The Oracle

CHAPTER ONE: THE JOURNEY BEGINS

THIRD PERSON POV

It was a dark, stormy night. There were no stars in the sky and a flash of lightning was followed by a boom of thunder. The jungle was ominously silent.

It was the territory of the Blackwood pack, a fierce group of warrior wolves. It was the day the Alpha couple was returning with their four-year-old son after a trip of two months, and the pack was conducting a celebration to welcome them back home.

Suddenly, the Beta, Richard Williams, who was in charge of the pack during the absence of the Alpha, was mind linked by a patrolling warrior.

'Beta! Rogues are approaching from the western border. The Alpha and family are supposed to reach here anytime now.'

Richard thought that the rogues must be planning to take out the Alpha family before they reach the pack since they would be an easier target now without the entire pack with them. They would be tired after travelling and have only a few fighters with them. The Alpha’s return was decided suddenly, and the matter was known only within their pack. He couldn’t understand how rogues would come to know of it. Also, rogues tend to be loners and stay away from pack matters. It was not in their nature to organise such plans. Was it merely a coincidence that they were attacking right now or was it something more sinister? However, he didn’t have time to ponder such things right then and had to intervene the rogues urgently to protect the Alpha family.

Richard called out to the warriors, asking them to go with him to the western border where the rogues were approaching from. Seeing him tensed, and ordering the warriors to go with him, his mate Layla was worried and approached him.

"Richard, what is going on? Is everything alright?" she asked

"Don’t worry, there are a few rogues in the western border. I would take some warriors with me and solve the problem before the Alpha arrives. You take care of everyone here," Richard replied.

Layla was a warrior female herself and didn’t want to let her mate go and fight while she stayed safely at home. She persuaded him to let her go with them, along with some female warriors trained by her. Richard insisted that there would only be a few rogues and there was no need to bring such a large group of fighters to face a few rogue wolves who would only know rage and would be no match for the trained fighters. However, Layla was adamant and didn’t want to take any chances and seeing that there would be no harm done, Richard let her do as she wished.

While Richard organized the fighters, Layla left the Gamma female Stephanie in charge of taking the elders, children and ladies to the secret safe room of the pack house. She instructed her to lock the safe room with the secret password and to only open it after receiving further instructions from the superior ranking wolves.

After settling the matters, Richard and Layla, along with the pack warriors took off towards the western border where the rogues were reported to be approaching.

On reaching there, they found the patrolling warriors surrounded by snarling rogues. Richard was astonished at seeing that there were more than a dozen rogues. Already, Patrick, the warrior who mind linked him, was injured and was favoring his left leg as his right leg seemed to be fractured.

It was shocking to see such a large group of rogue wolves together as they were expecting only three or four of them maximum. Had they brought the few warriors as per Richard’s original decision, they would have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of the rogues alone. However, since they brought the large group according to Layla’s insistence, they had the upper lead. The rage-filled rogues had strength because of their craziness and blood lust due to the loss of the pack bonds. But still they were no match to the stamina and fighting techniques of the highly trained warrior wolves.

The rogues were all in wolf form. If there were any plans or matters to be discussed, at least one of them would have remained in human form. So, it seemed as if it was either just a mindless attack from a group of rogue wolves or they were just intent on killing and didn’t want to bother with discussions. The rogues were working together as if they were a pack of rogues, which in itself was contradictory.

Few of the pack warriors changed into their wolf forms and joined the three patrolling warriors while Richard and the female warriors stayed in their human form and joined the fight. Soon, the fight turned in favor of the pack and the rogues were killed off one by one. Finally, the last injured werewolf was left alive by Richard to be taken as prisoner to the pack dungeons so that they could interrogate him later after the alpha’s arrival regarding the motive of the attack; whether they were trying to kill the Alpha and his family, and how such a pack of rogues was formed and who was their leader?

However, the wolf suddenly changed back to human form and before anyone could realize his intention, bit off his chain.

"If not today, another day!" he yelled.

He began frothing at his mouth. He started convulsing and then fell off dead.

It was then that everyone noticed that all the rogues had similar chains on their necks. It seemed to contain strong wolf's bane, the poison for werewolves. 

So, these rogues were on a suicide mission, never intending to be captured. It got crazier by the minute.

Richard was tired after the fight and the confusion was driving him crazy.

Layla sighed and approached him.

