my thing, and I usually hunted instead.

During a ceremony, the pack gathers to mourn any losses. Usually, if the position of the deceased wolf was high enough, the alpha announces the replacement. Penelope was our beta female, and that left a gap in our pack. Females were slightly difficult to come by these days. Zeke always had a female announce the replacements, especially after Trigger, my last alpha. It was a tradition, so to say, that Zeke held onto. No one really understands why, but we don't argue with it. Ceremonies were something all wolf packs did, and no one liked messing with them. There was only one exception: Feline. She never went, even when requested. Her presence makes everyone feel out of place. She's the cat that never was. Even if she died after we finally adjusted to her, there was going to be no ceremony for her. She was not born into our pack like the others. Zeke brought her in when he was the beta male. Feline was an outsider, never to outrank the wolves that were born inside the pack. That was an unspoken law amongst wolves.

I tackled Kaire playfully, nipping his shoulder blade. He pushed on my stomach and shoved me away from him, still smiling from before. Supposedly Kaire could push a stag off him, but that was absolutely false. However, he was pretty strong for a wolf. Knowing my brother, he could fight off a bear and probably win. Bears may be fierce and big and strong, but Kaire was large for his size and much stronger than Zeke. Regardless, he did dare challenge our alpha. 

Kaire nuzzled me gently and began to walk away. Both of us had business to take care of, and it was becoming urgent. Me, I needed to hunt for food and Kaire needed to suck out secrets from Zeke. After all, my brother was the beta male that stood one level beneath Zeke at all times. Just below Kaire was me, the selsa of the pack. One of the many levels of a wolf pack the humans disregarded. There is a total of nine levels in any if not all wolf packs. The two alphas, the male usually lying above the female. Again, the two betas, male and female are sometimes at equal leveling. The selsas, like me, are the hunters. We lie just under the betas, so we have a pretty decent position. We also protect our pack as guardians, thus we must be fast and vicious when needed. Under us are the deltas. Like the selsas, the deltas hunt but they do not protect. They are the highest ranking of the lower ranks in a wolf pack. Beneath them are the gammas, which act as betas to the deltas, they aid and guide the delta wolves. The epsilons and the zetas are low to non ranking wolves in the pack that participate in the hunting party. The difference being that the zetas are the first position a wolf is usually appointed within a pack. The lotas lie under them, which usually consist of newcomers, disobeying wolves that have not been demoted to omega yet, or are puppies that haves just become adult wolves. The final and foremost worst position in the pack is the omega. They are disrespectful and like Feline, tend to try to leave the pack. As Kaire puts it, they are the "bitches of the pack". Honestly, I would rather die s than lie beneath the delta position. Below that is a hell-ish mess of fighting and blood. No one wants to lie that low, most die if they stay down there too long. Thankfully, we have no zetas or lotas. If Feline had never arrived, we never would have any omegas either. She threw the pack balance off between high levels and the lower levels. At least she played the role of "doctor".

One single gunshot echoed off trees as Kaire spun around to warn me. My guard had been lowered and another human was taking a shot at my pack. This time, it was one hunter and he knew exactly who I was, because he was aiming directly at my forehead. My body crashed beneath the weight of another wolf, probably Kaire. Looking at the wolf, the fur was pitch black, not a usual color, and it was definitely not my brother. He had apparently run off after the shooter. This wolf was massive compared to most of my packmates, but next to me, it was barely above the top of my ears. Big or not, I was close to that same height as the creature that had just saved me.

"Who are you?" I asked. It looked down at me and frowned. Not something that was easy to catch on a wolf. "Why'd you help me if you aren't in my pack?"

"I'm Odie, and to you, I am a friend. You'll see me again if you are smart and do not poke your nose in the wrong fox-holes," it said.

"Oh, you're a girl," I said, embarrassed that I almost called her a male. "Sorry, I'm not used to black wolves."

"You will be soon enough. After all, it's in your blood, Millennia," Odie replied. How did a wolf that I just meant know my name? 

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" She stared down at me, frowning more. Then she smiled and looked behind her. Was she expecting someone? 

"You will soon. Don't get killed and you will know me. That's a deal I can withstand, 'kay?" Nodding my furry head, I gave Odie a confused look. She only laughed at me, playing me like me brother does. "Kaire is alive too, huh? Haven't seen that boy in forever, not since we were pups. If you don't know me, he probably does not remember me either." I never mentioned Kaire to her, yet she knew how to reply to my thought. Humans were doidn strange things to wolves nowadays. Why can't that be illegal? "Goodbye Millennia, see you then." Odie seemed to be implying that I would live a thousand years, despite how impossible it was. "Girl, if you knew what he had planned for your family, you'd change that thought." For sure this wolf was in my head. 

Odie disappeared into a shadow before I could get a chance to look her dead in the eyes one final time. She felt familiar to me and her eyes creeped me out, how they glowed and never lost theit bright blue color. Truly, they were beautiful, as was she. But the way she spoke and what she talked about was plain weird. She knew that someone was after my pack, or was it just Kaire and me? Both of which are my family, she never did get specific. Her mind tricks were worse, though, and I felt like she was still in my head, listening to everything I thought of.

Kaire returned from chasing the hunter about an hour later. His displeased look said that he had only scared him away instead of killing him. The only time Kaire enjoyed killing another creature was when it was one that had hurt either the pack or me. 

"What'd that wolf want?" he queried, nosily. Just like me, he was acting nosy to ensure the pack had no secrets. He deserved to hear what the girl had told me anyway, after seeing me almost get shot anyway. 

"She warned me, but at first it seemed to be a regular conversation until she told me to stay out of other's businesses, saying that I could die if I don't. Apparently there is a black wolf in our bloodline 'cause she definitely knows who we are. Both of us," I reported. Continuing on, I said, "She can get into minds to, mind reading I think the humans call it. She litearlly replied to one of my thoughts." Kaire gave me a look that told me he did not doiubt me one bit, but I sounded crazy in the end. "Her name was Odie. It sounds like it is not her real name but a short version."

"I agree with you there, and you said the big black wolf that was barely taller than you was a girl?" I nodded.

"Wait, I never mentioned her height. How-"

"She spoke to me too and did the crazy mind thing. Odie, same name and everything. Everything she said to you was the exact same for me," he told me. So I wasn't as crazy as I seemed. "None of the other wolves said a large black wolf visited them, seeming that she would be way larger than them." He had a point. Both Kaire and I were significantly larger than our packmates. If we had even met our parents, we could have asked them why we were so big in size. As far as I am concerned, they died when a human helped us escape captivity.

"Try not to be nosy tonight, Millennia," Kaire whispered as we were about to part for the night. 

"Hey," I said. "You know me."

"That's the problem," he hollered from a twenty feet away. He was joking with me, something we do frequently compared to the rest of our pack. Zeke was usually one fo the few other who joked with us despite our situation with the humans. Too bad the humans could not give a fair warning like Odie had.