Chapter 2 The signs

Samuel

I stand at the top of the mountain with my beta standing by my side looking at my pack lands, everything is drying up now, with each month that passes we lose something, last month we lost all our grain and it's one of the things that makes us a lot of money. The month before that we lost five of our biggest clients in a shady way and that led us to bankruptcy. Then now we woke up to ten of our best warriors dead, with no visible wounds, no signs of poisoning. They are just dead with no explanation.

My father on the other side can't help because he is busy traveling from one pack to another looking for my so-called sister, well, not my sister but their daughter, apparently, she was kidnapped when she was two years old and that is nearly twenty-six years ago. Then five years later they adopted me, and the alpha made me his son and trained me to take over from him. He stepped down last year when my mother started getting sick; she has cancer, and he wanted enough time to look after her.

But now the issue is that she doesn't want to die without seeing her daughter again or even knowing her grave if she died, I think it's a waste of time, someone who was kidnapped at the age of two, I don't think she is still alive and if she was; I am sure we would have found her over the years. My father says he can't mistake her even in her old age, he says his daughter had a birthmark on her neck going down to her shoulder. Get this, he says the birthmark glows in the sun.

That to me doesn't sound real, I know we have wolves that have special gifts, like the white wolf that is believed to be the descendent of the Moon Goddess, we have the sapphire wolf, that can take the shape of anything, that one is just a shapeshifter that likes his wolf form, nothing more. There are others but none have been said to have a glowing birthmark, but every parent thinks their child is special, so I won't take that away from my father.

"What is on your mind, alpha?" asks Derick my beta, I got to the pack when I was five, and the first friend, I made was Derick, we grew up together and went to school together. Now he is my beta and just about the only person who knows me better than my mother. I feel a pang in my heart when I think about my mother, the woman has done a lot for me, and seeing her like that doesn't sit well with me.

"Thinking about my father." He sighs. "Is he still looking for your sister?" he asks, and I nod running my hand on my head. "He is and I hope he finds her. We would both give anything to see that woman smile again and the only person who can bring back her smile is her. The worse part is that we don't know what she is called now or where she is. Father says they looked for her for three years after they kidnapped her and there was no clue." I tell him.

"What will change now? I mean if they did not find her then when she was a baby and still had a chance of finding her what makes him think he will find her now? Am sure if she is still alive, she is a grown woman." he is right I know but we can't just give up. "I know what you mean but we can't just give up, I also wish I was there helping him look but I can't leave the pack vulnerable like that. Not now when people are dying without a reason." I tell him.

"I still believe that the deaths are the work of a witch, no one just dies without a reason especially our kind." I have thought of that, but we don't have any quarrels with the witches, if it's them then what would be the reason? "Can you do something for me, Derick?" I asked now my mind working overtime. "Anything, alpha." He says with a low bow. "Go make sure the campsite we rent out to the humans is ready for the campers coming this weekend. I have somewhere to be." I tell him and walk away.

"Alpha!" he calls to me and I stop in my tracks then turn to look at him. "Yes?" he hesitates before speaking. "I am your beta, and I am supposed to be with you all the time and if I can't, I must at least know where you are going, alpha." A good beta he is. "I am going to see the witches; I need to know if it was them who killed my warriors and why," I tell him and he nods. "I understand alpha, but if it's them don't you think going alone is a bad idea?" he asks, I know it might be a bad idea, but I can take care of myself.

"Don't worry about me, Derick but if I am not back by the fine you finish at the campsite them, you can come looking for me." that seems to put his mind at ease. "Alright alpha, be careful." I nod and leave. I shift into my wolf one more time and run to the witches coven. The witches are peaceful people and keep to themselves. If they are responsible, then they will not just attack me, they will tell me the reason. At least that is what I would like to believe.

'Not all is what it seems to the witches.' Tyger my wolf says. 'I know but I need answers and they are the only ones who can give them to me. I don't want to wake up to more of my people dead Tyger.' I tell him. 'I understand I was just telling you so that you can be careful.' He tells me, I know he is right but for now, I will take my chances. Soon I am shifting behind a tree in the witches' coven and when I emerge from behind the tree the witch regent is standing there waiting for me.

"What took you so long Samuel?" he asks sounding irritated. "I did not know you wanted to see me, if I did, I would have come at dawn." She rolls her eyes at me. "You came here to ask about your warriors?" I nod. "It was not us or anyone for that matter, the gods and the Goddess are angry. The time for the princess to come home has long passed by five years. They have been waiting long enough and now they are acting. Your people will continue to die, and you will continue to lose things that are of value to you until she returns home." I did not expect that.

"So how do I find this princess and why am I the only one losing? If she is the princess of our kind then why are other packs not having the same problems I am?" from what I have read in the history books the royal family was killed and no one survived. In the first few year's people believed the prince survived because his body was not found but later when he did not return to his people, they believed he died.

So, this princess business should not be my problem alone. "You have ears, yet you do not hear, Samuel." She tells me. "What do you mean?" I ask her and she looks at me with pity. "You are the only one having these problems because the princess belongs to your pack, she is your father's daughter." She tells me then turns and leaves me standing there with my mouth hanging open. If my sister is the princess and was supposed to have returned home five years ago, then she would have been twenty-one, and according to what I have read.

The royals only get their wolves at the age of twenty-one while we normal wolves get ours at eighteen. They say their wolves take longer because they are of the purest kind, the only Lycan and some from the Mood Goddess's descent. While we are only their grate, grate, I don't know how many grates grandchildren we are, but our wolves are very young. Wait! If my sister is the princess, then that makes my father the long-lost prince our kind has been waiting for.

Oh, dear Goddess! Why didn't they say anything, why did they continue to hide their identity even years after the war ended? What are they afraid of and was my sister really kidnapped or was she hidden from our kind? What else are they hiding from me? I stood there for a while thinking.

'Let's go back, there is no use standing here.' My wise wolf tells me as if I don't know that. 'Yes, let us go back.' I shift and let him take control. 'Take us home Tyger' I tell him before giving him all the control. I don't want to think right now, I just want to shut my mind down and have a few minutes of peace. Because I feel like there is a lot more coming.