I went back to my room and scribbled down the prophecy. It only had two stanzas, so it was not hard to remember:
For the sound of the bell
His name would be Rebel
For his army so fearsome
You will cower at his return
Master to the ring of vampire
Brother to the warlock's fire
He will not take a Luna mate.
The Last Lorent Alpha will be his fate.
It turned out that I was a really well-trained Lycan student, because I automatically took out a different colored pen. Now that the verses were written on lined paper, the next step was to decipher it.
Mrs. Beta had taught us before, and at least this time it was in English and not some ancient script.
Let's see… So the first line, I was going to say, was just a poetic bridge meant to link the present event to a future one.
It did make me wonder, though—if it were the drum that was hit, would his name be changed to rhyme with drum?
His name would be Humdrum. Hahahaha.
The second line was the nature or description of what the boy would become, which proved right, by the way, if what Jessica said of him was true and he was the bad boy type.
Did he really fight with his dad so much? Did he really nearly kill his dad? Alpha James seemed like a nice, reasonable guy. So maybe all their fights were bad-boy Rebel just living up to his name?
The third line linked him to an army, which I could see why Dad thought this prophecy might be related to my dreams. My mate had an army too.
Let's play snap:
Rebel had an army. My mate had an army too. Snap.
Rebel was a white wolf. My mate was a white wolf too. Snap.
Rebel was coming back. My mate promised to come for me. Close enough. Snap.
What were the odds that the one war our packland would have to face in this generation would involve two white wolves and two external armies? Where did you even find so many warrior wolves?
Unless Rebel's army was made of vampires and warlocks. But that's in the next stanza. Let's not jump the gun yet.
Moving on to the fourth line: You will cower at his return.
I guess it's the Lorents that would cower. Does that mean they did not want their son to return? No return, no army, no cowering, right?
Wow, I was on a roll.
Finally, next stanza, first line: Master to the ring of vampire
It actually sounded good. He becomes the vampires' master? I mean, tonight their fight-cage slave, tomorrow their master!
But Master was usually how vampires addressed their sires. How could a werewolf sire a vampire?
And, like any good lycan student, I had noted that nobody said "ring" of vampires. Wasn't that like saying, "ring of people"? I think gangs had ringleaders - was it something like that?
The prophecy might as well have said, "Gaggle of vampires." Hahaha… like I just imagined a gaggle of geese dressed like vampires and waddling towards me like gangsters making their statement entrance.
Oh… was "ring of vampires" just another bell reference?
Moving on…
Second line: Since warlocks were now our enemy, I wasn't sure it was a good thing to be brotherly with them. Still, Fount used to be Dad's friend. Maybe we could restore this friendship… yeah, after Rebel's fearsome army comes flatten us.
Why did Alpha James have to lose his temper at Fount and attack him? It would have helped a whole lot more if he had just asked, "What do you mean?"
The continuing line sounded bad—specifically for me, if he really was my mate.
He will not take a Luna mate.
Was he going to reject me? If he was going to bring his army here in five years just to reject me… oh, I am so gonna kill him.
And thus fulfill the last line. TADA!
The Last Lorent Alpha will be his fate.
Because he would be dead meat.
There we go. A+ Lycan interpretation homework done.
Okay, no. Let me backtrack the last two lines. (Yes, I was aware that after the vampire geese made their appearance, my interpretation skills took a nose dive.)
So let's think about it objectively.
Objectively, this might have nothing to do with my mate.
Then what? He takes a mate who was NOT a Luna?
Like a warlock? Wait—warlocks were always male.
Sort of like the Lorents right now. Hahahaha. (The Lorent pack had only sons since their Young Alpha James Lorent IV was born remember?)
Anyway, focus on facts we knew: Warlock mates were always human, since warlock magic was incompatible with wolves or vampires.
I wondered if the Lorents of my generation would have to mate with humans too, or females from other packs. I knew one really good friend who would be happy to volunteer, ahem (Jessica), but I digress.
Basically, as far as I knew, only humans were interspecies compatible. Human mates for Alpha wolves were Luna too.
Humans were surprisingly compatible mates for wolves. Even though they had no wolves and could not shift, they formed mate bonds and could feel the mating pull. Heck, they could even mindlink with the rest of the pack!
So what kind of creature could not become a Luna, but still mate an Alpha wolf?
Mermaid. Someone has got to get the mermaid!
By now, my A+ Lycan Interpretation homework was also graced with doodles of geese in sunglasses and vampire capes and fangs and gangster poses. And a mermaid sitting on a rock, smiling at the geese.
Let's just never show this to anyone.
By the time the meeting at my father's office rolled around, I was quite sure the prophecies were just a confusing mess of words and imagery.
Without any time or place to anchor them, they could mean anything.
I quietly waited for the prophecy to be read aloud by Beta Lucas on Dad's behalf.
The adults seemed quite calm when hearing the Lorents' prophecy. They listened intently, took notes, and nodded and hummed as if they totally understood.
Then, when it was done, they all looked up at me expectantly.
What? What were they expecting from me?
I, in turn, looked at my own gang for clues. Ben and Jonah made clueless faces. Savy was frowning. Lizzy had her hand over her mouth, wearing an OMG expression.
