Prologue - Nightmares of the Past
A bright white flashed, piercing the darkness of her room as lightning struck in the night. Thundering vibrations pounded through her bones with every resounding BOOM as the unrelenting storm continued to hammer against the foundations of her home.
Aurelia heard the terrified screams of her pack, Silver Moon, piercing the air as bloodthirsty Rogues savagely descended upon them. Her tiny heart was jackhammering in her chest; her little body frozen in fear. Aurelia's gaze peered out the slim opening of her worn window, watching in horror as the few warrior wolves her pack had were slaughtered. She was wide-eyed and hyperventilating as she witnessed women and children being taken captive and hurled inside incommodious cages.
Blood suddenly sprayed, arcing across her window. The scent of burnt hair and rot coated the air. Despite the pelting rain, there was still so much blood, too much blood. Bodies of her pack members littered the ground, their lifeless gazes turned on her. She started to cry, tears endlessly falling and soaking her nightdress. Those salty, wet formations stained her face as she feared for her mother and father. Her fingers gripped the windowsill so tightly that splinters of wood began to embed themselves into her skin. She was rooted in shock and not even the small bite of pain could propel her feet into motion.
Her father's voice pierced the air as he rushed into her room, “Aurelia!" relief poured into his features as he scooped her up and into his protective embrace. "Thank the Moon Goddess you’re unharmed little one. Be brave for me, Evie. We need to ensure your mother’s safety as well."
He sprinted them from her room and she buried her face in her father's neck as he ran. He smelled of copper also, so much so that she was sure she could taste it, as if she held a coin on her tongue. When they reached her parents’ room, her father placed Aurelia into her mother’s outstretched arms and she was immediately peppered with thankful kisses. Her precious daughter was safe and her husband Cassius could defend them from the Rogues breaching their borders, their homes.
The thunder and lightning continued to strike, lighting up the night sky as it spiderwebbed across the horizon and illuminated their escape route from this ruthless invasion. Aurelia’s hair stood on end from the electricity in the air and as the next wave of lightning struck, a dozen Rogues came into view, blocking their escape.
Each Rogue seemed to attack at once, bearing their large, yellow canines and lunging at them. Her mother screamed, clutching Aurelia tighter to her chest. The Rogues came so close that she could feel the heat of their rank breath as it wafted across their faces, tossing strands of her hair from her face. In an instant, her father peeled them away and tossed them across the floor as if they were mere ragdolls. He continued advancing towards them, viciously taking two Rogues by the neck, and tearing out their throats with a terrifying squelch. The enemies blood dripped from her father's hands and painted a sick work of art on the stone walls. She could hear it dripping as it pooled onto the floors. Aurelia tasted the bile coming up her throat as she watched them drop, their dead-weight thunking upon the stone floor; their blank gazes now staring into the deep abyss of Hades’ Underworld.
“Go!" Cassius pleaded, "Go now! Get Aurelia to safety Carissa, my love, my Moon," his hand cradled reverently against her mother's shocked face, "I will find you both, I prom-” before her father could finish, he was ripped away violently by a small army of Rogues. He managed to break free, attacking the savages while her mother rushed into action, sprinting them toward a secret passage hidden from view in an attempt to keep her daughter safe.
The camouflaged door screeched open and when Aurelia and her mother rounded the corner to enter the secret passage, she watched helpless, as those Rogues continued to ambush her father. The last vision she had of her father was him shifting into his massive red wolf and fighting for their safety, forgetting all thought of his own. Aurelia’s mother took a torch light from its cresset and rushed them through the winding darkness of the passageway and just as they saw the moonlight come into view, her mother wailed and collapsed clutching her hands to her chest as she wept, "Cassius! No, no, no! You can't b-".
