CHAPTER 3

The council hall was filled with a smoky scent that always cuts around the atmosphere of the room. Not a warm aroma from a fireplace, but a sharp smell from herbs being burned for clarity – a traditional ritual to keep the mind of the elders alert. This night, the smoke was so heavy that even Alpha Jarius found himself coughing as he walked into the hall.

Before him, is a long table that gives out light coming from flashes of torchlights. Seven elders were seated in their finely designed chairs around the table, with their faces giving expression of aging and suspicion. They all looked at him as he entered knowing the meeting would not be to his favor.

“ You called us out too early,” Elder Marlic uttered in a coarse voice, his eyes looking with intensity. “The ceremony was just concluded recently, the pack should be celebrating, not getting worried.”

“The pack is worried,” Jarius answered back in the same tone, though there is an underlying danger. “There are rumors spreading like wildfire. About Lydia. It is about the prophecies that we are fully yet to understand. Would you rather feed those fears than face them directly?”

A gentle murmur passed through the room. Elder Liora, an only member of the council who still had a clue about the quietness in the midst of the unease in the room, leaned forward, her voice so calm but yet sounded with urgency. 

“Jarius.. We have always trusted your judgement . But you see, the girl’s presence here is creating a division among us. Right now, many of our members already believe that she carries a concealed danger within her bloodline. And if the prophecy is indeed true…”

“...then she is our strength, not our ruin,”

Jarius replied sharply, slamming his palm against the wooden table in a wave of frustration. The torches move at different motion in response to the force of it. “You are only focusing on the potential risk. But I perceive there is something more: I see the wolf who might save us when darkness begins to intrude into our lives.”

Elder Marlic, thin and intelligent looking man, gave a mocking smile at the corner of his lips, an expression that suggested he found joy in Jarius’s passionate defence. “Or perhaps,” he replied in a cool manner, “she is the wolf who would bring forth darkness.”

There is increased tension in the room, the words were heavy. The silence that fell on the council popped with unspoken fears, as all the elders held their breath considering the implications of Marlic’s statement.

Suddenly, from outside the room walls, came a strong penetrating sound that broke the quietness in the room – a howl.

A little distance away but the cry was clear, it was a wolf, sending shivers down the spine and raising the hairs on the body.

Every elder held themselves tightly, eyes wide opening, with a mixture of fear and alertness. Liora, now shaking slightly, gripped the edge of the table very tightly. “That’s not a song of one with the same blood,” she said clearly, her voice trembling as one who sensed evil.

There came another howling sound, this time more violent, and much closer than the last. The sound echoed through the air igniting fear within them.

“Rogues,” Marlic uttered in a tone full of disdain, hastily rising to his feet like a man who knows what to do.

In an instant, there was chaos in the council, the air filled with panicked voices and shouting. Chairs being dragged violently against the floor, and disorder that showed the disturbance of their thoughts.

Some of the members cried out expressing that warriors should be dispatched, others arguing angrily of the girl’s presence among them, while some stood buried in fear and contemplating what the arrival of the wolf means, others cried that the gates should be kept under lock. 

But Darius didn’t move in fear, his eyes lifted and fierce, as if he had been prepared for such a time.

The atmosphere was charged, with the weight of what awaited them pressing hard on them.

“They’re here sooner than was thought,” he said in a quiet tone. “And yet you still talk about getting rid of one who has the potency to change everything.”

The elders gradually went quiet, caught in between overwhelming fear and fury. Outside the wall of the room, the howling became louder and closer –dozens of voices now echoing around them.

Amidst this uproar, only one name burned brightly in Jarius’ mind.

Lydia.