The Gamma's Birthright - Book 2
The scholar ….

Four hours later and she’s read up on many different areas, because, she gets the feeling Delta Asher, while giving her space, is noting every book she’s taken down and read.

Tyra had mentioned they were a ‘Lone Wolf’ more than once, which they are in one way, apart from having had a friend for a little over a year once, the rest of their life had been spent alone once she lost her parents, so they’ve grown used to having no close wolf to run or bond with.

One of the books was ‘The Myths and Legends of Shifters’ which covered so many topics, from the lore of how wolves occurred, the fabled three forms of a Lycan, Were beasts who were legendary people that took non-wolf, beast forms, Voids poor shifters born without the ability to shift, effectively humans with werewolf gene’s and importantly for Toni, Lone Wolf Syndrome.

The last recorded Lone Wolf syndrome, was six hundred years ago, around the end of the war, so truth vs legend is hard to confirm and let’s face it, hardly the concrete evidence that she was looking for.

She doesn’t mean to question the reliability of werewolf historians, but she doesn’t think that the 1820s was a decade of clear, scientific and well-thought-out investigations.

Nor accurate representation of facts since records were lost after the war and distrust was high in that era, even in the werewolf world, packs were very isolationist, and misguided beliefs tended to blur out reality.

Rather the Lone Wolf was branded as a dangerous form of rogue, someone who lived outside of society by their own rules, who accepted no Alpha.

The problem was, they didn’t look like a rogue, essentially described as an unidentifiable rogue, something to be feared and destroyed as the book would have you believe.

Not exactly a robust investigation, she shakes her head at her findings.

From the description it could be nothing more than a wolf that hadn’t completely turned, most have three to five days, depending on the strength of the wolf, before they start to show the rogue traits and she knows she isn’t a rogue.

If it were a real thing, there would have been examples of Lone wolves sometime in the last six hundred years, so that gives an implication that they were scaremongering, probably to keep the packs together, but didn't help her with her own wolf's regular announcements of being a 'lone wolf'.

Wolves that lived outside of society, not bound by any rule, could bring anarchy, especially after a large and destructive war, she understands that.

There were just so many unanswered questions over the description of Lone Wolf Syndrome, that it just seemed like a total myth, she just wishes there was more detailed information in the history books on these 'Lone wolves'.

She sighs and closes the book, the reality is, if it was true, there would have been more recent recordings of such wolves.

Toni sat back, she wasn’t sure if she’d hoped that Lone wolves were a real thing or not, Tyra hasn’t said it much recently, so maybe it’s just because they operate alone a lot that Tyra feels she’s a lone wolf, there wasn’t much else to go on.

Also on her reading list was the history of the packs, Nightshade and Iron Claw had four hundred years of animosity over one mate that both Alphas claimed was their destined mate, leading to her death, the irony was, that she’d declared neither was her true mate, and she was trying to stop the fighting when she’d died.

About eighty years ago, the Nightshade pack seemed to take a turn for the worse, becoming darker and staying just within legal boundaries.

Essentially it had taken only three or four generations of Alphas to turn the pack into one of the most hated, she bets Robert and his descendants will need more than that to turn its reputation back around.

A good reputation is harder to forge than a bad one and if anyone should know that it’s Antonia!

Finally, on her list, she’d been mapping the genealogy of her family tree, her wolf was naturally about a Beta-sized wolf, probably slightly smaller than their own packs Beta before being ranked, but being female that would be expected, but that didn’t gel with being from a Gamma line.

But it seemed, that all the female relatives that joined the Nightshade going back in her ancestral line, were all Beta and Alpha born and every one of those bore only one pup, a male, apart from her great great grandfather who had two male pups, and her father who had sired a single pup, her, a female.

As she leans back, she guesses that’s why her mum had been so sure that she’d have a male pup, telling Toni about the life she’d have once it came, but she did wonder if after investing all those years of training on her, had a male sibling come along, would he have taken over from her, or would that burden have been left on her.

