Chapter 1
Aurora
The ice beneath my body grows colder and colder. Alone in the dark, I lie. My skin, although cold, holds warm blood running through my veins—as if I am just sleeping. My eyes are shut, remembering the last thing they saw.
Winter is nearing its end, and as the warm sun slowly begins to melt the ice away, my body awakens from its unforgiving slumber.
I was as fierce as they could come back in my day. Now look at me. My scrawl, pale body lies defeated in the pit of an icy grave below.
As the sunlight hits the top of my icy grave, I open my eyes quickly. As if I were searching for something vigorously.
I try moving my body, twisting my arms, loosening the bed of ice I lay in. But the ice is still hard. My body is weak as I struggle to break through. Shuffling around, pushing against the ice, over and over.
I finally break free.
My body flings out of the ice with my mouth wide open, gasping for air. I pull my limp body out of the broken grave and pull myself a few meters away. I turn on my back and lay with my face basking in the sunlight and my warm breath misting the air. It feels good to have something warm on my skin.
I don’t know how long I’ve been here, hell, I don’t know anything at all yet. I was lost in another realm for unaccounted time.
I draw my breath back completely and pull myself to sit up straight. I twist my head abruptly and search my surroundings with daggered eyes. I’m stark naked on the ice with nothing but my two feet and my two hands.
My hair, damp from the ice but with clay-like texture from the absence of a bath, softly ripples onto my back. My eyes are darting back and forth to each side of my apparent surroundings.
I run my hands along my skin. It’s soft and insidious, and my legs brush against the ice.
With a forcible stand, I managed to get up to my feet. Staggering with one foot in front of the other, I walk slowly. My bones are brittle and sore from being motionless and frozen. I struggle as I walk.
Although my thoughts and memories are slow to come back, one by one they flood my mind.
They hit like daggers to my heart.
I fall to my knees with my head in my hands. I scream in agony as I start to remember who I am. A brutal memory pierces my mind and raises more fury than I have ever felt. The memory is fresh, like it was just moments before.
Blake dashes ahead of me, leading the way. My heart gallops to the speed of my feet. I am trembling from fear and rage.
The Alpha is coming.
Blake is in his natural werewolf form, while I can not bear to change. If I do, I’ll lose our unborn cub growing inside of me.
The distinct howls and crackling from broken branches and leaves follows closely behind.
One fatally wrong move and we’ll be surrounded by dozens of them. Hunter wolves, sent by the Alpha. We have been abandoned by our own pack. They’ve left us for dead. I was a fool to think their loyalties lay with us.
Blake stops in front of me, almost screeching his paws against the sand.
A second pack of hunters stands tall and strong, closing any passage for us ahead. I look around aggressively for a way out, but it’s too late.
We are surrounded.
Blake growls fiercely as he lowers himself to the ground in defense formation. I feel helpless. I can’t protect myself or Blake without changing into my werewolf form.
The hunter pack growls back. One howls to signify to the Alpha that they have found Blake.
The wolves don’t want me. They want Blake. The Alpha wants to form a new pack with our pack—but they have to kill Blake first.
Blake tries breaking through their line by attacking the wolf positioned in front of him. I already know that Blake stands no chance against the Alpha without me in wolf form.
Blake rolls and snarls as he entangles himself with the wolf. The wolf fights back, but Blake rips the wolf’s throat open. While the wolf whimpers and chokes on his own blood, another wolf from behind tears the flesh from Blake’s ankles.
I watch as he goes down. He’s hurt, badly. He battles to get back up. The wound is too severe for him to walk.
I can smell the Alpha; he’s near.
I have no choice but to turn. If I don’t, I’ll lose Blake. And if I do, I’m going to lose our unborn child. My gaze lingers on Blake. He’s weak.
I can feel my wolf. She’s ready.
My hair starts sprouting all over my body. The size of my body shrinks to all fours. My fingers split open as my claws squeeze out. My claws are sharp and long. My back breaks into formation, and my human skin layer peels off slowly.
My wolf is in control now.
I stand with an arched back in front of where Blake lies in a pool of blood.
The Alpha is here. I watch as he moves slowly out of the bush beside us. I feel a sharp pain on my back leg. It’s a hunter wolf. The wolves drag me away from Blake. I’m rendered powerless over dozens of wolves pouncing on top of me.
