The Heir to the Alpha

Scarlett

I woke up stretching in bed, I missed Christopher by my side, my hands searched for him in the sheets and I opened my eyes in fright to find his side of the bed empty. I quickly sat up and looked around to see him wearing just a pair of gym shorts, and holding a tray with some breakfast items. He was leaning on the dining table and looking at me with a smile on his face.

"I thought it was cute that you were looking for me." He said laughing and approaching with the tray. "I just went out to get breakfast."

He placed the tray on the bed and I sat down to adjust myself next to him. There were fruits, slices of bread, jams, coffee, and tea, and my eyes lit up with the last item.

"Croissants..." I said in a whisper, and my mouth watered just looking at it.

"I couldn't bring you breakfast without croissants," Christopher said smiling and leaning on one elbow on the bed as he picked up an apple.

"I remember the photo you sent me on your last trip here," I said smiling and pouring myself some coffee.

He smiled, closing his eyes, and when he opened them they were bright, as if his wolf was closer.

"I remember missing you, and being scared and confused when you stopped answering me." He confessed looking down, and it was cute how he remembered it.

It seemed like centuries ago, but it had only been a few days, not even two weeks, but they were so intense and so crazy, that it seemed like a lifetime.

"I remember being terrified of your reaction to me being pregnant," I said laughing now taking the croissant.

"If you had known what was going on in my head, you would never have had this fear." His sentence made me think.

And when the time comes to make our marks? When will our minds be connected and I could feel and see what he feels and thinks? And could he be in my head?

I pushed my thoughts away, and we finished breakfast. We organized ourselves and headed to the temple. Christopher had arranged a meeting with Neil, one of the Council members, and we would meet him at the Moon temple.

I confess that I felt butterflies in my stomach just thinking about entering the Council temple, it was the biggest, most beautiful, and most magnificent temple for the Goddess of the Moon, I had been to many temples before, but never this one. I needed to put on my coat to go to the temple, which was at the back of the Council complex, we drove to a section and then followed the stairs on foot. The guards stayed outside, waiting for us.

It was an immense stone temple, the same stone used in the construction of the Council, but these were polished, giving an angelic air to the entire construction, in addition to the walls being adorned with stained glass in the shape of windows throughout the construction and a large round at the top, all made of moonstone. The day was slightly misty, giving the place an even more mystical air, but nothing compared to when we entered the temple. The sun's rays passed through the stained glass windows and entered as small beams of bluish light.

I felt in the presence of the Goddess. I said a prayer quietly, thanking her for everything, especially for always being present in my life.

Inside there were many wooden benches, and a tall man with gray hair and round glasses, wearing a black overcoat, came out of the altar and came towards us.

"Alpha Christopher, what a pleasure to see you again." The man said, opening his arms, and Christopher went over to hug him.

"Neil, it's nice to see you." He responded with a wide smile, the two seemed like they had known each other for a long time. Then Christopher turned to me saying.

"Neil, this is Scarlett, my…" He paused looking at me, his eyes were shining, but it was as if he had taken that time to organize his thoughts, and then a wide smile appeared on his lips before he completed. "My mate."

Neil widened his eyes and raised his thick eyebrows before turning to me and smiling.

"That's wonderful to hear, nice to meet you, Scarlett." Neil pulled me into a hug and I confess that my eyes widened in astonishment at the friendly way of greeting. Then he slowly released me and turned his gaze to Christopher. "I'm glad to see you well, with a mate, after… everything you've been through," Neil added with empathy and compassion, I didn't understand exactly what he meant, but Neil shook his head and smiled again before speaking. "But what brings you here?"

Christopher put a hand on the back of his neck and exhaled from his lungs to speak.

"Many things, but we suspect it has something to do with the prophecies." He started to speak, and I saw Neil frown and look into space as if different thoughts had started to appear inside his head.

"Okay, prophecies are something not used much nowadays, just a few wolves who continue to visit them frequently, but they say that if they are about you or for you, you can feel it," Neil said shrugging our shoulders and making a movement with our hands to follow him. "Come, they stay here."

He said, turning towards the back of the temple, we passed through large purple velvet curtains, and the back revealed itself as a huge ancient library, in addition to some altars to the Moon, it seemed like we were teleported centuries ago. Neil went to one of the shelves, it was covered with glass and inside there were stacks and stacks of rolled parchment, some papers were white, others were yellowed and some were practically brown from the time that had already been there.

"These are the ones, there are prophecies written recently but most are from a few decades ago. And well, there are the primordials which are prophecies written centuries ago, there are legends that say they came from the Moon herself, and…" Neil continued to speak but something called me to a parchment, a practically brown one, but the paper was bluish, it was at the top, and it was as if it glowed at me, the whole world was still and only that parchment mattered, I just pointed with my fingers.

"It's that one over there." The words came out like a certainty, perhaps the greatest I've ever had in my entire life, but no one reacted to my speech, I looked around and found Christopher and Neil staring at me in astonishment.

"What is it? It's that one over there, I feel it." I said again with the greatest certainty in my heart.

"Scarlett, honey, that one over there is one of the primes…" Christopher started to say.

