'You may not be able to control every situation and its outcome, but you can control your attitude and how you deal with it.'
~ Unknown
'Don't be afraid of change. You may end up loosing something good, but you'll probably end up gaining something so much better.'
~ Unknown
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For the 8 year old Ajax, his world had always been filled with warmth and happiness.
His father, Maddox Zeneth, was a rising football player ascending to success with a slow and steady pace. With his goofy smile and gentleman personality, he won hearts of many.
Yet, the stars in Maddox's sky was his one and only love and life partner Lilliana and their son, Ajax.
Lilliana was a sweet yet principled woman. She was a homemaker, who loved her family to the moon and back.
Together with each other’s love, they both tried to make their little family as happy as possible.
With such nice parents, little Ajax's life was always filled with sweet and innocent happiness. And a big bundle of joy came knocking into his world the moment he came to knew that he would very soon have a little sister.
Their happiness literally crossed all bounds.
For months, everything was going well. Until that fated day......
The day when the pair of innocent eyes of the eight year old witnessed the world being turned into a war zone. Screams, blood and lava were spreading everywhere on earth. He was so scared witnessing all these scenes that he just wanted to hide in a corner and never come out.
While the world was in the chaos of the walking dead, an army the diabolical king used to make people of all walks of life surrender to his commands, his parents decided to take shelter in the secret and secured basement of their home.
For a whole of 2 months, every move and every breath made by them was calculated and filled with wariness. Nights felt so dangerous to them that his father had to always carry a long gun with him to keep them feel safe.
With twisted guts and scared souls, they tried to remain as normal as they could.
But no matter how much you try to avoid it, disaster always striked on its own decided time.
So then one day, they came.
They; the soldiers appointed by that King, to take all the humans and make them work.
Even he, a mere 8 year old knew that if the soldiers took them away, they would surely be separated and all of their happiness would be gone away in the blink of an eye.
So they were always in caution and did their utmost best to hide away.
Every once in a week, the dead armies would search all the houses to capture humans and enslave them.
They remained safe in their basement for so long but not today.
The soldiers had gotten gust of their whereabouts and were already on the verge of breaking the door of their basement; their only safe place.
Ajax had tears in his eyes as he hugged his pregnant mother, who too was whimpering once in a while. On the other hand, his father was trying to open a sort of rustic metal door on the other side of the wall.
Successfully the metal door creaked opened to reveal a dim staircase which led to the pathway of the nearby forest. His father turned around and looked at them with tear filled eyes.
"Sweetheart, please listen carefully. This passage leads to the forest. Please take Ajax with you and leave. Please." at his father's desperate begging, his mother broke down crying.
"No!! Please!! Come with us!! Please!!! I can't leave without you, please!!!"
"Lily. Lily!! Please Love... I - I am begging you!! Please leave with Ajax!! Please!!!I need to hold them for you to leave!! Please!! For the sake of our unborn baby! Please!! Leave!!..... I love you, remember that!!"
A sudden bang on the door to the basement surprised them, indicating that the first door to the basement was broken. And that they were almost here. Now, only one door remained between them and the fearful creatures.
"And Ajax!! Listen carefully bud. From now on, take care of your mother and sister okay? They are your responsibility. Remember, I love you all a lot. Now go. Leave... Please.." Maddox begged.
His father now stood blocking the door with all his might, giving them enough time to escape.
With the final 'I love you's', Ajax dragged his mother to the climb the stairs then to the pathway with tearing eyes and kept running for a long time. When they were on the edge of forest, they heard a bang and the sudden scream of his father.
He knew. He knew in his heart that his dad was no more.
His weak mother kept crying and sobbing endlessly and kept tossing restlessly wanting to go back, but he dragged her away and somehow made her run with him.
But halfway through the forest, his mother suddenly collapsed and started breathing heavily while clutching her belly.
Oh no. Not now!!
He crouched beside her, pleading her to run with his crying face but his mother was totally exhausted. Her breathing was heavy and her stomach was clenching abnormally. Unknown to him, her due date had arrived.
Suddenly he heard some howls and thumping footsteps of running.
A group of wolves had come to halt screeching in front of them. From there, a grey colored wolf had approached him while the others stood dauntingly behind him.
The little boy took a branch of tree from the leaf flooded ground and attempted to scare the animal away with it.
Yet the wolf just growled lowly and ignored his futile attempt. It suddenly came around his mother and sniffed her. After that, it gave a low growl and backed away.
In a trice, in front of his teary eyes, the wolf had transformed into a man.
