SOMEWHERE IN THE CENTRE OF ALL THE PACKS, IN THE PHYSICAL BOUNDARY BETWEEN OUR REALM AND THE NETHER REALM
I was buried deep in the earth and have been here for centuries, yet, the howl was strong enough to seep through multiple layers of earth and get to me. Another one of the invisible chains that held me here loosened as a flare of light wrapped around it. I was bound to the female that howl came from, I could feel the bond from the moment that she was born. During her birth, it was a full blood moon, the strongest of moons, I could feel its power despite being buried so deep. The second her infant cry rent the air, announcing her birth, one of the three chains holding me bound loosened.
Today, under the light of the full moon I could feel, she released me from the second chain. I just had to wait a little while longer for her to complete the keys: Blood moon, full moon, new moon. When all the chains are gone, I will awake. And once I am free, I will destroy everyone that was involved in dooming me to this accursed prison. It was the worst fate to be given to anyone. Being forced to slumber while your soul is still tethered to the earth so you are still awake but unable to do anything but think and wallow for years and years.
When I awake, the world will burn.
**
ADAIRA
~
It has been almost two years since I left the Brookstone pack and never returned. I ran all the way to the Grenshaw pack, my mother’s original pack before she was mated to my father and moved to the Brookstone pack with him. My grandparents had welcomed me with open arms. For several weeks after my arrival at Grenshaw, I did nothing but cry or stay in my room all day long. I only ate, showered or spoke, because my grandparents forced me to.
They were always there for me and eventually, I began to come out. The Alpha respected my need for privacy and didn’t immediately demand an audience with me to know my purpose for visiting the pack as was customary, because my grandparents vouched for me. My grandparents were honorary members of the Grenshaw pack so their Alpha respected their word.
He hadn’t been there during my failed mating ceremony at Brookstone, but I got to find out that his son had been in attendance that day and had relayed everything that happened to his father. I was allowed to stay in the pack for as long as I wanted, but I knew that it was mostly because they knew I was a white wolf, a fact that I now hated in more ways than one.
It made me stand out too much when all I had wanted to do was fade into the background and not be seen. Alas, my fate had been decided before I was born. Everyone said the Grenshaw pack flourished because of my presence, I think it’s really all a coincidence and they’re just crazy.
I sighed as I stepped out of the house I shared with my grandparents. It was still very early and the sun hadn't come up yet, but training was in about an hour and I needed to do my daily run before it started. I joined the Grenshaw pack warriors to start training about six months after arriving here. It was after my wallowing phase, when I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself or taking blame for things that weren’t my fault. I decided to get my life together and training was a way for me to do that. I was faster now, and stronger, and I’ve learned how to kill anyone with just five moves.
Training was more strenuous than usual but no one complained. We knew what we were being prepared for. For the past few weeks, A rogue Alpha has been invading and ravaging different packs. No one knew what pack would be next on his list and from the rumours going around, he was really strong, so strong that no pack has been able to defend themselves against him and his rogues. We were planning to be the first to defeat him, that’s why we were training so hard. Personally, I had a dagger with the Alpha’s name on it. I am building a good life here and his rampage is threatening to destroy it all, so I would destroy him. No one will ever call me weak after that.
I yelped as someone lifted me off the ground from behind.
“Raed! You scared me.” I laughed as he dropped me.
I turned to face him and smacked his chest. He smiled at me,
“The temptation was just too hard to resist. You were just standing there, staring into space. What were you thinking about?”
I sighed.
“Killing that damn rampage rogue.”
“Hey, stop worrying, we’ll get him, okay?” He tucked the loose strands of my curls behind my ear and wrapped his arms around me .
