1365, THE IRON WOODS
The news spread like wildfire, a little pack that lived near the hills had clashed with a much larger pack in the same area. Naturally the smaller pack would have been annihilated after their alpha was killed, however they made a stranger their alpha and went on to not only defeat the larger pack, but also swallow all the other packs in the region. They called themselves Skollheim. What had brought this story to the iron woods was the rumor that the new alpha was mute and had markings on his cheeks.
Gisela had been attending to a male with a tumor when he told her. Soon as she was done with him, she rushed over to her aunt Malaina's house. The two gossiped over raisin cakes.
"It's the damnedest thin." Said Malaina. "The description perfectly fits Fenrir."
"Who?" Asked Gisela
" He was the son of Harald, the last alpha. Poor child lost his mother the day he was born"
Gisela was confused, she fondly remembered Harald, but she wasn't aware he had a son. She had been told that he remained celibate after his mate died.
"So Harald had an illegitimate son?"
Malaina rolled her eyes. " No, the boy was the son of Harald and Daphne"
"But everyone said Daphne died before she could give birth!" it was a story she had heard countless times and now that she was eighteen she was worried same could happen to her.
"Yes," Malaina continued, "but your ma, was something else, she cut the baby out of Daphne's corpse. The whole pack called her a witch, and for a good reason, the baby was born mute, some folks say it was her fault."
Now it started to make sense, no one would want a mute alpha, they were cursed. Well, no one except the Skollheim and apparently he was good luck for them. Gisela thought about it all day. She just couldn't seem to get it out of her head and by nightfall she'd heard so many rumors about Fenrir "Vidar" Ulfsson that she could write a book about him. Apparently, the man was a nightmare, some of the things she heard scared her senseless, and still she thought about him.
He was on her mind as she cried herself to sleep.
Last week had been her eighteenth birthday, she and Renard should have been mated. But Gerard had learned that she couldn't "shift" and as a matter of fact possessed none of the traits of a werewolf. A stagnant. They rarely occurred and we're considered to be a myth, but here she was. Gerard wouldn't let his son near her again and she was given a house far away from the rest of the pack. With each passing day she became more eager to transform, she wished for it, tried every means she could think of to get herself to "shift" and yet each night met her disappointed.
Even Boris wasn't helping her with it until recently and all he told her was something she already knew. She needed something and once she found "It", she would be able to transform, the problem was she had no idea what "It" was. Had it not been for her duty as healer, aunt Mally's occasional company and Renard's secret visits, she'd have been alone with Boris and her fears all the time. She'd work until dusk before making her way to bed and only then would she have to face them.
What if I never transform?. What if Renard is given another mate?.
What if I never find "It"?
Will I always be alone?
The thoughts gnawed at her throughout the night, and only when the sun rose with the mornings duties did she find respite.
As she lay in bed that tonight, Gisela Fontenay dreamt of a little boy seated in a corner of a room, he was mute and hard markings on his tongue and cheeks. His eyes scared her, but he smiled whenever she put flowers in his hair. She called him Fern because she couldn't quite pronounce his name right. She remembered a time she has no one but her pa, aunt Mally and a bearded alpha who's laughter made her feel safe. And a little mute boy who sat in the darkest corners of the room, but always smiled at her.
She woke up early the next morning. On her way to see a patient who had food poisoning, she walked by a group of girls about the same age as herself. They all had tattoos that resembled vines around their wrists, everyone of them had a mate.
She stopped by Harald's grave to pay her respects, it was peaceful there so she stayed a while. She felt like a child there and even apologized for forgetting about his son. She told him all Fenrir was doing.
She never went to see the patient.
SKOLLHEIM
Fenrir was in a much better mood than he'd been in a long time. He'd dreamt about Aeson Fontenay and his pretty daughter. It was a pleasant dream, a bit nostalgic.
The main reason for the change in temperance however, was his conversation with Theobald a few hours ago. His guardian had met a forest witch last night and she'd bade him to inquire about his fortune, ever the doting guardian, Theobald had instead inquired into Fenrir's fortune. The witch's words were something it a riddle but the interpretation was that fate had smiled at him and that his speech would be given to him under the light of a crescent moon, in view of "It".
The twenty years old alpha was ecstatic, he could already feel the sadness and emptiness start to ease. Somewhere in Ulfenheim "It" was waiting for him.Fenrir rose from his seat and so did the others. They'd been having a meeting of sorts and before him were the heads of all the packs that had been swallowed up by Skollheim, twenty one in all. Running a pack of such size was serious work, but Fenrir didn't mind, it distracted him from the sadness and now it'll serve as a productive way to while away time until he found "It".
The wait was almost over, it wouldn't be long. It was in this manner that the next six years passed.