First Enemy

Raven's POV

I woke up with a muffled scream, I looked around my room to discover that the candle I took from the pantry had burned out. I was sweating profusely.

I just woke up from a nightmare which looked like reality. The same dream had been plaguing my dream for long.

My name is Raven. I am seventeen years old. I belong to the Attic Moon pack, I don't have parents. Yes, I was raised by the kitchen hands in my pack Alpha's house. Everybody tried their best to avoid me, they say I bring bad luck everywhere I go.

According to what I heard in the kitchen sometimes when Sonia the meanest of all the kitchen girls decides to mock me. I was found one morning at the door step of the pack's Gamma. The Gamma had brought me to the Alpha and they had tried to use my skin color and scent to trace my pack but it was never discovered.

I was named Raven because of the raven feather that was found in the blanket that I was wrapped with.

The first kitchen hand I was handed over to died when I was five years old. She had just given birth when I was found and she was asked to nurse me along with her pup. The little I remember of her, she was nice to me,as nice as she could be to a child that she was forced to nurse.

The day she died, the Alpha had asked her to take me to the market to get me some clothes as I was practically walking around in rags. There was a rogue attack that was unexpected. The rogues had tried to take me but she tried stopping them so they killed her so they could take me.

The pack warriors arrived just when one of the rogues tore into her neck. The rogues were killed instantly, none of them was spared.

I was then moved into the care of another kitchen hand who also died while trying to protect me from rogues. I was nine years old at the time and for the stubborn pup that I was, I decided to take an excursion into the other part of the bush where we servants went to pick fruits.

I was gone for long before the others noticed that I wasn't there. They started searching for me and when they finally found me I was cornered by a lone rogue.

My guardian rushed forward to get me out of harm's way but her movement angered the rogue and he lurched at her instead. He dug his teeth into her throat and pulled out her oesophagus.

I screamed with the scene unfolding in front of me. It happened so fast that none of the other male wolves saw it coming. They instantly attacked the wolf and killed him. As I was being dragged away from the scene I took one more look at my guardian, her lifeless eyes seemed to be staring accusingly at me.

I closed my eyes as one of the male wolves dragged me out of the bush. I cried all night. The next morning I was summoned by the Alpha. I was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

I had never faced the Alpha before. I even rarely saw him and his Luna. I wondered what would make the Alpha summon me. I painted a lot of scenes in my mind, scenes that my young mind could come up with.

I shivered more when I thought of the possibility of the Alpha asking the warriors to kill me. By the time I got to the presence of the Alpha, I was a shivering mess. I knew I didn't look like anything that should be brought to the presence of an Alpha.

My eyes were swollen from too much crying. My clothes were dirty and sticky. I stood before the Alpha, shivering and expecting the worst. I dare not look up. Even though we didn't see the Alpha often, we were told to never look up at him until he asked us to.

The Attic Moon Alpha was one of the most powerful Alphas in the West and a lot of things were said about how ruthless he was. They even whispered in the kitchen sometimes that disobedient pups were brought to him by their parents and as punishment the Alpha turned to his wolf and ate them up.

You could imagine my fear as a very young child standing in front of every person's nightmare. The Alpha of Attic Moon was said to have little or no control over his wolf except if his Luna was there.

'Look up child,' I heard the Alpha's command and looked up with quivering lips. 'I heard your guardian died again?

I could not answer the question as I was too afraid to say anything. I doubted my voice would even work if I tried to speak.

'You call this thing child, she is evil, she should be whipped to death.' I didn't look up as the Luna sitting by the Alpha's side said.

'She is just a pup Laura, you can't pass such judgement..,' The Alpha explains.

'Shall we wait till she kills another guardian before we get rid of her. Why are you being lenient with her?' A child no one knows exactly where she came from. She might as well be a bad omen,' The Luna said, sounding more angry with every word.

'Calm down Laura, don't get yourself worked up over this.'

' There is no way I would not get worked up. One of my best hands in the kitchen just got killed because of her, this smelly thing.'

'Look here pup, since it seems the pack can't afford to assign you a guardian again, you have to learn to start taking care of yourself. You would be giving a hut on the servants' land. There you will be. Take her away,' The Alpha said ignoring his Luna's protest.

One of the pack warriors took me by the hand and dragged me out of the Alpha's presence. As I was being dragged out of the room, I could hear the Luna insisting on not supporting the Alpha's decision to keep me in the pack.

And that was how I got my very first enemy . Yes, my Luna became my enemy, she speared no time in showing me how much she hated me. Pack members would pick on me even in her presence but she wouldn't stop them.

I knew I could not spend my morning thinking about my woes. I stood up trying to shake my dream off and get to the pack's house for my morning chores before Luna got down from her room.

I took my dress which was worn and put it on. As I half walked, and half ran to the pack's house, the dream kept pushing into my mind.