He kissed me and I melted into his touch, he knew just how to calm me down. Raed and I had been dating for a year now, and we had just decided to get mated. He insisted that he wanted to meet my parents first and get their blessing before we went ahead with the mating ceremony, even though I told him that I didn’t think they would even care. Maybe my mum would care, but my father definitely wouldn’t. I left years ago, and no one even bothered to come find me. I sent a letter back to them after a year just to tell them that I’m alive, I expected a reply but I got none. I took the hint, Raed apparently didn’t. And I had heard from the Grenshaw pack Alpha’s son that Tyler had won the Alpha challenge that day. I was sure that we wouldn’t receive a warm welcome now that he was the pack Alpha. I tried to dissuade Raed again.
“Raed, please, we don’t need to go back.”
“Ady, we’ve been over this. Yes, we do need to. You act like you don’t care, but I know you, and I know that you want to see your parents despite what they did to you years ago. Staying away will always keep you wondering, wondering why they didn’t come find you, why they haven’t replied to your message, wondering if they would have come if we invited them. The what if’s will haunt you, Ady, and I don’t want that for you. I’m giving you a chance to get closure.” He said and I sighed.
“I know, Raed, I just…. it’s been so long.”
“I’m here, you won’t be going alone. We’ll do this together.” He said as he kissed my forehead.
I wrapped my arms around him to absorb his warmth, hoping it would be enough to soothe my raging storm in my mind.
I didn’t know why I was so unsettled. I just felt deep down that something would go wrong if I went back. Raed said it’s just my fear, and I hope he's right. I really hope it’s nothing more than that.
ADAIRA ~ I should have known that something was wrong the second I saw smoke as we approached my old pack. I pointed it out to Raed but he kissed my cheek and told me to calm down and stop letting my nerves stop us from doing this. “Relax, babe. Shifters have festivals all the time, maybe they’re roasting the kills of the last hunt.” He said to me. As we got closer, my second clue was the lack of patrol at the pack boundary. Even Raed’s brow creased with a tinge of worry but he still tried to reassure me. “Maybe they were invited to the feast as well? I don’t know what your pack security protocols are like.” He said. “There’s always supposed to be guards at the boundary, no matter what festival is going on. They usually do one hour rotations on special occasions so each of them gets to enjoy themself, and the border would still be guarded. Except Tyler changed things around here when he took over, it’s so unusual for them all to be gone at the same time.” I replied. That was whe
ADAIRA~When I woke up after who knows how long, I was lying on my stomach in human form, and I was clean. Someone had bathed me, washed my hair and put a gown on me. I felt so violated and I growled as I tried to stand. How dare they touch me without consent?My back bumped into the top of whatever I was in and it made me even more angry. I looked around and discovered that I was in a fucking cage, I couldn’t rise up more than this. I only had two options in the enclosed space, lie down the way I was before I woke up or maintain my current crouch on hands and knees. Lying down would leave me vulnerable to attack so I decided to remain on all fours, it wasn’t much of an advantage if I actually got attacked while I was in this enclosed space, but it was something at least.My anger at being touched without my permission multiplied at the thought that I was locked up like a damn dog. I’m a shifter with an animal side, but it doesn’t mean I should be degraded this way, wolves deserve be
ADAIRA~It felt like someone was trying to fry all my brain cells and I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t scream. I couldn’t afford to alert the rogues that I was awake. The element of surprise may be the thing that lets me outsmart these rogues so I can make my escape. If it was someone else, I would have shut them out immediately, but I held on because it was Raed, and he may have something important to tell me. At least now I know that he’s alive.“Raed.” I tried to speak through the pain.“Ady.” His voice in my head was strained, that was how I knew that he was in pain too.He may even be in more pain than I was because he was the one that initiated the mind link. I knew why this was happening, we weren’t members of the same pack, and we weren’t mated yet. He could only have access to me because he’s an Alpha, but the price of trying to form a temporal bond to be able to mind link me was the pain.“Fuck! I didn’t think doing this would hurt so much.” Raed cursed.“We need to
