Wolf Song (Wolf Singer Prophecies Book 1)

it would otherwise.~
It was worth a shot.
Soleil
Creed nodded, his golden eyes shone. "I have thoughts."
Interesting. He had thoughts yet wasn’t saying anything about them. "So, did you want to share those thoughts with me?"
"I want to, but I cannot."
"Cannot or will not."
He swallowed. "Cannot."
I searched his face, scanning down his entire body. He stood rigid like he was in the middle of some harsh grip that he fought against. "Dude, it's all right. Like, breathe or something."
He panted, as if he had been forced to carry a great weight while running a marathon. In one steadying breath, he calmed. "I apologize, ramina, but there are things I cannot talk about."
Well, now I knew he was telling me the truth because he had been doing so well calling me by my name. I let it go since he looked upset.
"Are you going to be all right?"
"Not really. Not if what this says is true," he said motioning to the message.
"You mean the “reckoning”? Yeah, didn’t sound warm and fuzzy. So, do you know what it may mean? And why would my dad know anything about a lab?" Dad was as far removed from lab work as I could imagine. Sure my mother was into botany and herbology and they kind of grew into the other. And I knew that she did a lot of research despite how she lived on her off hours.
But my dad was a preacher through and through. His dad was a preacher, his dad's dad. They were all a line of preachers all the way up as far back as I could recall. They all carried their scriptures and they all knew how to wield the word like a weapon.
Or in my dad's case, as a shield. It was like he specialized in wards though he could probably work his way to blasting others like he'd tell about his own dad doing. One of my grandfathers was able to even wield his word like a sword. That must have been in the high time for word mages and the like.
Nowadays, we'd be lucky to have a healer. Which was why my dad being a preacher had been so valuable to the town, let alone my mother for being an herb witch.
I think that was the worst part about the After. Not many people were baptized into their faith anymore and people stopped believing in things like gifts. Only the ones that had their gifts from Before had been able to develop their talents in the After.
"I think there was more to your father than you know."
I rolled my eyes. "Well that's obvious. I mean we're allowed our secrets. I mean I get it, he was young once. He must have done a lot of things that he may not have been proud of. Usually preachers preach for a reason. They’d meandered off the path just to come back to tell people to stay on it, or whatever."
"That is all true. But I didn't mean in the youthful indiscretion or the random secrets we keep to ourselves. I mean like a big secret."
That piqued my interest. "Okay, I'll play. What's so important that you seem to know my dad more than me?"
The shine on his eyes gleamed brighter. "The thing is, he isn't an ordinary preacher. He's a remarkable preacher, and enough that he was able to guide some research into a facility."
He moved as if he would step closer to me, and then it was as if he was caught in that grip again. He tried a different approach.
"Can I try something else?" He asked.
I was curious, of course. And again, there was something about him that I trusted. It helped that he didn't kill me—or try to—when he was able to. But the fact that he knew about the wards and that he was able to walk through them freely...he was either really able to hear like he claimed--because the wards only filtered in those who would be able to love and protect me--or because he was really strong. He wouldn't harm me in the first scenario and in the second scenario, he could have but didn't, and didn't seem to be making any threatening moves any time soon.
He gestured to the sitting area. "Tea?"
I tried to roll with it. "Sure."
He had me sit down, and made up a pot of tea. When we were all settled, with me seated in my dad's chair and he was balanced at the edge of the couch across the room, he started to weave a story.
It even started like old fables went.
"In the beginning..."

Creed
In the beginning, there was no such thing as monsters.
At least not the kind that we know now. There were, however, scientific breakthroughs, most of which should never have happened.
But, for the sake of the future of humanity, an umbrella group known simply as AEGIS allowed for the funding of multiple branches of research that combined spells and science. Instead of furthering humanity, they damned it.
At first they created the Reapers in secret, super soldiers with one goal: to collect as many shifters as they could find. Then, with a new science, they created the pinnacle of their weapons program: the Judas species. They were as strong and fast as any shifter, and able to mimic any target that AEGIS wanted to imprint into their DNA.
They branded each Judas with a kill switch and sent them into the world to assassinate their targets—key positions in governments and society—takeover their lives, and direct the path toward a world where AEGIS would run the world ungoverned, and continue to shape the world.
Some laws and policies started shifting toward a mining operation in a lonely stretch of desert out west. Somehow, AEGIS, in their greed, awakened something in one of their deep drilling sites. Something that they couldn’t control.
It was like they had opened a Pandora’s Box of death and destruction and unleashed it into the world.
Crops were destroyed. Water started to