Through the movement of their legs, I see the Alpha approach Blake. I bite and claw at the wolves, trying to free myself. I don’t care if I’m injured from the attack. I don’t feel it.
I watch helplessly as the Alpha brutally rips into Blake. Blake cries in pain. There is blood everywhere. Blake can’t move, and he can’t defend himself. He looks back into my eyes as we are both confined on the ground.
He looks at me to say goodbye, and my heart breaks.
The Alpha stretches out his long claws and tears open Blake’s neck. He gasps for air as he looks at me. I’m clawing and biting the wolves to try to get free. I watch as the Alpha grabs his head and rips it from his body.
Blake is dead. He’s gone.
His body lays limp on the ground before me.
I howl in pain. The pain I feel gives me strength to get free from the wolves and, with one leap, I take the Alpha by his throat. I bite down hard, and I feel his skin tear between my fangs.
I can taste his blood.
I release my grip and run. I run and run through the woods ahead of me. I’m blinded by the tears flowing through my eyes.
I reach the edge of a cliff, and the wolves are still coming. I have no choice. I have to go over the edge. If I don’t, I won’t see the light of another day. I see a bed of snow below at the bottom of the cliff.
I close my eyes, and I jump.
I have never tried to control others around me. Instead, I have been told that the presence of my beauty controls them already.
I get up. I remember the faces of my enemies clearly and the faces of the wolves from my pack that betrayed me.
My wolf doesn’t take a liking to cowards.
I will kill those cowards if I ever have to see them again. I have lost my mate, and I have lost my child to superiority. To the need for more power.
All I wanted was to be left in peace with my mate. I wanted to cultivate my own family. The world is different to me now.
I am different now.
My new world is full of pain and rage. The rage from my memories builds up inside of me, like a volcano ready to erupt and cause destruction to all its surroundings. I do not recognize the world around me anymore. It feels like I just had the battle with the Alpha seconds ago, but nothing looks familiar.
I search my body for wounds, but there are none. They must have healed while I was under the ice. I don’t understand how I could have healed so fast if I was in the ice for only a moment.
I wobble onwards, confused and weak. I don’t know what has happened to my enemies or where they are, but I want vengeance for my lover and my child. My anger gives me the strength to keep walking forward.
My wolf is quiet. It does not speak to me. I feel alone and isolated. I am not afraid but angry and confused. Why won’t my wolf speak? I need my wolf.
As I walk through the woods, staggering and holding onto trees passing by, I remember the bite I left on the Alpha who slaughtered Blake.
My mouth waters at the thought of ripping the head off of the Alpha who attacked us. I do not know his name, but I know his face, and I know the mark I left behind.
My stomach rumbles from starvation. I’m hungry. I need to find food. If I’m going to continue the search for my pack and my enemies in the woods, I need food for energy.
My supernatural abilities in human form are inaccessible because I am too weak.
And my wolf won’t speak.
I spot a rabbit feeding on grass a few meters away from me. I stop in my tracks and bend down slowly on all fours. My eyes are fixed to my prey, and my movement is still and silent. My hunger grows intensively as I gaze upon my food.
The rabbit does not notice me yet.
My weakness may interfere with my speed to catch my prey. I move closer, staying as silent as possible.
My hands and feet try to avoid any leaves and branches on the ground. My body is now crouched up on all fours, waiting for the chance to pounce.
I am close enough to the rabbit to make a move. With one swift and sudden leap, I catch the rabbit with my strong and tight grip. I don’t hesitate to snap its neck.
I lift the rabbit up to my face, and my fangs protrude so that I may pierce the flesh. I tear the rabbit apart quickly and devour it. Wiping away the blood from my mouth, I can feel my body getting stronger.
But it’s not enough. I need more. Much more.
I am a powerful wolf. I am known as a Luna. I may be weak now, and my strength and power is dismal, but when I regain my strength and power, I will become a force to be reckoned with. I remain one of few Luna wolves who have earned their titles in the wolf hierarchy.
It is yet to be determined if my strength as a Luna still grows or fades away. The bond I had with my pack made me stronger, and without it I feel far weaker.
Wolves are not solitary creatures. However, I have lost my pack. I don’t know where my pack is now, or what is left of them, but I do know that members of my pack betrayed me.
And those members are going to beg for forgiveness.