ADAIRA~I made the mistake of trying to get up again, forgetting where I was for a moment. I snarled and cursed as my back collided with the top of the cage. I looked around, momentarily confused why I was still in a cage, I thought we had already escaped. My eyes widened as I finally realised what had happened… O dear goddess, I was just dreaming. We never escaped.“Who is Raed?” The man in front of me growled menacingly.He was crouched in front of my cage and in my position, I couldn’t see his full frame, just his face. But I didn’t need to see him completely to know who he was, I felt the power that seemed to seep from his pores. He could be no other person but the Rogue Alpha that was terrorising the other packs with his pack of miscreants. He was beautiful. Brown skinned with curly hair that was in a complicated knot on his head with some tendrils loose around his face, full sensuous lips, and those eyes that were now more golden but still had a little swirl of red in it.I had
ADAIRA~I waited patiently and listened carefully. The rogues were being rowdy, and from the sounds I could hear, it seemed like they were being gathered together for something, like they wanted to leave, maybe to invade another pack. The Rogue Alpha didn’t send any of his wolves to guard me, and I didn’t know whether to be elated or insulted. One one hand, I knew that it was a good thing because my escape would be easier without someone constantly watching me. On the other hand, if he didn’t send any guards here, then he didn’t consider me enough of a threat to do so. Even if this was a better option for my escape, my wolf was annoyed at being disregarded as a warrior, and I was annoyed at her for letting me down.Now I wish I could actually communicate with my wolf, the curse words I would have used on her have not been invented yet. Instead, I settled for just projecting my anger about her actions, making sure she would feel the full brunt of my disappointment. She tried to send f
ADAIRA ~ I dodged the other two and ran towards the third one. If Gavrael returned here, our chances of escaping would be less than five percent. Because she was distracted by the mind link, she didn’t notice me coming for her till it was too late, I snapped her neck just as one of the two males pounced on me. They had both shifted to their wolves. I had an advantage, I knew that their Alpha didn’t want me dead so they wouldn’t strike to kill but I will. I grabbed the wolf at my back and tossed him aside just as the other one prepared to jump on me. They were trying to pin me down, subdue me and recapture me… over my dead body. I crouched as the second wolf dove for me, and swiped my claws on his soft underbelly. He howled in pain as he landed on the floor hard. I turned and faced the other one. Even after seeing what I did to his team mate, he still jumped to pounce on me. I crouched and did the same thing to him. They laid on the floor, bleeding from the deep cut to that sensitive
ADAIRA~I whirled with the full force of my anger, screaming with all the pain in my heart as my claws slashed across his face. But he stepped back a second before I could actually connect with his skin so my claws slashed uselessly in the space in front of his face instead of its intended target. How on earth was he so damn fast? I didn’t stop though, only an untrained warrior would do that, slowing down would just give your enemy an advantage. I let my body keep moving with the momentum of my first strike and used the force of it to deliver a kick. The obvious choice would have been a high kick to his jaw, and I knew he would anticipate that so when his quick reflex moved his upper body backward, I smirked. Unpredictability was a big advantage in a fight, especially one where I was so outmatched.I changed the direction of my kick at the very last minute and he howled with pain as my foot moved lower and connected with his knee. Despite the force of that blow, he only staggered. A
GAVRAEL ~ When I was informed that the white wolf had finally been captured, I was filled with so much longing. I gave strict instructions for no harm to come to her, and I immediately abandoned the pack of wolves I was leading to overtake another pack. I returned and found her asleep in one of the low cages, and though I hated the barrier between us, I knew that it was necessary for now until she agreed to be mine willingly. I have waited for her for so long, she was born to be mine, and I couldn’t wait to claim her. Just the thought of it made me ache so badly. I crouched outside her cage and reached through the bars to stroke her hair. I was pleased to see that she had been cleaned and clothed. The bars of the cage had no silver because I didn’t want her hurt in any way. She stirred and made a soft moaning noise that filled me with fierce arousal that quickly turned to anger when she moaned another man’s name and opened her eyes. She gasped, shocked to see me, and smacked her ba