The Night It All Began
That night, the moon was high in the sky; its beam was soft as it shone on the leaves of the trees that made up the woods. On the edge of the woods, overlooking the vast expanse of an open field, Ashina Lockhart was on her knees, weeping profusely as tears fell from her eyes.
In human years, she was only twenty years old, and she had been a full-fledged werewolf for the last two years of her life. However, she had dark brown eyes that always seemed intense, giving her the look of someone who was always knowing more than they were letting on. Her thick, long hair fell down the sides of her face, giving her an even more haunting look as her entire body was racked with sobs. Her fingers pressed into the ground, balling into a fist as she grabbed soil. Her entire body trembled from emotion, and as time passed, the sound of her cries slowly subsided.
“You have no right…” she muttered under her breath. “Please, don’t make me do this.”
Beside her, Ulva, leaning against a tree, watched her calmly. He slowly pushed himself off the tree as he approached her. “I’m the alpha of our pack; I have a duty to do what needs to be done.”
“No, I refuse to believe that. There has to be another way. Why the fuck don’t you want to try another way?”
“What on earth makes you think I haven’t considered all that? Huh?” Ulva closed his eyes for a few seconds and let out a deep breath as he opened them, “I know that I’m asking a lot from you, but for the good of the pack, sacrifices must be made. This is yours.”
“Sacrifices should be by choice, and I choose not to make this. You cannot force me.”
Ulva gently lifted her face by the chin so she could look at him. He used a finger to wipe her tears away, then parted the hair from her beautiful, tear-stricken face. He shook his head sadly at her. “Shine, you seem to be under the impression that I’m asking you. I’m not.” Slowly, his claws began to emerge from his fingers as his hand slowly closed around her neck. “One way or another, this is going to happen.”
“Ulva… please… don’t do this!” Ashina begged as he pulled her to her feet, tightening his grip around her neck; he was squeezing the air from her lungs.
“I’m the alpha; I have to make the tough choice. This is the tough choice, Shine! You have to understand!”
“No!” Ashina let out a scream as she grabbed the hand strangling her and wrenched it off her neck. With a savage growl, she rammed her fist into his chest, causing him to stagger backward and slam into a tree.
Ulva got to his feet and grinned at her, “That’s my girl.”
“No, I’m not doing this!” Ashina turned and ran off into the woods, her heightened sight showing her the path to take. However, Ulva caught up with her almost immediately. He grabbed her by the collar of her leather jacket and flung her through the air. She hurtled like a rag doll and smashed through a tree trunk, cutting it cleanly in two.
Ashina rolled on the ground just as Ulva bounded towards her, his claws going for her throat once more. She jumped out of the way as she trapped the hand, and then with a savage scream, she yanked it upward, snapping the bone just at the elbow. Ulva let out a terrifying growl as pain shot through his body like poison. His mouth fell open as he staggered away from her, his good hand raised to strike her, but she caught the hand and threw her entire body against him so they flew through the air and slammed into a tree, rattling it right up to the leaves.
Ulva was breathing fast as he stared at her; Ashina noticed that there were tears in his eyes, just as there were in hers as well. Just then, she felt her resolve weaken a little. She released his hand, but he grabbed her by the shirt and immediately turned them around, slamming her back against the tree with such force that cracks appeared up the trunk. “I’m not going to stop, Shine. There is only one way this is going to end!”
His hand was back around her throat, squeezing it as hard as he could. Ashina felt all the breath leave her body as she was pressed hard against the tree trunk. Her eyes widened in horror at the realization that he was going to kill her; she felt a burning sensation as she began to turn. She screamed out in pain as her canines jutted out of her gums. When she opened her eyes again, they were blazing yellow as they stared at Ulva.
Her clawed hands grabbed the hand strangling her for the second time that night and yanked it off her neck. She wrapped her legs around her alpha and pulled him closer. Before he could even yelp in pain, her fingers cupped his jaw and gripped it tight. Then, with a roar of anger, she snapped his neck. There was a sick crack that filled the air as his neck broke, his eyes immediately rolled back into his head, and he fell forward towards her.
Just then, a dark cloud floated past the full moon, and it was immediately followed by a massive thunderclap that shook the trees of the woods. The cloud then vanished as quickly as it had come, unleashing the rays of the moon on them once again. Just then, Ashina felt something like a big blow slam into her chest, causing her to gasp in pain. It was swift, and in the next second, it was gone. However, she knew exactly what it was.
Slowly, Ashina unwrapped herself from Ulva, and he fell to the ground with a dull thud, his eyes wide open with shock but no longer seeing anything, while his broken neck and hand were askew from the rest of his body. She stood there for a few seconds, her breath coming in huffs as she stared at her dead alpha, her entire body shaking from the horror of what had just happened.
Falling to her knees, she let out a loud howl that punched through the thick canopy of the trees, upsetting the birds and animals that resided in the branches. What she had just done was an abomination, one that would upset the balance of the pack in a way no one had ever seen before!
