“It was my first cardinal conference, which also turned out to be my last. That day is the day I regret the most in my life. I was so foolish to have trusted someone, the last person I should have trusted, and because of that, I lost everything.”
**********
***20 YEARS AGO***
The leaders of the silver pack, alpha Cillian and Luna Maria were sworn protectors of the great royalty stone, an ancient stone blessed by the gods to earthly creatures to protect them from evil, the stone gives prosperity and power to those who possess it, and the silver bloodline had been given the responsibility of safeguarding the stones against those who might come for it to use for evil deeds, typically the rogues.
That blessed day, the cardinal conference was to be held, and all twelve wolf tribes had left their homes to gather at the goddess’s crescent to honor and pay their respects to the wolf gods. The silver pack was always present every year, and they’d never for once missed this important gathering, they’d always been well represented by their people who did nothing but follow instructions from their leader to grace the conference with their presence in numbers.
The young firstborn son of Cillian and Maria, Damian had just arrived with his parents to the venue of the conference, and he’d checked into his hotel room with them before going to out explore the wonderful sights of the hotel, as this was his first conference.
“Mom! Dad! Can I go out to play???” Damian asked his parents.
“Damian!” Maria gasped, dropping the clothes she was unpacking to soothe her pregnant bump after her son startled her.
“Sorry mom, sorry little sister.”
“But we just got here Damian,” alpha Cillian stated, his feeling more towards disliking the idea of a ten-year-old getting lost in such a big hotel.
“Pleeeeease daddy! I promise I’ll be good, and if I get lost, I’ll just ask someone like I always do!”
“I don’t know about this, Damian, you know this place is nothing like the packhouse…”
“Pleeeeeeease!!!!” Young Damian further pleaded, revealing puppy dog eyes and spaces in his mouth where teeth was supposed to occupy.
Alpha Cillian finally sighed, giving up to his requests, anything to get the troublesome cub off their hands for a while, “ok Damian, but please, if you ever get lost, ask any of the nice ladies dressed in green to take you back to the silver alpha’s lodge. Do you understand???”
“Yes daddy. Thank you, daddy!!!” Damian answered as he quickly scurried off towards the exit, jetting out through the door in a race to begin his adventure. He hadn’t been outside for long before he stopped at a water fountain, the statue of a wolf where fresh water springing forth from its openings caught the young cub’s attention. He went into the fountain, playing with the water and getting himself completely soaked, before one of the hotel staff saw him and took him away from the cascade, sitting him in front of the pool and handing him a towel to dry off before leaving him to attend to other things. There where he sat, he met a young cub just like himself.
“Hey!” The other cub walked up to him.
“Hey!”
“I saw you playing with the wolf, so sad that daddy won’t let me play!”
Damian’s brow creased, trying to understand, “wolf? What wolf?”
The other boy pointed at the direction of the fountain, where Damian had just been taken out from, “oh that! That’s just stone, ever seen a real wolf before?” He asked with wide eyes.
“No, daddy won’t let me come near the bigger wolves, he says its not safe.”
“Yes, daddy says that too, but I don’t worry about that anymore since I got my first shift.”
“Woah! You already got your shift? Must be pretty cool huh?”
“Yes, way cooler than playing with a stone statue. Do you want me to show you my wolf?”
The young boy quickly nodded, “uh-huh.”
“Let’s go somewhere else,” Damian quickly grabbed his hand, running around to search for a private place to show his new friend his recently released animal counterpart. They finally found a spot in one of the backyards which led to the forest bordering the estate nearby.
“By the way,” Damian uttered along the way. “I never got to know your name. What is it?”
“Ronan.”
“Cool name. I’m Damian, and I’m a silver prince!” He stated proudly.
“Woah! So, like, your dad’s an alpha?”
“Yup.”
“Must be pretty cool. The life of a prince and all.”
“You bet it is! Though mom still makes me clean my room. That part sucks.”
They’d reached the backyard before stopping to catch their breaths after running through the hotel grounds.
“Here,” Damian said. “No one will see me shift here, so we won’t get into any trouble!”
“Cool. I’m going to see a real wolf today!”
“Are you ready?”
“Ready!!!”
Damian then crouched down on all fours, slowly morphing as wild grey hairs sprung from his chest, his bushy tail protruded forth, followed by his sharp teeth and claws. In less than half a minute, a small wolf stood in front of Ronan.
The young lad was starting to shake in fear, now realizing what daddy meant by “not safe.”
“Uh… Damian? Are you still there?”
“Yes, it’s still me. Don’t worry, I won’t eat you.”
“Phew.” Those words seemed to convince Ronan somehow, as he heaved a sigh of relief. Damian then resumed his human form.
“Can you show me something else?”
“What?”
“I want to see what a packhouse looks like.”
“What do you mean? You’ve never seen one before?”
“Ronan shook his head, “no, daddy goes there for meetings with the alpha, but he never lets me come along. I sure would love to see it from the inside, the court, the wolf soldiers and all other cool stuff.”
“Not to worry dear friend, for you’ve just won yourself a tour guide to the silver packhouse. I’ll show you everything! And since many of my pack wolves are here now, there’ll be lots of empty spaces for us to play.”
“You promise? To show me everything?”
“Yes, everything.”
Ronan squealed, jumping up and down, “I can’t wait!”
“I’ll shift again so you can hop on my back and we’ll reach there very fast. Nothing beats riding on a wolf!”
Damian morphed again, and then let Ronan ride on his back holding tight to his back hairs, he took his friend through the forest leading to the silver territory with the help of his wolf senses and fast legs. In less than an hour, they’d reached Damian’s home, the majestic silver packhouse.