"We better head pack to the pack house.There is no scent of rogues any more. So, that must be it. Let us discuss everything once the Alpha is back and solve the mystery. For now, just relax and let us welcome back the Alpha and family. I have already informed Stephanie that the fight is over. However, I asked them to stay put till we reach back, to be safe. Let’s go back and resume the celebrations. Leave everything else for tomorrow," she consoled him.

Richard agreed with her. There didn’t seem to be anything else he can do then, since the only clue they had was the captive wolf who committed suicide. He could only give himself a headache by over-analyzing the events. His mate was right, he should discuss everything with the alpha after he resumes his duty. Maybe he could provide a better insight. Maybe the attack was related to the pack he visited. 

Richard sighed and ordered the warriors to take the injured to the infirmary and stationed other wolves for patrolling. They began to walk back, some injured, others tired, and some confused seeing the difference in behavior of the rogues. But all of them were grateful that there were no casualties and that their Alpha was saved from being attacked if he was really the target.

Suddenly, Layla who was walking beside Richard stiffened and came to a stop. Everyone stopped and looked at her, and some began looking around warily whether there were other rogues approaching. Layla was the best tracker in the pack, and it was indeed possible that she would be the first to scent it if anything was amiss.

Richard asked her if she scented any rogues and she shook her head in response. She began walking away from the path to the pack and to the right, deep into the woods. Richard tried sniffing out rogues. There was no scent of rogues, but there was indeed a smell, a very different smell. The scent was confusing his senses since he couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was.

Layla picked up speed and walked excitedly and then came to a stop. She gazed mesmerized at something and Richard followed her gaze to see a newborn baby swaddled in a pink blanket lying on the ground. Layla picked up the baby gently, and the baby cuddled into her arms without making a sound.

There was a gold chain with a locket on the baby’s neck and a note was attached to it. It read, 'Take care of her and she would take care of everyone once'.

That was it..no birth date, no name... nothing!

Layla glanced at her mate.

"Please tell me that we can raise her as ours. We always wanted a baby girl, but we got only two boys who are grown up already. Maybe she is the Moon Goddess’s gift for us. We were meant to find her Richard. I feel as if she is mine already," she pleaded.

Richard gazed at the baby girl. She was such a pretty baby, and he too wanted a baby girl. He too felt a bond with the little one, just like his mate. But the baby was a mystery to him. She neither smelled like a wolf nor a human, but something entirely different. He smelled again and found that she smelled different now. Now she smelled more like a human baby. He was confused and thought that maybe his senses were muddled as the aftermath of the fight and the baby was indeed just a human child.

Richard touched Layla’s shoulders.

"I would love to have her as ours, but she is a human baby.  It will complicate matters. We can't make such a decision without the alpha’s permission. We can ask the Alpha once he arrives," he said.

With that, they took off toward the pack house.

The pack house was a large mansion which housed the family of the Alpha, Beta and the Gamma and their workers. There were smaller houses surrounding the mansion, which housed the other families. There was the training ground in the middle of everything and surrounding the pack house was the woods where they could run in wolf form.

The pack stayed away from the human world. In case any humans stumbled into the area, it was supposed to be a large group of nature loving families living together as a community.

They reached the pack house and settled the matters with Stephanie and released everyone from the safe house and took the injured to the infirmary. Then, the celebrations resumed, and the baby kept on sleeping peacefully in Layla’s arms.

Finally, the Alpha James Black arrived with his mate Katherine and their son Aiden.

On the arrival of the Alpha, Richard wanted to discuss many things with the Alpha regarding the rogue attack, but first, he wanted to show the little angel to him and ask his permission to raise her.

Little Aiden walked towards Layla, seeing her carrying the pink bundle. As he approached them, the Alpha and Luna too went towards them. Seeing them, Richard explained how there was a rogue attack and how they found the baby in the woods.

The Alpha was a kindhearted person and had no prejudice towards humans and seeing the Beta couple already attached to the baby, agreed to let them raise the baby.

At this moment, Little Aiden was peering at the baby and suddenly she opened her eyes and he gasped, seeing the swirling violet eyes which seemed to glow for a moment. Emerald green eyes stared intently at violet eyes and the others leaned in to watch.

Seeing the pretty violet eyes of the baby, it was love at first sight for the Beta couple as well as the Alpha couple and the adorable violet eyed angel gained not one but two sets of parents that day.

There began the journey of Synthia Angel Williams…