ZION’s GREAT DIRE
~4~

A wicked amount of power surges through my body. This was the first time I had shifted as a full adult dire wolf in front of my pack. I maintain a stiff threatening posture with my eyes on their Alpha. The wolves bared their teeth at me. Just when they were charging midair I quickly moved back, having them attack each other. Some were injured by their own members attacking them mid-through.

I took this opportunity to leap over them purposely landing on one of them and crushing his body down. I ran toward the Alpha with lightening speed, snapping my strong jaw from the side of his leg and furiously ripping out his limb. He howls in pain as he continues to bleed out.

Others come forward and try to attack me but I was too quick, I had another by the throat. I sense one was behind me so I turn my body around while my jaw was snapped shut around one of the wolf's throats. Instead of him attacking me from behind he ends up attacking his pack member. Before he could notice it was already too late. I ripped his throat out in the process, with the injury he had beforehand I knew he was going to die instantly. I had already killed five while their Alpha was still injured. My eyes are fixated on the two that were left.

Fury vibrated through me, this type of rage was becoming uncontrollable. The two wolves half-crouch in a defensive position. I growl snapping my jaws at them, slowly prowling towards them. They began to crouch low in a submissive posture. I wasn’t convinced just yet and they knew it. They laid on their back and exposed their belly and neck to me. I watched them carefully and turned to the side where their Alpha lay down looking at me with resentment. He hasn’t shifted yet so I did what I had to do. I killed the alpha by pressing down my paw to his skull and smashing it open. Ripping him limb to limb as the two wolves whimpered for mercy.

I look at the remaining two.

I mindlink them, “Who else knows about me?”

“I don’t know, but I remember he told someone that he had found Luns.” One the wolves said submissively.

“GET UP!” I demanded.

“I'LL LEAVE YOU AT MY MERCY! Come back to me in four days and tell me what you have heard.”

“Mercy?” He said in a sharp tone.

“Do you prefer for me to kill you instead?”

“No…No, I”

I killed him by snapping his neck on the ground. A wolf that does not see my kindness in sparing his life will betray me later. Zeus and I did not have time for this. I turned to face the other wolf and he shifted, bowing his head down to me still exposing his throat in a sign of submission.

“Come with me.”

He instantly stood and listened to my command.

“Yehu cross over the borderline.” I packlink for Yehu to come forward. Yehu is a blue spiritual wolf, he’s able to read other wolves' spiritual aura. Yehu knew why I called him forward.

“He is pure. But should be watched, there is trauma that must be put at ease or he will go mad like the Alpha you killed.”

“Send him to Madam Eos and Madam Selene; they will know what to do with him.”

With that Yehu uses his magic and sends him to deep sleep. One second he was walking the next he fell to the ground in slumber. Yehu takes him and places him on his back. Vanishing in the mist air as he travels to meet with Madam Eos and Madam Selene in their spiritual world. A warrior gave me shorts to change into as I shifted back to my human form. Still shaking in rage I clenched my jaw, my eyes glowing. Taming Zeus wasn’t easy and now I understood why the alpha was reacting the way he was. It was like Zeus was fighting against me. I groaned in frustration, my hands on the ground.

“Alpha Zion!” Beta Micah and Gamma Jere rush to aid.

“DON'T! Get-” Zeus had forced himself back and shifted. I felt like I’m being sucked deep inside with no willpower and control over myself.

“ALPHA ZION FIGHT BACK!” I hear Master Elijah mindlink me.

Zeus howls and the ground starts trembling, creating a small crack between Beta Micah's legs. I couldn’t let Zeus take control. With great strength, I fought back control and shifted to my human form. Fighting eight wolves wasn't an issue for me but fighting my own wolf had tremendously drained me. I didn’t imagine that Zeus could be this powerful. My hands were still on the ground shaking as I took a moment to catch my breath. I look up to see Master Elijah Moons crunching down to my eye level.

He gently pats my shoulder and says “Come.”

I was too tired to even move. Right now I wasn’t in any mood to see anyone but Azah. “Azah?”

“She was in the spirit world, but I believe she is-” Master Elijah didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence when Azah suddenly appeared running to me. Her long white locs slowly turned back to their original auburn colour. The sun kisses her breathtaking brown-yellow ochre skin. Azah's eyes glow electric blue, her eyebrows furrowed with a broad frown when she hugged me tightly.