They were werewolves. Ajax realized in terror.
Although reluctant, he agreed to the man's words when the said man offered him that they could take their mother to a safe place and get her treated there.
Ajax knew. He knew his pregnant mother would need medical attention at this time, so he had no option but to agree. He rode on one of them as they took his mother to their lair.
He was very scared of these strange creatures transforming into humans. But after witnessing the cruelity of that psycho King, nothing sounded strange anymore.
They appeared in front of a mansion and his mother was immediately rushed inside to what looked to be a medical room with several ladies inside it.
With his fear stucked face, he refused to leave his mother alone while she was being treated when he was asked to go out. This caused the werewolf people present there to look at him strangely but he didn't care.
All his attention was on his mother. These people were saying that she was in labor, yet she was only 8 months pregnant.
After hours of his mother screaming and crying in pain and agony, finally a baby cry was heard.
He immediately turned around to inspect his mother. But what he noticed was the heavy silence in the atmosphere and the nurses surrounding her looking at him with pity.
In fear, he went near his mother to see her eyes half closed, with a painful smile on her face.
Tears fell from his eyes as he tried to deny the truth he saw himself. But at the end, he had to accept it.
She left him too.
He cried and sobbed, begging her to not leave him alone. But she had gone so far away, in such a short time, that there were no fluctuations in her body.
After some minutes had passed, he closed her eyes fully shut with his palm and softly kissed her forehead. Muttering his final goodbye and 'I love you' to her.
When he opened his eyes again, he wiped his face full of tears and asked them for his baby sister.
A woman who looked to be a bit older than his mother, slowly came forward and put the squirming baby in his awaiting embrace.
The baby was so tiny, she was no bigger than his small arm. Her small eyes were shut tightly with her face being wrinkled with skin.
Yet she looked so beautiful and lovely in his eyes.
"Aiyana" a beautiful whisper came from his lips, it was the name his parents wanted to give her, their soon to be princess.
Yet now they were both gone. But it didn't mean that no hope remained, because he was still there.
"My beautiful baby. From now on, big brother will take care of you, okay? *sniff* My sweet Aiyana. I will give you all my love. Of mommy and daddy's *sob* share too" And a series of whisperings and cooings followed afterward.
From that day onwards, Ajax began a new life with his sister in their new home. The pack of werewolves were kind enough to give them shelter and adopt them as their own.
They started living in the pack house along with the Alpha and Luna of the pack. The woman who delivered his sister was apparently the Luna, Celestine. And her husband was Dexter, the grey wolf and the Alpha.
Ajax spent his days and nights taking care of Aiyana along with his studies. He must confess that taking care of a baby was a really hard task. There were so many times that he just wanted to cry and give up. But he held strong. And Luna Celestine sometimes helped him in taking care of Aiyana too.
The werewolves in the pack were not fond of them at the start. Just as how he was always wary of them and their nature. But with time, they began to accept them as their own. And he began to see them as his family.
Or that's what he thought.
He thought the storms were over. But heavens, how wrong he was.
Aiyana, from her birth, never responded to sounds. Even a lullaby could never calm her. As if she wasn't fazed by it in the least.
And when she was 2 years old, the doctors revealed that Aiyana was deaf. That was the reason why she never talked in proper words and was unresponsive to sounds of all sorts.
As shocking as it was, Ajax tried to live with it by accepting the fact and started communicating with her using the knowledge of sign language he researched on.
Due to the scientific development coming to a temporary standstill at that time, they had no advance technologies within their reach to help little Aiyana with her condition. So, sign language was the only way for her to communicate.
Time passed and his life started to appear normal again....
Friends.
Education.
Career.
Social status.
He got it all. And his life just became more normal and happier.
Unfortunately, only his.
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Meaning of certain werewolf terms used above.
Pack = A group of wolves, especially werewolves, living in a certain marked territory. For example ; A country in human terms.
Alpha = The male leader of the pack. Generally the most powerful and authoritive figure in the pack.
Luna = The female leader of the pack. Mate to the Alpha. Is generally a caring mother figure to the whole pack members.
Some additional knowledge about certain ranks not mentioned in the novella:
In the same way, comes Beta ( Second in command of Alpha) , Beta female (Beta's Mate), Gamma (Third in command), Gamma female (Gamma's Mate), Omegas (The weres with a low social ranking. They usually do chores in the pack) and Rogues (The ferocious wolves with no ranks who are either abandoned, casted out or live isolated due to circumstances, crimes or by their own choice).
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