"Eh…" Neil was about to say something, but he was speechless, so he shrugged his shoulders before speaking. "If she thinks it's that, let's see if it is," Neil said pulling out a wooden ladder and placing it in front of the bookshelf he began to point to. "Is that the one?"

"No, the one next."

"This one?"

"Exactly, this one. I confirmed and he pulled out the parchment that seemed to shine in my eyes, Neil slowly went down the stairs and arriving at the bottom, he put on two fabric gloves and then opened the rolled-up sheet slowly, it was old, very old, it looked like be centuries old.

And when the silver words started to appear, it seemed like they were dancing in front of me, making me almost dizzy. But when my eyes read what was written, I didn't believe it...

The first came to teach,

The second to change,

She is the warm fire,

And no one can stop her desire,

In the midst of the war,

Red comes as a salvation,

Bringing hope and new life

To the whole new nation

The second chance was the right mate,

Which was already decided by the fate,

And there is born the new leader who withstood,

Of the people gathered again for good,

My eyes widened in amazement, while it made sense, I still needed to understand.

Then Neil broke the silence as he ran his fingers over the word red that was said in the prophecy.

"Scarlett, red…" He said what we all wanted to scream there.

"In the midst of the war, Red comes as a salvation, Bringing hope and new life, To the whole new nation." Christopher recited the second paragraph which seemed even more surgically specific to us, especially the new life part, it was instinctive for me to place one of my hands on my belly, not only was the prophecy about me, but it spoke about our son or daughter.

"Wait, are you…?" Neil's thick voice reached a high pitch that showed his surprise at seeing the scene, it was almost visible that he was trying to put the pieces together in his head. "And there a new leader is born, the second chance was right, it talks about you and the birth of a leader and…" Neil now turned around and ran his hand through his hair in disbelief. "This primordis is about you and… I don't even know how many centuries ago we're talking about, that is, the Moon herself…"

For a few seconds we were silent, trying to understand, trying to process, it was a lot and it got deeper and deeper.

"But what about the first part? The first comes to teach and the second to change?" The question came from Christopher, Neil seemed like a world apart inside his head, but then he smiled, looking deeply at Christopher.

"You know friend, seeing everything you've been through, it is about your mates…" Neil said with all the empathy and wisdom he had. "You're not the same man as before Violet, she made you love a lot and suffer a lot too, but it was all this pain that turned you into this incredible and protective leader that you are, without her... Maybe everything would be different." Neil completed and I felt Christopher get emotional. "And when you say that the second comes to change, I believe we're talking about Scarlett. Violet turned you into an incredible leader, but cold and distant. And I have a hunch that on the last trip you were already together because you were already different. The warm fire, I believe, comes from the same meaning as red, Scarlett's fire, and red came to warm your heart." Neil finished speaking, looking at me and I saw Christopher turn around too, until a memory made me laugh out loud, one of those nervous laughs.

"What?" Christopher asked, furrowing his eyebrows trying to understand.

"My mother says that…" I laughed again, it was too much, too much of a coincidence. "She says she dreamed about the Moon before she had me, she said it was a dream she lived, where the Moon herself spoke to her, saying that…" I paused and took a deep breath. "That she was pregnant, they would have one more child, a girl, who would be the fire to warm their hearts, and her name would be Scarlett," I said and I saw Neil's lips open in astonishment, Christopher turned pale and in complete astonishment. "They didn't want any more children, they had already had twins, Karen and Bob were already too much work, they were taking care of themselves, but after the dream, she took the pregnancy test and was pregnant, when she found out it was a girl, she honored the called the Moon and called me Scarlett."

Now Christopher also laughed, a loud laugh that echoed inside the temple, it was contagious and I ended up laughing too, Neil joined us and the sound of laughter was interrupted by claps, which made us turn to find Joshua entering the back of the temple, passing through the curtains and sending a shiver down my spine.

I prayed again, in thought, asking for protection, asking the Goddess to protect us, there in her temple.

His features were sharp and emaciated, giving him a cadaverous and frightening appearance. Christopher automatically positioned himself in front of me,

"Good to know my guesses were right, I just didn't know it would be so accurate." Joshua's words echoed in the place, which simply took on a frightening air all of a sudden. Many wolves entered behind him, but they were not guards, they seemed… exiled.

There were so many, but I didn't have time to count them, what happened next was beyond my understanding, it happened too quickly, even though it seemed like slow motion.

They transformed and jumped towards us, my wolf came, inevitable and ready. When I realized I was on four legs, but his wolf came too, Christopher transformed almost more agile than me, and stayed in front of me, his brown wolf was much bigger than normal for being an Alpha, but they were many, Neil wasn't so fast and I saw him being attacked, one of the wolves bit one of his legs, I thought about helping but five of them jumped towards us, Christopher bit a paw and scratched another of them, he hit three at once, trying to stop them from getting to me, but the wolves kept coming out from behind the curtains, Neil was taken, and suddenly Christopher too, one of them escaped him and came towards me, I defended myself, I bit one of them, then another, but I couldn't contain the third, my wolf was small, agile, but small, and even all the training I had was no match for that, I felt the sharp stab of pain from the bite I received on the shoulder, I saw my white fur stain of blood, and another stab in my leg, I felt the sharp teeth sink and tear my flesh, the pain was so immense, to the point that I heard a ringing in my ear, and everything went black.