“I thought I was going to lose you!” She screamed.

“Azah..” Her hug was a bit too tight for me to say anything else. Finding some energy to get back up I looked at Josiah and Michael who looked very worried.

“Guys I’m fine, I just need some time to recharge,” I said while looking down at Azah with a faint smile.

Master Elijah glared at me with his piercing eyes and said, “Come.”

I could feel all eyes on me when I crossed over the borders. I could sense some with mixed emotions about me, nervous and frightened. While others didn’t have much to feel but we were still frozen and astound. I’m used to people looking but this was different and it made Zeus and I very unsettled. Azah squeezed my hand to soothe my nerves, because of our mate bond she doesn’t have to use her magic to do this. Master, Elijah was walking in front of us with his cane.

He used his magic and we suddenly disappeared. We were no longer outside, but enter an immense mystical library that is explicitly magical. I’ve heard about the all-knowing library that is known to be as old as the universe itself but I’ve never seen it with my own eyes. The old library has tall walls of ancient volumes, the floating lights above lit bright revealing an immeasurable amount of books in tall shelves reaching as high as the unseen ceiling.

Unseen magical servants are constantly dusting, re-shelving and performing menial upkeep tasks. The library infused with magic begins to swiftly shift to another room that must be Master Elijah’s office that’s also filled with many books.

Master Elijah has long winter white hair like mine except his colour is from old age. Though his age is timeworn his face still looks young with small signs of wrinkles and sparking light blue eyes that seem to see everything.

“Azah, I believe your spiritual search was interrupted.” He said smiling at his granddaughter.

Azah has been in training to become the next Madam of the Moons coven just like her mother Eos and aunt Selene. It is known to be the highest and most difficult rank next to the Master of the Moons coven.

“That can wait. I can stay here and take Zion back home afterwards.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary my dear. You must go back my child, you are the vessel of the Moon Goddess. In this time to help Zion, we would need her too. Let her continue the search and I’m sure she’ll bring you back to Zion. ” He said softly.

Azah turns to me and I wink and say “I’ll be fine.”

“I know but Zeus is who I’m worried about.”

Inside Zeus purred in hearing our mate’s concern for him.

“We will be fine.” I gave a soft peck on her forehead before she vanished from my sight. When she left I looked at Master Elijah and saw his facade drop. He has now opened himself up for me to sense what he’s feeling , before he had completely blocked me off.

“I mean no harm to you Alpha Zion but here on forward I’ll be brutally honest.” He said with a stern face. I just nodded and waited for him to continue talking.

“I never liked your kind. I believe it was a mistake from the Moon Goddess to create the dire wolves, and an even bigger mistake to be favoured by all the divine. I’ve seen the extensive journey your birth mother went through to reach our pack but I was cautious to accept you here. I am human after all and I do make mistakes. One of them was to place judgment on you at such a young age. I’ve watched you grow to a fine young man and I’m proud of who you have become. But you must understand that you are not one of us and never will be. The blood that runs through your veins is half of the Heights family but the other half is more dominant, powerful, savagely ruthless with no means to an end when determined. What makes me worry more is that the same half is also a Royal Dire. Thee Royal Dire. The original dire wolves bloodline. Have they ever told you the story of how your mother came here?”

“Yes, my father died protecting my mother while she was pregnant. She killed the Alpha to avenge my father’s death. Afterwards, she came carrying my dad on her back and later gave birth to me. After some time she died closer to the border .”

“Ahh, but they did not include how she killed Alpha. Her wolf was fueled with anger that she shifted while pregnant with you and killed not only the rogues that actually killed your father but also the Alpha of a pack that ordered the attack. You see her name will go down in history, the story of a mad dire pregnant she-wolf or the she-dire of death they call her. The divines were astounded by this act. To kill an entire pack while pregnant is unheard of and to top it all she left uninjured and gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby boy. Many years ago during the hunt for dire wolves, some packs would only kill the male dire and take the female dire and breed with them in hopes of creating an obedient dire army of their own. What they didn’t know is that dire wolves will never just obey anyone. They are arrogant and see themselves as the best. They follow only the best which are either divines, powerful spirits or great dire werewolves.”

Confused by all of this I ask “So what are you trying to tell me?”

