Chapter 1
The Gernot Ship docked in the evening, bringing the stench of foreign male flesh that plagued the shoreline of Sæwine. The sea breeze carried it high up in the mountainous terrain where even Mother’s sage could not chase it out of our den. A thin, wiry wolf hopped into the water, wading through the waves. More of a man than a wolf. He smelled as filthy as the rest of his crew. I didn’t see where he went, just that he left the watercraft, and wandered the shore.
He was hauling some rope, pulling it as he stalked backwards on the sand. About an hour later, males began to file out, one by one, carrying with them a kind of foreign filth that stunk the entire territory. There was no doubt now. They were here, unforgivably.
It was made clear that I could not hide from their mate search. This wasn’t the same story that my brothers told me to keep me scared and meek - it was alive and true, here at our shores. Everyone in Sæwine speculated about the Gernot Clan’s search for a mate, and now it was no longer speculation. It was rare that Clans had to search far and wide for a female wolf that bared the lure scent, but Gernot was the exception.
I learnt of this four days ago when I entered our den after my morning chores. My brothers, Ramirus and Agnarr, returned a few seconds after, one nude and the other still a wolf, a scraggly, mangled hare between his teeth. He dropped it at my mother’s feet - an offering - and bowed his head deeply. My mother grew soft for my brothers, even when they became dogs. It seemed as if she reserved her maternal judgment solely for me. I watched as she patted his head, carrying the hare to be skinned in the basin. A pack’s value was measured by the number of male wolves the mother wolf produced. My existence was an excuse - a son they could have had, but the moon gave them a consequence instead.
My father was made of greed, always longing for things that were never his. And the moon valued content. She didn’t like mangy mutts yipping at her eye, barking at her like they thought they were some foolish rival.
I smelled the tang of the hare’s blood as my mother began to release the tendons with a sharpened knife, pulling the dingy fur away from the carcass. She cleared her throat while working on the hare. “I see preference from the Moon, for once Ealdræd would have her light upon our den.”
Agnarr frowned. “And what was the vision?”
She smiled. “Cynesige would fall from the tower of their dais, the mutts they left for the cold would feed off their bones and the minority would claim what they had taken from them.”
Ramirus huffed. “That was the interpretation. What is the vision?”
“The moon whispered in my ear... she sends the scent of an upcoming war in the current of the wind. I can sense it like the seasons of the Earth. Things, as they had been, would be no more. The moon’s rays will shift to the mountains, the seaside. The ground here would grow and justice would finally be delivered. No more scrunting for us, no more begging and fighting for meat and salt. Our name is not mud. It is stone and law.”
“But what of Cynesige?” My muscles remained taut beneath my flesh, awaiting the force of a scolding for speaking out of line. But none came. Only the patient answer of a mother willing to indulge her children. I was her only daughter.
“We are wolves, daughter. Greed is expected; everyone wants power. We are Ealdræd. It is our namesake, our privilege to stand beside the keeper, and if not, opposing him. It is in our right to claim what has been stolen from us. To howl and not cower. We are not omegas of this clan. Our name means something.”
So do theirs. And perhaps, they earned the right to be Keepers. We were just lowly wolves wanting more than we deserved. My lifetime in this den was plagued with my mother’s bitterness. Her oracle blood served both as a blessing and a curse. She was bound to serve the Keeper’s family while they kept her and the rest of her kin on a leash, far away in the mountains as if we were mutts. Our servitude was in vain, used by the Luna and Keeper.
I eyed them, not willing to share my thoughts out loud.
“Father,” Ramirus spoke, cutting through the rising tension, “What do you propose?”
“Ah,” a new light lit the Alpha’s eyes - a twinkle that made me want to shift in defense. “The Gernot Clan has set sail to visit Sæwine.”
“Gernot?” I frowned.
My brothers, stiff and uncomfortable, exchanged meaningful glances and bristled in unease.
“Gernot means spear and crush.“Agnarr cleared his throat. “They’re a clan of barbarians, Mother.”
Ramirus’s eyes darted to Mother in worry. “And what of this Gernot Clan you speak of, Mother? Why are they coming on our territory?”
Father didn’t say anything for a while, only watched us with a cool gaze of trepidation. And then, “Their keeper’s son is looking for a mate. I hear there are so few females in Gernot that they could not find a female with the lure scent on their continent. The scent of a bond carries him here.”