Her childhood was all but gone at that point, not that it mattered, because it didn’t happen.

Stopping her research, she does wonder how her life would have been had they not died, would she have had siblings?

If she had a sibling, would they have ended up jealous of each other’s lives?

Like her second cousins once removed, bitter at the child that was chosen for the role of Gamma, while the chosen one was jealous of the time the non-chosen one had to have fun?

Had her parents not died, would her father have protected her from this life for longer, would she have been more accepting of her tasks having never seen any other life she wonders, but none of these are helpful thoughts.

She carries all the books back to their normal homes, taking no notes, so her exact research would be obscured, the lineage, well that was partially on the computer, so researching that would be recorded, but she had no reason to hide that.

She had no reason to hide any of it, but intrinsically she’s a private person so it comes naturally, plus, the way she’s being escorted doesn’t leave her feeling welcomed!

In fact, she muses to herself, that the way she’s treated actually pushes her to be the person they hate, by ostracising her, they leave her no choice but to be the person they see her as.

She’d been researching her family tree hoping to find a branch somewhere in another pack, but the only recent semi-direct branches were those of her second cousin and she was pretty sure they never wanted to see her again after the punishment she gave out to their son, plus it’s still within the Nightshade pack

Clearly, those in the Mountain Peak branch are out, Alpha Vincent would be too close and when she can officially leave the pack, it would bring too much of a risk to them if she went there.

Plus, she doubts she would be welcome, after all, she’s been threatening their pups for the last five years.

The next nearest was a distant cousin in the Royal pack, through her paternal grandmother, but that line appeared to die out and she didn't want to join the Royal Pack, she was sure about that.

After that, she’s going too far back to have a realistic reason to reconnect with them, that’s the problem with lines that have only had one pup throughout the generations, it closes down the number of relatives you have.

Maybe it’s about persuading Robert to try and take over and change her role within the Nightshade pack, possibly rehabilitation starts from within she thinks.

But it has opened up some anomalies in the records of her parents, the information she was given as a child didn’t match those on the system, she was told they died in a human hospital twelve hours after the crash but the human records show they were dead at the scene.

Maybe with this month, she’ll seek out the human that was involved, just get his side of the story, accidents happen after all and she wasn’t after blood.

A large part of her hopes that they died immediately, less pain and distress for them that way.

Her thoughts are interrupted by Delta Asher, asking if she wants lunch, not that she’s hungry, but aware he probably won’t eat if she doesn’t go as he’s her ‘guard’ wrapped up in a nice ‘escort’ title, so she just nods in agreement as he takes her back to the packhouse canteen.

Tyra is eye-rolling at Toni for her selection of fruit and a coffee, she was eyeing up the meat section, but she’s been promised a hunt and to eat in wolf form once they leave this pack.

Whatever we catch, she gets to eat raw, so at least all she gives Toni is a few disgusted huffs and not a running commentary on her food choices.

She can feel Asher’s eyes looking over the choices in front of her, but she chooses not to look at him, to do so gives him an invitation to talk.

In reality, she often eats more like a wolf, large amounts for a day or two, then just light food for a few days, feast and famine and Tyra knows it, but when she does, the feast is often given to Tyra on a hunting day, let your wolf be a wolf is her motto and Tyra can pack away a lot of meat.

“Not hungry?” He finally asks.

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“Nervous about meeting the Alpha and Crown Prince?”

“Nope,” she laughs loudly at the idea.

“Are you okay?” there’s some clear confusion in his voice.

She finally turns her head to look at him.

“Yes, why so many questions?”

Her eyes hold his and she knows Tyra is reaching out carefully to his wolf.

“I don’t know, you seemed a little off since the meeting was postponed”

She sits as if thinking about it.

He’s had to find out what we look at, but Max and Asher aren’t happy, they like us.