Master Elijah steps in closer to me, “You lost control of your wolf Zeus. Your Beta, Gamma and warriors didn’t exactly know what to do. I, who holds an unspeakable amount of knowledge of the magical world, was frozen, frightened. You look like a mad wolf, untamed almost like a wolf who is not yet balanced their human side and animalistic side. The yin to the yang without both we are not whole. This applies to all magical beings. Let me shorten this as much as I can.”

He takes a deep breath “That dire blood in you. Your wolf may one day overpower you and when it does it will not see us as its pack. Zeus may one day take control and either leave this pack without an Alpha or kill all of us and search for a new pack. One that he sees fit, the only pack I see him going for is The Great Dire Pack.”

My eyes flash in fury from this comment. How dare he!

“You think I’ll betray my pack?”

“No, I think you will look for your true pack which is not this one.”

I charged forward with great speed and placed my hand around his throat. “You DARE!”

Master, Elijah did not flinch from my hands squeezing his throat.

“You are called Zion Zeus, your mother was called Luns-Maze Zeus, Maze being the name of her dire wolf. Your grandfather is Tobias-Thor Zeus. The Royal Dire all have Zeus as their last name but do you know what they don’t have?”

I clenched my teeth resisting the urge to suffocate him. “What?”

“A wolf that is called Zeus.”

“Elaborate!” I demanded.

“You’ve heard of why the Moon Goddess cursed the dire wolves? I’m sure you’ve also heard who they are in search of?”

My eyes widened in realization and slowly loosen my grip from his throat.

True Alpha.

“I’m not their Alpha just because my wolf’s name is Zeus. It’s a coincidence.”

“No? Then explain why you were just challenged? Why would they come all the way to the southern part in search of Luns? Why?”

“My mother was the daughter of an Alpha.”

“Oh, Alpha Zion you're smarter than that. Yes, your mother was the daughter of an Alpha. But how would you explain her power? Killing an entire pack by herself! No dire has ever done that!”

I’m shaking my head in denial. This can’t be, NO! I started backing away from him while he kept on stepping towards me.

“You wanna know my theory, Zion? I have two. One is she may just have been the true Alpha they needed to save them but her foolish father exiled her. This made the Moon Goddess angrier with them. She could’ve ended the curse right after giving birth to you but since she was never able to claim the throne as a true Alpha. It was then passed down to you. Or two, you were always the true Alpha and we had mistaken you as the true Alpha for this pack and did not take into consideration The Great Dire pack.”

It seems as if my entire world is crumbling before me, the uncertainty of everything I have ever known. Putting me off balance. My eyes flash while partially transforming. My hands turn in claws, my canine teeth elongated.

“HOW DARE YOU!” I could feel his magic creeping around me. Binding down my animalistic energy and stopping my further transformation.

“We are simply talking and I won’t be able to get through to you if your wolf is disturbing your energy with his.”

I could understand this but the idea of him using his magic against me HIS ALPHA! Is disrespectful. “Are you afraid that I will kill you? I’M YOUR ALPHA!”

“I do not fear death. What I fear is your lack of controlling the beast. Will you always react like this when Zeus feels disrespected? Or will you fight and reason with him before reacting? Zion, before, you were always a calm and reasonable person. You were never quick to react and many joked about how calm of an Alpha you are compared to other Alphas. I saw more to this, you wolf saw you as his equal. But now he has changed and refuses to listen. Where’s your willpower, Zion?”

I growled at him while struggling to fight off the invisible spell bond he has placed. “You did something! I can’t sense Zeus!” I yell in panic “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO!”

“Nothing. It is not my magic but your mother’s.”

All of a sudden, a smoky bright light appears in front of me. It’s magical and mysterious, luring me to something I could not yet see. All the books, shelves and walls of the library slowly disappear. I hear a voice coming from a distance like it’s travelling with an unseen wind. My heartbeat is slow and steady, even though my mind is working overtime. My eyelids become heavy and my body begins to feel fatigued. I lay down on what I assume would be the floor as everything is now white. There’s no shape or solid form to suggest if I’m touching a wall or a floor. I’m just floating in the misty air. Before giving in to the magic I see a woman with brilliant winter white braided hair and her creamy cinnamon-brown skin glowing like gold. What stood out the most were her eyes: her left eye is light hazel while her right eye is topaz brown and a gold ring on the inside of both the irises. Her eyes flashing gold to bright red was the last of her I saw before resting in the arms of Morpheus.