Marked Under Blood Moon

⚜ The First Wolves ⚜

Damien Fane felt chills creeping down his spine. This was the first time when his wolf was scared, and for the first time, Damien felt fear as an instinctive reaction. The surprising thing is that there was no one in the direction from which he felt a sense of danger. Black wolves are blessed with excellent sight and Damien was one who was confident in his skills. Thus, brushing off the momentary fear, Damien urged his wolf Eros to join the pack of wolves in their group.

'What happened? Are you alright?', Damien heard Helio, Lucas's wolf ask.

'Nothing that matters.' Eros replied.

Damien could almost see the skeptical disbelieving face of Lucas, but this was not the right time to discuss some strange things happening; those which might just be an illusion of his.

'Let's discuss this later!' Damien mind-linked Lucas, the latter's wolf replied with a low howl.

Most of the other wolves are occupied with the latest murders in the pack, and they did not notice the small exchange between Damien and Lucas. Some of the less serious wolves were busy checking out the wolves from the other packs. In about a half-an-hour, all the packs of the continent were assembled in the Night woods, a rather harmonious scene if not for the reason behind the meeting.

"So, this is the one..." As soon as Damien joined the crowd, a voice echoed from the woods. Having achieved his main objective, the voice slowly died down. It had no interest and did not give a care for the about to happen wolf meet. Having completed its task, the voice had no intentions to spy over the useless wolves. In the next instant, the voice disappeared, as if it didn't exist in the first place.

...

'Stand in!'

All the alphas gave the same command to the wolves of their respective packs. Soon, all the wolves started to stand in the order of their ranking: with alphas and betas in the front followed by gammas, omegas in the middle, and rogues like Damien and Lucas in the end.

All the wolves assembled themselves; the amalgamation of black and brown strikingly beautiful against the forest green.

It was at this precise moment, the wind started to swirl and rise. Dry, dead leaves flew around wildly as the pace of the wind increased. A torrent of wind rushed forth as two hollow rings of blue light materialized out of the thin air.

All the wolves watched in stunned silence as two men stepped out of the hollow rings. As soon as their feet touched the ground, the hollow blue rings disappeared and the torrential wind slowed down.

All the wolves were dumbstruck by the happenings, they couldn't help but stare blankly at the famed First wolves.

Damien examined the men. Both of them resembled each other in the following ways: Sharp eyebrows, emotionless eyes, demure expressions, straight and proud backs. The distinguishing features being the waist length brown hair of one and the long braided black hair of the other; any fool can say who the brown wolf and who the black wolf is.

Under the varying gazes of all, the man with brown hair took the initiative to speak.

"The alphas of your packs informed us about the situation. We've taken a look at all the dead bodies. What shocked is the similar injuries on all of them: hollow eyes, ruptured internal organs, and no energy in their bodies.”—the man paused his speech and swept his hard gaze across the area—"Do you know what this means?"

There was no answer.

The brown-haired man continued "Whoever the killer is, he is collecting the Wolfstones from all the dead wolves!"

Wolfstones!

Isn't that a myth?!

Low murmurs of discussion started throughout.

Wolfstones are formed by condensing the Wolfspirit; rumors are that wolfstones can be created by those who wield magic. They heard from their ancestors that wolfstones are a source of great power, but they always dismissed off them as superstitions and myths. They even sold the old tattered books passed on to them by their great grandfathers.

This time the brown-haired remained silent while his condescending eyes narrowed; Damien strongly felt that the man viewed them as a bunch of fools. This time, the Black-haired man who did not speak from the start addressed the frenzied crowd.

“Silence!” His deep bass voice boomed throughout the area; all the wolves felt their hearts suffocated and their legs go weak. The man seemed to use his aura as all the wolves bowed their heads in surrender, acknowledging the man’s superiority; their actions a sign of complete reverence.

Though Damien did not feel any suffocation or weakness in his legs, he could feel the strength of the legendary First wolf. Wolves sense power more effectively and Damien could feel Eros’s deep respect towards the man. Eros could also sense the same feelings from Damien. So, both Damien and Eros lowered their heads.

“I don’t have the time and energy to answer all your stupid questions. You were the ones who abandoned your culture in the name of modernization. You don’t even know that Earth is not your home.”— the man paused for a while, he then let out a deep breath, seemingly controlling his frustration— “I can only say that a person of magic is behind all the murders.”

The man seemed to have realized that his attempts are futile. He was clearly a man with little patience, he directly addressed the alphas “I’m not going to delve into clear details. Earth is not safe for us anymore. If we want to protect ourselves, we need to return to the Moon God Continent!”

Ignoring the astonished faces, he continued “If you want your families to be safe and sound, then assemble with everyone after a week in this same place! If you think that we are a pair of imbeciles, then you can happily stay back in your cozy little houses."

As soon as the words fell, both men disappeared from the place, leaving a pack of confused wolves behind.

At that moment everyone had the same thought in their mind: The First Wolves are really eccentric and short-tempered!