"What?" Naturally, I asked Lizzy.
"OMG! Your life is like one of those stories you read in the library!" Lizzy gasped.
"Okay," I allowed, "and if it were, can you tell me what will happen?"
Lizzy frowned. "Like the happy-ending type or the sad-ending type?"
"Whichever is most likely," I answered.
"Why not… we hear both?" Beta Lucas asked.
Really? Why were the adults even interested in this? I was just stalling…
"Okay," Lizzy obliged. "Bad news first: Rebel comes with a huge army and turns out to be your mate. He wants revenge on his pack, so he kills Alpha James and conquers our whole packland. Sam runs away from him because he is such a bad guy. But he chases Sam and kills her by accident, and will then have to live without a Luna or heir for the rest of his life."
"Or maybe you won't be killed, and you manage to run away successfully. If so, please take us with you," Lizzy added as an afterthought.
Ben rolled his eyes. "What's the good version?"
Lizzy looked very pleased. "Oh, you'll like this one, Sam. Rebel comes with his army, and just when all hope seems lost, your mate comes to the rescue with his army. He kills Rebel, saves our packlands, and we all live happily ever after."
"I think Rebel is Sam's mate," Gamma Harry interjected. "How do you find so many wolf warriors for two armies? It has to be the same army."
"Unless Rebel's army is made of vampires and warlocks," I pointed out meekly.
Gamma Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. The silence grew heavy immediately.
"Technically, it could be anything, right?" Ben groaned. "We're just swinging blindly in the dark here."
"Not necessarily, Ben." Mrs. Beta gave her son a stern look. It was a I have taught you better than that, son kind of look, and Ben was immediately subdued. He stepped back to my side.
Mrs. Beta continued, "Sometimes, to unlock a prophecy's interpretation, we need to ask the right questions, such as who the prophecy was given to, who gave the prophecy, and for what purpose the prophecy was given. This gives us the lines to draw the interpretation from."
Ah yes, the right perspective.
So if the prophecy was given to Alpha Lorent by Fount, the warlock, who was at that moment a friend, then the prophecy was a warning?
Or… I thought about Dad's words that Fount probably thought he was doing Alpha Lorent a favor.
Then the prophecy was probably instructional.
INSTRUCTIONS TO ALPHA LORENT:
BY FOUNT (interpreted by Sam Kingsley)
Name your son Rebel. He's a bad boy and will probably drive you up the wall, but train him well because he's going to be somebody. And you should probably be nice to him so he won't hurt you when he comes to power. P.S. Don't expect a Luna or heir from him, so don't give him grief about it.
Now that I had the correct answer (without geese and mermaids), it seemed quite obvious that this prophecy had nothing to do with me.
Unless he was my mate. Then I won't become his Luna.
{Of course not. I'm the Alpha.}
What? Hahahaha… My Wolfie made a good point.
Mrs. Beta then proceeded to present her interpretation, which was similar to mine, but with nicer-sounding phrases and without my power-crazy wolfie boasting about being the Alpha.
My Alpha Dad thanked her and told Beta Lucas to email it in writing so he could respond to Alpha James.
"So what now?" Gamma Harry asked. "That had nothing to do with us."
Perhaps that was true, maybe our pack's war would be unrelated to theirs.
Just because we were neighboring packs didn't mean we necessarily had to share a war…
"But what if Sam is his mate?" Gamma Harry seemed to suddenly think of it. "He won't have a Luna mate—it said so!"
That snapped me back and I immediately remembered my wolfie's arrogance.
"Don't worry about that." I grinned. "I'm not going to be his Luna… I'm the Alpha, remember?"
Ben grinned. Lizzy and Savy threw high fives. "Yes! Minority rules!"
"No," I held out a finger. "I rule."
And we all burst out laughing, even Jonah. The adults shook their heads. I could hear them thinking, Still just a bunch of pups.
I don't know if James Rebel Lorent IV was my mate, but if he were, someone should give him—or whoever was my mate—a prophecy: "Your mate will not submit to you easily. She will be very, very difficult."
Suddenly, I remembered my dream, with Dumbbell shaking his head in exasperation. "Do you have to be so… so difficult?"
Message delivered. Good job, Goddess. You certainly had all the grounds covered.
Dad was nodding too (but for entirely different reasons. "All right. Sam said she had ideas to help the Lorents recover their lost son."
"Do they still want him back?" I asked. "I mean, maybe it might work out better for them if he never returned."
Mrs. Beta spoke then. "Oh, Sam, never underestimate a parent's love. Even if he returns to enslave them, they would still wish him safely home."
No one else refuted that.
Yeah, I know not every family was like this, but mine was, and so were the ones here right now.
And it would seem Rebel, too, had such a home. I guess that's the true meaning of home.
I couldn't understand why anyone would run away from a home with nice parents like Alpha James and Luna Edith.
All I knew was that, at the end of the day, when we got him home, and if Rebel still didn't reform and learn to treasure the ones who loved him, I was going to take the hour-long car drive over to the Lorent Pack and give him a piece of my mind.
Poor Alpha James and Luna Edith. I wonder how much they have cried for their lost son by now.
Stoopid Rebel. Come home soon and wipe up the tears you spilled!