Chapter 2. History

“Yup. All five will attend for sure,” I replied.

“Even the Crimson Blood Pack will attend. Shows how respected our pack is,” he said with pride.

We were all quite shocked by the news. No one would have imagined that the Crimson Blood Pack would attend a social event. Even the invitation was sent out only as a courtesy, since they were one of the packs here.

There were a total of five packs in this country - Silver Moon Pack, Spirit Shadow Pack, Glowing Stone Pack, Crimson Blood Pack, and, on top of them all, was ours, the Black Heart Pack.

We all had quite nice friendships and business ties together, except for the Crimson Blood Pack. They were kind of loners, as their pack was situated far away from the rest of us. We all lived near forests to avoid being seen by humans when in wolf form, but they lived up in the mountains, where even other pack members rarely went.

And they wouldn’t usually attend social functions unless there were important issues to be discussed by the Alphas, which was why we were surprised by their confirmed attendance.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe the history we just learned,” a girl’s voice suddenly rang in my ear as we passed by two young she-wolves.

Greg and I shared a look at her words and fell silent once again, each of us thinking about the history. I could imagine how amazed they must have been to learn about the history of Werewolves vs. Lycans.

Once upon a time, this world had not only humans, witches, and werewolves, but also Lycanthropes, a.k.a. Lycans. Lycans were like us but superior in almost everything. They were the supreme wolves with better agility, power, stamina, and intelligence. We all lived in our own worlds with no wars between us.

But a few years before I was born, newborn werewolves suddenly started disappearing one by one until the number became too great to count. It turned out that the Lycans had been killing them, which led to the greatest war of all time - the Werewolves vs Lycans War.

There was said to be a prophecy from a witch that a child born that year would be the end of the Lycanthrope race, and they began killing newborn werewolves to ensure the prophecy wouldn’t come true.

One of the witches (Luna Rose) told all the Alphas about it, and so the war began. Werewolves around the world joined forces with witches to overthrow the Lycans, and with their help, the werewolves succeeded in driving the Lycans to extinction.

To me, driving the Lycans to extinction felt like an extreme measure, but I would never voice that thought out loud, as I would surely be labeled a traitor.

Maybe they deserved it because they were killing newborn werewolves out of fear of extinction. How ironic that their attempt to prevent it actually led to their downfall. Would they not have done it if they had known what would happen? Or would they have tried to kill just that one werewolf to save their race?

“Why are you sighing?” I heard Greg’s voice from beside me.

I hadn’t realized I was sighing, but although that history amazed me, I somehow felt a tinge of sadness when thinking about it.

“Nothing... Just thinking how great werewolves are,” I half-lied. Well... it was true. Werewolves were great, but I knew that without the witches’ help, they wouldn’t have won against the Lycans.

I stopped in my tracks and groaned once I realized what I was thinking. There it goes again - me thinking positively about the Lycans. Something is seriously wrong with me!

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yup, good as new!” I said in a cheerful voice.

“By the way, because of that great war, Alpha Andre was crowned the strongest Alpha in this country, right?” he asked happily.

“Uh-huh... I heard he killed the most Lycans together with Luna Rose back then,” I confirmed.

“They must have been fated together since they worked so well,” he replied with a dreamy look on his face.

I was sure he was imagining that battle scene of the Alpha and Luna working together, or maybe imagining finding a mate and becoming like them. My heart sank at the thought.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that your mother and father are not fated together,” he apologized suddenly.

Huh?! My mother and father? Oh... he thought I was upset about that.

“No worries. You know I don’t remember anything about my mother,” I replied dismissively.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have had a strong bond with my mother, the supposed Luna of the pack, if she were still alive. Not because she wasn’t great, but because she died when I was less than a year old. Still, I wished she were alive because I knew she was a great mother. She died while protecting me from being kidnapped by rogues.

“Are you excited about the prom?” I asked, shifting the topic away from anything sad.

“Yes!” he suddenly looked energized. He must have been very excited, which actually made me excited too.

“We’re going to attend prom tomorrow and celebrate our birthday the next day. Double happiness!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, I know!” I laughed at how excited he was.

We were both turning eighteen in two days. My dad had suggested celebrating my birthday at prom, but I declined. Of course, I wouldn’t cut a cake at the event, and I had begged him not to make a big deal out of it since I didn’t want everyone’s attention on me, the wolfless Alpha’s daughter. Embarrassing would be an understatement - it would be humiliating. Thankfully, my father finally agreed after some persuasion.

“How are you going to celebrate?” he asked.

“I’m not sure... Luna asked permission to handle it, so I guess it’ll be a surprise,” I told him with a big grin. I loved surprises, and Luna was always kind enough to arrange them.

“How lucky,” he chuckled.

“What about you? How are YOU going to celebrate?” I asked in return.

“Just with family,” he shrugged.

“You don’t seem very enthusiastic about spending your 18th birthday with your family.” I raised an eyebrow, slightly disappointed by his tone.

For me, spending time with my father was always the best. So his lack of excitement about a family celebration didn’t sit right with me.

He rolled his eyes at me. “You know what I meant.”

I did know what he meant. It wasn’t that he was unhappy - he just wished he had siblings, but he was an only child.

“I know. By the way, did your father say anything about the rogues?” I asked, remembering the hushed voices I had heard earlier.

“No, why?” he asked with little interest.

“Nothing. Just thought there were problems again,” I replied. We had been having issues with rogues lately. They had been around the area but hadn’t done anything yet. I once heard Greg’s father, Beta Erick, tell my father that it seemed the rogues were waiting or searching for something.

“Let’s talk about the prom, alright?” he suggested, and I agreed happily.

“Would the students feel that our theme is cliché?” I had been wondering this since the prom committee chose it.

“Rainforest?” he laughed.

“Yeah... forest... wolves...” I pointed out.

“I think they’ll be surprised by how life-like the decorations are,” he laughed again.

At last, we reached the ballroom building. It was located in a different area from the pack houses, so it took a while to walk there.

“Ready to see?” he asked as he reached for the double doors.

I nodded, and he opened one. Today we were putting the finishing touches on, and as he said, I was amazed by the decorations. It felt like we had stepped into a real rainforest.

The trees, animals and their sounds, the waterfall, and even the ceiling painted like a night sky with lights as stars and a moon.

“Do you think some would turn into wolves because of the realistic moon?” I blushed as soon as I realized what I had asked.

He laughed loudly until his eyes teared up. “Sometimes you are just too naive.”

I rolled my eyes at him despite my blush.

We walked through the “rainforest,” and I could feel that after I attended prom the next night and turned eighteen the day after, something big was going to happen in my life.