Episode 3

I'm Akela Zaer, I was twelve years old when I was informed of a prophecy. Apparently an oracle predicted it on a full moon night. It wasn't just any night, in that same darkness a strong storm hit, the worst there had been in recent years. A strong wind, followed by a constant and thick rain, which practically flooded everything in its path. Huge and continuous rays one after another, which were the only thing that illuminated that darkness that seemed eternal for hours. The next day in the morning, after that event, the visit of the pack council surprised me in the small house I lived on the outskirts of the pack, on the edge of the territory. I already knew several of them, if not almost all of them. At seven years of age, after seeing how the Alpha Kyle Kinnaman, murdered my father in front of me, and exterminated the entire pack to which I belonged, they sheltered me. Not because I was important, I think only out of clemency, and because deep down they knew that this had been provoked by Kinnaman senior, no one but him was to blame for all that suffering and his son without wanting to come to reason, not only did he not end it, but he followed it until he destroyed everything. Only with the extermination of my race did he find his peace. At that time I was a small orphan, the only thing that kept my head alive, was the fact of being an alpha heir. I was my father's firstborn and only daughter, my mother died in childbirth after having me, from a hemorrhage, she didn't even get to hold me in her arms. My father, who loved her madly since she was his destined partner by the Moon Goddess, almost died because of that fact. Losing your mate, your partner is something catastrophic, fatal and tremendously sad, at least that's how those who manage to survive such a loss describe it. When you find your partner, the bond is created, forged, the wolf marks his mate so that everyone knows that he claims her, that she is his, sometimes the she-wolf can also mark her mate, although that doesn't work that way in all packs. The mark is completing the bond, it is merging into one with your mate, being a single soul. The connection is so strong that both feel each other's emotions with the same intensity, which is why that loss is enormous, it can even cause death. My father felt the bond break, he was outside the room while my mother was in labor. When he felt that disconnection, he entered desperately and there he saw her lifeless in the bed, on the sheets stained red by the amount of blood she had lost. He crumbled at that moment, cried a lot and they say he seemed to lose his mind, the people of the pack feared that he would go crazy. A she-wolf from the pack took care of me instantly, since my father was not in a position to do so. After about eight days of eternal mourning and suffering to the quick, my father was finally able to approach that woman's house to meet me, in everything that had happened, he had never seen my face at that time. For a few months he left me there and did not return to see me. They say that his Beta recommended that he look for me, that it would not look good for an alpha to reject his firstborn and that beyond the pain, it was what he had left to remember my mother and what they had lived, because after all, it was the fruit of love. My father gathered strength and sent for me, the Beta was in charge of removing me from there. He took me to the packer, the house of the pack, and there I grew up among nannies and maids, the figure of my father was an enigma, we barely connected. He wasn't bad to me, I know he loved me, but he kept reminding him of the most tragic event of his life. He never denied, hit or any violent situation, he just couldn't get too close, it generated an enormous sadness in him. He never recovered from the death of my mother and all his dreams of a huge family went with her that day, and only I was left as a memory of it. For all this, after his death and the extermination of the pack, I was left alone, more alone than ever. The men of the council had the idea that a family from the pack should shelter me, the search did not yield positive results, no one wanted to have anything to do with me since they did not want problems with the Alpha Kyle Kinnaman, everyone refused, even families from the surrounding packs, the council had no choice but to send me to a human orphanage. I lived there for five years, it wasn't a very good one, it was a decadent place, full of humidity, crammed with children, far exceeding its capacity, the food was very scarce and did not cover the necessary nutrients for children in full growth, the cold in winter was atrocious, it made your bones ache. At the age of twelve they came for me, they believed that I was old enough to reintegrate into the pack, it was necessary for me to be instructed as a werewolf and not to continue studying human things, as I had been doing until then. During all those years that I was in that orphanage, I knew nothing of the council, I had abandoned the idea of seeing them again, I thought I would only stay there, great was my surprise when they sent for me. Apparently they were just waiting for the waters to calm down, for all that conflict to be forgotten a little, for the people of the pack to be able to give me an opportunity or failing that, having grown up, they would no longer relate me to that girl they had met at the age of seven. Again, no one wanted to take in an orphaned she-wolf who came from a human orphanage, everyone thought that there was something strange about it, and after all they weren't so wrong. Obviously the council sought to hide my identity, but it wasn't long until rumors and stories about me began to spread. They then decided that the best thing would be for me to live alone in a small house, on the edge of the territory, they intended to hire two employees for me, but although their search encompassed other territories, no one agreed to work for me, so the council decided that I was old enough to fend for myself. They sent me a sum of money every month, with that I bought food, and paid for one thing or another, there wasn't too much left over, but I wasn't lacking either and I had learned to manage myself quite well. Everything was going smoothly and I was living a life in absolute calm until that day they knocked on the door. All my ordeal began with that prediction that afternoon.