The Promised Wolf

5 years earlier...

“What?” Miya asked incredulously, as if she heard the most absurd idea she ever perceived. “You are going to what?”

“Revenge,” I answered promptly, still striding towards the woods where I frequently look for the White Stag. I walked past the members who were spearing their eyes at me in contempt, so I huffed and even hastened my step. “I’m going to take my revenge on them. All of them. Aena. The high members. My mate who rejected me. Including my father.”

Without looking, I felt Miya winced in disappointment when the tenor of her breathing changed for seconds, before she continue to take quick breaths as she trailed after me with long steps.

“Are you hearing yourself?” Miya asked, which made my forehead crease. Not just because her query was carries a hint of inhibition but because I couldn't believe that she didn't understand my notion given the fact of my dire situation that she's been always aware of.

“Of course, I am. I am never been more certain doing something for myself in my entire life, Miya,” I answered.

“Aera, I invite you to train to prove that you are capable and you're not weak,” she said, emphasizing the last word. “I invite you to train with me to be brave and not to take revenge for the people who caused you pain. This world was cruel enough, Aera. If there's anything that it needs, it was peace. Not chaos.”

When I arrived at my spot, I turned to her as I gasped for breath. “Of all the people I know, it was you whom I thought the first one would understand me, Miya. Why must you inhibit me? Why must you act like what I’m planning to do wasn’t right?”

“Because it’s not,” Miya pressed in between her heavy breaths, still holding the small tray that was supposed to be my lunch. “Revenging is not a solution to this.”

“Maybe for you, it’s not. But it was certainly is for me,” I said defiantly and took the tray from her. “And if you can't support me, then you might as well leave.”

“And what? Leave you here to find the white stag that you have been looking for for six months now and having no success after all the exertion?” she inquired, unable to resist the urge to scoff and use ridicule on me. “That is why the White Stag stays as a legend because it wasn't true, Aera. Nobody would find that White Stag. Not you. Not me. Not anyone.”

“You're wrong. I would be the first one to find it and use its glorious purpose,” I declared and placed the tray on the ground for me to eat later, and then I rose to my feet with my head held high. “I’m going to prove to you that it’s true. I’m going to prove to everybody that it was made for me.”

Miya planted her hands on her hips and shook her head in disbelief. “It wasn't easy, Aera. The White Stag is not going to appear in front of you one morning the moment you wake up from your sleep. Why? Because it doesn't work that way. Hell, let me rephrase that. It wouldn't work because it doesn't exist...”

That memory flashed in my head as the White Stag stood in front of me. What was happening before my eyes were the exact opposite of what Mia told me five years ago. And I was glad her discouragement didn't sweep me off my determination because it was real.

The Legend of the White Stag is real.

And all I need to do now was to kill it.

I stared at it for the longest time, unable to believe that what I was seeing was true and not like any of my wishful dreams. The White Stag was looking at me, as if persuading me to make the prophecy come true for him, yet it was too beautiful that I couldn't do anything but stare at it.

It didn't budge. It doesn't show any sign of fright as it faced me either. It just stood there as if he knows his purpose and he was choosing me to do it.

He was choosing me to be his executioner.

The object I was looking for for years was already in front of me just like I have always prayed for. And I was so stunned by his beauty instead of shifting to kill it the moment I opened my eyes. I just stared at it and felt rather rueful to end the life of someone so magnificent.

And the longer I stare at it, the more it makes me falter with my plan.

Putting my hunting knife inside my boots, I slowly stood up. I approached the White Stag with a calm motion, making sure that I will not scare it off away, otherwise,  it would flee and that was the last thing I would want to happen in this rare exhilarating moment.

I was expecting it to run, or to even show any indication of wariness as I slowly extend my hand to touch his face, but it stayed pinned on this position, watching me as I stepped closer towards him.

It was huge, his hair was white as pearl and soft as cotton. It was almost twice my height and his antlers carried spiritual superiority graced by the Moon Goddess.

