Fire Moon - Miss CrazyPlantLady (sci fi books to read txt) 📗

Ranks

 

ALPHA (1): The leader of the pack. The one in control, makes the rules and laws. Can be challenged.

 

LUNA (1): Female version of the Alpha. Usually mated with the Alpha or can be alone.

 

BETA (1-2): Second in command. Enforced laws. If both the Alpha and Luna die, the Beta will take over the Alpha role. Cannot not be challenged unless approved by the Alpha.

 

GAMMA (1-2): Previous Alpha or Luna. Wisest and usually oldest. Story-teller. Highly respected. The Alpha can give this position to any pack member.

 

DELTA (1-4): The messengers. Highly skilled and fast. Works extremely close to the Alpha. Commonly ranked above the Gamma in most packs.

 

ZETA (1-4): The generals. Leads the army by the Alpha's command. Makes the war plans. Only takes commands off the Alpha.

 

ETA (2-8): The warriors of the pack. Always at least two per pack. Led by the Zeta during battle. Will take orders from higher ranks but Alpha's above all.

 

THETA (1): Lead medic. Highly respected. Very fast and skilled. This is usually non-lead medics unless numbers don't allow it.

 

KAPPA (1-2): Lead hunters. Usually only one if the numbers arent high enough. Oversee the Lambda.

 

LAMBDA (Unlimited): The hunters. Led by Kappa. Loyal and fast to obey orders. Highly stealthy and agile.

 

TAU (1): Lead scout. Enters other pack's territories. Direct orders from the Alpha. Fastest in the pack. Gives orders to Upsilon.

 

UPSILON (1-4): Scouts of the pack. Reports to the Alpha pair, Tau and Zeta. Quick and agile.

 

SIGMA (1-2): Teachers of the pack. Knows almost everything. Shares knowledge with all ranks but mostly the lower ranks.

 

PSI (Unlimited): Subordinates of the pack. Usually new members or pups that come of age. Fighting to be given a higher ranking.

 

OMEGA (1-2): Lowest of the ranks. Not respected at all. Last to eat. Placed in this rank due to distrustfulness or disrespectfulness. Not all packs have them.

This is my interpretation of the ranks/the way I use them. I know I've missed a few but I will add them if or when they come up in the story :)

All credit goes to: https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/aminoapps.com/c/wolf-pack-amino/amp/item/pack-ranks for the inspiration!

 

1

THERE'S DUMB.

And there's stupid.

I was doing something fucking stupid.

My cold fingers clasped together and then apart and then together again. My cold bones creaking.

Feeling the inner warmth.

I shouldn't be doing this.

I felt an urge to move towards the house, it felt like a rope was around my waist and tugging me forward. Almost magnetic.

The house was nothing like I've seen before, two buildings intertwining with each other, white rectangles laying horizontal on the ground, twisting at the ends. Sloping windows followed the sloping of the roof, both ends of the rectangles were walls of windows and one of the walls were open, from the open windows I could see a sunken dark lounge in a U shape and I could also see no one was in the house. Except I knew they were watching us.

The house stood alone on its block, with a generous garden and single pond to the side, backing onto trees that separated the town from them and us.

They definitely knew that I was already here.

My eyes moved to where Sam was standing by the car and he was looking at the snow fall into the steaming pond.

The pond being warmer than the surrounding land, creating a foggy haze around the proud standing house.

His orange hair aflame atop his head as the sunlight caught it.

As if he could feel my gaze, he looked at me with his all-knowing warm brown eyes and I watched as his fingers worded the sentence, "What are you waiting for?"

Imagining the tone, I couldn't hear and I rolled my eyes, knowing he wasn't scared of anything and I signed back, "How about you come with me?" my fingers red from the cold, "If it's that easy."

His smile showed and he shook his head while signing, "Go."

Sam lost his hearing back when he got an infection from a nasty injury, an injury he had gotten when he was dumb enough to fight with a rouge wolf, resulting in a fever which then took his hearing. It was a devastating day.

I know it destroys him every day. Not being able to hear things like his own mate's laughter. Just like it destroys me knowing it destroys him.

Sam was a member of my close-knit pack. My tiny pack. Created by betrayal.

Our tiny pack has been getting some heat from the other surrounding packs, much larger packs.

With the threat at our heels, my father had asked me to request help from our neighbouring pack.

Something no one would dare to do.

Stepping into another's land without permission is suicide.

My father told me that August's pack was one of the largest in our area.

That August could kill my tiny pack by himself alone.

I turned to face the towering house, patiently waiting for me to gain the confidence to step up to the door. The pack already knows we're here but I hesitated entering past the garden gate.

I swung it open as a figure came out of the shadows.

The tugging got stronger.

Standing on the threshold was August.