Tyra is very good at talking to the other wolves quietly, not letting onto the human side she’s there, Toni thinks of her as a ninja wolf!

She hasn’t found a single wolf that can do what Tyra does, creating bonds across packs, and interacting so easily with wolves while the human is in control and unaware of the link.

Ok, you are a star Tyra, time to deflect our study topics!

“I’m fine, just thinking about the books I read, the library here is so extensive.

It makes me curious about how we view werewolves from years ago, and an insight into how people in the future would view us today.

Like looking back on history through a distorted window, because all myths generally have a basis in fact, but one that has been altered over time.

Take the impact of Lycans on our present society, even though they were wiped out nearly six or seven hundred years ago and were claimed to be the cause of the war, they are indirectly the reason for our current structure today, which is nuts.

Starting with the question were Lycans real, or were Lycans just werewolves that were seen mid-transformation, given that the myth started in the human world of beasts with three forms, human, wolf and a hybrid?

I see that we have two key possibilities, one the early werewolves, had a slow shift, much like a pup’s first shift, so at some point, mid-shift, they looked like the hybrid form.

Two, there was a tri-form beast that was either wiped out, as the books claim or lost the hybrid form from being suppressed since that form was prone to blood lust and therefore more at risk of running wild, not a great trait to have if you were a hidden species, as we were before the war.

If you suppressed one of the forms over a long enough period, you’d eventually have normal werewolves, with the odd throwback to the three forms which would explain the records in the history books as Lycans were always small in numbers.

The books also talk of wolves that were born with greater powers, people have assumed them to be Lycan but maybe it could have been something as simple as second-born Alphas, most of whom can be Alpha but don’t take it.

Something we are well aware of in today’s society, but back then, the rights of the firstborn superseded anything else, so maybe that was part of it.”

She takes a deep breath

Either way, that all changed in the great war, so many were wiped out on all sides, and all the packs that were obliterated were those that claimed to hold Lycan’s in, but without records, we can't be sure of that.

Anyway, at that point, the decision was made to introduce the Royal pack, or as they were known originally, the Alpha of Alphas, before taking the human affectation of ‘Royals’.

Originally, they didn’t want to be known as Royals, but it was easier for the humans to understand and so came into being the relative kingdoms for each of the continents, giving us the laws and peace that we live in now, where all the species can be open, with land designated to each species with Neutral territory for any species to live in, that separates us all, along with lasting peace between the races.

The Lycans and the wars to eradicate the pack heritage that allegedly spawned them, lead to the introduction of the Royal packs around the world and peace, as we know it.

Chaos often brings forth order, yet ironically, order can bring forth chaos as people get complacent, peace needs to be worked at, look at all the human revolutions, their lives are shorter and less rule-based so reflect what happens in other societies, just more rapidly.

I could spend a decade in the library here and probably still want a longer to do research, just a very amateur historian” She smiles

She’d read up on Lycans before, they no longer exist and there’s a lot of debate about it but, it’s something she can talk about to the Delta that justifies her studying the books

“Again, you never fail to surprise, you are known for your fighting prowess and yet you spent four hours in books looking at Myths and Legends to do some intellectual research.

Do you think Lycans still exist?”

His words show a respect she hadn’t expected.

“Not sure it’s intellectual research, more like a hobby historian, but it’s not often I get a chance to read books that old.

Probably won’t get much of a chance again, but I believe all myths have some basis in fact, trying to find which bits are the facts is the fun part and, I don’t always have this freedom.”

The sadness in her voice is clear

“But no, I don’t think Lycans exist now, but I think they did at one point, maybe people feared them, which led to their extinction, maybe it was their bloodlust, we’ll never know, very few books exist from before the great war and those that do aren’t available to any bar the most diligent historians.”

She didn’t mean for the emotion to be there as she spoke about not always having freedom, but if the Goddess has mercy, she will have a chance to come back in the future.

He just nods, while finishing his meal.

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