17 Bullets: becoming the Werewolf Queen

Prologue

Approximately 100 YEARS EARLIER
THANN and CANE

A young boy's innocent voice called to the retreating figure in the night. "Mama, can you please tell us the story of Owesifazane Wokuduma?"

"Yes Mama please, The Woman of Thunder!" The younger brother added.

The mother laughed quietly and came back to sit at their bedside. She chastised sweetly, "you two have already had a story tonight. It is time for bed my darlings."

She just wanted to go to sleep herself. She was beginning to feel the illness that had crept upon so many women of her pack. The long life and extreme healing that usually accompanied wolves of both genders, suddenly stripped from every female, old and young alike. Her sons and husband would watch her grow old and deteriorate like she'd lived three hundred years in mere weeks.

She looked at her two handsome boys and worried about them watching her live her last few weeks in agony. She would grant them this request.

"Please mama, Owesifazane Wokuduma," the older boy, Yena Wothanndo, pouted, but knew she would tell. It was her favorite story after all. "Please tell of how she controls thunder, and has golden sunlight falling clear down her back. She will come to save us all!"

"She even creates fire with her fingers!" the little brother, Ubhuti Omncane, added his favorite part.

"I don't know if I remember it," the mother grinned playfully.

"Mama! She comes from the stars riding a metal wolf! She makes the Alpha King the most powerful and richest wolf alive! Remember? She makes all the packs happy again!"

"Alright my loves," she smiled in the darkness, the torchlight showing her eyes even more sunken in with sickness than usual. "Let me tell you."

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young maiden that Moon Goddess sent to our world from the stars above. She was beautiful beyond compare and extremely clever. She came at a time when the wolves needed her most. The land was in disarray. The wolves fought pack to pack. Wokuduma came riding atop a galloping metal wolf. A brave young warrior would help her get to the city to meet the Alpha King, where she would become his Queen and bring harmony to all the packs. Her story starts like this....