I never contained the urge of stroking his hair as I admire his form, until I was leaning toward him and the White Stag was letting me embrace him.

Oh, it was such a waste to kill such a creature. But that was the purpose of his existence so it gives me no choice but to put colors on the North's Legend other regions had mocked for centuries and make fun of.

The Moon Goddess select me to be that person.

I looked straight at the White Stag’s eye before I placed my forehead near his mouth. “Magnificent White Stag, I promised that the power you choose to bestow me shall be spread all over Canidae.”

I took a step back and watch how the sun peeked behind the mountain and its rays kissed the land. I undress my clothes and crouched on the ground to shift.

When I was fully in my wolf form, I looked at the White Stag who was waiting for me to initiate the attack before I jumped at him, aiming for his neck using my clawed paw so I could end his life swiftly, and then the White Stag just layed in the ground to comply with me.

The White Stag didn't flinch. It didn't whimper, and it most certainly didn't let out a breath of pain, which caused me to wonder the reason for a second, but then continue with my goal. He just waited for me to kill him using my strength and sharp fangs as I sympathized with the White Stag.

I could taste his blood in my mouth and he had the sweetest one, yet I couldn't enjoy that thought since I felt so bad for the White Stag’s aftermath. Until I was able to separate his head from his body, ending his life completely.

I shifted back to human with tears stinging the corner of my eyes, blood spread all over my body with my heart lamenting for the life I have to kill for my own pursuit. How I wish there was another way that needs no killing. How I wish I wouldn't rely upon something so that my life will be a little forbearing. How I wish I don't need to kill for my own sake.

Yet even though I ask for a thousand wishes, I knew that life would never be fair. Not just to me but to everybody. And if there's something I would never wish to remain is staying as the Alpha's daughter whose reputation was badly sullied for a long time.

Once again, I heard my wolf whimper in pain together with a few of my quiet sobs. I stroked the White Stag head once again before I put on my clothes. “Your purpose will not go to waste. You have my word.”

I never bothered to clean up before I put on my clothes. I never cared if I was covered in blood or my hair was messy or I looked rather in distress. The only thing I had in mind was to bring this news to the Calisto Pack so that it would sweep off their feet.

The sun was still on its way to rise when I decided to went back to the pack house, dragging the White Stag with a stoic countenance, purposely leaving the White Stags' blood all over the hall to cause turmoil in the first point of a new day.

With my hands gripping the White Stag's antlers, everybody skewered me with a cross expression I never recall they had offered me before. Stunned, amused, and horrified in almost the same measure that made me wonder what weighed more.

But it doesn't matter to me. What mattered was the life I would have after I become the person behind the prophecy of the North's legend they had always believed.

I went to the dining room where my father and the high members of Calisto Pack do their salon to intelligently discussed our town’s condition and a possible alliance with other towns just in case our pack will start a dispute that will cause a pack war. That place and exact time were where they also discussed how weak I am compared to Aena and how hideous I looked when I took all the roots from my mother's side and not the exotic beauty of the Alvarez's most of the people in our town have always appreciated.

I aggressively kicked the door open which make everyone swing their heads in my direction. And then most of them gasped when I threw the White Stags at the dining table, making them rise to their feet out of surprise and then looked at me in disbelief, including my father who dropped his cup of tea with wide eyes. He remained seated but I did see his eyes tremble in astonishment.

“Aera...” my father choked as he uttered my name.

“I can't believe it. The weak daughter of the Alpha has killed the White Stag...”

I heard of one the high members stated in an odd and grave voice, making everyone gape at me, still couldn't believe whether what they were seeing was factual or not.

With the White Stag's death executed in my hand, that's certainly the last time that they would call me weak. Because now I am Aera and I am...

“The Promised Wolf...” my father said quietly, looking at the White Stag before meeting my gaze for the first time without hatred dancing in his eyes.