***
Later that night my mother wanted help to gather herbs. The night was her chosen hour; she said that the coolness of the night preserved the potency of the plants. The quiet allowed for concentration and serenity under the moon’s direct gaze. It was rare that we spoke when we worked alongside each other, but Mother broke the silence as she used a knife to break a rosemary stem.
“Can you imagine our life here in Saewine if our pack produced a Luna - a foreign Luna for the mightiest pack?”
The fact that she was entertaining this irritated me. “Mother, they are brutes.”
“They are wealthy, strong, prestigious, powerful. Your name would be known for centuries after as the mate and mother of Gernot Keepers.”
She said it all as if I had any chance of carrying a lure scent that the Gernot heir would find palatable, if I even had a lure scent at all. Nothing about me was motherly, strong, nurturing, fertile - all Luna qualities.
I squished an orange buckthornberry between my fingers as I glared at her. “He would breed me until I bore him a Keeper heir. Is that what you want for me?”
“This-” She dropped the basket of herbs and gestured to our territory. “This is not what I want for you. You - we - all of us, we are worth so much more than what those moon-damned Syneigewolves throw at us like scraps. I want more for all of us than this.”
“You would see me mated off to a savage who will mistreat me-”
“-He won’t. Only good can come of this union.”
Her conviction startled me. Maybe she saw it in her dreams, maybe her desperation blinded the interpretation. I knew she would never say it outright; my mother was always very careful about how she spoke about the future. The juice of the berry stained my fingers, a bright orange reminder of my agitation. The forest around us was alive with the sounds of rustling leaves and distant calls of wildlife, but all I could focus on was what my mother was insinuating. What she wanted me to do.
I glared at her. “Good for who? You? Father? Your precious males?”
She grabbed my shoulders, looking at me with silvery eyes. “Eydis, this isn’t just about you. For decades, your grandmother, me, your father, have been trying to bring Ealdreadtofavour. In vain, for years. We cannot help our oracle blood, we cannot help the images we see when our eyes close, and we cannot help the visions in our minds when we go off to sleep, but we do not deserve to be exploited by those in power. This is so much bigger than just you, can’t you see that?”
Her words flickered in my mind like distant lightning, illuminating the path forward in my future; it was a life of pain, abuse, misery. I saw myself in a dark den, being held down by rough male hands and brutally raped each night until my belly swelled with the savage’s spawn. My breath shuddered as I tried to step away from her but her hold on my shoulders tightened. “Your father and I have lived our lives in exile, we will meet the Moon soon. But your brothers are young and have yet to mate. Your nieces and nephews will continue to suffer as allEaldreadwolves do because the moon-damned Syneigewolves trap us under their paws!”
“So you bid me to suffer for them? To be treated as a concubine to savages and brutes from the moon-damned Gernot Clan so that your precious males may live in theSyneige’smansion and play at being Keepers and Lunas!”
“We can’t be damned to live in fear forever. This is bigger than just one wolf or one human. We have to unite, to protect what’s ours. We have never raised you to be a selfish wolf,Eydis. As your mother, you must do this-”
The basket dropped from my hands as I shoved her away from me. The shock on her face as she fell onto the ground only heightened my anger. “I will not allow you to condemn me to life of misery just so your males may fatten themselves on wealth!”
The front door thundered open and my father stormed out, hobbling towards us as fast as his walking stick allowed. My face exploded in pain. Suddenly I was on the floor, opposite my mother. I could see that she was crying silently. My father grabbed my neckline, pointed his finger in my face and snarled. “You do not ever strike your mother the way I saw you just now, she is worth more than anyone in this pack!”
I resisted the urge to cower and cradle the part of my face where he’d struck me and I forced myself to meet his gaze.
“Oldaric-” She began.
“No,” He insisted. “She must do this. She must.”
I exhaled. I was strangely calm. “And if I don’t?”
It was Mother who spoke. “Then you are not my daughter and you do not belong in this pack.” She paused, watching me at eye level with the same strange calmness. “You are on your own. You become a rogue, you become scorned, I do not care. If you cannot sacrifice for your pack, your family, then why should we sacrifice for you?”
I watched as she gathered the herbs in her basket, turned and walked towards the den. Father hobbled after her, neither of them looking back.
As soon as the door closed, I burst into tears.