Ironically, placed at the base of the stairs was two large bronze lions, sitting and waiting. Giant cats guarding the house of dogs.

As if there was an invisible string, tying him and I together. The string was tightening as we stood apart and the string so tight that if it was a real string, it would have snapped.

His face told me he felt nothing but pissed off.

I didn't move from where I stood. Frozen out of fear. Fear of rejection.

Blue meeting brown.

His eyes were more than blue, they were an artist's palette, a mixture of blues, greens and yellows. A live artwork. His light dirty blonde hair a mess on his head, like he was running his hands through it.

I could see his features so clearly as if he was standing right in front of me.

"Who are you?" a growl escaped his lips, "What do you want?" It hit me like a brick, his thundering and authoritative growl echoed in my head.

I sucked in a breath and I stepped forward. His palette eyes watching me the entire time.

The string getting tighter and tighter and tighter.

I could almost hear the strain as I stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at him. He was towering from this angle. A broad chest hidden under a burgundy t-shirt. A ring on his left hand winked at me in the winter sun.

"My name is Eden and I need help" I breathed, my voice coming out surprisingly calm and even, "we need help."

He glared at Sam and then me, "No."

He turned and made to shut the door but without thinking I ran up the stairs and grabbed the door in protest.

His eyes glowed with annoyance and a growl escaped his lips as he glanced back at me.

"Please, listen" I didn't care that I was begging, my father begged me to go and that image of him haunts me now. He would never beg. He was the type of person to rather be killed than beg for his life.

My father was the strongest person I had ever met, my mother had been a part of a neighbouring pack and they had been kept from making the mating bond. Refusing to keep apart, they left both their packs to start their own. Only the loyal ones followed them, siblings and close members. We cherished our tiny pack and no pack was closer than us. We have each other's back and I trusted every single one of them.

He sniffed and frowned, "No, Changeling" he peeled my hand off, "YOU, listen."

Changeling.

I almost huffed at the word. It's a nice word to describe my current state. It was an insult. Like I was swapped with a human, though human would be more helpful. A cursed mutation. As a Changeling we cannot access our wolf. No one knows how, why, or when. I've heard of some changelings eventually finding their wolf but that's just myths. My mother was one and I'm the only one left besides my brother.

They're not popular amongst other wolves. A mixtures of names get spat in my direction and majority just call us Changelings or try to get creative by making up stupid terms like, human-wolf or my personal favourite, the ultimate-omega. Some of them are so terrible that they're almost funny but took it all with a grain of salt. I never really liked bullies anyway.

August stepped close to me, so close that I kept my gaze at his feet. The ring was ancient. An heirloom. Engraved with his family name. Rotaeche. We were almost the same height. Alphas were always so tall.

But I was a tall woman.

"Your father made the choice to bed an enemy pack member, he made the choice to go behind my father's orders, he made the choice to leave and he must live with the consequences" his breath moving my hair as he spoke.

My gaze shot to his, "You cannot blame him for that!" Heat warmed my face as irritation warmed my blood, "They were mated."

His glowing eyes moved to something behind me, "Back off."

I turned to see Sam at the bottom of the stairs, leaning on one of the bronze lions. Sam wasn't fazed, he laughed and signed, "No wonder you didn't want to come."

I glared at August as he registered the laugh, the signing and eventually his eyes moved back to me.

I dared him to say something about it.

One smug sentence and I would end him.

He instead turned back to Sam and I watched his fingers as they danced, "Get lost, both of you."

My eyes must have looked like saucers.

Sam laughed again, louder.

August ignored him with a dismissal growl, "You need to leave, pup" he said to me.

Panic flooded my body, "Please!"

A disapproving click of the tongue came from behind August.

We all turned to see a small blonde-haired woman approaching us with a tall lanky man in tow.

The man shook his head and grasped a hand on August's shoulder, "What do we have here?" The man was slightly taller than August and I, dark long hair sleeked back with a sharp jaw.

His long fingers dared to wiggle in my direction as a wave, his dark coat rustling as he did it.

The woman wore a stubborn scowl, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. I didn't necessarily like short women, the ones I've met have been irrationally angry or egotistical and this one seemed to fit the exact description.

Hope flared on my face regardless and my voice sounded off, "We need help."

He dipped his head in acknowledgment, "Bain" and then he eyed Sam and then August, "What for?"

August shoved at him, "Bain" his voice a low warning.

Bain's eyes flashed with excitement and curiosity but he kept his smile, "Let's hear what they have to say."

Before August could protest, my voice sounded, "My name is Eden Addandam, my father is..."

"We know who your father is" the small woman mumbled disapprovingly, "we know who Vic Addandam is."

Her glowing blue eyes challenging me. Her hair was almost the same shade as Augusts, barely reaching her shoulders and contrasting